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, there’s always a Play button near me waiting to unleash it’s miraculous powers.
I truly believe that music is one of the main motivational tools. I think there’s no better pill than putting your favorite song and bounce around for a couple of minutes to get all new and ready for action.
So, I’m going to ask you to analyze your music library and select at least FIVE songs that makes you pop those nipples like there’s no tomorrow. Then dance, dance till you feel your heart beats louder than the Woofer itself.
I selected seven songs from one of my finest playlists for you to listen till you get all pumped and ready to own the world. Check them out, see how you feel and if there’s a rush, well, you better check that To Do list of yours and start crossing stuff. Get inspired and have a wonderful day. Don’t forget to share me some of your sugar rushing songs that helped you to be all pro-active. And please tell me if my article helped. That would make me really happy!Part 1: Imperialism is Alive and Well
February 18, 2012
Imperialism is alive & well
.
Colonial Southeast Asia circa 1850's. Thailand/Siam
was never colonized but made many concessions.
Image
: The Anglo-Zulu War. Causus belli - diamonds & imperial expansion.
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: Anglo-Zulu War. Mission accomplished. The city of Ulandi burns and the British go about dividing Zululand into 14 chiefdoms led by compliant, obedient proxies. The British took great care to cultivate rivalries between the 14 chiefdoms to ensure they would never again unite and challenge British hegemonic ambitions throughout the region.
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At the conclusion of the Anglo-Zulu War, the British despoiled Zululand, divided it into 14 separate cheifdoms, each led by a proxy obedient to the British Empire. The British ensured that these 14 cheifdoms harbored animosities toward one another and fostered petty infighting between them to ensure British interests would never again be challenged by a unified Zulu threat. Today we see what seems to be the "accidental" consequences of military interventions leadeing to vicious, protracted fighting and in some cases civil wars, in Iraq, now in Libya ( which also had a direct proxy installed as PM ), Pakistan where plans exist to literally carve up the nation Zululand-style, and Syria. These are not accidental but intentional. Divide and conquer is a classic military stratagem that has not escaped the interests and attention of Wall Street & London.
Video : Dwight D. Eisenhower exit speech on January 17, 1961, warning us of the military industrial complex.
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Video
: Iraq For Sale. Remember that military industrial complex President Dwight Eisenhower warned America about? The ultimate bottom line with the Iraq War was that it should never have been fought in the first place.
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Part II: British Imperial Administration (proto-NGOs)
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: One face of the Georgia Trustee's seal. It featured the Latin motto, "Non Sibi Sed Aliis" which means, "Not for self, but for others." Truly a proto-NGO, a "system administrator." The significance of the mulberry leaf, the silkworm, and the cocoon? The silk that Britain's new colony of Georgia was going to export to London to enrich the empire. "For others" indeed.
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: Despite the good intentions, the religious causes, and loyalty to the crown, the ultimate destination of all these good intentions wrought was the "Board of Trade" which managed the unending flow of wealth out of Britain's colonies and into London.
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Part III: Re-imagining Imperialism for the 21st Century
Video
: Thomas Barnett describes the building of an army of "system administrators" (aka civil society) to expand into "peace spaces" while US global military conquers "battle spaces." Soros' Revenue Watch along with the National Endowment for Democracy have created just such an army of NGOs. And just as soldiers witlessly promote imperialism believing they are fighting for "freedom," these NGOs expand Wall Street and London's global hegemony, believing they are promoting "human rights."
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: The Boston Massacre. Resistors to the "system administrators" beware, try to stop them and "the Marines are going to come over and kill you."
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Video
: Special Operations Command is looking for more "autonomy" in deploying where "intelligence and global events indicate they are most needed." This "loosening of rules" was part of building the double edged sword of neo-imperial conquest, the global army & system administrators.
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Image
: It is clear that NGOs and opposition movements many believe are spontaneous, indigenous, and independent are in fact part of a larger network for the sole purpose of imposing and maintaining global system administration. This is not a web of elaborate, vague associations. In each case there is direct path of funding leading back
that devise policy for them, all funded and chaired by the Fortune 500 of Wall Street and London. (click image to enlarge)
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Image : Clearly there are "strings attached" to NGO : Clearly there are "strings attached" to NGO Prachatai's funding from the National Endowment for Democracy and Freedom House who regularly contributes posts, support, and award nominations to the Thai "independent journalists." It is also clear how these same interests are involved in the support of Thaksin Shinawatra, the imperial proxy of choice for Thailand. (click image to enlarge)
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"In the Eighteenth century, colonial affairs were subsidiary issues in English political life; Sir John Seeley's dictum that the British people founded an empire in a fit of absence of mind is true in the sense that imperial expansion seldom commanded public attention. Although there were always a few critics in the country who expressed anti-imperialist sentiments and feared that the empire would ultimately escape from the control of the mother-country, they represented only a small minority. Generally, when people thought about the colonies, which was not often, they regard them with mild approval, and believe in the advantage of an empire even though they knew little about it."
Part IV: Empire's Weakness is Independence
Image : By boycotting the British system, the Founding Fathers were already
free and independent men by the time they signed the Declaration of
Independence. The coming war would be to defend that freedom.
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Video : Voting is not an option. Noam Chomsky in 1993 regarding NED: "It's about what you would expect from a bipartisan democracy campaign - it's an attempt to impose what is called democracy, meaning rule by the rich and the powerful, without interference by the mob but within the framework of formal electoral procedures."
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Video
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- The British Empire didn't just have a fleet that projected its hegemonic will across the planet, it possessed financial networks to consolidate global economic power, and system administrators to ensure the endless efficient flow of resources from distant lands back to London and into the pockets of England's monied elite. It was a well oiled machine, refined by centuries of experience.While every schoolchild learns about the British Empire, it seems a common modern-day political malady for adults to believe that reality is organized as their history books were in school - in neat well defined chapters. This leads to the common misconception that the age of imperialism is somehow a closed-chapter in human history. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth. Imperialism did not go extinct. It simply evolved.There are several pertinent examples illustrating how imperialism is still alive and well, and only cleverly disguised with updated nomenclatures. What we know today as "free trade" actually derives its origins from economic concessions the British frequently extorted from nations under its "gunboat diplomacy" strategy - that is, anchoring gunboats off the coast of a foreign capital, and threatening bombardment and military conquest if certain demands were not met.In the mid-1800's, Thailand, then the Kingdom of Siam, was surrounded on all sides by colonized nations and in turn was made to concede to the British 1855 Bowring Treaty. See how many of these "gunboat policy" imposed concessions sound like today's "economic liberalization:"1. Siam granted extraterritoriality to British subjects.2. British could trade freely in all seaports and reside permanently in Bangkok.3. British could buy and rent property in Bangkok.4. British subjects could travel freely in the interior with passes provided by the consul.5. Import and export duties were capped at 3%, except the duty-free opium and bullion.6. British merchants were to be allowed to buy and sell directly with individual Siamese.A more contemporary example would be the outright military conquest of Iraq and Paul Bremer's ( CFR ) economic reformation of the broken state. The Economist enumerates the neo-colonial "economic liberalization" of Iraq in a piece titled "Let's all go to the yard sale: If it all works out, Iraq will be a capitalist's dream:"1. 100% ownership of Iraqi assets.2. Full repatriation of profits.3. Equal legal standing with local firms.4. Foreign banks allowed to operate or buy into local banks.5. Income and corporate taxes capped at 15%.6. Universal tariffs slashed to 5%.Nomenclatures aside, nothing has changed since 1855 as far as imperialist "wish-lists" go. The Economist argued, as would any 18-19th century imperialist, that Iraq needed foreign expertise to catch up, justifying the evisceration of their national sovereignty and the foreign stewardship (theft) of their resources. Unlike Siam, Iraq refused to concede to the "gunboats" of modern-day Wall Street & London, and often as the British did during the "glory days" of the empire, they made good on their threats.And just as the British did when they found diamonds beneath Zululand during the late-1800's, spurring them to invent a causus belli to justify the destruction of the Zulu Kingdom, the schemers of modern-day global imperialism likewise invented a dubious pretext to invade Iraq before commencing its plundering If people can study history and see today's events are simply the relabeled repeating of what empire has been doing for centuries, the public as a whole will be less likely to go along with what is in reality an exploitative, murderous crime spree of global proportions - merely sold to us as justified intervention. One need only look at how Iraq has been despoiled and the profits that have been garnered by Fortune 500 corporations, while soldiers and Iraqis alike pay the price with their minds, bodies, blood, futile destinies, and lives.A book of invaluable use in understanding British imperial administration is " Colonial Georgia: A Study in British Imperial Policy in the Eighteenth Century." Published by the University of Georgia Press and written by Trevor Reese, it successfully endeavored to illustrate "practically every facet of British colonial policy" using Georgia as a case study.The colony of Georgia, in what is now the southern United States, was founded by what is essentially a proto-NGO - and in this case an organization dedicated to "prison reform." What it really did, was assess suitable prisoners in London who could be sent to Georgia to fulfill the needs of the Crown. Beginning as the "Associates of Dr. Bray" and later becoming the "Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America," or simply the Georgia Trustees, it encapsulates perfectly the use of noble-intentioned networkers to exploit human tragedy for the benefit of the elite.While many may argue that prisoners in London were better off being shipped to Georgia, the underlying point is the dictation of one's destiny for the benefit of another, regardless of whether or not such exploitation results in a thriving new life in Georgia, or death defending British expansion in the New World. The same cost/benefit analysis could also be made for slavery, but done so in spite of its essential immorality.Protestantism for England was also a precursor to modern day NGOs. Religious denominations were divided directly along political lines in 18th century Europe, and when shiploads of Protestants were sent to Georgia, so followed the political networks they represented. Again, noble-intentions were, and to this day are, in the forefront of many devoted to these political functionaries, and much good has been done in their names, but ultimately the purpose of each empire's church was to establish a bottom-up network of people who believed they were fulfilling noble, higher intentions, when in reality they were simply serving the elite of their respective empires. Unfortunately, despite the noble intentions and great works of many of these people, when the time came for the Crown to use these networks for less than noble causes, organizational indoctrination was used to marshal men to it. And just like modern NGOs today, Protestant organizations interfaced with and supported directly the primary regional administrators, in Georgia's case, the Georgia Trustees.In Reese's book, he even notes on page 21, "in sanctioning the Georgia project the British Government was not motivated by any such charitable intentions as inspired the Trustees. The Ministry was not much interested in the plight of insolvent and unemployed debtors, but it was concerned about the defense of the empire." Similarly today, NGOs have truly dedicated people "inspired" as the "Trustees" were, but ultimately they are carrying water for their sponsors, who almost always end up being George Soros, the OCED, the US State Department's National Endowment for Democracy, and other purveyors of global corporate-fascist imperialism.The British Empire's interests in Georgia were economic, while the rouse used to fill and administer the colony was altruistic. Another key characteristic to imperialism is keeping subjects dependent. Reese offers on page 27, "the danger of these [private or charter provinces] lay in the scope they provided for the construction of independent authorities, and this was contradictory to the whole principle of colonization."This, within the contest of mercantilism - essentially the exportation of raw materials from the colonies, which would be refined in Europe, and then imported back into the colonies as manufactured goods - meant servile dependency, both politically and economically - despite the fact that even then, many features of "democracy" could be found throughout the colonies. Today's concept of "free-trade" agreements ensure that resources, manufacturing, refinement, and consumption are equally interdependent on a global scale despite the fact that technology now exists to make any state or province, let alone nation, fully independent economically.Like NGOs of today, the administrative networks that made up the British Empire were in many cases entirely dependent on grants from London, as local contributions were almost never adequate. Reese notes on page 39, "constant need of money made the Trustees permanently dependent on Parliament, without whose support their colony could not be maintained." The British Empire maintained a careful balancing act to ensure that its networks received enough resources to fulfill their purpose, but never enough to become independent. Financial policy conformed to imperial standards and while local policy was set by local administrators, it interlocked with the Board of Trade back in London - just as local NGOs now interlock with international organizations in accordance to rule and norms defined by international institutions.Reese quotes Vincent Harlow in his epilogue, who said of Georgia's eventual independence from Great Britain, "men's minds indeed conceive new thoughts and plan new projects, but out of ancient thinking and under potent influence of long-established characteristics."We have already seen some examples of how imperialism is very much alive and well. We also saw how imperialism was implemented by the British, but how exactly is it being implemented today? And why are people willingly going along with it?The term "system administrators" was used by US military strategist Thomas Barnett before a cackling audience at a 2008 TED Talk titled, " The Pentagon's New Map for War & Peace." At about 18 minutes into his talk he begins explaining a concept of reforming the military into two separate forces, the "US enabled Leviathan force" and the "system administrators."One takes down the existing networks of targeted nations through air campaigns, special operations, or invasions, and consists of military assets including armor, fighters and bombers. The other consists of system administrators who then build upon the ashes left by the "Leviathan force" or the chaos sown by a foreign-backed destabilization. The system administrators consist of everything from NGOs, international organizations, and contractors, to civil affairs officers (psychological warfare), and when necessary, soldiers and Marines.Barnett warns that if anyone attempts to interfere with the construction of the West's "system administrator" networks, the "Marines are going to come over and kill you." This perhaps like British garrisons did to tamp down dissatisfaction amongst their colonies.The talk was given in 2008, and already we see solid steps being taking to expand and utilize just such a force. Barnett said of the special operations "trigger pullers" that he wanted the rules to be "as loose as possible." Just recently, the Corbett Report and Media Monarchy reported the expanded role proposed for "elite" military forces. Admiral William McRaven of Special Operations Command was said to be seeking "more autonomy to position his forces and their war-fighting equipment where intelligence and global events indicate they are most needed."Additionally, between 2008 and 2011 before the outbreak of the Arab Spring, the US State Department and its network of global facilitators embarked on a campaign to raise a literal army of NGOs and opposition groups to begin overthrowing governments and building the very global administration network Barnett presented at TED. It was just recently reported in, " Soros Big-Business Accountability Project Funded by Big-Business " that a similar army of NGOs is being mobilized to erect system administrators focused on managing the resources of targeted nations. Called Revenue Watch, and focused primarily on Africa and Southeast Asia it represents the "system administration" approach complimenting aggressive moves made by AFRICOM in Africa, and the declaration of America's "Pacific Century" in Asia It is quite clear that Barnett's proposal doesn't necessarily need the "US-enabled Leviathan force" to tear down targeted networks as seen in the US-funded Arab Spring. Fomenting unrest, up to and including armed insurrection falls short of overt military intervention and utilizes assets Barrent descibed in the Levithan force such as "trigger pulling" special operations, as well as civil affairs units, NGOs, and contractors from the system administration side.In Libya for example, NGOs and civil affairs advisers began the unrest in February of 2011 while weapons were covertly moved in to arm fighters to overthrow the Qaddafi government. International organizations like the ICC were used to poison public opinion against the Libyan government using information supplied to them from NGOs, while NATO began preparing for a full scale air campaign. Once the bombing began, it was only a matter of incrementally increasing the torrent of special operations forces, arms, and other facilitators to fill in the void left by NATO's relentless air campaign. Thus the forces of Leviathan and the system administrators worked in tandem, one clearing a path through the old, the other building new networks to facilitate the installment of long-time US resident and Petroleum Institute chairman, Abdurrahim el-Keib, as PM In nations where military options like this are not an option and would be difficult if not impossible to ever justify, like Thailand for example, the full weight of Wall Street and London's support is thrown behind system administrators and suitable opposition movements that will make appropriate proxies if the targeted sovereign networks can be torn down.In Thailand's case, that proxy is Thaksin Shinawatra, a former Carlyle Group adviser, and recipient of extensive US backing, including lobbying services from fellow Carlyle member James Baker and his firm Baker Botts, Bush's personal envoy to Iraq Robert Blackwill of Barbour Griffith & Rogers, and PNAC signatory Kenneth Adelman of Edelman. During Thaksin's term in office from 2001 until a coup ousted him in 2006, upon the eve of which he was literally reporting to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he had committed Thai troops to the US invasion of Iraq and allowed the CIA to use Thailand for its abhorrent rendition program He now currently leads the forces of a "color revolution," the stand-ins for Barnett's occupation force, since such a Western force is untenable. This included his documented use of armed militants in 2010 during an attempted insurrection. They are billed the "red shirts" or United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) and have met with Soros' Open Society-funded Human Rights Watch, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the U.S.–ASEAN Business Council in an April 2011 Washington D.C. visit.There are also circles of academia being produced to support efforts to undermine and overthrow Thailand's sovereign indigenous networks, most notably "Nitirat" or the "Enlightened Jurists" whose audiences consist almost entirely of Thaksin's red shirts, and even included Thaksin's US registered lobbyist, Robert Amsterdam sitting in the front row Finally there are the NGOs like propaganda outfit Prachatai, which receives 1oo's of thousands of dollars a year from the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy, George Soros' Open Society, and USAID. NED also funds the Campaign Committee for Human Rights, the Cross Cultural Foundation (CrCF), and the Environmental Litigation and Advocacy for the Wants. In addition to sharing the same foreign sponsors, each cross-posts the other's work, each signs petitions on the others behalf and each perpetuate identical agendas. While their mission statements claim to promote "freedom," "democracy," and "human rights," one cannot help but wonder how they reconcile the backgrounds of their sponsors and the "international" organizations they interlock with, with the causes they allegedly promote, with the work they actually carry out.The National Endowment for Democracy and its subsidiary Freedom House features boards of directors much resembling a revolving door, with current and former members of Congress, the US State Department, corporate lobbying firms, and corporate board members of some of the largest corporations on earth including Exxon, Boeing, Ford, and Goldman Sachs constantly shifting in and out of government, big-business, and NGO positions. They are, just as the British were, "not motivated by any such charitable intentions," as inspire the well-intentioned people drawn into the cause of NGOs like Prachatai they fund.Their hope is to eventually diminish the power and influence of Thailand's own indigenous networks, by gradually building up the capacity of Wall Street & London's system administrators. Just like in the example of Georgia, ignorance and good intentions are used to swell the ranks of these networks, and just like in Georgia, they are kept purposefully dependent on the constant and substantial support provided by Wall Street & London, as local contributions are almost never enough. And while many of these people may believe they are committed to a "higher cause," they are simply soldiers of another kind within an imperial system perfected over centuries of trial and error.The activists on the ground may be of genuine good-intentions but surely there are some who realize the conflict between their stated mission and the insincere intentions of those funding them from abroad. Just like the army, this system of NGOs perpetuates itself on the ignorance of the general population - of those drawn in by their good intentions to contribute to what they believe is a noble cause, and those throughout society who see these networks spreading across the planet with no idea of what their true purpose is.Trevor Reese leaves us with one more relevant observation concerning the state of imperialism in the 18th century that still very much applies today:In the same way, today many people remain in the dark about what Wall Street & London do overseas. While military interventions grab headlines and create a brief but confusing diversion for most, they are but mildly aware of the concept of NGOs, let alone how they work in tandem with the creeping war machine making its way from Tunisia to Thailand and everywhere in between.While today's media is able to project images onto our perception of what an NGO is, with pictures of smiling Africans clutching bags of USAID rice, thriving wildlife, and sprouting, dew covered seedlings, in reality it is a centralized operation built to tear down the old world, and replace with a new one. One that does not answer to the people that inhabit it on anything but the most superficial of levels, but rather to the people that rule over it - the monied elite, as they always have, with the most vicious feeding their competitors ruthlessly into their maw and gladly expanding into the place left at the table.Empires require subjects. Without subjects there is no empire. There is no fleet, there are no Marines, there are no imperial administrators. There are no laborers to gather and send resources back to be refined, no one to refine them in the factories and send them back, and surely no one to buy these manufactured goods when they arrive.Empire requires subjects to be preferable ignorant, easily manipulated, indoctrinated in a manner that motivates them to carry out their necessary function within the empire reliably. They need subjects that believe in the empire and most importantly, they need subjects who are hopelessly dependent on it. It is no coincidence then that nations declared their "independence" from England in pursuit of their freedom.Before the great battles of the American Revolution took place and the victory that followed, the Founding Fathers took it upon themselves to declare their independence not only by writ, but also by action. Our Founding Fathers ceased the import of British goods, they created their own monetary system, they assembled their own militias, and most importantly they formed their own government based upon their own values, not King George's self-interest.This truly measurable independence turned out to be the key to their success, for independence is freedom, and freedom from tyranny is victory. The battle they fought was not one to free themselves, instead, it was fought to defend the freedom from the British system they had already achieved.In " Naming Names: Your Real Government " a list of the most common, reoccuring corporate-financier interests and the think-tanks they use to create, promote, publish, and execute their policy was provide. The article concluded by stating:"These organizations represent the collective interests of the largest corporations on earth. They not only retain armies of policy wonks and researchers to articulate their agenda and form a consensus internally, but also use their massive accumulation of unwarranted influence in media, industry, [across a global network of NGOs,] and finance to manufacture a self-serving consensus internationally.To believe that this corporate-financier oligarchy would subject their agenda and fate to the whims of the voting masses is naive at best. They have painstakingly ensured that no matter who gets into office, in whatever country, the guns, the oil, the wealth and the power keep flowing perpetually into their own hands."This is confirmed in a talk given by Noam Chomsky in 1993, where he stated or the National Endowment for Democracy's work, "it's an attempt to impose what is called democracy, meaning rule by the rich and the powerful, without interference by the mob but within the framework of formal electoral procedures." Quite clearly it is, along with Open Society, and the vast network of system administrators being built up across the planet, working in witless tandem with NATO, building in the swath of destruction it leaves behind the homogeneous workings of a global corporate-financier-run empire.If the world is indeed run by corporate-financier interests, and voting is not only futile but gives the population a false sense of security, what can we do instead to declare our independence from modern empire?On a daily basis, across the planet, billions of people witlessly pay into this empire, buying their products, paying them their attention on diversions like TV, radio, and at the theater, and participating in systems, organizations, and causes that like the "Georgia Trustees" may have started out working for prison reform, ended up handing the empire another thriving colony to exploit. It is clear then that vast campaigning, elections, rallies, and protests are not necessary or even viable options in dismantling this system - rather our daily decisions to boycott their corporations, pull the plug on our TVs, switch off the radio, leave the theaters empty and refuse to recognize the legitimacy of corporate-backed institutions and organizations on both national and international levels.: The Fab Lab. Turning consumers into producers with manufacturing technology, open source collaboration, and innovation. It also opens the doors for communities to work together and solve their own problems, rather than waiting for them to be solved by disingenuous elected representatives.Instead, find local solutions, pursue self-sufficiency, self-reliance, and leverage technology to do for ourselves tomorrow what we depend on corporations to do for us today. We can start today, by simply "voting" local with our wallets, "voting" to read, watch, and listen to truly independent media instead of Hollywood - or better yet - creating our own content ourselves. The same could be said with the news. Stop humoring the professional liars on BBC who get caught in serial scams involving paid-for documentaries, biased reporting, and flat out lying to their audience. There is a thriving alternative media that already proves the merits of doing more, doing better, and doing it all ourselves.As concluded in " The Real Revolution,"
"They need us, we don’t need them. That’s the big secret. We get our freedom back as soon as we take back our responsibilities for food, water, security, the monetary system, power, and manufacturing; that is independence. Independence is freedom, freedom is independence. We’ll never be free as long as we depend on the Fortune 500 for our survival.
Fixing these problems unfolding overseas starts with fixing the problems in our own backyards. Boycott the globalists, cut off their support, undermine their system, and they lose their ability to commit these atrocities. That will be a real revolution and it can start today. Not burning cities and masked rebels waving flags, but communities no longer dependent and fueling a corrupt system we all know must come to an end.The fight for tech talent is getting rough.
Sure, Silicon Valley's tech titans have long practiced the art of poaching — recruiting employees from other companies, even when they're not actively looking for jobs. But nowadays, a growing number of Northeast Ohio companies are doing the same thing, according to several people who spoke with Crain's.They say it's necessary to go after other companies' employees given how hard it has become to fill a growing demand for technical talent — especially software developers. And the rise of LinkedIn has made it much easier to study potential job candidates and get in touch with them. For instance, Paragon Consulting just hired a full-time recruiter tasked with hunting for developers with experience using Microsoft's.Net framework. That often means looking in other cities or other companies, because few local people with.Net experience are looking for jobs, said John Ours, director of technology at the web development firm in Mayfield Heights. “I used to run an ad and get applications from the same chronically unemployed people that I usually get. I don't even get them anymore,” Ours said. Granted, the local fight for talent doesn't appear to be as vicious as the war going on in Silicon Valley. News stories regularly describe the sky-high salaries that good coders can command in the San Francisco Bay Area these days. The local salary data that's available is inconsistent, but it suggests that most Cleveland-area coders aren't getting enormous raises. Still, local demand for talent is only getting tighter, by all accounts. For instance, roughly a dozen recruiters recently joined the NEO IT Think Tank, a LinkedIn group for local information technology executives. And there's only one reason why: They want to hire people, according to Chuck Mackey, who hasn't seen so many recruiters interested in joining the group since he started it in 2009. Mackey added that other companies have tried to recruit his colleagues at Avantia Inc., a Valley View-based IT services firm that does a lot of custom software development. “It's happening, and we see it happening to our people,” said Mackey, senior managing director at Avantia.Star Wars: Kenobi
My first hardcover and a New York Times bestseller, telling the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi's first days on Tatooine!
In 2006, Dark Horse released the first year of my Knights of the Old Republic comics. Sales were good, and I was working with the publisher to find some additional projects — suggesting everything from a KOTOR Handbook to a Moomo Brothers/Gryph miniseries (under my tentative title "Scoundrels," which became the title for a later Star Wars novel). The KOTOR Handbook did eventually happen, but in August my editor Jeremy Barlow asked me to shelve the mini-series idea in favor of proposing an original Star Wars graphic novel instead. Dark Horse hadn't done original graphic novels for Star Wars for a while, but with the 30th anniversary of A New Hope approaching in 2007, it seemed there was an opportunity.
I suggested a couple of Boba Fett story ideas -- and while neither of them went anywhere, they did prompt a discussion about western movies we both liked; Jeremy wondered what a movie like Shane would have been like with Boba Fett in the mysterious stranger role. Around the same time, we had been discussing whether there was any way at all to tell a story about Obi-Wan Kenobi during his exile; Jeremy messaged me in early October saying that he thought there might be, provided the story's continuity footprint was extremely limited. On reading that, I had a brainstorm -- and later that afternoon I sent back a message titled "The Ben Kenobi Western." In several paragraphs, I laid out what would eventually become the basic idea for Star Wars: Kenobi.
Obi-Wan would inhabit the Shane-like mysterious stranger role, attempting to buy water on Tatooine. There, he would meet a local family and become entangled, against his better judgment, in their lives. He would be befriended by the local retail magnate and his twenty-something daughter. She and Obi-Wan would discover the protection racket her father was running, and Obi-Wan would be forced to break it up -- an act that would drive her offworld and out of his life. It would be a difficult thing, but it would be for her own good -- a fact that she would later realize. Jeremy responded enthusiastically -- and with some ground rules provided by Lucasfilm (as well as a heads-up about Obi-Wan's appearance in the Scholastic novels and a future issue of Star Wars: Legacy), I was off and writing on a plot.
That's right -- in the first draft of the plot, submitted in early November, there was no Orrin Gault and Annileen Calwell; rather, it was Gault Pritchell and his daughter Hardi (a name that was a wink to the naming convention from a Brian Daley novel and the early Marvel comics, which included characters Hasti, Lanni, and Jolli). Gault was older than Obi-Wan and she was younger; she was the one to overhear Obi-Wan trying to talk to Qui-Gon. The title, from the beginning, was simply "Ben."
Further discussion prompted a second draft, written over the 2006 holidays, in which I replaced the Hardi character with two women -- mother Annileen and daughter Kallie -- and greatly expanded the role of the character now known as Orrin Gault. Orrin now had an extensive background worked out, showing his long descent into corruption -- and that allowed for a trip to Mos Eisley for an action sequence involving Jabba's henchmen and Mosep Binneed. Annileen also gained a son, Jabe, to be saved from Orrin's machinations by Obi-Wan -- and in making her older, Annileen became much more Obi-Wan's equal. Orrin, too, was made younger, allowing him to be more of a peer for the newcomer.
Jeremy suggested another round of changes: with message titles like "The Kenobi Kid in 'The Perils of the Pika Oasis'," you could tell we were having fun during the process. The main request was for an epic scene at the end, and I responded in February 2007 with a third draft providing that -- and greatly increasing the role of A'Yark and the Tuskens. By now, I had fifty pages of material and no idea how it would all fit in to a graphic novel, and it was too late for a graphic novel for the 30th anniversary anyway. But the story was mostly formed. And then…
…well, I quit my day job. I had been at Krause Publications for 13 years, and had reinvented my job until I could do so no more -- and I had built up enough work on the side that it no longer made sense to remain. The motivating factor allowing me to leave in early March was work on a video game project, Sword of the New World, that would keep me busy through March and April; "Ben" was tabled in the meantime. Then, in May 2007, at Star Wars Celebration IV in Los Angeles, Jeremy informed me that he was shifting to become editor of the Indiana Jones property -- and that he wanted me to write the adaptation for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. "Ben" was shelved, perhaps permanently, so far as I knew. I had plenty enough on my plate as it was -- with "Vector" coming up in KOTOR, the KOTOR Handbook, the Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, and Indiana Jones filling out the rest of 2007, I barely thought about "Ben" again.
At least, not until I began writing Star Wars prose for Del Rey. In 2010, having finished the Star Wars: Knight Errant prose book, I briefly suggested "Ben" as an option to Shelly Shapiro at Star Wars Celebration V. She was intrigued, but we discussed it no further until 2012 and Star Wars Celebration VI. In a meeting with her and Frank Parisi while we all sat on the hallway floor of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, we decided the time was right to take up the story again.
And so it was that Star Wars: Kenobi -- so renamed because there's already another "Ben" in Star Wars, Ben Skywalker — went on the schedule for 2013. The novel was announced at New York Comicon on Friday, Oct. 12, 2012 -- exactly six years and one week after I had the idea. It just goes to show, writers of the world: save your files. The path to publication can be a winding one!
CHANGES FROM THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PLOT
Returning to the third draft of the "Ben" graphic novel after five-plus years was like time travel -- but I found a story that was 90% of the way to where it needed to be.
A'Yark was the least-fully formed character from the comics plot; since I wasn't writing with point-of-view characters in the prose sense, I had done little thinking on the character's backstory. A'Yark knew Sharad, I had intended; but it wasn't until I turned to actually writing the prose version |
rally is set to kick off at 10 a.m. on Maple Avenue, between 5th and 6th streets, and the event is scheduled to last until noon.
The plan calls for medical screenings to be provided by UMMA (University Muslim Medical Assn.) Community Clinic physicians, along with free dental services provided by Dental Care for Children.
Other Humanitarian Day events were taking place on Saturday in Santa Ana, Pasadena and the Inland Empire.
Ramadan, the holiest month in Islamic calendar, started on Saturday, May 27.
In Ramadan, adult Muslims, save the sick and those traveling, abstain from food, drink, smoking and sex between dawn and sunset.
Muslims dedicate their time during the holy month to be closer to Allah through prayers, self-restraint and good deeds.New Bus Route on Harbor Blvd
June 10, 2013 at 3:55 am
Via the OC Register
“
ew bus service with an exclamation point in its name and fewer stops in its way will start shuttling passengers up and down Harbor Boulevard on Monday, with the first few days free.
The idea behind the new Bravo! bus service is simple: fewer stops means a quicker ride for the 13,000 riders who travel the main Harbor Boulevard route every day. The Bravo! buses will make the run between north Costa Mesa and Fullerton in about 45 minutes; the existing buses take about an hour, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.
OCTA board chairman Greg Winterbottom speaks during a press conference for the launch of the Bravo! bus line Friday in Garden Grove. The OCTA’s new, limited-stop service will begin service Monday; free rides being offered until Wednesday. MIKE GREENE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER MORE PHOTOS »
The Bravo! buses, painted with a splash of blue, will run only on weekdays, with departures every 10 minutes during peak times. They will be designated as Route 543, with 16 stops marked with a “B.” The existing Harbor Boulevard route, 43, is one of the busiest in Orange County and makes 52 stops; it will continue to operate alongside the Bravo! buses.
Rides on the Bravo! buses will be free from the first departure at 5 a.m. on Monday through Wednesday. After that, the fare will be the same $2 that it costs to ride other OCTA buses.
Go to octa.net or call 714-636-7433 for more information about the Bravo! service and its route.
The OCTA expects to roll out two other limited-stop bus lines in the next several months. The first of those is scheduled to start service on the 73 toll road, between Laguna Niguel and Costa Mesa, in October. The next will start service in February on the 22 freeway between Long Beach and Orange County; its final destination is still being worked out.
The Harbor Boulevard Bravo! buses will add about 30,000 service hours to Orange County’s bus system, at a cost of around $3 million, OCTA spokesman Joel Zlotnik said. That’s a small step toward recovering the 383,000 service hours that OCTA cut during the depths of the recession.”
For me, I personally do not care because I use the 47 and 57 most of the time to get down to Costa Mesa, but for some people, it will be faster to navigating one of the most busiest routes in Orange County.
It will save a lot of time for those who are trying to getting from Costa Mesa to Anaheim though.
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Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Anaheim, Costa Mesa, OCTA, Orange County, Santa Ana.1. Out of the 14.2 million Jewish people in the world, (in 2016), only a minority of 43% reside in Israel.
2. Whilst 75% of Israelis are Jewish, 21% are indigenous Arabs with restricted civil rights.
3. Israel has the highest birth rate in the developed world, with an average of 3 children per woman.
4. The Netanyahu government now receives more than US$6 billion every year from the US congress/ AIPAC lobby i.e. equating to $1000 annually for every Jewish Israeli, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
5. Israel has induced over 500,000 of its citizens to illegally settle in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem in an attempt to frustrate the wishes of the UN for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state for five million indigenous Arabs.
6. Israel is the only undeclared nuclear weapon state in the world with a secret stockpile of up to 400 nuclear warheads. It is not a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which Europe, America and even Iran, are all subject to by the IAEA inspectorate of the UN.
7. Angela Merkel has unilaterally supplied Israel with a deadly ‘second strike’ nuclear capability in the form of a German-built, Dolphin-class submarine fleet that is now more powerful than anything possessed by the defence forces of France, Britain or Germany, thereby leaving all of Europe dangerously vulnerable.
8. Netanyahu, in a direct challenge to the EU, has this week authorised yet another land grab in the Occupied Territories in breach of the provisions of the Trade Association Agreement with the EU thereby inviting the imposition of tariffs against Israeli exports to the European single market.
9. According to published statistics, Israel is the most dangerous place for any Jewish person to live compared to Britain, France, United States or Canada.
10. The father of the current Israeli Prime Minister, was personal secretary to Vladimir Zhabotinsky, the founder of Irgun, a Revisionist Zionist paramilitary organisation. Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the DeirYassin massacre, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.
* All the above factual information is verifiable and available within the public domain
Notes
http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-must-now-open-its-nuclear-program-to-iaea-inspection-or-face-sanctions/5502024
http://www.globalresearch.ca/netanyahu-to-seize-154-hectares-of-palestinian-land-in-violation-of-international-law-and-in-direct-challenge-to-eu/5502931Spread the love
San Francisco, CA – Two police officers were recently recorded in a Happy Donuts location, joking and laughing about shooting and killing civilians. One of the officers was telling the other about how they can kill suspects while the body camera is rolling, as long as the situation would look justifiable in the video. It seems that the officers were debating which type of evidence they wouldn’t mind appearing on body camera footage, and what type of evidence they would like to cover up.
The officer seen in the video can be heard joking about how killing a suspect who has their hands up would be something that they don’t want to show up on camera. The officers then made sounds and gestures of what it would sound like for a person to get shot, and continued to laugh in hysteria.
The video was captured by a nearby person who held the camera up just over their shoulder to record the exchange. It is actually surprising that the officer did not realize that he was being filmed because the footage was recorded just feet away from him.
The video was later posted to Instagram with the following message:
This was filmed at Happy Donuts on the corner of 24th St. & Church St., San Francisco. The cop is explaining to his partner what footage he does & doesn’t “want” caught on their new body cameras. In this 1st video, the cop explains to his partner how what he DOES want caught on camera is a civilian pointing a gun at him & him murdering said civilian in “self-defense”. Notice how he laughs & treats the subject of murdering someone as a joke. In the 2nd video, he’ll explain that what his partner DOESN’T want caught on their body camera is when a civilian has their hands up & they murder them regardless. Notice how they joke about the death of a surrendering civilian, the bullet wounds & “brain splatter.”
Interestingly enough, the San Francisco Police Department seems more concerned with finding the person who took the video, than they are with disciplining the officers involved. The police department issued a statement after the video went viral, asking the person who originally posted the recording to come forward and contact the police.
San Francisco police do not yet have body cameras, but they are currently being planned for the city, and this conversation gives a glimpse into the attitude that police officers have about them and the general public in general. Situations like this are exactly why we need to be conscious to film police, not just during traffic stops, but whenever they are in uniform, so we can prove to the world how they actually operate.
John Vibes is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter-culture and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist work, he organizes a number of large events including the Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his Facebook page. You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled “Alchemy of the Timeless Renaissance” at bookpatch.com.LONDON (Reuters) - Irish bonds are set to continue outperforming euro zone peers after topping the returns table in the first quarter while the political stalemate in Italy could mean more disappointment for its holders of its debt.
Graphics published by Reuters on Thursday showed year-to-date returns on Irish bonds across all maturities.QW8G at 4.84 percent, the highest of any sovereign included in Markit’s iBoxx EUR benchmark index, one of the most tracked indexes by bond investors worldwide.
“They’re certainly going to be up there (at the end of the year),” said David Keeble, global head of fixed income strategy at Credit Agricole. “I’m sure Ireland is going to sell a few more bonds this year and will be returning to their usual market access. I can’t see any negative coming from the Irish story.”
That contrasted with a return of just 0.66 percent.QW4AP on Italian bonds in the first quarter. They had returned 11 percent in the same period of last year and more than 20 percent in 2012 as a whole.
While analysts see Irish paper at the top of the charts at the end of the year as well, they say any returns from Italy will depend on whether the country can overcome a political crisis following by last month’s inconclusive election.
Investors are piling into Ireland’s debt market, betting that the country - one of the lowest rated in the euro zone - will successfully complete the 85 billion euro bailout deal it took in 2010 and return to the market with regular auctions.
Dublin issued its first benchmark 10-year bond since the bailout earlier this month, a deal that was heavily oversubscribed, contributing to a strong rally in Irish bonds and helping them to weather shocks from elsewhere in the region.
Ireland’s performance this year compares with returns of over 10 percent in the first quarter of last year and almost 30 percent for the whole of 2012.
A sharp drop in returns is seen across all high-yielding euro zone bonds, as most of their recent gains occurred in the second half of 2012 after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said he would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro.
Second-placed among the iBoxx EUR benchmark’s index top-performing sovereigns was Spain. Its bonds offered a return of 3.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013.QW8MP as Madrid eased concerns it will need a bailout with a series of strong debt auctions early this year.
That compared with a return of just above 1 percent in the first quarter of last year and 5.7 percent for whole-year 2012.
ITALY UNDERPERFORMS HIGH-YIELDERS
Italy’s was perhaps the most unexpected performance given its solid 2012.
The bonds have been shaken by political uncertainty after a February 24-25 election produced a hung parliament, raising fears any future government may not have the necessary political backing to reform the stagnant and highly indebted economy.
Their performance this year is only slightly better than the 0.2 percent return.QW3AP seen on German bonds, viewed as the euro zone’s safest asset, while the risks of holding Italian paper are perceived to be much higher. Whether they can catch up with Ireland or will become one of the worst performers in the euro zone this year depends on the political situation.
“Italy’s underperformance is related to the elections,” said Gianluca Ziglio, executive director of fixed income research at Sunrise Brokers. “I’m very bearish going forward... Italy is a Titanic heading at a decent speed towards the iceberg.”I have a few things I've figured out that I thought might be worth putting up in here.
First of all, the RNG is the same as last gen. It's still seed = seed * 0x5d588b656c078965 + 0x0000000000269ec3. There's also still a Mersenne Twister, though it's an official one now too. It seems to be a little bit different than the one that GF has always used, but that's not a big deal.
What has changed is that there's not a function to build an array of entropy data anymore. So the initial seed is built in a different way. I'm not sure exactly how, but odds are it uses the AES generator built into the 3DS. There are functions on the DSi and 3DS for generating random numbers from the on-board AES hardware. In fact, on the DSi they have specific instructions to use the AES library's random numbers as a starting point for the main mathlib RNG. I don't know 100% for sure that that's the same case on the 3DS, but there's no reason for it to change at all considering that the 3DS is pretty secure in general. Certainly moreso than previous "DS" handhelds.
Anyway, what that means is that we may not be able to ever RNG the way we're used to ever again. There's certainly a chance I'm wrong about that last bit, and I hope I am. Obviously I'm not 100% sure, but if what I was saying wasn't pretty solid, to me at least, I wouldn't mention it at all until I know more.
It may come down to using a GPGPU program to (relatively)quickly find seeds in games that are already loaded and going from there., forwards
Cody Eakin
and
Antoine Roussel
and defenseman
Jyrki Jokipakka
.
More Dallas Stars joined the informal skates in Frisco this week as players gear up for the start of training camp. Among the latest arrivals were goaltender Antti Niemi
Eakin hit town less than two weeks after signing a four-year contract extension worth $15.4 million, or an average of $3.85 million per season.
“It’s very exciting. A little unexpected and it happened pretty quick. I am very excited to have that done,” said Eakin, who has one year left on his current contract. “It gives me confidence, and I am excited to be part of this organization for the next five years.”
The 24-year-old Eakin set career highs in goals (19), assists (21) and points (40) in 78 games played last season, his third with the Stars after being acquired from Washington for center Mike Ribeiro.
“Cody is a big part of our team now and in the future,” Stars GM Jim Nill said after the deal was announced last month. “He’s a very versatile player; you can play him up and down the lineup. He’s very responsible. He’s good in his own end, and he can score. The coaches love him because he does all the little things right. He’s competitive. We just think he is going to get better, and we are showing a commitment to him that he is a big part of our future.”
This round of contract talks between the Stars and Eakin went smoothly. It was a lot different the last time. Eakin missed training camp and preseason games one year ago while the two sides worked out a two-year, $3.8 million deal.
“There weren’t very many back-and-forths [this time], and it was done,” Eakin said. “I was really happy that it went like that. They came to me before my contract was done, so I am very happy it didn’t turn out like the last one.”
So were the Stars.
“It’s important for both parties,” said Nill. “It’s important for him. We’ve shown a commitment to him. We believe in him. He’s a big part of this team moving forward.”
Skating Stars
Here’s the lineup of Dallas Stars players who have been skating in Frisco recently.
Goaltenders: Kari Lehtonen, Antti Niemi, Jack Campbell
Defensemen: Alex Goligoski, John Klingberg, Jason Demers, Jordie Benn, Patrik Nemeth, Jyrki Jokipakka, Jamie Oleksiak, Stephen Johns, Julius Honka, Esa Lindell
Forwards: Jamie Benn, Jason Spezza, Valeri Nichushkin, Ales Hemsky, Cody Eakin, Patrick Eaves, Vernon Fiddler, Antoine Roussel, Colton Sceviour, Travis Moen, Curtis McKenzie
Notes: Ritchie out after wrist surgery
*Stars forward Brett Ritchie is expected to be out three to four months after undergoing surgery to repair a ligament in his wrist. Stars GM Jim Nill said Ritchie injured the wrist in late August while training.
*Stars 2015 first-round pick Denis Gurianov, who is playing in the KHL, is out with a shoulder injury. Nill said Gurianov could miss two to three weeks. Gurianov suffered the injury while playing for Russia’s national junior team at the 4 Nations Tournament in late August.
Prospects head to Traverse City
The Dallas Stars prospects playing at the NHL Prospect Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan were in Frisco Tuesday to undergo some testing. On Wednesday morning, they headed to Michigan.
The tournament, which gets underway Friday, features prospects from the Detroit Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues.
“It’s very good hockey. It’s intense, playoff-style hockey. And the best part is you get to evaluate players at their age group, which is a lot easier to do,” said Stars GM Jim Nill. “When you bring in a young player into training camp and he has to go against a Jamie Benn, Patrick Sharp and Jason Spezza, they are intimidated and they are nervous, they’re young and still immature physically. When you take them to these rookie tournaments they are playing against kids their own age, they can show what they can do, and it makes the evaluation a lot easier.”
The Dallas roster will feature many of the team’s top prospects, including first-round picks defenseman Julius Honka (2014), center Jason Dickinson (2013) and center Radek Faksa (2012). Defenseman Stephen Johns, acquired from Chicago in the Patrick Sharp trade, is on the roster along with defenseman Esa Lindell, the top defenseman in Finland’s top league last season. Philippe Desrosiers, who was named the top goaltender in Canadian junior hockey last season, is one of two goalies for the Stars.
“It’s a good roster,” Nill said. “We have a good backend, and we’ve got some good players up front. They are all good teams; they’ve all got good, young prospects. That’s what is great about the tournament, it is highly competitive. The kids play their hearts out because they want to show their organizations what they can do.”
Here’s the Dallas roster for the tournament.
Goaltenders: Philippe Desrosiers, Brent Moran
Defensemen: Julius Honka, Esa Lindell, Stephen Johns, Patrick Sanvido, Ludwig Bystrom, Aaron Haydon, Alex Peters, Chris Martenet
Forwards: Radek Faksa, Jason Dickinson, Devin Shore, Remi Elie, Gemel Smith, Brett Pollock, Branden Troock, Cole Ully, Mattias Janmark, Emil Molin, Mads Eller, Chase Witala, Brandon Magee
Here’s the Dallas schedule for the tournament.
Here’s the Dallas schedule for the tournament. The Stars’ fourth opponent will be determined by their ranking after the first three games.
Friday Sept. 11, vs. Chicago, 6 p.m. (CDT)
Saturday Sept. 12, vs. Carolina, 2:30 p.m. (CDT)
Monday Sept. 14, vs. Detroit, 6:00 p.m. (CDT)
Tuesday Sept. 15, vs. TBD
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.Following our latest drone video that we shared over the weekend, the City of Cupertino has posted an updated, official aerial shot from Apple showing progress at Apple’s under construction Campus 2.
The best 4K & 5K displays for Mac
The image shows Apple is making progress on the foundation and early stages of building construction as the company prepares to finish work on street utilities, earthwork and demolition.
Apple is still on track to complete the project by the end of 2016, according to the City of Cupertino’s website tracking progress and providing construction updates for locals. Apple kicked off early work on demolition and street utilities late in 2013 with earthwork and building construction starting earlier this year. Work on street utilities and demolition is expected to wrap up at the end of this year with earthwork continuing into early 2015 and building construction into late 2016:
When complete, Apple’s new Campus 2 structure and 176 acre campus will house 12,000 staff in 2.8M square feet of what Tim Cook said will be the “greenest building on the planet.”
You can follow the progress in our Campus 2 story line here as we continue to post more drone videos over the coming weeks. Our latest, which gives a much closer look at progress on the structure and surrounding campus than Apple’s shot, is available here.Of course nothing is foolproof. I am often surprised at how quickly conditions change, despite predictions. Out of nowhere come clouds, haze, fronts, isolated storms, downdrafts, updrafts and smoke, not to mention birds, other planes, sky divers, balloons and gliders. The skies are rarely dull. No trip ever goes exactly as foreseen.
Once, long ago, when we were flying east over upstate New York, a front materialized between us and Boston, where we were heading. We were suddenly surrounded, our lightning scope lit up with countless little yellow X’s, indicating the location of the strikes. The controller (God bless them all) suggested that the best way to thread through this was to head north over Canada. He asked us for the number of “souls on board” before he wished us good luck (the one and only time I’ve heard that), and handed us off to a military controller, through whose space we secured permission to fly.
A few weeks ago, we set out again. Our destination was Columbus, Miss., a small town along the border with Alabama. We had heard tales of how it is recovering from the loss of its low-wage, low-tech textile, plastics and food-processing factories and how new industries like tire-making, steel, drones and engines, to name a few, are bringing new life to the area.
Image The author and her husband check email and weather reports after landing in Columbus. Credit Raymond McCrea Jones for The New York Times
It was Easter Sunday, a gorgeous day along the East Coast. The skies were busy after months of endless winter that marooned all of us. Jumpers were out over South Carolina. When the controller in the Atlanta center slipped a “y’all” into just about every strictly, formulaic transmission, we knew we had crossed some invisible Southern border.
Jim located a small airport, a fixed-base operator (F.B.O.) where we could stop for gas. For humans, the effects of three or four hours in a small plane accumulate: too hot, too cold, noisy, cramped, hungry, where’s the bathroom. As we approached for landing, I wished for good luck with the F.B.O. The worst ones will have a small shack, a bathroom, a few phone numbers to call for emergency, a vending machine with cheese crackers, yet always a working self-serve gas pump. One F.B.O. in Maine was so remote that we had to circle around twice for landing when a local farmer was using the runway as a shortcut for his tractor. On the other hand, you might find an F.B.O. with a nice comfy lounge, homemade cookies, popcorn and a restroom full of amenities.
On that Sunday, we stopped for gas at Toccoa, Ga., near the South Carolina border, as I was working up a little bit of self-pity over our Easter lunch of beef jerky. When I pulled open the door to the F.B.O., the most delicious aromas wafted out, followed by a warm invitation from the manager to take a plate and join his extended family for a potluck buffet: ham, salads, biscuits, casseroles and enough Southern hospitality to fill the state. You never know.
Well-fortified, we flew on a few more hours west to Mississippi. The approach to the tiny county airport goes right over the skeletons of textile factories of Columbus. We spent several days in and around the town. Jim visited the new Russian-owned steel mill, Severstal, as well as the PACCAR truck-engine plant and an Airbus facility that makes helicopters for the military. I visited the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, which is a public residential high school that sends its graduates to colleges as close as Mississippi State University or as far as M.I.T. or Harvey Mudd in California. I prowled the archives of the town library, with its stacks of war journals of Confederate and Union soldiers, and the segregated cemeteries and antebellum homes.
Heading out, we decided to fly west a few miles, over the heart of nearly $5 billion of new factories and industry. We spotted the new small regional airport right across the road from the new steel mill. This was our evocative view from the skies: as we traveled from one small airport to the next, separated by just a few moments in flying time, we moved across a space of decades in economic evolution, a journey symbolic of a changing America.Which teacher, which pen and which book should change the world?
It’s quite a daunting task to figure out who’s more absurd between those who believe that Malala Yousafzai is a Western agent and those who believe that she was targeted by the Taliban because she wants education. Both arguments have their respective demerits, abundance of ignorance and volumes of hypocrisy. Saying that the Malala episode was a “staged drama” fits in seamlessly with the popular opinion in our neck of the woods, where people dutifully buy the conspiracy theories Zaid Hamid and his creed earn their rather expensive bread and butter from. While saying that the Taliban couldn’t stand a girl wanting education, despite resulting in a noble international campaign for female education, reduces a grave reality into its rather simplistic – and misapprehended – undertone.
A 15-year-old girl being shot at sent down shockwaves both domestically and globally. Whether it was the bewilderment regarding the “hoax” or the disbelief with regards to the “heinous act”, the tremors were – deliberately or inadvertently – forced to divert away from their epicentre. It was neither a staged drama, nor a terroristic manoeuvre to curb female education; the epicentre of the Malalaquake can be traced above an ideological fault line wherein two contrary belief-systems are relentlessly at loggerheads.
Taliban commander Adnan Rasheed’s letter to Malala published on the web on Wednesday, which echoed Ehsanullah Ehsan’s open letter dated October 16, 2012 – written a week after the attack on Malala – reconfirms that she was never targeted owing to her stance on education. It was because of her leaning towards the “wrong” side of the ideological fault line, which led to the shooting and in turn the international convulsion.
Probably the most famous line from Malala’s speech at the UN was, “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.” And this is the bizarre smokescreen that the poor child doesn’t even know that she’s fueling. The Taliban do not have an issue with teachers, pens or books, their concern is: what is being taught, what is being written and what is being read.
An excerpt from Adnan Rasheed’s letter reads: “You say a teacher, a pen and a book can change the world, yes I agree with you, but which teacher which pen and which book? It is to be specified, Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said I am sent as a teacher, and the book He sent to teach is Quran. So a noble and pious teacher with prophetic curriculum can change the world not with satanic or secular curriculum.” And voila! Herein one can trace the aforementioned epicentre: which teacher, which pen and which book should change the world, the ones that follow the “divine” guidelines or the ones that extol ideals propagated by human intellect? For, rest assured, these two are virtually disjoint ideological sets.
Ehsanullah Ehsan’s seven-page letter elaborated the reasons behind the attack on Malala and comprehensively justified it according to the Shariah, Islamic scriptures and historical precedents. Her writings against the “Mujahideen-e-Islam” and in favour of the leaders of Dar-ul-Harb sufficed in forcing the Taliban to fire a bullet with Malala’s name on it. And Ehsanullah Ehsan, after quoting many noteworthy examples, argued whether the universally extolled leaders of Islamic history would’ve reacted any differently to a “conspirator”. The honest answer to that question should instigate a rude awakening.
As invigorating as it sounds, the Taliban-Malala battle is not one between the bullet and the pen. The Taliban’s conflict with Malala, much like their combat against all their adversaries, is a clash of religious teachings and humanistic viewpoints. It’s a battle between orthodoxy and modern-day nonconformity, a tussle between enchainment and freedom, a fight between bigotry and universal brotherhood and seemingly an unyielding war between the 7th century and the 21st century. The Taliban devoutly follow antediluvian theologies, while Malala stands for enlightenment. The Taliban adhere to the deity’s commands, while Malala on the face of it challenged their adherence. The Taliban represent blind faith, while Malala opposes the status quo. And when you try to force these contradictory viewpoints to coexist, or try and merge them into one, you formulate a fault line, which eventually leads to epoch-making upheavals.
Which teacher, which pen and which book should change the world? It sounds mundane, but Adnan Rasheed’s question to Malala, puts all of us in the line of fire, facing an ideological shotgun, one that the West successfully overcame during the Reformation and the ensuing Renaissance. Many an imperialist has posed as a teacher, using swords to pen down fallacious books brimming with the legacy of their veneration. The blood of the opponents and sceptics was used as the ink, while an intangible, superhuman dictatorial clout was used as justification, as they indubitably changed the world. This kick-started centuries’ worth of devout following, the Taliban are the most bona fide offshoot of which.
The Taliban are following the ideology their teachers promoted, and using the proverbial pens and swords to propagate the message of their books as every TTP press release showcases. It’s now up to us to earmark our teachers, our pens and our books, which can’t obviously be the same as the Taliban’s if we plan on countering their threat. This is precisely why it is pivotal to identify and be honest about the epicentre of the Malalaquake and the fault line that divides the Taliban and their genuine opponents. For, the fault lines are becoming more conspicuous with every passing moment and every single one of us would have to pick a side sooner rather than later.
The writer is a financial journalist and a cultural critic. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @khulduneIn the early hours of June 14th, 2015, police raided the The Imperial Hotel, an iconic Sydney venue. It had been less than two months since local house and techno outfit Spice had taken over the multi-level pub, bringing their late-night club events to the suburb of Erskineville. They had relocated from their previous CBD residence of three years, The Spice Cellar, in an effort to escape stifling inner-city licensing conditions. Cut Copy and Jagwar Ma's Juno Mars had been playing downstairs before officers shut down the party and moved hundreds of patrons into the street.The Office Of Liquor, Gaming And Racing (OLGR) said that, "the hotel [had] come under increasing attention by both OLGR and Police due to numerous drug detections, repeated intoxication issues, and ongoing disturbance issues from patrons leaving the venue." They claimed that bar staff had been caught consuming illicit drugs, while patrons were observed supplying and consuming substances in the club's toilets. Others were found intoxicated. A 72-hour, full-venue closure was enforced by the OLGR the following weekend. This was the beginning of a swift end for The Imperial Hotel, one of Sydney's last remaining late-night party spots. After being forced out of the premises, Spice issued a press release that lead with the line: "Today the music really does stop."The demise of the Imperial is just the latest incident in the ongoing erosion of Sydney's nightlife. In January 2014, the New South Wales state government introduced tough new legislation as part of a public crusade against alcohol-fuelled violence. These new laws included 1:30 AM lockouts—meaning patrons can't enter or re-enter a venue after that time under any circumstances—and 3 AM "last drinks" anywhere within the city's CBD and so-called entertainment precincts. Members of the music and late-night entertainment industries feared the worst, as these restrictions would severely hinder the ability for venues, promoters and artists to thrive. A once-24-hour city now had a curfew.Some 18 months on, the cultural, economic and social impact of these laws is coming into focus. While the data says assaults are down, clubs and bars are closing at an increasingly rapid rate, and the debate over the real effects and costs of the legislation is ongoing. Many venues that have survived have been forced to cut staff and reduce hours, resulting in hundreds of jobs being lost. It's a similarly gloomy outlook for the city's electronic music community, whose scene has been slowly unravelling. Phil Smart, one of the country's most respected DJs, has been going out in Sydney for almost 30 years. "I've seen it go through a lot," he says, "and this legislation is the worst thing that's happened to our communities and the entire late-night economy."The lockout laws were a direct result of two tragic incidents that took place in Kings Cross, Sydney's red-light district and biggest clubbing hotspot. In July 2012, Thomas Kelly, 18, was struck by an unprovoked punch, randomly "king hit" at 9 PM by 19-year-old Kieran Loveridge. Loveridge, who committed another four assaults throughout the evening, had stepped out from behind a wall and delivered the blow to Kelly, who suffered critical head injuries from the fall as his skull hit the pavement. His life support was switched off two days later. New Year's Eve 2013 saw a similar scene a few metres from where that attack occurred. Daniel Christie, also 18, was out celebrating with his brother when he was punched around 9:30 PM by Shaun McNeil, a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, 27, who claims he misidentified Christie as another teenager he had an altercation with earlier in the evening. Christie died on January 11th.The then NSW premier Barry O'Farrell came under extreme pressure to act. The message from the mainstream media, the opposition Labor Party, the emergency services and hospitals, the victims' families and the general public was clear: young men were dying on the streets of Sydney and something needed to be done. O'Farrell had previously said there was no "one-size-fits-all solution" and that, as these assaults happened before 10 PM, lockouts "would have had no impact." The urgency of the situation, however, seemed to change his stance.Inner-city public hospital psychiatrist, political writer and RA contributor Tad Tietze says, "There was no space for rational solutions or long-term planning," due to what he describes as a moral panic initiated by the major local papers, including the usually left-leaning, which damned the premier's inaction. "Moral panics demand rapid and heavy-handed action by government to suppress the problem," Tietze says. "And many of the health experts who claimed they were into harm minimisation were really moving much more towards partial prohibition as the only way to reduce harm."The public's perception was that Sydney's streets were suddenly running with blood, but NSW crime statistics painted a different picture. Up until the end of 2013, alcohol-related assaults across the state had been declining at a steady rate since 2008, totalling a 21% drop and reaching their lowest levels since 2002. The same trend was being seen in Sydney's CBD and, to a more moderate extent, Kings Cross, where assaults within licensed premises had dropped significantly and assaults on the street remained relatively stable. The numbers were at odds with the media's suggestion of a sudden spike in violence.Three weeks after the assault on Daniel Christie, O'Farrell unveiled his government's solution. The list of strict new laws and licensing restrictions included a statewide closure of bottle shops at 10 PM, a number of mandatory minimum sentences for drug- or alcohol-fuelled offences, and a freeze on liquor licenses for new clubs and pubs within the city. It was the announcement of the 1:30 AM lockouts and 3 AM curfew on alcohol service, however, that proved most controversial. These restrictions, which were at odds with O'Farrell's earlier stance, applied to a newly devised Sydney CBD entertainment precinct. The area covers more than |
next door to where the group home will open, is not worried about his new neighbours. (Scott Neufeld/CBC)
City council approved the rezoning to allow the group home on Monday. Councillor Ben Henderson, who represents the area, said it was an easy decision.
"What we call nimby responses, I think, comes from fear and from not knowing. And then we always imagine the worst," he said.
"I think [the Schizophrenia Society of Alberta] did really good work going in early and really recognizing people's fears – not saying they weren't legitimate – but helping them understand what was really going to happen."
Gerald Martin and his wife have lived right next door to the former seniors residence for about two years.
"l'm not worried about it," he said.
"They supervise their people very closely. I think they're well looked after. And I'm not afraid that they're going to be people that are out of hand... And to me, if it's supervised and looked after properly, it's better than if these people are on their own."
On its website, the Bonnie Doon Community League says it "has been impressed with the openness and professionalism demonstrated by [the society]."I’ve been toying with ways to reduce high RPM motors for use in various robots or projects I’ve been working on. I learned of the concept of a Harmonic Drive recently and thought it would be fun to design one and 3D print it. A Harmonic Drive uses a wave generator to drive a flexible ring gear inside a rigid ring gear. The outside gear has more teeth that the flex-gear, which means that each rotation of the wave generator rotates the flex-gear only one or two teeth.
Animation showing the action of a harmonic drive. Photo from Wikipedia
After some thought, though, I realized that it would probably be susceptible to wear given that my cheap 3D printer doesn’t generate amazing builds. So I decided to mimic the action of the flexible gear by creating a planetary gear box which rotates a rigid ring gear, surrounded by another ring gear with more teeth.
Here is a rendering of the 3D file prior to printing showing it in action:
Of course in real life the printed object isn’t nearly as smooth and shiny.
But, it does work! I won’t be installing it in any operation in the near future, between the high volume when it runs and the knowledge that the plastic will wear quickly, this is really just a proof of concept.
Please comment or ask questions below if you’d like a more thorough run-through of the process.1.3k SHARES Facebook Stumbleupon Twitter Pinterest Reddit Google
In Africa and perhaps rightly so africans are now waking up to the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) May be spreading deadly diseases among them.
A NY Times article with a huge front page photo is intended to portray frightened African villagers as paranoid, superstitious and ignorant: But it seems perhaps ignorant and superstitious people have more sense than the dumbed down western equivalent.
Health workers with Doctors Without Borders have been threatened with knives, stones and machetes by Guineans who blame them for spreading the deadly virus.
SEE: Surprise! Ebola Outbreak Connected To Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and George Soros
KOLO BENGOU, Guinea — Eight youths, some armed with slingshots and machetes, stood warily alongside a rutted dirt road at an opening in the high reeds, the path to the village of Kolo Bengou. The deadly Ebola virus is believed to have infected several people in the village, and the youths were blocking the path to prevent health workers from entering.
“We don’t want any visitors,” said their leader, Faya Iroundouno, 17, president of Kolo Bengou’s youth league. “We don’t want any contact with anyone.” The others nodded in agreement and fiddled with their slingshots.
Singling out the international aid group Doctors Without Borders, Mr. Iroundouno continued, “Wherever those people have passed, the communities have been hit by illness.”
SEE: Why Does The CDC Own A Patent On Ebola ‘Invention?’ Patent No. CA2741523A1
Health workers here say they are now battling two enemies: the unprecedented Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 660 people in four countries since it was first detected in March, and fear, which has produced growing hostility toward outside help. On Friday alone, health authorities in Guinea confirmed 14 new cases of the disease.
Workers and officials, blamed by panicked populations for spreading the virus, have been threatened with knives, stones and machetes, their vehicles sometimes surrounded by hostile mobs. Log barriers across narrow dirt roads block medical teams from reaching villages where the virus is suspected. Sick and dead villagers, cut off from help, are infecting others.
Singling out the international “aid group” (NGO-CIA) Doctors Without Borders, one Guinean charged, “Wherever those people have passed, the communities have been hit by illness.”
“This is very unusual, that we are not trusted,” said Marc Poncin, the emergency coordinator in Guinea for Doctors Without Borders, the main group fighting the disease here. “We’re not stopping the epidemic.”
Efforts to monitor it are grinding to a halt because of “intimidation,” he said. People appear to have more confidence in witch doctors.(which says something.
Health officials say the epidemic is out of control, moving back and forth across the porous borders of Guinea and neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia — often on the backs of the cheap motorcycles that ply the roads of this region of green hills and dense forest — infiltrating the lively open-air markets, overwhelming weak health facilities and decimating villages.
in an efort to make these people seem backward conspiracy theorists the WHO are saying
Could it be the what the villagers lack in formal “education”, they can sense instinctively?
“ This is very unusual, that we are not trusted,” said Marc Poncin, a coordinator in Guinea for Doctors Without Borders, the main group fighting the disease here.
Astute students of ‘New World Order Conspiracy Theory’ understand the dirty game by which “humanitarian” fronts known as NGO’s (Non Governmental Organizations) will often infiltrate a target nation and wreak havoc from within.
The “health group” with the high-sounding name “Doctors Without Borders” is in fact one such NGO, with links to George Soros and other shady characters. Doctors Without Borders (in French, Médecins Sans Frontières) was founded by WHO hatchet man
Bernard Kouchner; a politician and doctor ranked as the “15th most influential Jewish person in the World” by the Jerusalem Post. The “humanitarian” Kirchner is also a rabid supporter of the UN and the EU.
Though the angry villagers may not quite understand the geo-political aspects of this dirty game, they evidently sense that something is very strange about this latest disease outbreak.
The fact that their suspicions point to an NGO group, which they would have had no way of knowing was an aleged NGO- front, is most intriguing. The fear and suspicion (instincts) of the villagers is nothing to be laughed at!“You have to de-bracket the car,” says Collins. “We will remove the fixtures for the seat belt, for example, and the roof lining. We will pare everything back, and that has the benefit of lightening the vehicle as well.”
Then the precision work starts. When a road car comes off the production line, the theory is that everything is identical. But in the motor racing world, where millimetres count, even that has to be double-checked.
“We will put the car on a jig, which has the precise measurements we want for the suspension pick-up points and things like that because we need repeatability. Everything has to be exactly the same from race car to race car,” says Collins. “The road cars are generally very good in terms of being exact, but when you are dealing with racing cars we go to a different level of precision.”
Once the crew is satisfied that the car is to the exact dimensions it requires, then the first of the race-bred parts can begin to take shape.
The British Touring Car Championship mandates a number of controlled parts, determined by the series organisers, which are common across all race machines. These are called the Next Generation Touring Car rules (NGTC) and were introduced in 2011 to help curb the spiralling costs in tin-top competition in the UK.
Collins says: “We have to install both the front and rear subframes, which are standard NGTC parts built by a firm called GPRM. We strip the bodyshell back to the bulkhead and then put the front subframe in, which will also have been on a jig to make sure that it is absolutely accurate. Things like this are vital, because a wrong measurement here will affect the handling of the entire machine.
"From there, we will add the suspension pick-up points to the front and rear subframes. Within reason, they have to be similar to the road-car pick-up points to comply with the rules. There is an aerodynamic splitter that is attached to the front of the car, and where that fits on to the subframe dictates the height of the suspension pick up points – you can’t have it too low, otherwise you would fail the mandatory ride-height tests that take place after each of the on-track sessions.”
After the suspension process is completed, the base of the fuel tank is then welded in to the car and the rollcage is also installed, again welded to the shell of the car. The machine is now beginning to take shape, and it has already taken two men six weeks and 1000 man-hours to get the nascent race machine to this stage.
Airwaves Racing is one of the few operations on the British Touring Car Championship grid to have its own in-house paint shop, so the car is then coloured in deference to the team’s main backer.
“After the suspension work is done we will install our engine, which is a two-litre turbocharged Mountune-developed motor that puts out between 320-330bhp and it is mated to a standard six-speed sequential Xtrac gearbox,” explains Collins. “We put the suspension together, with the wishbones and the dampers, which are standard Penske-built units. There are certain things that we can develop ourselves within the dampers such as the shims and the valves, and the springs are also free for us to choose. We use ones that are built in Australia.
"Alongside the engine installation, there are certain bespoke parts that we can then put on the car, such as the fuel lines, oil lines, alternator and manifold. We can create certain parts but they have to be homologated before the start of the season so that they remain the same for the rest of the year.A cross compiler is a compiler that runs on one platform/architecture but generates binaries for another platform/architecture. With devices like the Raspberry Pi, where you really don’t have much CPU or memory to work with, if you’re doing any heavy compiling (like when working on the kernel) a cross compiler is the only way to go. For example, I build all my Raspberry Pi kernels on my nice Sandy Bridge Xeon E3 home server where they compile in only a fraction of the time they would on the Pi.
While there are a lot of different methods for building cross-compilers, by far the quickest and easiest is to use crosstool-ng. This is a set of scripts that bring up a menuconfig-like interface to choose your compiler settings, then goes off and downloads what it needs, patches it, configures it, builds it and installs it all for you. Here’s how to get started:
Download crosstool-ng from the project web site. I’ve used version 1.15.2 as that was the latest when I wrote this. Unpack the tarball and cd into the unpacked directory, then run./configure --prefix=/opt/cross. You can pick somewhere else instead of /opt/cross but that’s where I like to keep it. Run make and sudo make install. Make sure /opt/cross/bin is in your $PATH.
Right, so that’s crosstool-ng installed and ready to build a toolchain for you. Next, to actually create your Raspberry Pi toolchain:
Create a directory somewhere in your home directory that crosstool-ng will use as a staging ground. This will contain your toolchain configuration, downloaded files, and intermediary build results. This is not where your final toolchain will end up, and does take up quite a lot of space (3.5GB and up for me). cd into your chosen directory. Run ct-ng menuconfig. You should see the ct-ng configuration menu. Go into Paths and misc options. Enable Try features marked as EXPERIMENTAL. This is important. While you’re there you may want to change your Prefix directory. I like to put all my toolchains in /opt/cross/x-tools/${CT_TARGET} instead of ${HOME}/x-tools/${CT_TARGET}. Go back to the main menu and select Target options. Change the Target architecture to arm. Leave Endianness set to Little endian and Bitness set to 32-bit. Go back to the main menu and select Operating system (skip Toolchain options, the defaults are fine). Change Target OS to linux. Go back to the main menu and select Binary utilities. Change binutils version to 2.21.1a or whichever is the latest that isn’t marked as experimental. Probably unnecessary but I prefer this. Go back to the main menu and select C compiler. Enable the Show Linaro versions (EXPERIMENTAL) option. In the gcc version field, choose the linaro-4.6-2012.04 (EXPERIMENTAL) compiler. You’re free to choose a different one but I know this one works well. I do recommend the Linaro versions over the vanilla ones for the RPi. All the other settings are fine left at their default values. Exit the configuration tool and save your changes. Run ct-ng build. Go away and make a coffee, etc… This bit will take some time. You should end up with a freshly baked arm compiler ready for building kernels (and other things) for your Raspberry Pi in your Prefix directory you chose above. Just add your compiler directory to your $PATH and start compiling. If you used my preferred prefix directory, you would want to add /opt/cross/x-tools/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi/bin.
Now give your compiler a quick sanity check:
bootc@tarquin ~ $ arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-gcc --version arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-gcc (crosstool-NG 1.15.2) 4.6.4 20120402 (prerelease) Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. bootc@tarquin ~ $ cat > test.c #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Hello, world!
"); return 0; } ^D bootc@tarquin ~ $ arm-unknown-linux-gnueabi-gcc -o test test.c bootc@tarquin ~ $
Copy over the newly compiled test program to your Raspberry Pi and run it. You should see:
bootc@raspberrypi:~$./test Hello, world! bootc@raspberrypi:~$
That’s it! Enjoy.Q: It is reported that on May 22, Brussels, Belgium was hit by a series of terrorist attacks which killed and injured many. What is China's comment?
A: The Chinese side strongly condemns a series of terrorist attacks that rocked Brussels, Belgium, and extends deep condolences and sincere sympathies to the victims, the bereaved families and the injured. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Belgium are closely following the development and verifying whether there are Chinese casualties in these attacks.
The Chinese side is resolutely against all forms of terrorism. At this critical moment, the Chinese people are together with the people in Belgium and Europe. China is willing to enhance cooperation with Belgium and the world to jointly address threats and challenges imposed by terrorism and uphold world peace and security.More than just a drum production tool, Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 is an entire virtual studio which provides an extensive and unrivalled set of options to creatively craft and design your drum sound without restraint. Superior Drummer 3 puts you in control. Taking the Superior legacy to the next level, Superior Drummer 3 has been completely redesigned from scratch to offer a completely new workflow with a huge number of additional features and an unparalleled core library of raw sound material. Key Features Over 230 GB of raw, unprocessed sounds in 44.1 kHz/24 bi
7 Drum Kits and additional instruments
Recorded with an additional eleven separate room microphones set up in a surround configuration for a complete immersive experience
Playback in stereo or up to 11 channel surround systems
Engineered by George Massenburg
Integrated offline audio to MIDI conversion
Approx. 350 vintage and classic drum machine sounds
35 mixer effects
New and improved scalable interface with detachable windows
Edit Play Style, Tap2Find, Song Creator and Song Track features as well as improved workflow and search functionality
Built-in MIDI grid editor
DAW automation for built-in macro controls
Drag & drop and import for individual and third party samples
Support for keyboard shortcuts AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE ON THIS PAGE: *Please note: Multiple licences are available to purchase for Superior Drummer 3 on our designated multiple licence product page - Go to Superior Drummer 3 Multiple Licence. **A 230 GB Superior Drummer 3 Core Sound-Only Library on an SSD drive is also available from us - Go to Superior Drummer SSD. (See bottom of page for more details.) Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 Full Version Serial Download For all new customers that do not own Superior Drummer 2 or EZdrummer 2. Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 Crossgrade from EZDrummer 2 For owners of any version of EZdrummer 2. Toontrack Superior Drummer 3 Educational Single Licence For customers eligible for an Educational Single Licence.* *Important information for Students and Teachers. A valid academic ID must be submitted to us within 6 days of placing an order.
If you are an institution or require more than one Educational Licence, please go to our Multiple Licence Superior Drummer 3 product page here for the relevent licences available for purchase. The Superior Drummer 3 software and the full core sound library are delivered as downloads, available directly from the Toontrack Product Manager upon registration. **At an additional cost, there is also an option of getting the full sound library pre-installed on a 256 GB solid-state drive (SSD). Note that this is a supplement intended for those that purchase a license and want the sound library conveniently pre-installed on a quality drive. This box comes with no software licence – only sounds. NEED THE OPTIONAL SSD DRIVE? - Click here to order now Download Configuration Due to the size of the library and to ensure that each customer freely can decide in what capacity he or she wants to utilize the source material, the product is configured in six (6) convenient download packages. Start by installing the software and then add each package in sequence as you go. Download 1: “Software” - The Superior Drummer 3 software. No sounds. Approx. download size: 230 MB Download 2: “Basic Sound Library” - All instruments, all tools and all articulations in direct microphones as well as the OH Dyn and Amb Ribbon channels. Bleed available in Snare Bottom, OH Dyn and Amb Ribbon channels. Approx. download size: 40 GB Download 3: “Room” - The rest of the room microphone channels (OH Cond, Amb Near and Amb Mid). Approx. download size: 46 GB Download 4: “Surround 1” - Surround. Five channel microphone setup to achieve 5-channel surround. Approx. download size: 43 GB Download 5: “Surround 2” - Height and width. Six channel microphone setup to achieve 11-channel surround (in combination with the “Surround 1” content). Approx. download size: 52 GB. Download 6: “Bleed” - All remaining instrument bleed, meaning the sound picked up by microphones other than the one(s) directly intended for a specific instrument or ambience Approx. download size: 54 GB.
The Drums – Immense and immersive, captured with layers of technology The Superior Drummer 3 core sound library was recorded by award-winning engineer George Massenburg at probably the world’s most quiet and ideal location for sampling, the Galaxy Studios in Belgium. The library boasts in excess of 230 GB of raw sound material captured in extreme detail. In additional to close microphones and several ambience positions, the Superior Drummer 3 setup also includes an additional eleven room microphones set up in a surround configuration, for use in anything from stereo to 5.1, 9.1 and all the way up to 11.1 systems. In combination with the large selection of extra instruments added for stacking and sound design purposes, the sounds of Superior Drummer 3 give you an incomparable palette of options to craft drum tones beyond your wildest imagination. “Superior Drummer 3 takes music creation to a level of quality, flexibility and authenticity beyond the imagination.” - George Massenburg, Recording Engineer Drum Features Seven kits (Ayotte, Gretsch, Pearl, Premier, Ludwig (x2), Yamaha) Tom shell dimensions cover ranges from 6” to 20" Optional tool selection available on select kits and instruments (sticks, brushes, rods, felt mallets) Optional drum head selection available on select kits and instruments Approx. 350 electronic drum sounds, sampled from vintage and classic drum machines 25 unique acoustic snares, 35 recorded configurations 16 unique acoustic kicks, 27 different recorded configurations The making of the Core Sound Library Meet the team and get a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes during the recording sessions in this video below:
The Studio – Audio perfection in utter silence Tom Van Achte take you on a tour through the Galaxy complex. The Superior Drummer 3 core sound library was recorded at Galaxy Studios in Belgium. With its 330-square meter room and eight meter ceiling height, it was the ideal location for capturing immersive audio of the utmost quality. In addition, the entire studio complex is built on springs to ensure that the outside interference is literally non-existent. In fact, with only 14 dBA of environmental noise, the main hall at Galaxy Studio is the most quiet recording space of this size in the world. Perfect acoustics, balanced reverberation and second-to-none recording technology. Superior Drummer 3 called for a superior studio. We’d dare to say that this is the most nuanced and candidly captured sample library on the market. George Massenburg – Superior engineer, audio pioneer, professor and inventor George Massenburg’s contribution to the world of audio technology is hard to emphasize in words. Aside from having produced, mixed or engineered in excess of four hundred records, received almost any industry award thinkable, been inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame and received an honorary Doctorate of Music at the esteemed Berklee College, he is the inventor of an industry staple: the parametric equalizer. His attention to detail, accuracy and quality is second to none. Superior Drummer 3 called for a superior engineer. These are his drum sounds – captured with layers of technology and a lifetime of experience to back it up. Check out the video below as George takes you through his Superior Drummer 3 microphone positioning philosophy.
Grooves – The heartbeat of your song New and improved features for finding, customizing and working with MIDI. From quickly getting a custom beat going to diving deep into fine-tuning timing and velocity detail, Superior Drummer 3 has got you covered. Groove Features Multiple song tracks Build full drum arrangements Grid editor Time and tempo editor integrated in Song Track Edit Play Style, Tap2Find, Song Creator and Song Track with improved workflow and search functionality added Integrated grooves and search browser Text search The MIDI Library The Superior Drummer 3 MIDI library was designed to provide a wealth of fundamental groove and fill variations for mainstream pop, rock and singer-songwriter material. It also has a few dedicated sections for metal as well as an ‘Extras’ category with count-ins, snare rolls and MIDI files specifically designed for use with brushed samples. In total, the library encompasses in excess of 1,600 individually played fills, all categorized in common song structure parts. MIDI Features Drum grooves and fills inspired by a broad range of styles More than 1,600 individually played files 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, 12/8, 2/4 in straight and swing feel Tempos ranging from 55 to 204 BPM Song structure categorization (intro, verse, chorus, bridge, fills, etc.)
Mixer – Control and power, beyond the thinkable The mixer introduces 35 low-footprint insert effects, making each channel strip a virtual sound processing powerhouse. Route, bus, send, saturate, blend and mix – the creative options are endless. With Superior Drummer 3, you are in control. Mixer Features 35 mixer effects (EQ, delay, reverb, filters, dynamics, distortion, modulation) A wide array of presets for all included kits Individual mic bleed and mic control
Bus, route, send The Presets To help you get started or to let you peek “under the hood” of how other engineers tweak their drums, we’ve included a comprehensive collection of mix-ready presets for a wide range of genres that you can use either as quick one-click solutions to get a great mix up or as a starting point from where you can venture off into your own sonic landscape. We have worked with a wide range of our favourite producers – from local talent to some of the industry’s top names, like Bob Rock, Andy Sneap, George Massenburg and Richard Devine. Each engineer was given a blank slate and could create from the ground up, involving anything from their own custom samples to brand new field recordings of foley, one shots and percussion. Preset Features A wide range of traditional acoustic presets for each kit Presets for electronic, hip-hop, rock, metal and much more Creative sound design and hybrid kit renditions Presets by industry legends such as Bob Rock, Andy Sneap, George Massenburg and Richard Devine.
Tracker – A new breed of audio to MIDI conversion The Tracker introduces the arguably most efficient and accurate drum audio to MIDI conversion software on the market. Built on a highly advanced instrument recognition neural network, the Tracker detects hits with an unequalled accuracy and speed. With the seamless integration with Superior Drummer 3, replacing or augmenting drums has never been more powerful than now. Tracker Features Drum recognition based on artificial intelligence (AI) Machine learning based on over 1.4 million drum audio files Offline audio to MIDI conversion Track complex drum patterns faster than ever before Unlimited control with Find Similar, Sound Recognition Threshold and other specially designed features Create tempo maps from audio with the Find Tempo feature Reduce bleed between different microphones to avoid false triggers Edit MIDI notes individually directly in the waveform Seamless integration with Superior Drummer 3 Endless possibilities to replace or augment any drum performance Get experimental – import any audio file to generate original percussive rhythms
E-Drums - Make your electronic kit sound like you By combining smart software features with extreme sample detail and nuance, Superior Drummer 3 bridges the gap between the “e” and the drums, making your electronic kit every bit as “real” and acoustic as it can be. Superior Drummer 3 was designed with you in mind, the demanding e-drummer. Get started playing instantly with one of the the new e-drum presets, or customize the way the software responds to your playing with new, easy-to-use controls on the dedicated e-drums settings tab. The e-drum settings tab is used to transform incoming MIDI to the standard of any loaded sound library without affecting the playback of your MIDI files. This makes it easy to combine your own playing with any MIDI files available from Toontrack. It also offers quick access to the MIDI controls most frequently used, like hi-hat pedal and snare CC response. Controls and articulations for the mapping of custom kits and pads with multiple zones and positional sensitivity are available as well. All this in combination with optimized velocity response, humanization and up to 25 velocity layers per instrument in the Superior Drummer 3 core library will make your playing more expressive and well-rounded than ever! E-Drum Features New e-drum settings page allows transforming incoming MIDI without affecting the playback of your MIDI files.
Get started playing instantly with new e-drum presets for a variety of e-drum brands
Easy setup for positional sensing pads and multiple articulations
No need for a DAW – capture your performance directly in the Song Track of Superior Drummer 3
Superb realism, new articulations and manageable library size with up to 25 velocity layers per instrument
Quick access to controls for snare and hi-hat CC
Optimized response and humanization
Exclusive Features Overview by us here at Time+Space SAMPLECAST: REVIEW OF SD3 65 DRUMS: BREAK DOWN PRO TOOLS EXPERT: NEW FEATURES SEAN DEVINE: PREVIEW & DEMO TIME+SPACE: PLAYING BLUES TIME+SPACE: PLAYING CLASSIC ROCK TIME+SPACE: PLAYING DRUM & BASS TIME+SPACE: PLAYING FUNK TIME+SPACE: PLAYING INDIE ROCK TIME+SPACE: PLAYING JAZZ TIME+SPACE: PLAYING METAL TIME+SPACE: SOLO 1 TIME+SPACE: SOLO 2 TIME+SPACE: SOLO 3Alan Jouban versus Mike Perry is still nearly a month away, but already Jouban has had enough of Perry’s trash talking.Speaking to the MMA Roasted podcast, Jouban detailed the extent to which Perry has been trying to engage with him on social media and what exactly he made of it all.“Every morning it’s just the same s***,” Jouban said. “It’s just like stupid s*** like “I’m going to f*** your face with my fist” and I’m like bro what kind of weird a** s*** is that? He’s just like “f*** you Jouban”.“It’s the stupidest responses man and I feel like I could murder this guy if I wanted, but I just don’t have the time or the effort. He’s just like a troll man, a troll. If he’s just sitting there all day in his mother’s basement tweeting, you all day you are never going to win.”For the most part, Jouban has not chosen to engage back and believes silence is the best treatment. Suffice to say, Jouban doesn’t have the highest opinion of his American colleague given what’s going on already.“I’m just going to sleep peacefully [and not reply] while I’m all in his head,” Jouban said. “He’s a douchebag man and I don’t want to get too much into it. I’m not a guy that likes to throw around a lot of insults and I’m not really a negative guy in that way.[instagram url="https://www.instagram.com/p/BLsS0XNjKJc/" hide_caption="0"]“But, if a guy is pushing you around, I’m going to push back. It’s like he’s always trying to do that and it’s a bit like he’s a bit confused. This will be his third fight in the UFC in like five or six months so I don’t know if this really is who this guy’s identity is, or if he’s just new and thinks he needs to do the Conor McGregor thing and win two fights and get all the media talking about it.“That’s fine and he’s created some buzz about the fight, but I think he’s lost in it and I think he’s going to realize what he’s saying and that he doesn’t have to do this every fight.”Since entering the organization back at UFC 202, Perry has won himself plenty of fans with his brash talking and exciting fights. Jouban however, couldn’t understand why some fans were so quick to align with him.“It’s not a likeable bunch, but it’s funny because they have a small following,” Jouban said, speaking about Perry and his teammate Alex Nicholson. “It bugs me because this following that follows this guy, yeah I like to see exciting fights and this guy puts on exciting fights I respect that, but as a person, but if you are following this guy and going like #TeamPlatinum or #TeamPerry that just means you’re a lost sheep.“You can get some guy pounding his chest with tattoos on his face and saying stupid s*** and suddenly you’re on his team, then you’re a moron.”While Jouban isn’t one to shy away from building up a fight, he believes that it could be done in a much more respectful way and he pointed to the way he’d gone about things recently as an example of how to do that.“I don’t mind if it’s done in a competitive nature,” Jouban said. “Look, in the last 6 weeks I called out Matt Brown, Patrick Cote and Donald Cerrone. I’m not saying my way is the right way, each guy has their own way of doing it, but I had respect for this guys so I said “look Matt Brown I’m looking for a top-15 guy fight in December what have you got planned?”.“I’m not talking s*** on his family or anything. He [Perry] is saying I’m going to make you my bitch and f*** your pretty little face up. Long story short, I’m not losing any sleep over this guy, but it puts that extra little incentive in there to knock this guy out and shut his mouth for sure.”Despite President Donald Trump's calls for American companies to manufacture their products in the U.S., shipments of his daughter's branded, Chinese-made dresses have continued to land on U.S. shores since he took office, documents reviewed by NBC News show.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have a lot to talk about during their first meeting Thursday, including Trump's allegations of Chinese currency manipulation and the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Beijing's "unfair" trade practices.
"We can't continue to allow China to rape our country," Trump told his cheering supporters last year on the campaign trail in Indiana. "There are no jobs because China has our jobs."
Some of those jobs are apparently still filled by Chinese workers assembling dresses for a licensee of Ivanka Trump's namesake clothing line.
Since Election Day, the apparel brand run by Trump's daughter has imported 56 shipments of Ivanka Trump products from China and Singapore, part of a total of 215 shipments from Asia since Jan. 1, 2016.A motion commemorating Holocaust Education Week, which was met with a walkout when it was first introduced three weeks earlier at a meeting of the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) and failed to pass, was approved unanimously Dec. 19.
At the RSU’s semi-annual general meeting, Nov. 29, the gathering lost quorum when a number of students walked out and the motion was tabled.
“People unfortunately politicized something that doesn’t need to be politicized, and that’s what happened,” student Samantha Cooper, who introduced the motion, said in an interview Dec. 20. “If people walk out, their acts speak louder than words.”
READ: RYERSON STUDENTS STAGE WALKOUT OVER HOLOCAUST EDUCATION MOTION
Members of the Students for Justice in Palestine Ryerson and the Muslim Students Association denied they staged a walkout.
The motion was tabled to a meeting of the RSU board of directors, where it passed without incident, Cooper said.
Cooper said she was motivated to introduce the motion after observing numerous social justice events at Ryerson, but none that reflected her Jewish identity, she said. “This was a perfect time for students to have their voices heard,” she said.
At the executive meeting, where about 25 student representatives attended, it was easier to discuss the motion than at the AGM, which attracted around 200 students at the beginning of the meeting, Cooper said. “With over 100 people, things are misinterpreted. With a large group of people, things get out of control,” she said.
Student Aedan O’Connor, a Hasbara Fellow, said the walkout garnered negative publicity for the downtown university. “They were more concerned about their public image and that’s why it passed this time around.”
“Walking out on a Holocaust motion was blatant anti-Semitism,” she said.
A student amendment to the motion calling for Holocaust Education Week to be expanded to include other genocides, was the trigger for some of the heated speech at the earlier meeting, said RSU president Obaid Ullah.
He said he was glad the student retracted the motion at the executive meeting.
“This is not the place for it. It’s taking away from the importance of the [Holocaust Education] motion,” he said in an interview. “Throwing in a genocide week is not fair to the students who brought this forward and wanted to do something special for their cause.”
The student retracted the amendment after meeting with members of the Jewish community, said Ilan Orzy, associate director of advocacy for Hillel Ontario.
In the three weeks between the two meetings, Jewish organizations – including the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Hillel Ontario, StandWithUs Canada and Students Supporting Israel at Ryerson – met with members of the Ryerson Student Union to explain the importance of the week.
Ryerson University president Mohamed Lachemi met with representatives from Hillel Ontario, CIJA and MP Michael Levitt the day after the motion was approved.
In a statement, he said, “I am pleased that the RSU passed this very important motion supporting Holocaust Education Week. At Ryerson, we are committed to promoting positive dialogue and education on vital issues such as these. It is essential that we continue to learn from each other as we strive with mutual respect to ensure Ryerson fosters an inclusive, welcoming environment for all.”
A Holocaust education event will be held this year on Jan. 27, the United Nations designated day for international remembrance. After that, Holocaust education events will be held in November, with the rest of the Jewish community, Orzy said.Adani mine protesters get fines slashed Christine Flatley A Queensland court has reduced the fines of nine protesters who locked themselves to equipment at the Adani Abbot Point coal terminal.
Michael Hill flashes sales spark SAMANTHA BAILEY Shares in jeweller Michael Hill are shining after an improvement in sales momentum helped offset earlier weakness.
Bellamy’s hit by China delays Alex Druce Infant formula maker Bellamy’s has warned of a worse-than-expected full year result after interim profit dived 63pc.
Costa Group first-half profit falls 75% Derek Rose Fresh fruit and vegetable producer Costa Group says first |
. Plankton is actually defined as a floating creature that is unable to resist ocean currents and has no swimming ability; it is not related to size."
Location
It can be found at the depth of 495 ft during the daytime in the Abyss.
Two are found in the Zahhab Region Depths during both the daytime and the nighttime, only in the South Crevasse. However, they are reportedly easier to find at night - and they are also only able to be seen after the cutscene introducing them has triggered, which only occurs at night. As such, it would be wiser to search for them after the sun has set.
Behavior
These creatures are slow-moving and docile, unable to attack the player. They make a circuit from around 400 feet to 500 feet (122 meters to 152 meters) and back again as they swim - rather, drift along. In order to get this creature's trivia, the player has to take a photograph of it.
In Blue World, they spend much of their time very slowly drifting upwards until nearly exiting the Depths, and then back down to the sea-floor where they drift for a while until going back upwards.
Notes
With a body length averaging out at 130 feet (40 meters) in real life, these creatures are the second-longest sea organism out there - the longest being a creature called the Bootlace Worm, which doesn't appear in either game.
Though this creature is not harmful to the player, they are capable of delivering stings to their prey in order to paralyze and then consume it. In real life, it is unknown if these stings are capable of harming humans.
When brought to the surface, a giant siphonophore will burst. This odd manner of perishing is because its skeleton is hydrostatic, meaning that it is essentially held together with water pressure. This means that comparatively low water pressure will cause it to fall apart.
This creature's existence has been known about since the 1800s, but its appearance (primarily its length) was more specifically categorized in 1987.MIAMI - The Miami-Dade County Commission voted Tuesday to offer soccer star David Beckham a site near Marlins Park for his new Major League Soccer stadium.
The resolution called for Mayor Carlos Gimenez or his designee to negotiate and finalize agreements to bring a MLS stadium to the former Orange Bowl site or any possible sites Beckham may be interested in.
The parcel on the west side of the ballpark has been generally earmarked for soccer fields. Now it's the latest offering to Beckham from the county that pulled the plug on Beckham's hope for a public venue on the waterfront.
Beckham's team is looking at buying private land for his MLS expansion team.
"Has there been any communication?" Local 10 News reporter Glenna Milberg asked Commissioner Bruno Barreiro.
"They have not reached out," said Barreiro. "I have reached out recently to try to tell them 'Hey,we're here.'"
"And did you get a response?" asked Milberg.
"They said, 'We're looking at it'.... but nothing -- very quiet," said Barreiro.
By all accounts, it has been a few months since the last communication between Beckham and Miami-Dade County officials.
Follow Local 10 Sports on Twitter @Local10Sports
Copyright 2015 by Local10.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.A TOP-SECRET document dated February 2011 reveals that British spy agency GCHQ, with the knowledge and apparent cooperation of the NSA, acquired the capability to covertly exploit security vulnerabilities in 13 different models of firewalls made by Juniper Networks, a leading provider of networking and Internet security gear.
The six-page document, titled “Assessment of Intelligence Opportunity – Juniper,” raises questions about whether the intelligence agencies were responsible for or culpable in the creation of security holes disclosed by Juniper last week. While it does not establish a certain link between GCHQ, NSA, and the Juniper hacks, it does make clear that, like the unidentified parties behind those hacks, the agencies found ways to penetrate the “NetScreen” line of security products, which help companies create online firewalls and virtual private networks, or VPNs. It further indicates that, also like the hackers, GCHQ’s capabilities clustered around an operating system called “ScreenOS,” which powers only a subset of products sold by Juniper, including the NetScreen line. Juniper’s other products, which include high-volume Internet routers, run a different operating system called JUNOS.
The possibility of links between the security holes and the intelligence agencies is particularly important given an ongoing debate in the U.S. and the U.K. over whether governments should have backdoors allowing access to encrypted data. Cryptographers and security researchers have raised the possibility that one of the newly discovered Juniper vulnerabilities stemmed from an encryption backdoor engineered by the NSA and co-opted by someone else. Meanwhile, U.S. officials are reviewing how the Juniper hacks could affect their own networks, putting them in the awkward position of scrambling to shore up their own encryption even as they criticize the growing use of encryption by others.
Photo: Kris Tripplaar/Sipa USA/AP
The author of the 2011 GCHQ document, an NSA employee who was working with GCHQ as part of an “Access Strategy Team,” takes a similarly adversarial view of encryption, referring to Juniper as a “threat” and a “target” because it provides technology to protect data from eavesdropping. Far from suggesting that security agencies should help U.S. and U.K. companies mend their digital defenses, the document says the agencies must “keep up with Juniper technology” in the pursuit of SIGINT, or signals intelligence.
“The threat comes from Juniper’s investment and emphasis on being a security leader,” the document says. “If the SIGINT community falls behind, it might take years to regain a Juniper firewall or router access capability if Juniper continues to rapidly increase their security.”
The document, provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, shines light on the agencies’ secret efforts to ensure they could monitor information as it flowed through Juniper’s products, which are used by Internet providers, banks, universities, and government agencies. It notes that while Juniper trails its competitors, it is a “technology leader” with gear “at the core of the Internet in many countries,” including several deemed to be high priority from a spying perspective: Pakistan, Yemen, and China.
“Juniper technology sharing with NSA improved dramatically to exploit several target networks”
Asked about the document, GCHQ issued a boilerplate response asserting that the agency does not comment on intelligence matters and complies with “a strict legal and policy framework.” The NSA could not immediately respond Tuesday. Juniper sent a written statement saying the company “operates with the highest of ethical standards, and is committed to maintaining the integrity, security, and quality of our products. As we’ve stated previously … it is against established Juniper policy to intentionally include ‘backdoors’ that would potentially compromise our products or put our customers at risk. Moreover, it is Juniper policy not to work with others to introduce vulnerabilities into our products.”
Juniper’s prominence and ubiquity similarly helped draw attention to the more recent hacks against the company, which first came to light Thursday, when the California firm revealed it had discovered “unauthorized code” in ScreenOS enabling two major vulnerabilities. One, first present in an August 2012 release of ScreenOS, could allow access to encrypted data transmitted over VPNs. The other, first surfacing in a December 2014 ScreenOS release, allows an attacker to remotely administer a firewall, thus leading to “complete compromise of the affected device,” according to Juniper. The vulnerabilities remained in versions of ScreenOS released through at least October of this year.
It is the earlier vulnerability, potentially allowing eavesdropping on VPNs, that has generated vigorous online discussion among computer security experts. Some, like Johns Hopkins professor Matthew Green and security researcher Ralf-Philipp Weinmann, have said that an attacker appears to have subverted a backdoor shown, in previously disclosed documents from Snowden, to have originated with the NSA. Specifically, the attacker seems to have tampered with a 32-byte value used to seed the generation of random numbers, numbers that are in turn used in the process of encrypting data in ScreenOS. ScreenOS uses the value as a parameter to a standard system for random number generation known as Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator. The default 32-byte value in this standard is believed to have been generated by the NSA. Juniper said, in the wake of the Snowden revelations about the standard, that it had replaced this 32-byte value with its own “self-generated basis points.” So the attacker would have replaced Juniper’s replacement of the NSA 32-byte value.
Matt Blaze, a cryptographic researcher and director of the Distributed Systems Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, said the document contains clues that indicate the 2011 capabilities against Juniper are not connected to the recently discovered vulnerabilities. The 2011 assessment notes that “some reverse engineering may be required depending on firmware revisions” affecting targeted NetScreen firewall models. Blaze said this points away from the sort of ScreenOS compromise behind the more recent Juniper vulnerabilities.
“With the [recently discovered] backdoor, a firmware revision would either have the backdoor or it wouldn’t, and if it was removed, they’d have to do a lot more than ‘some reverse engineering’ to recover the capability,” Blaze said. “My guess from reading this is that the capabilities discussed here involved exploiting bugs and maybe supply chain attacks, rather than this [recently discovered] backdoor.”
Blaze said the exploit capabilities in the 2011 document seem consistent with a program called “FEEDTROUGH,” first revealed in a 2007 document published alongside an article in German newsweekly Der Spiegel.
Even if it outlines capabilities unconnected to the recently discovered Juniper hacks, the 2011 GCHQ assessment makes clear that the author was interested in expanding the agencies’ capabilities against Juniper. “The vast majority of current Juniper exploits are against firewalls running the ScreenOS operating system,” the author wrote. “An effort to ensure exploitation capability” against Juniper’s primary operating system, JUNOS, “should bear fruit against a wide range of Juniper products.”
The document suggests that the intelligence agencies successfully used the security holes they identified in Juniper’s devices to repeatedly penetrate them for surveillance, stating that “Juniper technology sharing with NSA improved dramatically during [calendar year] 2010 to exploit several target networks where GCHQ had access primacy.”
The assessment also notes that, because Juniper is a U.S.-based company, there is both “opportunity and complication” in targeting its technology. “There is potential to leverage a corporate relationship should one exist with NSA,” it says, adding: “Any GCHQ efforts to exploit Juniper must begin with close coordination with NSA.”
It further states that GCHQ has a “current exploit capability” against 13 Juniper models, all of which run ScreenOS: NS5gt, N25, NS50, NS500, NS204, NS208, NS5200, NS5000, SSG5, SSG20, SSG140, ISG 1000, ISG 2000. It reveals that the agency was developing an additional surveillance capability to hack into high-capacity Juniper M320 routers, which were designed to be used by Internet service providers.
“The ability to exploit Juniper servers and firewalls,” the document says, “will pay many dividends over the years.”What is the Azerbaijani Laundromat?
A scheme to curry influence, pay lobbyists, apologists and European politicians and to launder cash. The $2.9bn (£2.2bn) operation ran between 2012 and 2014 – meaning that on average $3m was channelled out of Azerbaijan every day. The source of money isn’t always clear, but it comes from companies linked to Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, state ministries and the International Bank of Azerbaijan, the country’s largest bank, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection. The cash was transferred into four offshore-managed UK companies. From there, it was spent in various countries, including Germany, the UK, France, Turkey, Iran and Kazakhstan.
How was it done?
By clever use of the west’s financial system. Danske, Denmark’s largest bank, handled the payments via a small branch office in Estonia. It noticed nothing amiss. The organisers of the scheme exploited Britain’s weakly regulated company system. They registered four firms at Companies House in London. These were Hilux Services, Polux Management, Metastar Invest and LCM Alliance. The first two were incorporated in Glasgow, the third in Birmingham and the fourth in Hertfordshire. The beneficial owner of the firms is a secret.
Why Scotland?
Two of the firms used in the Azerbaijani Laundromat were Scottish limited partnerships, known as SLPs. There is evidence that money launderers are using SLPs for international fraud. The companies have all the advantages of a regular firm: they have a “legal personality” and can open bank accounts. They are also entirely non-transparent. If they do their business abroad they don’t have to file returns or pay UK tax. No names of real people appear on the Companies House record. Instead, shadowy offshore agents in the British Virgin Islands “manage” Hilux and Polux.
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Is the government doing anything about this?
Yes, belatedly. In June the government brought in new laws forcing SLPs to reveal their real or beneficial owners or pay daily fines of up to £500. The move followed concerns that overseas criminals were piling into SLPs for the purposes of money laundering. According to Transparency International, between 2007 and 2016 the number of SLPs grew more than fourfold. They appear to be part of an offshore criminal network.
Who were the beneficiaries?
Several prominent Europeans. One of them is Luca Volontè, the Italian former chair of the centre-right European People’s party group in the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace). Volontè was among Pace delegates who controversially voted against a 2013 report criticising Azerbaijan’s human rights record. The leaked data shows he received more than €2m (£1.8m). He has been indicted in Italy for money laundering and corruption amid an investigation of what has been dubbed “caviar diplomacy”. He denies wrongdoing.
Other high-profile beneficiaries include Eduard Lintner, a former German MP with the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats. Between 2012 and 2014, when he was no longer an MP, his foundation received €819,500. The cash included a €61,000 payment made two weeks after Lintner visited Azerbaijan as an election observer. He praised the poll as up to “German standards”. He says the payments were for legitimate work, and that he did not personally benefit from the money or know about the original source of funds.
Cash was also sent to Bulgarian and Swiss bank accounts belonging to Kalin Mitrev, who was then a private consultant, but now works for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. Mitrev says the money was private income from legitimate consultancy work and that he was not aware of the original source of the funds. He denies doing anything wrong.
What about Azerbaijanis?
Most of the beneficiaries are from Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital. They include a diplomat at the Azerbaijani embassy in London, Orkhan Sultanov, who has reportedly been named as the country’s foreign intelligence chief, and Jovdat Guliyev, a leading figure in the Anglo-Azerbaijani Society. There is no suggestion they were aware of the original source of the money. There are payments to well-connected regime children studying in Britain or taking English language courses. One of Baku’s most powerful political families is linked to the fund via a French company, RCL Holding. Ziya Mammadov, an ex-transport minister, his son Anar, and other relatives have a multibillion-dollar fortune in Azerbaijan. It includes construction, hotels and insurance companies. The Mammadovs were once investors in Trump Tower in Baku, a development that was never finished. There are payments in the data to entities related to the Mammadovs’ Baghlan Group. The scheme doesn’t link to Trump but does raise questions about the president’s choice of business partners.
The Trump Tower in Baku. Donald Trump’s business partners in the project – the Mammadovs – also appear in the Laundromat scheme. Photograph: NurPhoto via Getty Images
How do we know if this is money laundering?
Danske admits that controls at its Estonian branch to detect and stop money laundering were not good enough. It discovered the scheme in 2014. The bank says it has reported suspicious transactions to the authorities, and it is up to them to determine whether and to what extent these were made for illegal purposes.
Additionally, the suspicious nature of some of the source transactions rings alarm bells. One firm – Baktelekom MMC – paid more than $1.4bn into the bank accounts. The company has the same name as Azerbaijan’s telecoms provider but is unrelated. It makes enormous transfers two or three times a day, with money funnelled back and forth between companies. Offshore experts say this pattern combined with the sheer “velocity” of the transactions should have raised red flags.
Where does the data come from?
An anonymous source leaked the data to the Danish newspaper Berlingske in Copenhagen. The paper shared it with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Guardian, and other media partners. There are details of more than 16,000 transactions, including names of beneficiaries, bank payment details, and amounts in various currencies.As the UN sets the "ambitious goal" of ending the epidemic by 2030, has said the challenge before the international community is ensuring access to high-cost medical treatments in developing nations.
"We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of ending the epidemic by 2030. The challenge before us is not of unavailability of medical treatment, but of accessibility arising from its high cost in many developing countries," said India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN
"We need to bridge this North-South divide if we are to achieve the 2030 target," Bishnoi said here yesterday at a session on 'Implementation Of The Declaration Of Commitment On HIV/ and The Political Declaration On HIV/AIDS'.
He said the Indian pharmaceutical industry has been plugging this "critical gap" by producing high-quality affordable drugs in India, and in other developing countries.
" is committed to using all flexibilities allowed under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement of the World Trade Organisation to ensure the availability of affordable and quality medicine to all people living with HIV," he said.
Bishnoi, however, termed "regrettable" that these TRIPS flexibilities, which are critical for the provision of public to millions across the developing world, are being questioned in some quarters.
"It would be most callous if we were to allow narrow considerations of commerce to deny the most basic and the most fundamental human right -- the right to life," he said.
He said while governments undoubtedly need to augment their efforts, it is equally evident that many developing nations will not be able to meet these challenges themselves.
"The need for international solidarity to ensure an integrated and holistic approach that includes effective prevention strategies, access to low-cost affordable for all and scaled up and sound systems can't be overemphasised if we are to end HIV/AIDS by 2030," he said.
Outlining the measures taken by India, he said a strategy for the period 2012-2017 is in place which is based on lessons learnt from the previous phases of the programme.
"This aims to accelerate the process of reversal by further strengthening the epidemic response. We have also involved the corporate sector, NGOs and other stakeholders as partners towards this end," he said.
He said the Secretary General's report on AIDS has pointed out the need for accelerated efforts to ensure that required levels of international and domestic funding are available to stabilise progress and maintain HIV-related services.Beckham’s expansion team plans remain in limbo. (AP Photo)
DANA POINT, Calif. – The David Beckham ownership saga in Miami has dragged on so long that the thousand-day anniversary of the Feb. 5, 2014 announcement of Major League Soccer’s return to South Florida was celebrated last Halloween. OK, the milestone was mocked, but deservedly so.
After nearly six more months of feet=dragging, MLS owners are now getting involved.
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On Thursday at the World Congress of Sports, league commissioner Don Garber revealed that “a committee of owners” have come together to “evaluate what’s happening in Miami” in regards to Beckham’s stalled expansion team plans, which have been bogged down by an ongoing search for a stadium site. The “very complicated” topic will be discussed further at the league’s Board of Governors meeting in Colorado next week.
Garber praised Beckham, the former Los Angeles Galaxy star, as “a special guy” and said MLS would still “like to see him as an owner in our league” – a sentiment reminiscent of former NBA commissioner David Stern’s insistence that basketball icon Michael Jordan remain in his league as a team owner.
“We are intrigued by the Miami market, but developing stadiums and developing teams and ownership groups is very complicated,” said Garber, while speaking on a panel about “the future of the beautiful game” with U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani.
“In a world with less public funding in large cities, it’s not just complicated. It’s really, really expensive even with a low-cost option with David Beckham and Simon Fuller to have to come into our league. It’s a half-a-billion-dollar project.
Story continues
“And as we’ve learned – as we’ve been growing our league carefully and in a very strategic way – is that we’d rather wait. And wait and wait on questions like this … before making a bad decision.”
Garber also explained the importance of MLS finally winning the CONCACAF Champions League. He said that, according to a Boston Consulting Group’s assessment, a Champions League winner would give the league the necessary “referential validation” in order to gain “a larger share of the 75 million soccer fans” in America.
“So we’ve got to beat Mexico and continue to invest in our rosters and continue to invest in player development,” the commissioner said. “We were close against Pachuca with Dallas last month. But we’ve got to win that tournament.”
Joe Lago is the editor of FC Yahoo. Follow him on Twitter @joelago.In a welcome yet epic move, public telecom operator, BSNL has decided to increase the FUP (Fair Usage Policy) speed to 1 Mbps from the crawling slow 512 Kbps across the country from 1 August 2016. This new FUP policy would be valid for all BSNL subscribers (new as well as existing).
Almost all telecom operators in India offer dual speed unlimited plans. Users get a limited amount of data at high-speed, post which they can still use the internet as much as they want but at lower speed. This is called as Fair Usage Policy (FUP) and it is meant to prevent bandwidth abuse by heavy downloaders on a shared connection. But that’s not the case, always. Sometimes FUP is also meant to protect the consumers’ internet.
Recently, it was seen that these FUP guidelines of providing 512 Kbps at least was being violated by many leading telcos.
Why Do We Hate FUP?
FUP is not a bad thing to start with, but the telecom operators have managed to transform it into something evil. These days, the telcos don’t want to offer huge volume of data, but they tend to justify their subscription plans with the pre-FUP speed which is usually way more than the users need to basic browsing activities including video streaming.
This helps the telcos in many ways. This high-speed (usually 4 Mbps and above) not only helps them justify the pricing of broadband plans but also affects the users psychologically. Nobody wants to get downgraded to 512 Kbps after using the internet at 8 Mbps. So, normal users tend to consume less multimedia content just out of the fear of exhausting their high-speed too soon. Hence, they are in a way, forced to not use the internet beyond their limited high-speed data. And that;s exactly why we are not a huge fan of FUP.
BSNL Has Learnt From User Feedback
While private telecom operators are busy reaping profits without caring about what their customers want, BSNL has listened to broadband subscribers’ feedback and has hence increased the FUP speed to 1 Mbps which is also in line with TRAI’s recommendation of minimum 2 Mbps speed by 2015.
Last year, BSNL also raised the broadband speed in the country to minimum 2 Mbps (pre-FUP).
BSNL is the leading wired broadband provider in the country having over 9.91 million subscribers and maintains a huge lead over Airtel and MTNL having 1.76 M and 1.1 M subscribers respectively. BSNL has always been known as the ISP with the widest reach since long, and with this move to raise the FUP to 1 Mbps it is likely to gain a lot of new subscribers.
It remains to be been what others telecom operators would to tackle this FUP trump card played by BSNL. Would they start offering more high-speed data, or increase the FUP speed to 1 Mbps? I am willing to bet on the second option. What do you think will happen?Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A former Tory cabinet minister is to be questioned by detectives after a video filmed at an underage sex party was seized by police.
The video, along with a number of photographs, allegedly places the ex-MP, a household name, at a depraved orgy organised by a paedophile.
The photographs were seized from a known child sex offender earlier this year and the video is believed to have come from another source.
The veteran Tory, who we cannot name for legal reasons, is understood to deny any wrongdoing. But an alleged victim, who claims to have been at the event three decades ago, has come forward.
Detectives used pictures of the alleged victim when he was a boy to cross reference with those of him at the party.
Sources close to the investigation have made known the shocking new revelations to the Sunday Mirror and investigative news website Exaro.
We previously revealed that the former minister was being investigated by detectives over allegations of child abuse.
The key witness said: “The police tell me that they have photographic evidence that I went to these parties. They have a photograph of me as a child, and it matched some other photographs that they have of me. They have a bit of film as well.”
Officers are due to begin a separate operation in the New Year into the sex party allegations as a spin-off from Operation Fairbank, which last year looked into allegations of abuse by politicians at the Elm Guest House in south west London.
While the video and photographs allegedly place the ex-minister and the victim at a party where boys were supplied to men, they do not prove that the former politician carried out any abuse.
But one source, a specialist in child protection, said: “This is potentially bombshell stuff. I have long been aware of the fact that these parties took place in London. This could be very significant.”
Detectives believe that some of the sex parties – some of which are believed to have been attended by paedophiles Jimmy Savile and MP Cyril Smith – were organised by Britain’s most notorious child abuser, Sidney Cooke, as we revealed in February.
Cooke led the ring of four jailed for killing Jason Swift in Hackney, East London, after gang-raping him in 1984.
The alleged victim claims he was trafficked, along with other children, to Holland by Cooke’s gang.
Scotland Yard’s paedophile unit has been working with Dutch police, and an officer from Amsterdam attended an interview by Met detectives with the key witness.
The Sunday Mirror told in February how the minister had been photographed by police in 1986 entering a property where one of the sex parties was being held, but no arrests were made.
Cooke, now 86, would pick up the unsuspecting teenage boys from streets around Kings Cross. He would drive them to places across North London where paedophiles lay in wait to rape them repeatedly.
A former officer, who worked on Operation Orchid which convicted Cooke and his gang, claimed they had taken pictures of the minister and that 16 members of an alleged VIP paedophile ring were due to be arrested.
But the day before the arrests were to be carried out, detectives were told the operation had been disbanded.
Scotland Yard said they would not comment on an on-going investigation.adamjoelind/Instagram
Dude. What is wrong with this guy? We've always known that Adam Lind wasn't the best dad, and the court reportedly agrees. The dad of two just had custody rights of one of his daughters stripped away, after testing positive for meth and amphetamine just hours before he was supposed to pick her up.
The Teen Mom 2 star failed a drug test back in April -- his third one in a row. According to court documents obtained by Radar Online, we now know that he tested positive for 351ng/mL of amphetamine and 837ng/mL of methamphetamine, which authorities called "a substantial amount of meth."
More from CafeMom: Cheslea DeBoer & Taylor Halbur Team Up to Get to the Bottom of Adam Lind's Lies
But the worst part? He had the drugs in his system just hours before he was supposed to pick up Paislee (his daughter with Taylor Halbur) for his weekend visitation. The report read, "The methamphetamine result in his system was substantial and this was just over 24 hours before he was to have the parties' minor child."
Taylor was apparently the one taking him back to court, and she seems to have won her case, as his custody and visitation rights of Paislee have been suspended indefinitely. But where does that leave Aubree, his daughter with Chelsea (Houska) DeBoer?
More from CafeMom: Cole DeBoer Reminds Us Why He's the Best Stepdad Ever
A source told Radar that Chels "is going to enforce the court's order that Adam's visits with Aubree be strictly supervised." We know from the show that that has not always been enforced, as Adam has been caught on camera without his parents being present, even though they are the court-appointed supervisors.
It's so sad that Aubree and Paislee's dad can't seem to get his crap together and be a decent human being and father, but at least their mamas are taking steps to ensure their safety. Hopefully someday Adam really will clean himself up -- we're just not going to hold our breath.That is a stain on our conscience that risks being repeated. Some 26 Republican governors are trying to block entry of Syrian refugees. All the Republican presidential candidates say that we should bar Syrian refugees or apply a religious test and accept only Christians.
Image A tweet of a young British man's Facebook post went viral.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey says we shouldn’t accept Syrians even if they are toddlers and orphans. And the House of Representatives may vote this week on legislation to impede the resettlement of Syrian refugees.
One Syrian family — a man who once ran a clothing store, his wife and their 4-year-old child — were supposed to arrive in Indiana this week. Then Gov. Mike Pence announced that Syrians were unwelcome, and the family is settling in Connecticut instead.
Remember what a Syrian immigrant looks like — the father of Steve Jobs.
Thank goodness that when my father came to America as a refugee from Eastern Europe in 1952, politicians weren’t fearmongering. My dad sailed to New York, bought a copy of the Sunday New York Times to teach himself English, and took the train across the country to a welcoming Oregon.
When Indiana today shuns desperate refugees, it is shunning people like my family.
Yes, security is critical, but I’ve known people who have gone through the refugee vetting process, and it’s a painstaking ordeal that lasts two years or more. It’s incomparably more rigorous than other pathways to the United States.This afternoon, as I was snacking on some smoked turkey breast, I started thinking about words for the bird in other languages. The only ones I knew offhand were French (dinde), Spanish (pavo), and Italian (tacchino). That set me to wondering. Three romance languages with totally unrelated names for the turkey: of course, this makes a certain amount of sense since it's a new-world bird. It would have been named in those languages as it was introduced into their cultures. I started fishing around on the web for information on the subject and came up with a goldmine. The turkey problem was addressed in 1996 on the LINGUIST listserv, and a digest was compiled that thrilled my verbophile heart.The first interesting thing is how many languages have terms that are based on the misconception that the turkey originated in India (hence dinde). The Turks call turkey "hindi." Scandinavian names associate the bird with the town of Calicut on India's Malabar coast. Could this all be related to the original misconception that the new world was "the Indies"?In Mandarin Chinese the word is "huo ji," or fire chicken. In Japanese it's "shichimencho," or seven-faced bird!As for the word "turkey" itself, there's the following:"Two English dictionaries which I have consulted give similar etymologies for 'turkey'. The story goes like this. The African bird now called the 'guinea fowl' used to be called (presumably because of a mistaken belief about its origin) the 'Turkey cock', it's having arrived in Europe via Turkish territory. The bird now called 'turkey' in English was originally thought to be identical with (or a sort of) the bird now called the 'guinea fowl' and that being then called the 'Turkey cock' the turkey was also called the 'Turkey cock'."In Egypt they call the bird "dik-rumi" (Turkish fowl).The word in Portuguese is "peru," likely attributing its origin to that country. In India they also call turkey "peru," probably from the Portuguese. In Malaysia the turkey term ("ayam belanda") translates as "Dutch chicken." In Macedonia the bird is named for the Turkish word for Egypt!But wait! There's more...Project Oaken discusses the details of their 2017 Virtual Hackathon submission.
Project Oaken, a team of developers and Ethereum-based idea architects have been making waves in the Ethereum ecosystem with their online video showing how a Tesla smart vehicle could be connected to the blockchain.
Project Oaken, an autonomous machine-to-machine platform built to provide the underlying infrastructures that are needed to power smart cities, has entered the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Blockchain Virtual GovHack, taking place in mid-February 2017. The team entered the virtual hackathon with their YouTube video submission presenting a real-world use case of a Tesla utilizing the Ethereum network to autonomously pay a toll with Ether. The video posted on January 6, 2017, shows a Tesla approaching a toll gate, then triggering the tollbooth to execute a smart contract transaction. The tollbooth receives a signal from the “pay toll” contract, opens the gate, and grants the Tesla access.
ETHNews reached out to Project Oaken to get insight into their exciting new project.
ETHNews: Can you describe in your own words what Project Oaken is and what the main goals of your platform are?
Project Oaken: Project Oaken is a platform to connect the real world with the blockchain, with secure IoT [internet-of-things] devices. The project is staffed by a team of hardworking professionals who are passionate about creating and producing real-world, tangible, and practical blockchain solutions. The main goals of our platform are to:
Realize the value and benefits of cryptographically secure serverless architecture in an IoT environment. Exploit the possibilities of machine-to-machine value transfer in real life applications.
E: What is the expected timetable for Oaken’s system to be integrated into smart cars? Can this automation in payments occur with existing automated toll systems like E-Z Pass? Or does a complete revamp of infrastructure need to occur?
PO: A lot of the components at the core of our solutions are still in an alpha state, but with the speed of growth and advancements in technology we see in the blockchain space these days, it could be as soon as 1-2 years from now. In regard to transitioning from existing systems to our tollbooth solutions, the two systems could exist in tandem, accepting both legacy payment systems, and crypto token-based payment systems at the same time. These payment systems would also trigger or control the same physical tollgates that exist today. No great infrastructure investment would be required, only the cost to upgrade or add tollbooth ACORNSes.
E: Can you explain how maintenance fees are collected and distributed on your platform? Would the money collected from transactions go exclusively to repairs?
PO: We envision a model where budgets and goals can be set outright at the implementation. Fees collected could be higher at the outset and then reduced once there is a full return on the capital investment. Moving forward, smaller fees would be to simply maintain operation and upkeep of the roads.
E: In the future, would this system automatically make requests for road repairs after a certain threshold had been reached?
PO: Yes. In fact, it's likely at some point we would be able to collect vibration sensor data from all the smart vehicles and using analytics over time, determine when the ideal moment would be to resurface the entirety of the tollway - or simply using a combination of vibration sensor data and GPS data to determine where potholes are and repair them in a timely manner.
E: As far as you know, would the reduction in transaction fees also equate to lower toll prices for consumers?
PO: Ultimately this “should” happen. We are looking at our model to greatly reduce the cost to operate a tollway, and also greatly reduce the cost to transact with a tollway. The entire server infrastructure now costs $1 for the smart contract and we’ve reduced the credit card processing fee that is taken out of the transaction between these two parties from 3% to.01%. Whether or not those savings get passed on to the consumer is outside of our control, but could ultimately be enforceable if a smart contract is utilized to do just that.
E: Do you anticipate opposition from any entities who have a vested interest in keeping transaction fees where they are?
PO: I think this is to be expected, although over time those business models will become unsustainable. Any smart company that would fight this technology would |
Jews and Palestinians comprise distinct racial groups in their localized relation to one another, in the broad sense of the term under international law. Of critical importance is whether they can be identified as groups whose membership is generally understood as fixed and incontestable from acquisition at birth, and which are entwined in a relationship of domination. Such an interpretation is compatible with contemporary race theory that now sees racial discrimination as the product of a process of ‘racial formation’, whereby a dominant group constructs a subordinate population as racially distinct in order to ensure its political and/or economic marginalization.121 In essence, the question of racial groups is a sociological rather than a biological one.
The formation and evolution of Jewish and Palestinian identities are remarkably complex, and we by no means intend nor purport to expound them in all of their socio-historical and cultural complexity here. For the purposes of applying the definition of apartheid to the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, however, the interpretation of racial groups as developed in international law appears sufficiently broad to understand Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs as distinct groups. Jewish and Palestinian identities, while not typically seen as ‘races’ in the old (discredited) sense of biological or skin colour categories, are constructed as groups distinguished by ancestry or descent as well as ethnicity, nationality, and religion. As such they are distinguished from each other in a number of forms within the parameters of racial discrimination under international human rights law.
While being Jewish clearly connotes a religious identity, this provides only a partial account. There is significant but by no means complete overlap between ‘Jewish’ in the sense of those who practise the religion of Judaism, and ‘Jewish’ in the sense of the ancient Israelites and their descendants.122 Religious law and social norms provide that Jewish identity is primarily descent-based, conveyed from mother to child. This aspect of Jewishness is codified in Israel’s Law of Return: ‘[f]or the purposes of this Law, “Jew” means a person who was born of a Jewish mother’. Significantly, being Jewish is not considered a religious identity by those who acquire Jewish identity at birth but who do not to adhere to the religious faith. They consider themselves ‘secular’ Jews and are seen as Jewish solely on the basis of their Jewish ancestry. In this sphere of descent, the idea of ‘race’ also persists, the legacy of a Zionism that traditionally framed Jews and Jewish interests in Palestine in ethno-racial terms. The Jewish National Fund, an organization exercising state-like functions in Israel, includes in its incorporating articles the aim to ‘benefit, directly or indirectly, those of Jewish race or descendancy’.123 The Zionist movement had also framed Jews as a people with the right to self-determination over a particular territory; that is, a nation. Such a concept of Jewish nationality is also inscribed in Israel’s laws and in the founding charters of state agencies and ‘parastatal’ organizations such as the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for the Land of Israel, and the Jewish National Fund. The official denomination of Israel as a ‘Jewish state’ and insistence on its recognition as such are themselves inherently premised on the idea of a distinct group that the state is designed to privilege.124 Thus, while Jewish identity may be based in some contexts on religion, Jews can also be understood as a group based on descent and/or ethnic or national origin.
Palestinians, for their part, are a group defined primarily by national origin, based on family roots in historic Palestine, distinguishable from the broader Arab ‘nation’ of which it forms a part by reference to specific local customs and a strong affinity to the common homeland.125Vis-à-vis Jewish Israelis, the Palestinians emerge as a separate group by virtue of ethnic indicators including a distinct language and culture, as well as claims to self-determination and indigeneity in territory occupied by Israel. Palestinians are of mixed religious composition, and thus religion itself is not a defining feature of Palestinian identity, although it does impact directly upon identity politics in the region insofar as Israel excludes and discriminates against Palestinians on the basis of a constructed ‘non-Jewish’ identity.
Identity distinctions within Israeli jurisdiction are rooted not merely in social practice but in the laws and practice of the state and its institutions:
Under Israeli law and policy, group membership is an official category imposed and monitored by the state, not simply a voluntary identity. Israeli Jews are a group unified by law, sharing the same legal status wherever they reside, while Palestinian Arabs are a separate group, sub-divided into citizens, occupied residents (whose residence rights may be lost if they leave the territory in which they live), and refugees who do not have the right to return to any part of historic Palestine.126
As noted, an appraisal of whether distinct racial groups exist must include consideration of whether two groups can be shown to hold separate identities acquired at birth that are generally immutable. In the context of Israel/Palestine, there are sufficient grounds to conclude that Jews and Palestinians are constructed and perceived both by themselves and by external actors as stable and permanent groups distinct from each other, and therefore can be considered as different racial groups for the purposes of the definition of apartheid.
B Inhuman Acts
A forensic examination of Israeli law and practice in the Palestinian territories is necessary in order to ascertain the extent to which the many ‘inhuman acts’ specified in Article 2 of the Apartheid Convention are being committed. Evidence of violations of Palestinian rights has been extensively documented by human rights organizations and UN monitoring bodies, and is readily available. It is not our intention to replicate such documentation in detail here; rather to provide an overview and emphasize that the cumulative effect of such consistent and wide-ranging violations is such that they not only amount to individual breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law when taken in isolation, but are sufficiently extensive and wide-ranging as to amount to a form of systematic domination within the meaning of apartheid.
The available evidence suggests that Israel is responsible for committing inhuman acts within the meaning of Article 2(a), (c), (d), and (f) of the Apartheid Convention, while it does not suggest Israeli culpability for the inhuman acts described by Article 2(b) and (e) of the Convention.
Article 2(a) relates to the denial to a member or members of a racial group of the right to life and liberty of person. Israel’s policies and practices in the West Bank include denial of the right to life through state-sanctioned extra-judicial killings of Palestinians opposed to the occupation, including the targeting of political leaders and militants at times when they were not participating in hostilities and were thus protected by international humanitarian law.127 To aggravate matters, such targeted killings have often resulted in the killing of innocent bystanders as ‘collateral damage’.128 The Israeli Supreme Court has placed restraints on this practice short of declaring it unlawful,129 but it continues unabated. In many cases the killing of Palestinian militants constitutes the extra-judicial killing of persons who could be arrested and brought to trial rather than summarily executed. South Africa’s apartheid security forces on occasion killed political opponents in an arbitrary and secretive manner,130 but in most instances they preferred to bring such persons to trial. This was because treason and terrorism were capital crimes in a country that then practised the death penalty. Arguably, South Africa’s judicially approved execution of militants was more forthright than Israel’s extrajudicial executions, which allow militants to be killed while at the same time allowing Israel to proclaim proudly that it does not practise the death penalty. Certainly apartheid South Africa did not practise systematic extrajudicial killings openly and with the public authorization of senior security and political officials as is done by Israel.
The right to life is also violated by Israel in the course of the Israeli military’s regular raids into Palestinian territory during which militants and innocent civilians are often killed. Excessive and disproportionate force against civilian demonstrators, frequently resulting in death, is an unexceptional occurrence in Palestine.131 Such killings appear to form part of a broader policy aimed at suppressing opposition to the occupation. The apartheid regime in South Africa likewise showed little regard for human life in the suppression of dissent of this kind.
The denial of liberty of person is similarly prevalent. Since the beginning of its military occupation, Israeli policy has involved the arrest and detention of Palestinians on a mass scale. One count puts the number of Palestinians imprisoned at some time since 1967 at over 650,000, close to 40 per cent of the male population.132 The torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees during that time has been well documented.133 The absolute prohibition on torture in international law has not been incorporated into domestic Israeli law,134 and while Israel’s Supreme Court in 1999 held ‘brutal or inhuman means’ of interrogation deployed by the security services to be unlawful, it allowed for a defence of ‘necessity’ and effectively sanctioned the continued use of pressure and discomfort for the purpose of extracting information from ‘security’ prisoners.135 The overwhelming majority of such detainees are Palestinians: according to the Israel Prison Service, from a total 9,498 security prisoners incarcerated in Israel in 2006, only 12 were Jewish Israelis.136 In contrast to the ill-treatment to which Palestinians are routinely subject while incarcerated, Jewish Israeli detainees classified as security prisoners have been granted privileges including conjugal visits.
Arbitrary arrest and detention, including ‘administrative detention’ imposed without charge or trial, has been a prominent feature of the occupation, particularly during the Palestinian intifadas.137 Under the Israeli military regime in the occupied Palestinian territory, executive power is vested in the armed forces, giving military commanders authority to issue detention orders. Israel bases such authority on the British Mandate Government of Palestine’s Defence (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, augmented by a series of military orders imposed from 1967 onwards. Such military legislation is implemented by a military court system which appears incompatible with fundamental international standards regarding due process and the administration of justice,138 and which since 1967 has served as a tool of mass and often arbitrary detention of Palestinians. This persists in the West Bank, where military courts continue to convict Palestinian civilians – including children139 – en masse, and military orders continue to authorize local commanders to issue orders detaining individuals for up to six months without charge or trial (renewable).140 While the Gaza Strip arguably remains under belligerent occupation,141 Israel presented its unilateral disengagement in 2005 as serving to ‘dispel claims regarding Israel’s responsibility for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip’.142 The jurisdiction of Israeli military orders in Gaza was thus repealed. This has not, however, resulted in the transfer of full authority over the administration of justice in Gaza from Israel to the Palestinians. Israel instead enacted specific legislation in the form of the 2006 Criminal Procedure Law143 to allow it to incarcerate ‘security suspects’ – primarily Palestinians from the Gaza Strip – in detention facilities in Israel, and to prosecute them in Israeli civil courts. This statute appears to have been born from a desire to retain direct control over aspects of the administration of justice in Gaza, and has been applied almost exclusively against Gazans.144 According to estimates submitted to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee by the head of the investigations unit of the Israeli General Security Services (GSS) concerning the applicability of the law, ‘[o]ver 90% of detainees (to which this law was applied) were from the Gaza Strip’.145 While a provision of the 2006 law that allowed the pre-trial detention of security suspects to be extended in absentia was struck down in February 2010 by Israel’s Supreme Court, new legislation was promptly introduced in the form of the 2010 Criminal Procedure Law146 to bypass the Supreme Court ruling and further remove procedural safeguards from detainees.147 The 2010 law in practice again applies mainly to detainees from Gaza.
Regarding administrative detention without trial for Gazans, on 12 September 2005, the very day that Israel completed the implementation of its disengagement plan and declared an end to the military justice system in the Gaza Strip, the military authorities issued detention orders under the 2002 Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law against two Gaza residents. Since then, the law – enacted originally to intern Lebanese nationals as potential ‘bargaining chips’ for the exchange of Israeli prisoners of war – has been primarily used to detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip without trial.148
As was the case in apartheid South Africa – where ‘executive detention’ was employed but on a lesser scale – measures pursued by the state in denial of the rights to life and liberty of person of a particular group are implemented primarily to eliminate dissent or resistance to Israeli rule. The practices are discriminatory in that they are applied virtually exclusively to Palestinians. Jewish settlers in the West Bank are subject to a separate system of Israeli civil laws and courts that apply far more generous standards of evidence and procedure than the military law and courts to which Palestinians are subject. The use of administrative detention as a form of domination over the local population is indicated by the figures: in contrast to the tens of thousands of Palestinians interned by rolling six-month orders lasting up to several years in many cases, just nine Jewish Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories have been administratively detained over the course of the occupation,149 generally for periods of 40 to 60 days.150
Article 2(c) of the Apartheid Convention is a broad clause defining as acts of apartheid any measures calculated to prevent a racial group from participating in the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the country and the deliberate creation of conditions preventing the full development of the group, in particular through the denial of basic human rights and freedoms. The provision cites nine such rights and freedoms the denial of which would adversely affect the participation and full development of the subjugated group, encompassing civil and political rights as well as elements relevant to the group’s socio-economic and cultural development. Abundant evidence is available to suggest that Israel persistently denies such rights to Palestinians. For our present purposes it is befitting to highlight the conclusions of the HSRC research pertaining to the nine rights and freedoms to which Article 2(c) refers:
– Restrictions on Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement are endemic, including Israel’s control of the OPT border crossings, extensive impediments to travel and access raised by the Wall, the matrix of checkpoints and separate roads within the West Bank, and the obstructive and all-encompassing permit and ID card systems. – Palestinian freedom of residence is severely curtailed by systematic administrative restrictions on both residency and building in East Jerusalem, by discriminatory legislation that operates to prevent Palestinian spouses from living together on the basis of which part of the OPT they originate from, and by the strictures of the permit and ID systems. – Palestinians are systematically denied enjoyment of their right to leave and return to their country. Palestinian refugees now living in the OPT (approximately 1.8 million people) are not allowed to return to their homes, while Palestinian refugees outside Israel and the OPT (approximately 4.5 million) are not allowed to return to either territory. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 have been prevented from returning to the OPT. Many Palestinian residents of the OPT must obtain Israeli permission to leave the territory (which is often denied), political activists and human rights defenders are often subject to arbitrary and undefined ‘travel bans’, while many Palestinians who travelled abroad for business or personal reasons have had their residence IDs revoked and been prohibited from returning. – Palestinians are denied their right to a nationality in two ways. Israel denies Palestinian refugees now living in the OPT who fled their homes inside the Green Line the right of return, reside and obtain citizenship in the successor state (Israel) now governing the land of their birth. Israel also effectively denies Palestinians their right to a nationality by obstructing the exercise of the Palestinian right to self-determination and preventing the formation of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza Strip. – Palestinians are restricted in their right to work, through Israeli policies that severely curtail Palestinian agriculture and industry in the OPT, restrict exports and imports, and obstruct internal movement by Palestinians, including by impairing their access to their own agricultural land and travel for employment and business. Although formerly significant, Palestinian access to work inside Israel has been curtailed in recent years by prevailing closure policies and is now negligible. Palestinian unemployment in the OPT as a whole has reached almost 50 percent. – Palestinian trade unions exist but are not recognised by the Israeli government or by the Histadrut (the largest Israeli trade union) and cannot effectively represent Palestinians working for Israeli employers and businesses. Palestinian unions are also prohibited from functioning in Israeli settlements. Although they are required to pay dues, the interests and concerns of Palestinian workers are not represented by the Histadrut, and Palestinians have no voice in Histadrut policies. – Palestinians’ right to education is not impacted directly by Israeli policy, as Israel does not operate the school system in the OPT, but is severely impeded by military rule. Israeli military actions have included extensive school closures, direct attacks on schools, severe restrictions on movement, and arrests and detention of teachers and students. Israel’s denial of exit permits, particularly for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, has prevented thousands of students from continuing their education abroad. Discrimination in relation to education is striking in East Jerusalem, and is further indicated by a parallel Jewish Israeli school system in illegal settlements throughout the West Bank, supported by the Israeli government. – Palestinians are denied the right to freedom of opinion and expression through censorship laws enforced by the military authorities and endorsed by the Supreme Court. Palestinian newspapers must have a military permit and publications must be pre-approved by the military censor. Since 2001, the Israeli GPO [Government Press Office] has drastically limited Palestinian press accreditation. Journalists are regularly restricted from entering the Gaza Strip and Palestinian journalists suffer from patterns of harassment, detention, confiscation of materials, and even killing. – Palestinians’ right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association is impeded through military orders that ban public gatherings of ten or more persons without a permit from the Israeli military commander. Non-violent demonstrations are regularly suppressed by the Israeli army with live ammunition, tear gas, and arrests. Most Palestinian political parties have been declared illegal and institutions associated with those parties, such as charities and cultural organizations, are regularly subjected to closure and attack.151
The breadth and consistency of such infringements suggest that they do not occur in isolation, but are part of a system that operates to control and dominate Palestinians in the occupied territory and to suppress any opposition to that domination. It bears noting that the web of relatively obscure and inaccessible military orders and regulations, combined with bureaucratic restrictions that are often racialized in implementation rather than on paper, makes the depth of Israel’s systemic discrimination less immediately conspicuous than its counterpart in South Africa, where explicitly racist and freely available legislation made the apartheid regime in some sense more ‘honest’ in its discriminatory intent. This is nowhere more apparent than in the case of ‘road apartheid’ (which was not practised in South Africa) in the West Bank which establishes separate but substantially unequal road networks for Jewish settlers and Palestinians, without any clear legal basis and without any notice of reservation152 of the kind that South Africa used to reserve separate parks, buses, beaches, and other public amenities for exclusively white occupation.
While Richard Goldstone rebutted as slanderous the suggestion that Israeli policy was indicative of apartheid in an opinion piece in the New York Times in November 2011,153 the 2009 report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (chaired by Goldstone and referred to by himself and others as the ‘Goldstone Report’) is in fact supportive of a finding of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territory in respect of Article 2(a) and (c) of the Apartheid Convention. Without explicit recourse to the language of apartheid, the Report invokes evidence of ‘discrimination and differential treatment’ between Palestinians and Israeli Jews in fields including: treatment by judicial authorities; land use, housing, and access to natural resources; citizenship, residence, and family unification; access to food and water supplies; the use of force against demonstrators; freedom of movement; access to health, education, and social services; and freedom of association.154 On this basis it asserts conclusions of systematic discrimination against the Palestinians, and the potential commission of the related crime against humanity of persecution:
The systematic discrimination, both in law and in practice, against Palestinians, in legislation (including the existence of an entirely separate legal and court system which offers systematically worse conditions compared with that applicable to Israelis), and practice during arrest, detention, trial and sentence compared with Israeli citizens is contrary to ICCPR article 2 and potentially in violation of the prohibition on persecution as a crime against humanity.155
Article 2(d) of the Apartheid Convention prohibits measures designed to divide the population along racial lines. Such segregation can be understood as a central underpinning feature of an apartheid system, and evokes the ‘grand apartheid’ element of the South African regime’s policy, particularly through its reference to the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a particular racial group. The use of the term ‘reserves’ in the Convention stems specifically from the South African experience, stretching at least as far back as the 1913 Natives’ Land Act which restricted land ownership by native South Africans to designated ‘reserves’ comprising just 7 per cent of the territory of South Africa; delineations that would later form the basis for the ‘homelands’ in which nominally independent ‘Bantustan’ statelets were to be created.
Policies pursued by successive Israeli governments over the course of the occupation and particularly since the late 1970s, culminating in the construction of the wall since 2002, have divided the occupied territory into a series of non-contiguous enclaves or ‘reserves’ into which Palestinians are effectively confined.
Closures and restrictions of movement into and out of the Gaza Strip have steadily intensified to the point that it has been effectively severed from the rest of the occupied territory. Since the removal of Jewish settlers in 2005, Gaza effectively amounts to a besieged Palestinian ghetto, with the ‘open-air prison’ analogy repeatedly invoked.156 The occupied territory’s economic and cultural hub, East Jerusalem, has also been starkly affected, isolated from the rest of the territory through residence and movement restrictions that further the explicit project of ‘Judaizing’ the city and incorporating it fully into Israel.157 Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem – while subjected to Israeli jurisdiction, law, and taxation – have traditionally been excluded from citizenship entitlements and deprived of basic services. They are further targeted for exclusion from residence in the city. Since 1995, over 10,000 Jerusalem resident IDs have been revoked by the Israeli authorities, with tens of thousands more at risk of a similar fate on account of an unduly onerous ‘centre of life’ test. In December 2011, the mayor of Jerusalem signalled an intention to redraw the city’s municipal boundary in order to strip the 70,000 Palestinians living on the eastern side of the wall of their Jerusalem residence status.158 Such discriminatory bureaucratic realignments can be understood in the context of Israeli ‘master plans’ detailing visions of a ‘Greater Jewish Jerusalem’ in which the Palestinian segment of the city’s population is further reduced.
The rest of the West Bank has been fragmented by the designation for exclusively Jewish use of certain zones of land, to which Palestinian entry is banned without a permit,159 with Israeli travel into Palestinian enclaves similarly prohibited. The Jordan Valley, comprising approximately 30 per cent of the West Bank and containing its most fertile land and important water sources, is a particularly glaring embodiment of the expropriation of land by the dominant group for the purposes of territorial frag mentation and creation of segregated cantons. Under military legislation passed at the outset of the occupation in 1967, much of the Jordan Valley was closed to Palestinian access and development. In the wake of five decades of settlement construction and confiscation of further land, Israel now maintains full control of 78.3 per cent of the Jordan Valley.160 15 per cent of the territory is currently under the direct control of Jewish settlements (enjoyed by just 9,500 Jewish settlers in 37 settlements), with more than 40 per cent designated as ‘closed military zones’ and over 20 per cent as ‘nature reserves’ which are closed to Palestinian residence or movement but often form the basis for settlement expansion.161 Concerted policies of home demolition and forced displacement have diminished the number of Palestinian residents in the Jordan Valley from an estimated 200,000 in 1967 to just 56,000 in 2011, confined to a small fraction of its land area and prevented from accessing the Palestinian shores of the Dead Sea.162 Access to the Jordan Valley for Palestinians resident elsewhere in the West Bank is heavily restricted by administrative impediments buttressed by a physical ring of checkpoints and trenches. Such contemporary ‘facts on the ground’ correspond neatly with the ‘Allon Plan’,163 which set out a blueprint for Israeli annexation of the Jordan Valley at the outset of its occupation in 1967.
The wall that Israel commenced building through the West Bank in 2002, and which was held to be contrary to international law by the International Court of Justice in 2004,164 is a major exercise in both social engineering and territorial fragmentation. Today it is clear that security is at best a secondary justification for the wall. Its primary purpose is the annexation of land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that accommodates Jewish settlements.165 The wall not only results in the unlawful seizure of 10.2 per cent of West Bank territory but effectively divides the West bank into three principal cantons – north, centre, and south – and numerous sub-cantons.166 Israel’s wall and its associated infrastructure of gates and permanent checkpoints reveal an intention to impose a system of permanent enclaves in which residence and passage are determined by racial identities – within the context of the occupation while it persists, and ultimately facilitating the annexation of large swathes of the West Bank. This will leave for the Palestinians, at best, the possibility of a Bantustan-type state in the remaining reserves.
Formal blueprints aimed at dividing the West Bank into Jewish and Palestinian zones can be traced back at least as far as 1978, when the Jewish Agency, a parastatal Jewish-national organization charged with the development and management of national assets, formally declared the West Bank to be a permanent part of ‘Eretz Israel’, and its sister organization, the World Zionist Organization, presented a ‘Master Plan for the Development of Settlement in Judea and Samaria, 1979–1983’.167 Outlining the need for the establishment of Jewish settlements in the territory in order to ensure permanent Jewish Israeli control over the land, the plan was adopted by the Likud government at the time.168 The operation of the Jewish-national institutions in partnership with government ministries as authorized agencies of the state illuminates the racially contingent nature of Israel’s land and planning policies. The role of the World Zionist Organization includes the planning, funding, and construction of West Bank settlements for exclusively Jewish use.169 In order to obtain the land necessary for such settlement construction and expansion, Israel has extensively appropriated land in the West Bank, which is censured as an act of apartheid in Article 2(d) of the Convention when carried out for the purpose of dividing the population along racial lines. The World Zionist Organization’s follow-up plan regarding implementation of its 1978 settlement master plan, presented in 1980 and adopted by the Israeli government in January 1981, set out clear motives and strategies for land appropriation in the occupied territory:
In light of the current negotiations on the future of Judea and Samaria, it will now become necessary for us to conduct a race against time. During this period, everything will be mainly determined by the facts we establish in these territories and less by any other considerations. … Therefore, the state-owned lands and the uncultivated barren lands in Judea and Samaria ought to be seized right away, with the purpose of settling the areas between and around the centers occupied by the minorities so as to reduce to the minimum the danger of an additional Arab state being established in these territories. Being cut off by Jewish settlements the minority population will find it difficult to form a territorial and political continuity.170
Overall, more than 40 per cent of the land mass of the West Bank has now been appropriated to make way for Israeli settlement infrastructure and is entirely closed to Palestinian use.171 With the separate road networks connecting the settlement blocs to each other and to Israel creating an extensive grid that in many places cannot be crossed by Palestinians, access to much of the rest of the territory is also significantly restricted. The West Bank, for Palestinians, is thus reduced to a series of dismembered enclaves.
Article 2(f) of the Apartheid Convention relates to the persecution of organizations and persons who oppose a prevailing system of apartheid. Persecution in this context entails the deprivation of fundamental rights and freedoms. While law condones the deprivation of rights in some cases in defence of state security, regimes of racial domination are typically exemplified by illegitimate acts of repression that go beyond what can be justified by reference to national security. Cases of extra-judicial killings, torture, and mass imprisonment of Palestinians coming under the rubric of Article 2(a) of the Convention fall into the latter category, as do restrictions of freedom of expression and association within the meaning of Article 2(c). The systematic targeting of Palestinian political leaders, community activists, and human rights defenders can be understood as persecution for opposition to Israel’s regime of domination in the occupied territories within the meaning of Article 2(f). In 2009, for example, 45 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (constituting more than a third of Palestine’s elected parliamentarians) sat not in parliament but in Israeli jails.172 With the majority of these individuals convicted of membership of political parties designated as illegal by Israel, and eight of them interned without charge or trial, the aim of suppressing political opposition to Israel’s rule is manifest. Recent years have also witnessed the closure of charitable, educational, and cultural organizations affiliated to Hamas and other banned political parties, as well as the imposition of indefinite travel bans on human rights defenders who speak out against Israel’s instruments of occupation. Weekly non-violent protests in the West Bank against the wall and the discriminatory administration of land and other resources are routinely met with excessive force and mass arrests by the Israeli military.
A concerted legislative strategy has been pursued in the Knesset by Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition governments since 2009, seeking to further stifle and punish opposition to Israeli domination over the Palestinians. The primary target of this legislative surge are individuals and organizations challenging state policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians. Concerned as they are with protecting the institutions and policies that underpin Israel as a state that privileges Jewish nationals, such measures are relevant to any opposition to its regime of domination over the Palestinians, transcending both geographical and racial lines within Israel/Palestine. In this regard, Jewish Israeli individuals or organizations commemorating the Palestinian nakba, for example, are as susceptible to persecution as Palestinians.173 Significantly, Article 2(f), unlike the other provisions detailing acts of apartheid, does not require that the act be committed against a member or members of the subjugated racial group, but relates to persecution against any persons or organizations who oppose the apartheid system in question. This stems from the South African experience where numerous white anti-apartheid activists were banned, detained, or even physically targeted for their political beliefs and actions. Jewish Israelis are routinely arrested for participating in protests against Israeli domination over the Palestinians, and, along with Palestinians, are subject to sanction under measures such as the 2011 Law Preventing Harm to the State of Israel by Means of Boycott.
Issued by a broad collective of political parties, unions, and civil society organizations in 2005, the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israeli state institutions and agents is grounded in Israel’s failure to dismantle the wall, its continuing occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, and, notably, its ‘entrenched system of racial discrimination’ against the Palestinians.174 The boycott movement gained substantial momentum following Israel’s ‘Operation Cast Lead’ offensive in the Gaza Strip in 2008–2009 and its attack in international waters on the ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla’ in May 2010,175 and has been supported by sympathetic Jewish groups in Israel and abroad.176 Article 2 of the Law Preventing Harm to the State of Israel by Means of Boycott makes it a civil wrong to call for a boycott against the state of Israel. This applies to boycotts imposed on actors due to their association with the state of Israel, one of its institutions, or an area under its control,177 including the occupied Palestinian territory. Boycotts of items produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank are thus also included.
The available evidence does not suggest that each and every inhuman act allowed for by the definition of apartheid is relevant to the Palestinian context. Article 2(b) of the Apartheid Convention borrows language from the Genocide Convention in its reference to ‘the deliberate imposition on a racial group of living conditions calculated to cause its physical destruction in whole or in part’. Israeli policies of collective punishment in the Palestinian territories generally and in the Gaza Strip in particular entail grave consequences for life and health and amount to serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.178 So too the consistent demolition of Palestinian homes,179 which combines with other Israeli practices to result in the imposition of living conditions that threaten the welfare, and in some instances the very survival, of sections of the Palestinian people. However inhuman such actions may be, they do not meet the threshold required by this provision of intent to cause the physical destruction of the Palestinian people. Here, it bears noting that the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission arrived at a similar conclusion for its part, holding that despite the devastating effects of apartheid policies on living conditions and health, the South African government did not sustain an intentional policy to destroy the black population.180
It is clear from the wording of the Apartheid Convention and from the South African precedent that the existence of an apartheid regime does not require all of the inhuman acts envisaged in Article 2 of the Convention to be prevalent. An apartheid regime is defined by the commission of such acts in a manner sufficiently extensive to qualify as institutionalized and systematic domination.
C Institutionalized and Systematic Discrimination and Domination
Article 2 of the Apartheid Convention requires that, for the commission of the crime of apartheid, the inhuman acts must have been ‘committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them’. The primary impetus of the commission of the practices of the Israeli civil and military authorities in the occupied Palestinian territory is to insulate and privilege Jewish settlements and settler infrastructure, and to ensure that Palestinians intrude as little as possible on the lives of settlers. The dominant group for the purposes of the Apartheid Convention is therefore the Jewish settler group, numbering over half a million in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, whose mere presence violates Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention.181 Having identified the dominant group, the next question that must be considered is whether the acts in question have been committed for the purpose or intention of maintaining domination by the Jewish group over the Palestinian group and systematically oppressing them.
From the above examination of the inhuman acts perpetrated by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory it is clear that such acts do not occur in a random and isolated manner but are part of a widespread and oppressive regime that is both institutionalized and systematic. This regime is founded on a discriminatory ideology that elevates Jews to a higher status and accords separate and unequal treatment to Palestinians. Inevitably, as shown by the experience of apartheid South Africa, such discrimination results in the domination of the ‘superior’ group over the ‘inferior’ group, and it becomes impossible to refute the conclusion that the purpose of such discrimination is domination. As the discriminatory nature of Israel’s relations with Palestinians may be contested it is necessary to examine this matter in some detail.
Underpinning Israel’s discriminatory policies against the Palestinians – both within Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory – is a legal system that constructs a notion of ‘Jewish nationality’ and privileges Jewish nationals over non-Jewish groups under Israeli jurisdiction. Israeli law is somewhat unique in distinguishing between nationality (in Hebrew, le’om) and citizenship (ezrahūt), with Israel constituted as the state of the Jewish nation. For purposes of law as well as policy, no ‘Israeli nation’ exists. Israeli Supreme Court jurisprudence confirms that Israel is defined as the state not of the ‘Israeli nation’ but of the ‘Jewish nation’ (le’om yahūdi). In the Tamarin case, the plaintiff sought to register his nationality as ‘Israeli’ as opposed to ‘Jewish’, but the Court found that ‘there is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish nation’, with the Jewish nation ‘composed not only of those residing in Israel but also of Diaspora Jewry’. The decision made it clear that to recognize a common Israeli nationality would be to ‘negate the very foundation upon which the State of Israel was formed’.182
Thus a two-tiered system of civil status among Israeli citizens is created, with Jewish nationals privileged over non-Jewish citizens. Israeli citizenship is based on four criteria: birth, residence, marriage, and immigration; albeit with exclusions provided in the Law of Citizenship and Entry into Israel barring ‘enemies of the State’ (comprising Palestinians from the occupied territories as well as nationals of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iran) from entitlement to Israeli citizenship or residence rights. Non-Jews who hold Israeli citizenship remain subordinated by virtue of the fact that they are not Jewish nationals (a primarily descent-based status reserved for those born to a Jewish mother, with allowance also made for tightly restricted procedures of conversion to Judaism). Thus, while Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship make up approximately 20 per cent of the state’s population and are entitled to vote as citizens, they are hugely restricted in critical areas such as land use and access to natural resources and key services, excluded by planning laws and institutions, and systematically discriminated against at municipal and national levels in the sphere of economic, social, and cultural rights.183 Jewish nationals, whose exclusive interests are served by parastatal institutions such as the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund,184 are privy to exclusive access to most of the state’s territory and to claim extra-territorial rights and privileges in areas controlled by Israel.
Such material benefits emanate from the 1950 Law of Return, which defines who is a Jew for purposes of the legal system and entitles every Jew to immigrate to Israel (extending, since 1967, to the occupied Palestinian territory) under an oleh visa. The 1952 Citizenship Law then grants such immigrants the right to gain immediate citizenship, while explicitly excluding those who were residents and citizens of Palestine before the creation of the state of Israel if they were not ‘in Israel, or in an area which became Israeli territory after the establishment of the State, from the day of the establishment of the State [May 1948] to the day of the coming into force of this Law [April 1952]’.185 Thus, long-time Palestinian residents who were forcibly displaced during the war of 1948 were legally barred from taking up citizenship in the newly created state and returning to their homes, while others with no prior connection to Israel are entitled to citizenship on the basis of a constructed Jewish nationality. This situation of preferential citizenship is further ins |
Watertown 59 years ago. He was a son of the late Mr. and Mrs. August Gehrke, the family being well known and highly regarded in the community.
There are four sisters, Mrs. August Melcher and Mrs. Arnold Gauerke, Watertown; Mrs. August Krueger, Mankato, Minn., and Mrs. Albert Radke, Waupun. A brother and three sisters preceded him in death.
His wife, the former Grace Schramck of Milwaukee, died in 1936.
Part of City’s Saga
Turkey became part of the legend of Watertown, famous for its quiet and friendly humor of a comfortable and placid community where “Gemuetichkeit” is the watchword.
There have been many accounts of how he acquired the name “Turkey.” He wasn’t sure himself, but he believed it resulted from a small boy’s version of how to pronounce Gehrke. The boy, a favorite of Gehrke’s, was with him so often that patrons of his place picked up the nickname and made it stick.
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IN TIMES SQUARE
1967
Watertown Daily Times, 01 10 1967
The Turkey Gehrke Story, the saga of Watertown’s famed hibernating tavern keeper, has broken into the news again, this time in the National Observer, a weekly newspaper which reprints the article that Robert W. Wells wrote for the Milwaukee Journal some months back.
The story has been told and retold many times in the Daily Times over a period of many years but first attracted national- and international-attention in 1935 after the late Richard S Davis of the Journal made a trip to Watertown to see for himself and write the story of Turkey Gehrke.
The Wells article as it appears in the National Observer follows:
It has been 25 years since the death of Turkey Gehrke, but his name still comes up in Wisconsin about this time of year. Since the white men settled this north country under the misapprehension that it was habitable the year around, Arthur E. Gehrke was the only one to figure out a satisfactory way to deal with a Wisconsin winter: He would hibernate-stay in bed-from November to April.
The overweight tavern keeper from nearby Watertown attained some prominence in his day. Each winter, when he took to his bed, the papers dutifully noted the fact as a sure sign of snow and sub-zero weather ahead. The notion of a hibernating human attracted interest as far away as London, where the Times recorded Turkey’s habits as an example of what goes on in the former colonies.
As with many men who have attained their goal in life, Turkey had the help of a good woman. His wife, Grace, accepted his hibernation without public complaint and brought him the one meal a day he ate during his dormant period.
When Grace died, there were those who supposed that Gehrke would become like other Wisconsinites, suffering through a season not fit for man or beast. But when next November came, he crawled between the covers of his bed in a room above his tavern. The bartender of the establishment known as “Turkey’s Roost” sent him two sandwiches and a glass of milk each day on a dumbwaiter rigged up between the bar and bedroom.
Gehrke was about 30 when he started his annual hibernations and kept them up until he died at 59. He began in a small way. The first year, he went to bed for only a few weeks during the worst of the weather. But before long he had the hang of it and was able to fight down any foolish impulse to get up and fire the furnace or shovel the walk. On one occasion, a building next door caught fire during his hibernation. Friends shouted to him to run for his life. He rolled over, looked out the window, decided the tavern probably wouldn’t burn down, and stayed where he was.
It is also recorded that he was once subpoenaed to testify before a Federal court. He sent back word that he’d be glad to testify, providing they’d carry him there in his bed. The lawyers decided to let the matter drop.
There is a myth that he stuck with his hibernation no matter what happened. That is not quite true. One year he stayed up until New Year’s to win a $25 bet. Once he had to report for jury duty, but was quickly excused and hurried back to bed. On another occasion he had to leave to pay a fine for a liquor violation.
But three instances of backsliding in 29 years only show the man was human. The bear stirs out of its den now and then in winter too.
As for Turkey Gehrke’s record, it seems safe. Each year, when the wind begins to howl outside Wisconsin homes and taverns and the snow comes slanting across the streets and fields, some of us consider following his method. So far, it is just talk. It is too hard to find a wife that understands.
Mr. Gehrke died on Jan. 16, 1942 at what was then St. Mary’s Hospital here after a brief illness. He was 59.
How did he get the name “Turkey?” It was because a little boy in his neighborhood couldn’t pronounce the word :Gehrke” and called him what sounded like “Turkey” and the name stuck
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Kiessling, Elmer C., Watertown Remembered (Watertown: Watertown Historical Society), 1976, p 137-38
In 1935 the name of one of our citizens became a household word on two continents when it was revealed that Arthur "Turkey" Gehrke, a jolly, rotund tavern- keeper, had been hibernating like a bear each winter for 25 years. He used to creep under the covers in the middle of November and emerge each spring when the baseball teams began practicing, for he was a great baseball fan, the Cubs being his favorites.
A Chicago Daily Times reporter first heard about the strange phenomenon and mentioned it to some newsmen in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee Journal sent out its star reporter, Richard S. Davis, with a cameraman, to get the details. Turkey was a bit suspicions at first, but soon warmed up to the affable questioner and provided Davis with all the material he needed to write a rattling good story. It was printed in the Journal and was picked up by newspapers all over the country and Europe.
The dignified London Times called up Turkey by telephone, greeting him with these words: "Hello, I say, are you there, Turkey? Are you in bed?" A famous London haberdashery sent him one dozen fine silk pajamas. Robert L. Ripley persuaded him to come to New York to appear on his' "Believe It Or Not" radio program. Turkey made a surprisingly good impression. People stopped in at his tavern, popularly called "Turkey's Roost," just to see what a human hibernator looked like, and Dr. Samuel Plahner, a Milwaukee psychiatrist, came out to give him a psychological once-over. Plahner concluded that "Mr. Gehrke is a typical case of mixed compulsion and anxiety neurosis." He used to suffer from cramps and pains every November until he went to bed for a few days. It seemed like a good idea to forestall the aches and pains by going to bed in the first place and staying there.
Turkey was fond of children, even though he had none of his own, and one little boy who was a good friend unwittingly gave him his nickname when he mispronounced Gehrke as Turkey. During the time of his annual dormant state, Turkey's wife carried on the tavern business. But when she died in 1936 [Gehrke, Grace F., b. 1888, d. 1936], he had to depend on employees. In 1940 November was mild, and Turkey thought he might be able to break his habit, but he failed. The following year he returned as usual to "the pleasant land of counter-pane" at the onset of cold weather. But after a snooze of only two months he became ill and had to be taken to the hospital, where he died in his sleep, at 59, January 16, 1942.
Cross References:
WHS_005_837 James D. Kehr, Charles Kehr, “Turkey Gehrke,” Orville Kehr standing in front of cafe at 416 Main St. 07 20 1937
“Watertown was home to hibernating ‘Turkey,’” Wisconsin State Journal article, Doug Moe, 10 16 2008Please enable Javascript to watch this video
DIXON, Ill. -- Last week a man from Illinois tagged pop-tart in a tweet claiming he loved to spread yellow mustard atop his vanilla latte-flavored Pop-Tarts.
"You guys ain't from Illinois if you don't put mustard on your Pop-Tarts," the man wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
In response, the official Twitter account of Pop-Tarts retweeted the man's post and tagged the Illinois State Police department, asking them to intervene.
Though no one from the Illinois State Police responded, the police department in Dixon did:
"Let us know if they don't handle this @poptartsus, WE will...ain't nobody puttin' mustard on their Pop-Tarts in Illinois"
Thanks for the support. Due to the severity of the crime, we need all the help we can get. https://t.co/NdZ6RhY0cy — Pop-Tarts (@PopTartsUS) November 29, 2017
Following this incident, Pop-Tarts started retweeting other pictures of the strange ways that people eat its pastries in other states. Here are just a few:
You're not from Louisiana if you don't eat your poptarts like this 🤤😋. @PopTartsUS pic.twitter.com/fNGtIrfyCr — Daniel Lam (@Daniel_lam_) December 5, 2017
You're not from Indiana if you don't eat your pop tarts like this 🌽 😋 @PopTartsUS pic.twitter.com/h1jIqBDiVm — Logan (@lmiles70) December 5, 2017
Your not from Arizona if you don’t eat your pop tarts like this @PopTartsUS pic.twitter.com/4UEFK3tR3h — Eric (@eric_wilkerson) December 2, 2017
You’re not from Massachusetts if you don’t eat pop tarts like this... @PopTartsUS pic.twitter.com/vhSvUNntaD — Lexi Parmentier (@LexiParmentier) December 1, 2017
You’re not from Philadelphia if you don’t eat your poptarts like this 😋@PopTartsUS pic.twitter.com/Z87YJ88Ab2 — Nick - Lucidblade BOK (@slicedbyablade) December 1, 2017TELSTRA'S takeover of Adam Internet, rumoured to have made owner Greg Hicks $55 million richer, sparks a price war with rival SA provider Internode.
In an attempt to poach some of Adam's 80,000 customers who might be anti-Telstra, Internode launched an offer for free set-up and three months' free broadband to new SA customers.
The special offer came just an hour after Adam and Telstra announced their deal.
Inquirers were asked to quote a promotion code "Eve", in a clear reference to the previously "rebel" broadband player Adam.
Internode founder Simon Hackett, on industry forum Whirlpool, likened his company's merger with iiNet in December 2011 to a "rebel alliance" against Telstra's "empire".
Adam's sale to Telstra represented "a pretty substantial shift in the orientation of Adam", Mr Hackett said.
"It's easy to see that change as representing their acquisition by 'The Empire'... the very empire that Adam (and Internode) have spent two decades competing against vigorously in the retail market, and differentiating against with great services and pricing," he said.
Adam Internet Holdings made a $3.23 million net profit last financial year, on sales of $48.6 million.
Executive director and sole shareholder Mr Hicks would not confirm the $55 million takeover sum.
But he said the deal would ensure the jobs of 200 SA-based staff and survival of a business which had about 25 per cent of the local broadband market.
Mr Hicks, who began the business from his Flagstaff Hill home in 1984, said he had staved off dozens of takeover offers over the years, including one from iiNet two months before it bought Internode for $105 million in 2011.
Mr Hicks' son and former managing director, Scott Hicks, who left Adam Internet in July, had vowed as recently as December that the company would not sell to a larger company. He did not comment on the deal.
And it will be business as usual for Adam Internet's 200 staff and 80,000 customers under new owner Telstra if the takeover deal is approved.
Telstra announced yesterday morning that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the internet service provider.
Existing employment arrangements for current staff would not be impacted by completion of the sale with Telstra continuing to operate Adam Internet as a stand-alone subsidiary.
Greg Hicks will stay on as a consultant with the company for a year following the deal.
Mr Hicks said Adam and Telstra's "shared customer service philosophy was a pivotal reason behind today's announcement".
"This agreement will help cement a strong future for the Adam brand, our people, and our customers and represent the next stage of Adam's growth."
"Adam will continue to provide excellent value-for-money broadband that doesn't compromise on service. The message for potential new customers is that, with Telstra behind it, Adam will be expanding nationally."
The deal means the last of South Australia's large independent ISPs is now gone, after iiNet bought Internode for $105 million late last year.
Adam has about 80,000 customers in the Adelaide metropolitan area.
The agreed acquisition, which is subject to ACCC approval, will see Telstra acquire all of Adam's business, including its Adelaide data centre and fibre assets.
Telstra's innovation products and marketing group managing director Kate McKenzie said the acquisition aligned with Telstra's strategic priorities to retain and grow customers and build new growth businesses.
"Customers trust the Adam brand and we'll certainly be keeping it as we work towards further growth under Adam's first-class management team."
Adam recently welcomed Telstra executive Sonya Moray as cloud business manager.After Tamra shared some personal information about the custody agreement between her ex and their three children, Simon took to social media in defense of his family. Following Simon, a Facebook page claiming to belong to Sidney Barney popped up.
The profile alleged some pretty horrific things about Tamra, including mental and verbal abuse as well as claims she uses her children as a story line. Many viewers assumed the Facebook post was Sidney sharing her side of the story.
But something about the post seemed fishy. Now, people are questioning if Simon is actually the one behind the Sidney Barney Facebook page based on time stamp evidence.
Online sleuths compared Simon’s post to Sidney’s page and discovered they were active within minutes of each other. Some even claim Sidney’s page was created that night – not long after the reunion aired. (The times below are shown are in Eastern.)
The Sidney page only included a profile picture and the post written about Tamra. No personal info, no likes, no other posts…
Let’s face it, you don’t have to watch Catfish to know a bare-bones Facebook page is a red flag. Not surprisingly, the Facebook page has since been removed.
Viewers were also suspicious of Sidney’s claim that Tamra uses her children a storyline. While Tamra doesn’t shy away from the custody battle with her ex and the fact her three youngest aren’t allowed to film, she has tons of material for storylines including CUT Fitness and Eddie, becoming a grandmother, fighting with Vicki, finding her faith, etc.
And something else that doesn’t add up is Tamra’s seemingly good relationships with her other children Ryan, Spencer, and Sophia. If Tamra was truly abusive toward her kids, wouldn’t she have issues with them as well?
So what does Tamra think about all this? When asked about Sidney’s allegations toward her she said, “I can guarantee she did not write it. I think we all know who did.”
Do you think Simon is behind Sidney’s page?
UPDATE – Tamra Judge has since responded to our story on Twitter:
@starcasm omg your right. That's not her profile pic of her FB page. So wrong!!!! — Tamra Judge (@TamraBarney) October 23, 2015
And Tamra issued this statement to Us Weekly:
It’s shocking and horrifying that someone would do something so vile. I knew it wasn’t my daughter. Those are not words of a 17-year-old and that was not my daughter’s real Facebook page. It’s very apparent who was behind it; no need to name names. Shame on you for trying to make a sad situation worse between a mother and daughter.
PHOTOS: Splash/Facebook/InstagramEyeing his May 1 showdown at EFC 29 with welterweight champion Dino “The Lion” Bagattin in Carnival City, Johannesburg, Henry “Herculeez” Fadipe spoke to PETER CARROLL about his journey so far with the EFC and how he has grown in the fight game.
Since his EFC debut in April of last year against African legend Tumelo Maphutha, Henry “Herculeez” Fadipe has looked a new man. Reinvigorated by a drop to welterweight, the Ryoshin Fight Academy prospect has made exciting finishes his calling card, the result of which have materialised in a title shot to be contested in Johannesburg on May 1 against champion Dino “The Lion” Bagattin.
Although his rapid progress seems like a well thought out plan, the career changing trajectory of “Herculeez” under the EFC banner began through the common practice of channel hopping.
“My coach, Tony Carrick, was just watching EFC on the Extreme Sports Channel one night,” explained the welterweight contender. “He liked how the event looked and he got in touch with them and I ended up getting a fight.”
Strangely, despite the aggressive style and knockout power of the Nigerian born fighter, it appears a certain swagger was lost on some of the Irish crowds until Fadipe’s emergence in the EFC. However, according to the Lucan man, not all that much has changed in how he approaches competition.
“It’s not that anything’s changed,” said Fadipe. “I was a young guy when I started out. I was a little timid and I didn’t feel like I could open up in front of the cameras. Nothing specifically happened, I’ve just grown out of some of the nonsense I was into.”
Fadipe’s growth in the sport hasn’t been limited to his physical capacities. Sporting a novelty leprechaun’s beard and hat at his first EFC weigh in, he immediately captured the attention of the crowd.
Coupled with his impressive finishes, the Ryoshin man’s self-promotion forced the hand of EFC president Cairo Howarth. After Fadipe disposed of former champion Michiel Opperman at EFC 26 in December, Howarth publically recognised the star power of the Irish product, endorsing him as the next contender to the 170 crown over Francois “The Frenchman” who is currently riding a five fight winning streak with the promotion.
“It’s not all about win streaks,” said Howarth at the post-fight press conference of EFC 26. “You see the way Francois fights, he wins but he doesn’t finish. He’s not actually trying to finish these fights and it’s not that exciting.
“My job is to put on the most exciting fights we can and if you asked the people here what they want to see, Francois vs Dino or Henry vs Dino, most people would say Henry vs Dino. It’s not just about win streaks. “
Under no illusions that he has been fast tracked to the title shot, Fadipe showed his flair for marketing when the fight was announced last week, changing his Twitter profile image to a picture of an lion with a black eye, a clear jibe at the champion’s alias. Tweets have been fired back and forth, but Fadipe appears unconcerned, believing he has already made ground on Bagattin.
“As a fighter you have to be able to market yourself. People don’t just want to watch the fight, they want to see two guys go at it that don’t like each other. It’s not a planned thing, but this is a business and it makes it easier when you know you’re getting to you opponent,” he said.
“Bagattin’s coach has even started to send out tweets and things now. You don’t hear about coaches getting involved usually, so I know I’ve got to him. The guy’s putting up pictures of mistakes I made in fights when I was 18. That’s great, if that’s what he’s expecting on May 1st, he’s in for the shock of a lifetime.”
With Howarth gifting the shot to Fadipe on account of his exciting and often violent finishes, some might believe that his style for the showdown has already been predetermined. According to the Dublin trained knockout artist, no expectations present a problem to him.
“No, I don’t feel pressure to perform in any particular way, but this is very natural to me – I love to fight,” he laughed. “I got this far by doing what I do, so I don’t think there’s any need to change it.”
Confidence can sometimes be mistaken for a lack of caution, but Fadipe seems more than familiar with Bagattin’s style, already working on a game plan that he hopes will see his hand raised on the all-important night.
“I’ve seen Dino fight, the night I fought van Staden he won the title. One thing I’ll say for the guy is, he comes to bang and that suits me just fine. He’s got a smaller frame than me and I expect him to be faster than me, but I don’t think it will affect me that much,” he acknowledged.
“I’ll be smart though and I’m very confident in my stand-up. I know I’m going to win.”
With the recent news of Fadipe’s friend and two time opponent, John Redmond, moving camps from Rush Fight Academy to Team Ryano, the title contender outlined his thoughts on fighters switching gyms.
“It does make sense and I understand where he’s coming from,” said Fadipe. “You’ve got to go and train with other guys from different teams, you can’t just stick to the guys you’re used to – you’ll never learn anything new.
“As much as I see where he’s coming from by doing that, I don’t see what he had to leave the gym he was in. I’ll go and train in as many different places as I can and spar as many different bodies as I can, but I would never leave Ryoshin.”
In an exclusive interview with SevereMMA.com in December, Ryoshin team mate and amateur champion Ayo Daly spoke about his respect and admiration for Fadipe and the possibility of fighting for EFC in the future. With Daly eyeing a second amateur title and a professional debut in 2014, Fadipe highlighted how he holds his fellow welterweight in the same regard.
“Ayo is an inspiration to me, the guy is just an animal,” he complimented Daly. “I literally can’t believe how good he is and I envy him because he trains the way I really should. I look up to him, I really do.
“When he turns pro he’s going straight to the top. Whatever promotion it might be, he’s got the work ethic to be a world champion, he’s got amazing technique and he has cardio for days.”
Bearing down on a chance to claim an international title, Fadipe could possibly attract attention of other promoters. With the UFC set for September date Dublin, hopefuls have been understandably clamouring for the nod to compete in the Octagon. “Herculeez”, however, is happy to bide his time.
“I’m not really looking at it that way,” he confessed. “People are crazy to get there but it’s all about timing. If you get the UFC shot too early you could have a bad performance and that could mess you up further down the line. I’m taking my time and when I do get a call-up at the right time, I’ll make sure that I perform to the best of my ability.”
By Peter Carroll – @PetesyCarrollEarlier this week, we celebrated what we thought was the 50th anniversary of the first time the Beatles were heard on U.S. airwaves. However, some new information has come to light, providing definitive evidence that ‘Please Please Me’ had received airplay in several major U.S. markets long before Carroll James spun ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ on Washington, D.C.’s WWDC on Dec. 17, 1963.
On his blog, The Hits Just Keep On Comin', Madison, Wisc. DJ and Top 40 historian J.A. Bartlett calls us - and the sources we cited - out for providing wrong information. Reprinted, with his permission, are his findings:
My own research a couple of years ago indicated that the Beatles had made the radio in the States in early 1963, although they were nothing special at the time. Today I consulted the fabulous Airheads Radio Survey Archive, which has collected (as of today) 35,487 radio station music surveys dated from 1955 to 1996, for the data. ARSA shows that the first Beatles song to get on American radio was “Please Please Me.” It further shows that five radio stations charted “Please Please Me” before December 1963. Others might have too, but here’s the ARSA tally:
—WLS in Chicago charted it for the weeks of March 8 and March 15, 1963 (peaking at #35), before dropping it off. Some fairly exhaustive research at Kent Kotal’s Forgotten Hits establishes pretty clearly that WLS was the first station in America to play the Beatles, in late February 1963, nearly a year before the outbreak of Beatlemania across the country.
—KFXM in San Bernardino, California, charted it on the week of April 6 and again on charts dated April 27, May 4, and May 11. I don’t know about the weeks of April 15 and 22, but the April 27 survey shows “Please Please Me” in its first week on the chart, so I am guessing it probably didn’t appear.
—WQAM in Miami got on it for the last two weeks in April.
—KNUZ in Houston has it for the week of May 3.
—KEWB in San Francisco charted it for the same week, although their chart date was shown as May 4.
The most amazing tidbit of Kotal’s research claims that WFRX in West Frankfort, Illinois, was on “Please Please Me” in June 1963. A 1997 article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that George Harrison’s mother sent a copy to his sister Louise, who lived in Benton, Illinois (where George would spend three weeks on vacation in September 1963), and she passed it along to a DJ at nearby WFRX. (In addition, New York DJ Murray the K claimed to have played the Beatles in late September 1963.)
Most of the early survey citations list the song as “Please Please Me” by “the Beattles,” which was how the band’s name was spelled on the record. The release was on the Chicago label Vee Jay, and because a Chicago station would have likely have paid special attention to releases on a local label, that’s more weight on the WLS claim to be first. Dick Biondi, who was on WLS in 1963 and is on WLS-FM today, has long claimed to have been the first DJ in America to play the Beatles, and there’s no reason to believe he wasn’t.
Regarding “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” Carroll James may have been first to play it on December 17—or he may not have been. It shows up on surveys for WGR and WKBW in Buffalo for the week of December 27, and on WABC for the week of December 31, and it’s reasonable to assume, as was the case with WLS, that the stations played the song for a week or two before it appeared on their surveys.Buy Photo Former Norse head coach Dave Bezold with guard Tyler White. Bezold was fired after the 2014-15 season. (Photo: Enquirer file)Buy Photo
Sources tell the Enquirer Northern Kentucky University will vote Monday to move from the Atlantic Sun Conference to the Horizon League.
The move comes as the university inches closer to full NCAA Division I membership -- meaning the Norse would be eligible to play in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament -- in 2016-17.
The Northern Kentucky University Board of Regents will hold a special meeting at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Student Union Room 104.
Following the meeting, NKU has scheduled a news conference in the Student Union Ballroom for 10 a.m. to discuss the future of NKU Athletics.
Wright State University President offered up a warm welcome via Twitter this afternoon:
NKU offers 15 sanctioned varsity sports, according to the Norse athletics website.
The Horizon League is in its 36th year of operation during this academic year. Wright State is the closest Horizon League member to Greater Cincinnati.
The Horizon League membership features nine public and private institutions that includes Cleveland State University, the University of Detroit Mercy, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Oakland University, Valparaiso University, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wright State University and Youngstown State University.
NKU's entrance into the Horizon League will certainly help with recruiting in the regional Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area.
The NKU men's basketball program named John Brannen as the head coach on April 6. The 2015-16 season is the final year of a four-year reclassification process for the Norse as part of NCAA Division I. NKU first tipped off in the 1971-72 season.
NKU played its first Division I men's basketball game in November 2012 at the University of San Diego. It was the program's first West Coast trip since the 1995-96 season.
NKU became the 10th member of the Atlantic Sun Conference on July 1, 2012. NKU is one of the largest schools based upon enrollment in the conference.
NEWSLETTERS Get the Bengals Beat newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Bengals Beat Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
The Norse advanced to Division I after winning three national championships and 22 regional titles at the NCAA Division II level. The men's soccer team was the 2010 Division II national champion. In both 2000 and 2008, the women's basketball team won the Division II national title.
NKU has more than 15,000 students served by more than 2,000 faculty and staff in Highland Heights, KY., just seven miles southeast of Cincinnati.
Mike Dyer contributed to this story.DOT’s Latest Missed Opportunity for Protected Bike Lanes
Eighth Street, which cuts eastbound across Greenwich Village just above Washington Square Park, had two traffic lanes until recently. A road diet by the Department of Transportation dropped it to one lane and added new pedestrian crossings. Left out of the redesign: bike lanes. Instead, there are “extra-wide parking lanes” that also accommodate double-parked drivers.
Last November, the plan went before Community Board 2 [PDF], which usually doesn’t hesitate to support bike lanes. “I specifically asked why the wide parking lanes instead of bike lanes and as I recall the only concrete reason they gave is that they didn’t want to create a bike lane that doesn’t go all the way across town,” said CB 2 transportation committee vice-chair Maury Schott. The board eventually passed a resolution supporting the plan. It did not ask for bike lanes.
Crosstown bike lanes already exist on Ninth and 10th streets, said a DOT spokesperson, and the new Eighth Street design is “bike-friendly” with its extra-wide parking lanes.
Schott isn’t convinced. There were 12 cyclist injuries on Eighth Street between Sixth Avenue and Broadway from 2008 to 2012, according to DOT. The bike lanes on Ninth and 10th Streets are narrow, he said, and the agency recently came to CB 2 with a bike lane proposal for Spring Street that doesn’t stretch across town or connect with the Hudson River Greenway.
DOT often expects cyclists to share “extra-wide parking lanes” with double-parked cars. What makes this example so galling is that the street is 34 feet wide. That’s exactly the same width as Grand Street, which DOT redesigned in 2008 [PDF], keeping parking on both sides of the street and repurposing extra space to create a parking-protected bike lane.
In addition to the road diet, the Eighth Street plan also includes sizable curb extensions. Most are in the process of being painted, but some along Sixth Avenue will be cast in concrete later this year. It also includes new crosswalks at MacDougal, Greene, and Mercer streets. Two bike corrals will be added on 8th Street.
DOT is also installing split-phase leading pedestrian intervals, which hold turning cars with a red arrow while pedestrians cross before giving turning drivers a flashing yellow arrow. The signals will be installed in coming weeks on Eighth Street at Broadway and Fifth Avenue, and on Ninth Street at Sixth Avenue.Dozens of people suffering from abdominal pain were admitted on Wednesday to hospitals in Qatar after overeating on the first night of Ramadan, the Arabian Business website reported Thursday.
“Most of the cases at the emergency room during Ramadan are gastritis. We see 10 to 15 cases of overeating every day,” a medical staff member at al-Ahli Hospital told the Arabian Business website.
The Doha hospital was in a state of emergency last year when 100 patients were admitted in the first night of Ramadan; most of them suffering from abdominal pain, dehydration or kidney problems, according to the website.
In 2011, the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s emergency department recorded 7,700 of Ramadan-linked cases of illness, the report said.
Qatar has among the greatest prevalence of obesity and diabetes in the world, The New York Times cited health experts as saying.
The small oil-rich Gulf state ranked sixth globally for prevalence of obesity and had the highest rate of obesity among boys in the Middle East and North African region.
By 2015, it is predicted that 73 percent of women and 69 percent of men will be obese in Qatar.
Last Update: Friday, 12 July 2013 KSA 13:39 - GMT 10:39Innovators are rarely satisfied with the first draft, even when that draft is revolutionary. RepRap, the open source 3D printer team that hopes to one day develop fully self replicating machines, has released its second generation device. Known as Mendel, the new printer is physically smaller and weighs considerably less than its predecessor (called Darwin) but is also able to create larger objects. The design has also been altered to make it easier to build and less prone to jams. You can find the files to build your own Mendel on Sourceforge. We’ve got some great RepRap videos for you after the break: Mendel’s first piece, an explanation of the improvements in Mendel, and Adrian Bowyer showing the (partially) self replicating factory of RepRap machines.
As we’ve discussed before, RepRap isn’t the only open source 3D printer, and it’s not even the only 3D printing team we admire. But, worldwide, RepRap might be the most famous. That fame leads to attracting more users, and more users means more complaints. Which is a good thing. After all, one of the big advantages of open source design is the chance for everyone to pitch in and help improve it. Mendel replacing Darwin is just the first step. Like their namesakes imply, these machines are in a constant state of evolution. Bowyer and the rest of the RepRap user base aren’t just aiming for 3D printing perfection, they’re also moving towards replication. A machine that can build anything, including itself, will revolutionize manufacturing, the economy, and the world.
Mendel’s first print from Rep Rap on Vimeo.
Mendel’s improvements over Darwin from Rep Rap on Vimeo.
Multiple RepRaps from Rep Rap on Vimeo.
Of course, the dream of self replication is still a ways off. While many, if not all, of the plastic pieces in Mendel can be printed on the machine, the metallic support rods, the electronics, and many other components cannot. Darwin boasted 60% of its parts could be created by the device itself, so it will be interesting to see if Mendel’s ratio is higher. Hopefully that information will be released soon. In the meantime, go download the designs for Mendel, purchase the approximately £350 in needed parts, and get to printing. The first one to send me a plastic model of Mendel, printed by a Mendel, wins.
[photo credit: RepRap]Animated Basic Charts in D3 and React
Manav Sehgal Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jun 16, 2016
Animate Basic Charts Examples
React and D3 are match made in heaven. In this article we will create basic pie, bar, line charts with event driven animation using D3 for visualization and React for the view, data, and state management.
The code samples in this article use the ReactSpeed ES6 Starter Project which you can reuse to speed launch mobile-web apps coded in React, Redux, and ES6. Live demo of the charts sample is available at ReactSpeed.com website.
Of course, the title of this article is a play on ABCD and React. Cheesy, but essentially true to the content, as you shall see.
Selecting a Vendor Library
Why reinvent the wheel? There are several charting libraries worth consideration when coding in React. However, if you are looking for D3 goodness, your options narrow down to just a few contenders. For us Rumble Charts comes out top because of these reasons:
Documentation. Very |
prophet's mind, which are not written concerning eternal glory.
Section Six 1843-44, p.304
I am going to take up this subject by virtue of the knowledge of God in me, which I have received from heaven. The opinions of men, so far as I am concerned, are to me as the crackling of thorns under the pot, or the whistling of the wind. I break the ground; I lead the way like Columbus when he was invited to a banquet where he was assigned the most honorable place at the table, and served with the ceremonials which were observed towards sovereigns. A shallow courtier present, who was meanly jealous of him, abruptly asked him whether he though that in case he had not discovered the Indies, there were not other men in Spain who would have been capable of the enterprise? Columbus made no reply, but took an egg and invited the company to make it stand on end. They all attempted it, but in vain; whereupon he struck it upon the table so as to break one end, and left it standing on the broken part, illustrating that when he had once shown the way to the new world nothing was easier than to follow it.
Things Unlawful to Utter
Section Six 1843-44, p.304
Paul ascended into the third heavens, and he could understand the three principal rounds of Jacob's ladder--the telestial, the terrestrial, and the celestial glories or kingdoms, where Paul saw and heard things which were not lawful for him to utter. I could explain a hundred fold more than I ever have of the glories of the kingdoms manifested to me in the vision, were I permitted, and were the people prepared to receive them.
Section Six 1843-44, p.305
The Lord deals with this people as a tender parent with a child, communicating light and intelligence and the knowledge of his ways as they can bear it. The inhabitants of the earth are asleep; they know not the day of their visitation. The Lord hath set the bow in the cloud for a sign that while it shall be seen, seed time and harvest, summer and winter shall not fail; but when it shall disappear woe to that generation, for behold the end cometh quickly.
Calling and Election to Be Made Sure
Section Six 1843-44, p.305
Contend earnestly for the like precious faith with the Apostle Peter, "and add to your faith virtue," knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity; "for if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Another point, after having all these qualifications, he lays this injunction upon the people "to make your calling and election sure." He is emphatic upon this subject--after adding all this virtue, knowledge, etc., "Make your calling and election sure." What is the secret--the starting point? "According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." How did he obtain all things? Through the knowledge of Him who hath called him. There could not anything be given, pertaining to life and godliness, without knowledge. Woe! woe! woe to Christendom!--especially the divines and priests if this be true.
Section Six 1843-44, p.305
Salvation is for a man to be saved from all his enemies; for until a man can triumph over death, he is not saved. A knowledge of the priesthood alone will do this.
The Devil's Punishment
Section Six 1843-44, p.305
The spirits in the eternal world are like the spirits in this world. When those have come into this world and received tabernacles, then died and again have risen and received glorified bodies, they will have an ascendancy over the spirits who have received no bodies, or kept not their first estate, like the devil. The punishment of the devil was that he should not have a habitation like men. The devil's retaliation is, he comes into this world, binds up men's bodies, and occupies them himself. When the authorities come along, they eject him from a stolen habitation.
Section Six 1843-44, p.306
The design of the great God in sending us into this world, and organizing us to prepare us for the eternal worlds, I shall keep in my own bosom at present.
Section Six 1843-44, p.306
We have no claim in our eternal compact, in relation to eternal things, unless our actions and contracts and all things tend to this. But after all this, you have got to make your calling and election sure. If this injunction would lie largely on those to whom it was spoken, how much more those of the present generation!
Section Six 1843-44, p.306
1st key: Knowledge is the power of salvation. 2nd key: Make your calling and election sure. 3rd key: It is one thing to be on the mount and hear the excellent voice, etc., and another to hear the voice declare to you, You have a part and lot in that kingdom. (May 21, 1843.) DHC 5:401-403.
The Prophet on Forming Temperance Societies
Section Six 1843-44, p.306
Dear Brother:--In answer to yours of May 4th, concerning the Latter-day Saints forming a temperance society, we would say, as Paul said--"Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers, but contend for the faith once delivered to the Saints"; and as Peter advises, so say we,
Section Six 1843-44, p.306
"Add to your knowledge, temperance." As Paul said he had to become all things to all men, that he might thereby save some, so must the elders of the last days do; and, being sent out to preach the Gospel and warn the world of the judgments to come, we are sure, when they teach as directed by the Spirit, according to the revelations of Jesus Christ, that they will preach the truth and prosper without complaint. Thus we have no new commandment to give, but admonish elders and members to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, lest they come short of the glory that is reserved for the faithful. (May 22, 1843.) DHC 5:404.
Righteous Judgments
Section Six 1843-44, p.307
Brother Joseph then addressed the Twelve, and said that in all our counsels, especially while on trial of any one, we should see and observe all things appertaining to the subject, and discern the spirit by which either party was governed. We should be in a situation to understand every spirit and judge righteous judgment and not be asleep. We should keep order and not let the council be imposed upon by unruly conduct. The Saints need not think because I am familiar with them and am playful and cheerful, that I am ignorant of what is going on. Iniquity of any kind cannot be sustained in the Church, and it will not fare well where I am; for I am determined while I do lead the Church, to lead it right. (May 27, 1843.) DHC 5:411.
Testimony Concerning Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball
Section Six 1843-44, p.307
Of the Twelve Apostles chosen in Kirtland, and ordained under the hands of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and myself, there have been but two but what have lifted their heel against me--namely Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball. (May 28, 1843.) DHC 5:412.
The Purpose of the Gathering of Israel
Section Six 1843-44, p.307
A large assembly of the Saints met at the Temple stand. Hymn by the choir. Prayer by Elder Parley P. Pratt, and singing.
Section Six 1843-44, p.307
President Joseph Smith remarked--"I am a rough stone. The sound of the hammer and chisel was never heard on me until the Lord took me in hand. I desire the learning and wisdom of heaven alone. I have not the least idea, if Christ should come to the earth and preach such rough things as He preached to the Jews, but that this generation would reject Him for being so rough."
Section Six 1843-44, p.307
He then took for his text the 37th verse of 23rd chapter of Matthew--"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."
Section Six 1843-44, p.307
This subject was presented to me since I came to the stand. What was the object of gathering the Jews, or the people of God in any age of the world? I can never find much to say in expounding a text. A man never has half so much fuss to unlock a door, if he has a key, as though he had not, and had to cut it open with his jack-knife.
Section Six 1843-44, p.308
The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose.
Principles of the Gospel Never Change
Section Six 1843-44, p.308
It was the design of the councils of heaven before the world was, that the principles and laws of the priesthood should be predicated upon the gathering of the people in every age of the world. Jesus did everything to gather the people, and they would not be gathered, and He therefore poured out curses upon them. Ordinances instituted in the heavens before the foundation of the world, in the priesthood, for the salvation of men, are not to be altered or changed. All must be saved on the same principles.
Salvation for the Dead
Section Six 1843-44, p.308
It is for the same purpose that God gathers together His people in the last days, to build unto the Lord a house to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings, etc. One of the ordinances of the house of the Lord is baptism for the dead. God decreed before the foundation of the world that the ordinances should be administered in a font prepared for the purpose in the house of the Lord. "This is only your opinion, sir," says the sectarian. * * *
Section Six 1843-44, p.308
If a man gets a fullness of the priesthood of God he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord.
Section Six 1843-44, p.308
Where there is no change of priesthood, there is no change of ordinances, says Paul. If God has not changed the ordinances and the priesthood, howl, ye sectarians! If he has when and where has He revealed it? Have ye turned revelators? Then why deny revelation?
Section Six 1843-44, p.309
Many men will say, "I will never forsake you, but will stand by you at all times." But the moment you teach them some of the mysteries of the kingdom of God that are retained in the heavens and are to be revealed to the children of men when they are prepared for them they will be the first to stone you and put you to death. It was this same principle that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, and will cause the people to kill the prophets in this generation.
Section Six 1843-44, p.309
Many things are insoluble to the children of men in the last days: for instance, that God should raise the dead, and forgetting that things have been hid from before the foundation of the world, which are to be revealed to babes in the last days.
Some Men "Too Wise to Be Taught"
Section Six 1843-44, p.309
There are a great many wise men and women too in our midst who are too wise to be taught; therefore they must die in their ignorance, and in the resurrection they will find their mistake.
Section Six 1843-44, p.309
Many seal up the door of heaven by saying, So far God may reveal and I will believe.
Section Six 1843-44, p.309
All men who become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ will have to receive the fulness of the ordinances of his kingdom; and those who will not receive all the ordinances will come short of the fullness of that glory, if they do not lose the whole.
Paradise
Section Six 1843-44, p.309
I will say something about the spirits in prison. There has been much said by modern divines about the words of Jesus (when on the cross) to the thief, saying, "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." King James' translators make it out to say paradise. But what is paradise? It is a modern word: it does not answer at all to the original word that Jesus made use of. Find the original of the word paradise. You may as easily find a needle in a haymow. Here is a chance for battle, ye learned men. There is nothing in the original word in Greek from which this was taken that signifies paradise; but it was--This day thou shalt be with me in the world of spirits: then I will teach you all about it and answer your inquiries. And Peter says he went and preached to the world of spirits (spirits in prison, 1 Peter, 3rd chap. 19th verse), so that they who would receive it could have it answered by proxy by those who live on the earth, etc.
Baptism for the Dead Taught in New Testament
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
The doctrine of baptism for the dead is clearly shown in the New Testament; and if the doctrine is not good, then throw the New Testament away; but if it is the word of God, then let the doctrine be acknowledged; and it was the reason why Jesus said unto the Jews, "How oft would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"--that they might attend to the ordinances of baptism for the dead as well as other ordinances of the priesthood, and receive revelations from heaven, and be perfected in the things of the kingdom of God--but they would not. This was the case on the day of Pentecost: those blessings were poured out on the disciples on that occasion. God ordained that He would save the dead, and would do it by gathering His people together.
The World of Spirits
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
It always has been when a man was sent of God with the priesthood and he began to preach the fullness of the gospel, that he was thrust out by his friends, who are already to butcher him if he teach things which they imagine to be wrong; and Jesus was crucified upon this principle.
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
I will now turn linguist. There are many things in the Bible which do not, as they now stand, accord with the revelations of the Holy Ghost to me.
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
I will criticise a little further. There has been much said about the word hell, and the sectarian world have preached much about it, describing it to be a burning lake of fire and brimstone. But what is hell? It is another modern term, and is taken from hades. I'll hunt after hades as Pat did for the woodchuck.
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
Hades, the Greek, or Sheol, the Hebrew, these two significations mean a world of spirits. Hades, Sheol, paradise, spirits in prison, are all one: it is a world of spirits.
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
The righteous and the wicked all go to the same world of spirits until the resurrection. "I do not think so," says one. If you will go to my house any time, I will take my lexicon and prove it to you.
Section Six 1843-44, p.310
The great misery of departed spirits in the world of spirits, where they go after death, is to know that they come short of the glory that others enjoy and that they might have enjoyed themselves, and they are their own accusers. "But," says one, "I believe in one universal heaven and hell, where all go, and are all alike, and equally miserable or equally happy."
Section Six 1843-44, p.311
What! where all are huddled together--the honorable, virtuous, and murderers, and whoremongers, when it is written that they shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body? But St. Paul informs us of three glories and three heavens. Now, if the doctrine of the sectarian world, that there is but one heaven, is true, Paul, what do you tell that lie for, and say there are three? Jesus said unto His disciples, "In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come and receive you to myself, that where I am ye may be also."
Men of God Endowed with Wisdom
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Any many may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and be happy in that belief, and yet not obey his commandments, and at last be cut down for disobedience to the Lord's righteous requirements.
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A man of God should be endowed with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, in order to teach and lead the people of God. The sectarian priests are blind, and they lead the blind, and they will all fall into the ditch together. They build with hay, wood, and stubble, on the old revelations, without the true priesthood or spirit of revelation. If I had time, I would dig into hell, hades, sheol, and tell what exists there.
The Doctrine of the Godhead
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There is much said about God and the Godhead. The scriptures say there are Gods many and Lords many, but to us there is but one living and true God, and the heaven of heavens could not contain him; for he took the liberty to go into other heavens. The teachers of the day say that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and they are all in one body and one God. Jesus prayed that those that the Father had given him out of the world might be made one in them, as they were one [one in spirit, in mind, in purpose]. If I were to testify that the Christian world were wrong on this point, my testimony would be true.
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Peter and Stephen testify that they saw the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Any person that had seen the heavens opened knows that there are three personages in the heavens who hold the keys of power, and one presides over all.
Section Six 1843-44, p.312
If any man attempts to refute what I am about to say, after I have made it plain, let him beware.
The Son Does What the Father Did
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As the Father hath power in Himself, so hath the Son power in Himself, to lay down His life and take it again, so He has a body of His own. The Son doeth what He hath seen the Father do: then the Father hath some day laid down His life and taken it again; so he has a body of His own; each one will be in His own body; and yet the sectarian world believe the body of the Son is identical with the Father's.
Section Six 1843-44, p.312
Gods have an ascendancy over the angels, who are ministering servants. In the resurrection, some are raised to be angels, others are raised to become Gods.
Section Six 1843-44, p.312
These things are revealed in the most holy places in a Temple prepared for that purpose. Many of the sects cry out, "Oh, I have the testimony of Jesus; I have the spirit of God; but away with Joe Smith; he says he is a prophet; but there are to be no prophets or revelators in the last days." Stop, sir! The Revelator says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy; so by your own mouth you are condemned. But to the text. Why gather the people together in this place? For the same purpose that Jesus wanted to gather the Jews--to receive the ordinances, the blessings, and glories that God has in store for His Saints.
Section Six 1843-44, p.312
I will now ask this assembly and all the Saints if you will now build this house and receive the ordinances and blessings which God has in store for you; or will you not build unto the Lord this house, and let Him pass by and bestow these blessings upon another people? I pause for a reply. (June 11, 1843.) DHC 5:423-427.
The Cause of the Prophet's Success--Love for His Fellow Man
Section Six 1843-44, p.312
Joseph remarked that all was well between him and the heavens; that he had no enmity against any one; and as the prayer of Jesus, or his pattern, so prayed Joseph--Father, forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me, for I freely forgive all men. If we would secure and cultivate the love of others, we must love others, even our enemies as well as friends.
Section Six 1843-44, p.313
Sectarian priests cry out concerning me, and ask, "Why is it this babbler gains so many followers, and retains them?" I answer, It is because I possess the principle of love. All I can offer the world is a good heart and a good hand.
Section Six 1843-44, p.313
The Saints can testify whether I am willing to lay down my life for my brethren. If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a "Mormon," I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics, or of any other denominations who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves.
Love of Liberty
Section Six 1843-44, p.313
It is a love of liberty which inspires my soul--civil and religious liberty to the whole of the human race. Love of liberty was diffused into my soul by my grandfathers while they dandled me on their knees; and shall I want friends? No.
Section Six 1843-44, p.313
The inquiry is frequently made of me. "Wherein do you differ from others in your religious views?" In reality an essence we do not differ so far in our religious views, but that we could all drink into one principle of love. One of the grand fundamental principles of "Mormonism" is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.
Section Six 1843-44, p.313
We believe in the Great Elohim who sits enthroned in yonder heavens. So do the Presbyterians. If a skilful mechanic, in taking a welding heat, uses borax, alum, etc., and succeeds in welding together iron or steel more perfectly than any other mechanic, is he not deserving of praise? And if by the principles of truth I succeed in uniting men of all denominations in the bonds of love, shall I not have attained a good object?
Section Six 1843-44, p.313
If I esteem mankind to be in error, shall I bear them down? No. I will lift them up, and in their own way too, if I cannot persuade them my way is better; and I will not seek to compel any man to believe as I do, only by the force of reasoning, for truth will cut its own way. Do you believe in Jesus Christ and the Gospel of salvation which he revealed? So do I. Christians should cease wrangling and contending with each other, and cultivate the principles of union and friendship in their midst; and they will do it before the millennium can be ushered in and Christ takes possession of His kingdom.
Section Six 1843-44, p.314
"Do you believe in the baptism of infants?" asks the Presbyterian. No. "Why?" Because it is nowhere written in the Bible. Circumcision is not baptism, neither was baptism instituted in the place of circumcision. Baptism is for remission of sins. Children have no sins. Jesus blessed them and said, "Do what you have seen me do." Children are all made alive in Christ, and those of riper years through faith and repentance.
Section Six 1843-44, p.314
So far we are agreed with other Christian denominations. They all preach faith and repentance. The gospel requires baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, which is the meaning of the word in the original language--namely, to bury or immerse.
Necessity of Ordinances
Section Six 1843-44, p.314
We ask the sects, Do you believe this? They answer, No. I believe in being converted. I believe in this tenaciously. So did the Apostle Peter and the disciples of Jesus. But I further believe in the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. Evidence by Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2:38. You might as well baptize a bag of sand as a man, if not done in view of the remission of sins and getting of the Holy Ghost. Baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half--that is, the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Section Six 1843-44, p.314
The Savior says, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Though we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed," according to Galatians 1:8. (July 9, 1843.) DHC 5:498-500.
Discourse--Burden of the Prophet's Ministry--Friendship
Section Six 1843-44, p.314
I commence my remarks by reading this text--Luke 16:16: "The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it."
Section Six 1843-44, p.314
I do not know that I shall be able to preach much; but, with the faith of the Saints, may say something instructive. It has gone abroad that I proclaimed myself no longer a prophet. I said it last Sabbath ironically: I supposed you would all understand. It was not that I would renounce the idea of being a prophet, but that I had no disposition to proclaim myself such. But I do say that I bear the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.
Section Six 1843-44, p.315
There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. I discover hundreds and thousands of my brethren ready to sacrifice their lives for me.
Section Six 1843-44, p.315
The burdens which roll upon me are very great. My persecutors allow me no rest, and I find that in the midst of business and care the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Although I was called of my Heavenly Father to lay the foundation of this great work and kingdom in this dispensation, and testify of His revealed will to scattered Israel, I am subject to like passions as other men, like the prophets of olden times.
Section Six 1843-44, p.315
Notwithstanding my weaknesses, I am under the necessity of bearing the infirmities of others, who, when they get into difficulty, hang on to me tenaciously to get them out, and wish me to cover their faults. On the other hand, the same characters, when they discover a weakness in Brother Joseph, endeavor the blast his reputation, and publish it to all the world, and thereby aid my enemies in destroying the Saints. Although the law is given through me to the Church, I cannot be borne with a moment by such men. They are ready to destroy me for the least foible, and publish my imaginary failings from Dan to Beersheba, though they are too ignorant of the things of God, which have been revealed to me, to judge of my actions, motives or conduct, in any correct manner whatever.
Section Six 1843-44, p.315
The only principle upon which they judge me is by comparing my acts with the foolish traditions of their fathers and nonsensical teachings of hireling priests, whose object and aim were to keep the people in ignorance for the sake of filthy lucre; or as the prophet says, to feed themselves, not the flock. Men often come to me with their troubles, and seek my will, crying, Oh, Brother Joseph, help me! But when I am in trouble few of them sympathize with me or extend to me relief. I believe in a principle of reciprocity, if we do live in a devilish and wicked world where men busy themselves in watching for iniquity, and lay snares for those who reprove in the gate.
Loyalty to Friends
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I see no faults in the Church, and therefore let me be resurrected with the Saints, whether I ascend to heaven or descend to hell, or go to any other place. And if we go to hell, we will turn the devils out of doors and make a heaven of it. Where this people are, there is good society. What do we care where we are, if the society be good? I don't care what a man's character is; if he's my friend--a true friend, I will be a friend to him, and preach the Gospel of salvation to him, and give him good counsel, helping him out of his difficulties.
Section Six 1843-44, p.316
Friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of "Mormonism"; [it is designed] to revolutionize and civilize the world, and cause wars and contentions to cease and men to become friends and brothers. Even the wolf and the lamb shall dwell together; the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf, the young lion and the fatling; and a little child shall lead them; the bear and the cow shall lie down together, and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall play on the cockatrice's den; and they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord of hosts. (Isaiah.)
Love Begets Love
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It is a time-honored adage that love begets love. Let us pour forth love--show forth our kindness unto all mankind, and the Lord will reward us with everlasting increase; cast our bread upon the waters and we shall receive it after many days, increased to a hundredfold. Friendship is like Brother Turley in his blacksmith shop welding iron to iron; it unites the human family with its happy influence.
Section Six 1843-44, p.316
I do not dwell upon your faults, and you shall not upon mine. Charity, which is love, covereth a multitude of sins, and I have often covered up all the faults among you; but the prettiest thing is to have no faults at all. We should cultivate a meek, quiet and peaceable spirit.
Section Six 1843-44, p.316
Have the Presbyterians any truth? Yes. Have the Baptists, Methodists, etc., any truth? Yes. They all have a little truth mixed with error. We should gather all the good and true principles in the world and treasure them up, or we shall not come out true "Mormons."
Section Six 1843-44, p.317
Last Monday morning certain brethren came to me and said they could hardly consent to receive Hyrum as a prophet, and for me to resign. But I told them, "I only said it to try your faith; and it is strange, brethren, that you have been in the Church so long, and not yet understand the Melchizedek Priesthood."
* * *
Section Six 1843-44, p.317
It is contrary to Governor Ford's oath of office, to send a man to Missouri, where he is proscribed in his religious opinions; for he is sworn to support the Constitution of the United States and also of this State, and these constitutions guarantee religious as well as civil liberty to all religious societies whatever. (July 23, 1843.) DHC 5:516-518.
Proverbs of the Prophet Joseph Smith--1843
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1st. Never exact of a friend in adversity what you would require in prosperity.
Section Six 1843-44, p.317
2nd. If a man prove himself to be honest in his deal, and an enemy come upon him wickedly, through fraud or false pretences and because he is stronger than he, maketh him his prisoner and spoil him with his goods, never say unto that man in the day of his adversity, pay me what thou owest, for if thou doest it, thou addest a deeper wound, and condemnation shall come upon thee and thy riches shall be justified in the days of thine adversity if they mock at thee.
Section Six 1843-44, p.317
3rd. Never afflict thy soul for what an enemy hath put it out of thy power to do, if thy desires are ever so just.
Section Six 1843-44, p.317
4th. Let thy hand never fail to hand out that that thou owest while it is yet within thy grasp to do so, but when thy stocks fails, say to thy heart, be strong, and to thine anxieties cease, for man, what is he; he is but dung upon the earth and although he demand of thee the cattle of a thousand hills, he cannot possess himself of his own life. God made him and thee and gave all things in common.
Section Six 1843-44, p.317
5th. There is one thing under the sun which I have learned and that is that the righteousness of man is sin because it exacteth over much; nevertheless, the righteousness of God is just, because it exacteth nothing at all, but sendeth the rain on the just and the unjust, seed time and harvest, for all of which man is ungrateful. (1843.) MSS Historian's Office.
Excerpts from a Sermon by President Joseph Smith
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
July 23rd, 1843.
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
Last Monday morning certain men came to me and said: "Brother Joseph, Hyrum is no prophet--he can't lead the church; you must lead the church. If you resign, all things will go wrong; you must not resign; if you do the church will be scattered." I felt curious and said: "Have we not learned the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, which includes both Prophets, Priests and Kings: see Rev. 1 Chap., 6th v., and I will advance your Prophet to a Priest, and then to a King--not to the Kingdoms of this earth, but of the Most High God. See Rev. 5 Chap., 10th v.--'Thou hast made us unto our God, Kings and Priests, and we shall reign on the earth.'"
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
If I should be exalted would there not be a great many of my enemies disappointed in Missouri, when they wake up and find themselves in hell, see what they might have obtained, and realize what they have lost by not listening to my voice, and obeying my instructions?
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
Matt. 5 Chap., 17 and 18 v.--"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
And again, Matt. 11 Chap., 12 and 13 v.--"And from the days of John the Baptist, until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John." John held the Aaronic Priesthood, and was a legal administrator, and the forerunner of Christ, and came to prepare the way before him.
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
Christ was the head of the Church, the chief corner stone, the spiritual rock upon which the church was built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He built up the Kingdom, chose Apostles, and ordained them to the Melchizedek Priesthood, giving them power to administer in the ordinances of the Gospel. John was a priest after the order of Aaron before Christ.
Section Six 1843-44, p.318
See Exodus 30 Chap. 30 and 31 v.--"And thou shalt anoint |
way of presenting the information. How did you come up with the strategy you used?
It’s just the way I do these kinds of things, so the methodology was the easy part. But I would say the single most important section comes about five minutes into the second part, when we compare a 2K source for a 4K master to a 6K source. That’s the perfect example of what I’m talking about in terms of controlling variables because the variables are controlled in the absolute, ultimate way possible. People might compare 6K to 2K and it’s a different camera even, so now you have different noise, different photosites — everything’s different — whereas what I was doing was using literally the same image for the comparison. Not only the same camera, but the same frame, so you don’t even have frame-to-frame variables impacting the comparison. So the idea was, what if I only have 2K of this 6K image — what if I have to choke it all the way down to this. What does that image look like in comparison to the 6K original after it is scaled up to 4K? And then we see how very little the resolution actually matters; it’s almost indistinguishable. And from an audience perspective, it’s no big difference in terms of their perceptual experience. What you can see, however, is that while you get almost no difference from the resolution change, you do get a difference from the scaling algorithms used to go from 6K to 4K and 2K to 4K. That does have a subtle perceptible effect, and much more of an effect than the difference in megapixels. That’s all about trying to isolate and control variables so there can be a fair comparison and decisions can be made meaningfully. So my methodology was nothing new. What took the most work was creating the language for the presentation — to be clear and unambiguous in a sort of scientific way while still being evocative. This whole thing is for a very rarefied audience. I don't have to worry about keeping a general audience interested with this, but even within my target audience, people can quickly lose focus when even good information is presented poorly. You have to keep them engaged while still being rigorous. So striking a balance was important and the hardest part. But really sculpting that language has given me the tools to be even more clear about my position when I have to have that discussion again.
Were there other cameras that you wish you could have included in the comparisons or do you feel like you had a good cross section and enough data points in that regard?
In a lot of ways, it doesn’t matter what cameras were used in my comparison. The point is that you do have to test each one. But you have all the information here that says you can’t choose a camera just based on the number of Ks. If you want your image to look resolute — without scaling or cropping or extracting — you can’t just make a decision based on the Ks. But even if you do want to do an extraction, you still can’t choose just based on the number of Ks. People will sometimes say “I want to do my wide shot and my tight shot at the same time” and shoot with the intention of doing an extraction, thinking that the solution to do this is to shoot with the camera that says 8K on it. Well, you still have to test the camera and take those images through your pipeline to see what the result will be. In this presentation, we shot with cameras that range from 3K to 11K, and the highest actual resolving power is in the middle of that range at 6K. The 3K camera is better than some of the 6Ks, and one of the 6Ks is better than the 11K. You just can’t tell what you’re going to get based on counting Ks. And this discussion is completely applicable to cameras not included in the test — like the Panavision DXL or Panasonic VariCam — because we’re not proposing that you make a decision based on this comparison, but for you to make a comparison yourself through a rigorous process that properly controls variables. At a certain point, all the cameras we tested will be obsolete, but the approach will still be true and useful.
You’ll find Yedlin’s earlier presentation, Display Preparation Demo, here and its follow-up, On Color Science, here.A combination of Tylenol and Advil worked just as well as opioids for relief of pain in the emergency room, a randomized trial has found.
Researchers studied 416 men and women who arrived in the E.R. with moderate to severe pain in their arms or legs from sprains, strains, fractures or other injuries. They randomly assigned them to an oral dose of acetaminophen (Tylenol) with either ibuprofen (Advil) or the opioids oxycodone, hydrocodone or codeine. Two hours later, they questioned them using an 11-point pain scale.
The average score was 8.7 before taking medicine. That score decreased 4.3 points with ibuprofen and Tylenol, 4.4 with oxycodone and Tylenol, 3.5 with hydrocodone and Tylenol, and 3.9 with codeine and Tylenol. In other words, there was no significant difference, either statistically or clinically, among any of the four regimens. The study is in JAMA.
The lead author, Dr. Andrew K. Chang, a professor of emergency medicine at Albany Medical College, said that while any single patient might find opioids more effective, on average, even for the severe pain of fractures, non-opioids worked just as well.Posted on 10 April 2009 by Quaid
Hi all, Quaid here with a piece of awesome news.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I can’t get enough of Liam Neeson. Ever since he was about the only thing worth watching in the first Star Wars prequel, I’ve been hooked on his Neeson-ness.
So who better to portray Thor, God of Thunder, in the remake of Clash of the Titans. According to CBC News Canada, the casting is a done deal. This means the Neeson will be starring opposite Ralph Feinnes who is paying Hades, God of the underworld. It will be the first time the two have clashed on-screen since Schindler’s List, and I can’t wait.
This story does have a sadness to it, though, as this will be the first role Neeson has taken since the tragic death of his wife Natasha Richardson.It's official. California has set a new record for voter registration, with the state reporting Friday that 18,245,970 residents, or 76.7% of those eligible, are on the rolls for the Nov. 6 election.
"Seeing a record number of Californians registered to vote is wonderful, but there are still too many eligible people skipping the electoral process altogether," Secretary of State Debra Bowen said after she released the report on those registered by the Oct. 22 deadline.
Democrats saw a slight increase in registration overall and Republicans a slight decrease as a surge in voter registration during the last 45 days leaned toward the Democratic Party and decline-to-state voters.
On Sept. 7, the last time the state reported the voter rolls, 43.33% of California voters were Democrats, 30.11% were Republicans and 27% declined to state their party affiliation or registered with other parties.
As of now, Democrats make up 43.66% of voters, Republicans 29.36%, with the rest in the decline-to-state or other-party categories.
This year, Californians for the first time could register to vote online. According to county data analyzed by Political Data Inc., a bipartisan company, at least 780,688 people registered online, and 61.5% of those were under age 35.
ALSO:
California sets new record for voter registration
Authorities racing the clock to identify Arizona donors
L.A. Democrats decry outside group's mailer slamming elected officials
-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento
Photo: Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Credit: Rich Pedroncelli / Associated PressWorld’s largest Rube Goldberg machine created at Purdue
Over the years, we’ve seen some pretty interesting Rube Goldberg machines. These are machines that use all sorts of things such as water, rolling balls, and other tricks in a series to keep a mechanical machine operating. The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers team has crushed its own world record for the largest Rube Goldberg machine.
The latest machine from the team at Purdue has 300 steps and actually rotates large sections of the machine some points for more steps to happen. All those steps executed flawlessly on the video, and the end result is the inflation of a balloon that is then popped when an articulating hand springs out of a box. I can only imagine how long this machine took to create.
The video is shaky and not so high quality making it hard to see many of the intricate steps that are going on with the machine. I’d wager from the excited shouts of engineering geeks standing around that the team tried to get the machine to work several times without success. Check out the video to see the machine in action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7GzApUGJ3o
[via Twitter][ooyala code=”t4bTBidDpfE2S0tSrqstdSxMN0Uq8r2A” player_id=”ffbcf8e010eb4c238d3dda4eb935d806″] HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. — Burglaries are on the rise in West Tennessee and people are taking action before they become the next victims.
WREG first told you about the daytime break-ins in Tipton, Fayette and Haywood counties in March.
We found out the crime spree is causing a spike in gun sales, even though burglars are specifically looking to steal firearms.
“Of course, people are concerned about the break-ins because they don’t know who’s next,” said Royce Barnett.
Royce Barnett is co-owner of Delta Gunner Firearms in Brownsville, Tennessee and a constable in Haywood County.
He said the rash of unsolved home break-ins in three West Tennessee counties are causing a spike in sales at his gun store.
Homeowners are looking for something “big and bad”, or something small and easy to use.
Barnett said women are especially concerned about the recent burglaries and are looking for personal protection that’s small enough for a purse, but powerful enough to stop a bad guy.
Barnett showed us a Smith and Wesson 380 that fits the bill.
“It has a laser on it. It don’t require aiming or anything. You just can start shooting. That is one of our best sellers,” said Barnett.
In March we told you how lawmen in Fayette, Haywood and Tipton counties are working to catch the burglars who stole electronics, tv’s and nearly a dozen guns so far.
Barnett said having a firearm can bring peace of mind, but not if it falls into the wrong hands.
“If I was going to be away from home I’d make sure my guns were locked up in a safe. When I got home I would put them out to where I could get to them. Because that’s the purpose of home protection,” said Barnett.
The tri-county crime spree is also on the minds of people in Stanton, where there have been several break-ins.
Clayton Stewart of Stanton said the bold burglars seem to always know the right time to strike.
“They seem to be watching the people and as soon as they leave, they go in and get what they want,” said Stewart.
It’s a big concern for Tim Vester, the owner of Suga’s Diner.
He doesn’t want his home or his business to be the next place ripped off.
“I’m scared when I come in that they done broke into my business, but I hope not. I just put it all in God’s hands,” said Vester.
Barnett said it’s also a good idea to write down the serial numbers of any firearms you have and make three copies.
That way, if your guns are stolen, you’ll be able to help investigators track them.
Barnett has forms at his gun shop in Brownsville and will gladly give them to any gun owner who asks.GETTY•AFP The EU was savaged by Beppe Grillo on its migrant policy
Beppe Grillo savaged Brussels and his own country for failing to do enough to stop terrorists coming into the continent and carrying out atrocities. The leader of the populist Five Star Movement said in a blog post: “The migratory situation is out of control.”
The migratory situation is out of control Beppe Grillo
He added: “Our country is becoming a place where terrorists come and go and we are not able to recognise and report them and they can wander all over Europe undisturbed thanks to Schengen. “Those who have the right to asylum should stay in Italy, all the others should be repatriated at once, starting from today. Now is the time to react and protect ourselves.” Grillo also called for a European database of suspects to be shared among EU member States and said: "Now is the time to react and protect ourselves.”
BERLIN TERROR: 'TWELVE' dead as truck crashed into crowd at Christmas market Tue, December 20, 2016 A truck crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin killing at least 12 and injuring 48 Play slideshow REUTERS•AFP 1 of 21 A truck crashed into a Christmas market in Berlin killing at least 12 and injuring 48
GETTY The populist leader also condemned his own country for not stopping terrorists
His condemnation of the failing superstate comes after he ripped into former Italian leader Matteo Renzi, labelling him a “liar”. He said: "You left Italy in a mess: moral, economic and institutional. "You have split the country in two on the subject of the constitution, proposing a reform that nobody told you to do because you were not elected.
"You left an economic disaster with an absolute record of poverty and an amazing increase in taxes. Not even Mario Monti had squeezed us so much." The freedom of movement of people across the continent, known as the Schengen Zone, has come under fierce criticism following devastating Berlin terror attack in which 12 people lost their lives to Islamic State terrorist Anis Amri. Ukip MEP Mike Hookem ripped into the EU’s “core principle” and questioned its stance on free movement.
GETTY The terror attack killed 12 people in BerlinBYD, the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, has announced that Howard County Transit, a division of the Regional Transit Authority of Central Maryland (RTA), has received delivery of three 35-foot BYD K9S Battery-Electric, Zero-Emission Buses.
The company reports that these are the first zero-emission electric transit buses in Maryland.
To support the effort, an inductive charging station will be installed on the Green Line in downtown Columbia, MD. As the bus drives over this and pauses, this system will give the batteries a quick boost of energy through electromagnetic induction, all without making any direct contact with the bus.
The buses can also be plugged in to charge fully before and after service. Combining inductive and plug-in charging, the buses have the range to complete any route in the Howard County system.
The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) will evaluate the energy efficiency and cost effectiveness of the all-electric bus program. The project is funded by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) through the Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) Program
The BYD K9S 35-foot bus has a range of 161 miles on a single charge, the largest for an electric bus of its size available in North America.
Category: Electric VehiclesBusiness Insider Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) said Tuesday that there's no way Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be president.
While promoting his book, "United," during an interview with Business Insider on Tuesday, Booker predicted that Trump would not become the country's next president.
But he admitted that he was surprised Trump remains in a strong front-running position, following his disparaging remarks about Republicans like Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona).
"I don't think that's going to come to pass," Booker said of Trump. "I thought that Donald Trump's ascendancy would end when he attacked John McCain, saying he's not a war hero. I found that shocking, for him to say that."
"I've been wrong on everything about Trump, I've been wrong about everything on the Republican side of the ledger," he continued. "But allow me — with that caveat — to made the prediction that Donald Trump will not be the president of the United States. It just will not happen."
Booker said Trump's low popularity levels among different demographic groups outside of the Republican Party would make him weak in a general election.
"His approval ratings are below water on a lot of very important metrics in this country," Booker said. "I'm not sure if he can pull a nomination out."
The New Jersey senator, who is supporting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, did reserve some praise for Trump's family. Booker specifically lauded Trump's daughter, Ivanka, who was a campaign- fundraising "bundler" for Booker during his 2013 special-election Senate campaign.
"I know Donald Trump, I've met him, I know his family," Booker said. "I have love, and friendship, and affection for his family members. But I'm going to work very hard to ensure that he is not our president."
"Ivanka is a woman of great grace and kindness and has been a good friend to me," he added. "We attack each other so viciously in this political cycle, not knowing their heart, not knowing their character."PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – The three brightest objects in the night sky will appear close together just before dawn Sunday.
No binoculars or telescope is needed to see the crescent moon, Venus and Jupiter together starting between 4 and 5 a.m. Sunday, said Bob Victor of Palm Springs, a former staff astronomer at Michigan State University.
"It'll be impressive with the naked eye, especially during the earlier part of that time," he said Friday.
Venus will be brightest, appearing low in the east-northeast sky, below and to the right of the moon, Victor said. Jupiter will appear above the other two celestial bodies.
With the naked eye, the planets will seem like bright stars. A closer look through a telescope or a steady set of binoculars will reveal that, like the moon, Venus sports a crescent shape.
"It is also in the foreground of the sun, so the sun is lighting up mostly the other side of it," Victor said.
Even after sunrise, the moon and Venus should still be visible above and to the right of the sun, he said.
A similar grouping could be seen earlier this year in the west around sunset.
"Now Venus and Jupiter have switched over to the morning, and they're having another approach. Usually you have to wait more than a year," Victor said. "They closed in on each other on July 1, but they're only slowly pulling apart."
Enter the moon, and the trio is complete.
The sight can be seen in the east-northeast before sunrise around the world, except close to the poles -- given clear skies, that is.
"The desert Southwest probably has the best chance of seeing it," Victor said.
Though the moon and planets will be tightly grouped as seen from Earth, they're really light-minutes apart.
Venus is nearly 44 million miles -- or 3.9 minutes traveling at the speed of light -- from Earth, which qualifies as relatively nearby. Jupiter is about 12 times farther away.
The moon is only about 1 and one-third light-seconds from Earth.
This particular trio won't reunite until May 2013, Victor said.
"It won't be as impressive as this time because it will be lower in the twilight and it will be evening," he said.
Sunday's celestial show is part of a busy summer for stargazers, who also had the chance to see the moon block out most of the sun May 20 and Venus cross the sun's face June 5.
"It's been a really good several months," Victor said.Mozilla, maker of Firefox and other things, is working on bringing support for the webp format to the Firefox web browser.
WebP is an image format developed by Google (based on tech by a company Google acquired) that offers lossy and lossless compression.
Google designed the format as an alternative to the aging jpeg image format promising smaller file sizes without reductions in image quality.
The company continued to work on WebP, and creates a lossless version that it would pit against the equally popular png format.
Google uses WebP on many of its properties. The use of the format may speed up the loading time of Google Play and other properties due to the smaller file sizes of images displayed on these properties.
The products use fallback mechanisms to display png or jpg images if a browser is used that does not support WebP.
Update: Mozilla plans to integrate WebP support in Firefox in the first half of 2019. The organization made the decision to implement Google's WebP format in Firefox after all. One likely cause for the change of heart was Microsoft adding support for WebP to the company's Edge web browser.
WebP support will come to all desktop versions of the Firefox web browser and Firefox for Android. The iOS versions of Firefox won't receive support, however. End
Firefox and WebP
Mozilla did not want to implement WebP when it first came out, but seems to have changed its stance on the format since then.
A recent bug report on Bugzilla indicates that the company is adding WebP support to Firefox. It is unclear right now if WebP support will be available to all platforms, and when it is going to be released. It is clear from the list of attachments that WebP will be supported by Firefox for Android at the very least.
Plans are to implement WebP decoding but have the feature disabled at first. The preference image.webp.enabled is set to false by default which means that WebP format is not turned on in the browser.
Users need to enable it manually to turn it on. Before you load about:config to make the change, the preference has not landed yet in any Firefox channel, not even Nightly.
Once it does, you may do the following to enable it:
Type about:config in Firefox's address bar and hit enter. Confirm you will be careful. Search for image.webp.enabled. Double-click on the preference.
This sets the preference to true which means that it is enabled in Firefox. I suggest you test the implementation on Google's Web Developer WebP gallery. Check if the images listed as WebP are indeed in that format, or provided as PNG instead.
If the former is the case, WebP is enabled and working correctly.
You are probably wondering what happened to Daala? Daala is an ambitious project by Mozilla and partners to create a next generation image and video codec.
Daala is not ready yet and won't be for some time. It is unclear whether this played any role in Mozilla deciding to implement WebP.
Now You: Mozilla implementing WebP, good or bad?
Summary Article Name Mozilla plans to add Webp support to Firefox Description Mozilla, makers of Firefox and other things, is working on bringing support for the webp format to the Firefox web browser. Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo
AdvertisementThere has been a nearly two year build-up of excitement for Gun Media's Friday The 13th: The Game. We have covered the game since it was known as Summer Camp Vol. 1 and when it was announced that Sean Cunningham granted the Friday The 13th license to Gun Media to make their vision an official franchise game, everyone in the community and on our website was very excited. During the process of the game production, fans were given unprecedented access to the creation of the game by being able to watch the motion capture process with Kane Hodder live on Periscope along with some fun progress videos on Youtube.
The game itself has been out for close to two months now and one of the most enjoyable components has been Harry Manfrefini's score. For the game, he combined classic bits of classic score from films in the franchise with new exhilarating music to heighten the fear and tension during gameplay. Gun Media will be shipping CD soundtracks of the score to those fans who backed the game later this year, but thanks to the reporting of Dread Central, Waxwork Records
label founder Kevin Bergeron told Geek in an interview that they will be releasing a brand new, expansive vinyl soundtrack of the game's music!
“Oh we’re doin’ it. It’s going to be this crazy expansive double (maybe even triple) LP thing. I mean, the game is so awesome and so much fun to play. And yes, it will be more than just retro Jason’s theme. It’s going to be all the music from the game. I even want to license that Misfits song that plays in the main cabin. We’re pretty tight with Jerry Only, so we just have to reach out at some point.”US-based owners of Volkswagen vehicles affected by the manufacturer's infamous emissions scandal will now be able to sell their cars back to dealerships, after the company was granted final approval on its proposed $14.7 billion compensation deal. US district judge Charles Breyer approved the plan, which was first hammered out in June this year, and sets aside just over $10 billion for customers who want to trade their vehicles in for pre-scandal prices or who are waiting for repairs.
US owners will get pre-scandal prices at trade-in
In addition to buyback fees, owners of the 475,000 cars implicated in the scandal — including Beetles, Passats, and Audi A3s released since 2009 — will also get between $5,100 and $10,000 as an apology. People can also choose to hang on to their cars in anticipation that Volkswagen will fix the problems at its own expense, and have until September 2018 to make their minds up about what they want to do. If the company doesn't repair or fix at least 85 percent of affected cars by June 2019, it's on the hook for further penalties.
The settlement also includes $2.7 billion that Volkswagen must contribute to an environmental trust, and another $2 billion that it's required to invest into zero-emission vehicles, symbolic counters to the damage caused by vehicles it had rigged to cheat emissions tests. Judge Breyer had pushed for a quick resolution to the case, the Wall Street Journal reports, in an attempt to clear up a problem that was first reported more than a year ago, but Volkswagen customers who decide to wait for a fix may still have several months — or even years — where they're not allowed to drive their cars on US roads.Professor Donald Othmer and his wife, Mildred, lived modestly. They had a townhouse in Brooklyn. They rode the subway. And when they decided to invest, they entrusted their money to an old friend from Nebraska.
The friend happened to be Wall Street whiz Warren Buffett.
The result, when the Othmers died, was an estate worth a whopping $800 million, one-quarter of which will go to Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, where Othmer taught for nearly 60 years.
His bequest of $190 million, about four times the school's entire endowment, could almost instantly lift Polytechnic into the most selective ranks.
"We're looking at this as a transforming gift," David C. Chang, president of Polytechnic, said Monday.
The school has about 2,000 students, many of them recent immigrants. Chang said he hopes the money will put the school in a league with such better-known engineering colleges as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Carnegie-Mellon University.
"Our mission in life is to provide an opportunity for students to fulfill the American dream," Chang said. "As a small rather than large school, we want to use this opportunity to see how well we can educate our students. I see only benefits coming out of this."
Othmer held numerous patents from his research in chemical engineering and was co-editor of the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. He died at age 91 in 1995.
Mrs. Othmer, who received a master's degree from Columbia University Teachers College in 1945, was a former buyer for her mother's fashion shops in Omaha. She died in April at age 90.
The couple had no children.
The Othmers' road to riches began in the 1960s, when they each invested just $25,000 with Buffett. In the early 1970s they received shares in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's investment and insurance holding company.
At the time, the shares were worth $42. Thanks to the booming stock market and Buffett's acumen, the stock now is worth $77,200 a share.
Other beneficiaries of the Othmers' estate are institutions the couple supported throughout their lives.
Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn, where Othmer served as a board member, is set to receive $160 million; the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, from which both graduated, is to get $140 million; and the Chemical Heritage Foundation of Philadelphia is to receive $125 million.
Planned Parenthood of New York City, on whose board Mrs. Othmer served, will receive about $75 million. The Brooklyn Historical Society was left $16 million and the Omaha Board of Education, $12 million.
Theodore R. Wagner, the lawyer who helped each draw up the couple's wills, said it will probably be months before legal challenges to the wills are settled. One of Mrs. Othmer's nieces, who is to receive less than $2 million, has said that her family deserves more.
Buffett, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's thrd-richest man, with a fortune estimated at $33 billion, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In The New York Times, he described the Othmers as "high-quality, nice people, who had no children and wanted to translate their wealth into something beneficial to society."
©1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributedA third dockless bike-share company is just about ready to roll out in Seattle: Ofo., Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) staff confirm that their permit to operate in the city of Seattle has been approved.
After we first learned Ofo had applied for their permit earlier this week, a spokesperson let us know they were “in the final stages” of preparing to launch. They did not immediately return a request for comment on the approval, but we’re expecting their yellow bikes to join Limebike’s green bikes and Spin’s orange bikes soon.
The Beijing-based company’s bikes are already popular in China, where they’re launched in several cities. They’ve spent much of this year on a global expansion, armed with a $700 million funding round, including new ventures in Bangkok, Vienna, and Cambridge. They’re launching in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan this fall.
In the United States, bikes have started rolling into Silicon Valley.
Ofo ran into some trouble at the University of California San Diego, which ended in an order to remove all bikes—but in that case, they’d been operating without close contact with officials.
In this case, they’ve been working with the city to participate in a pilot program that guides private bike-share program in safe, courteous operation throughout the city.
To recap: SDOT debuted their new rules for bike shares in late June. In order to operate in the city, bike shares must have a minimum fleet size of 500—and as of this moment in the pilot, their fleet size can expand to 1,000. (Eventually, that’ll be 2,000, then unlimited.)
SDOT’s rules set strict rules for where bikes can and cannot be parked, and sets benchmarks for getting broken bikes off the street. Both those measures counter fears that Seattle will have huge broken bike pile-ups shared widely during dockless bike share discussion.
As for specs: While the first generation of relatively-lightweight, bright yellow bikes had no GPS and a simple combination lock, their newer bikes are GPS-enabled and have smart locks. We’ll update if we hear about any changes or updates.
According to the South China Morning Post, Ofo’s United States pricing is $1 per hour.
We’ll update when we hear back from Ofo.
This article has been updated to reflect specs of the most recent generation of bikes.Updated at 11:45 on December 16th: Whoops, we jumped the gun a little on this one. However, the game should now be free worldwide, so go and grab it.
And don't forget to come back tomorrow for another free game.
Original story follows...In the run up to Christmas, Pocket Gamer has teamed up with the developers behind some of this year's best games to give you ten award-winning iOS games for free. Come back every day for the next two weeks to get your games.
Today's entry on our advent calendar is the brilliantly balanced card-based adventure game Card City Nights. You can grab it from the App Store right now by following this link.
Subscribe to Pocket Gamer on
The game feels like a cross between Magic The Gathering, a match-stuff puzzler, and Pokémon. You're a newcomer in a town obsessed with a card game, and it's up to you to become the best player in the world and win a bunch of money.
You place cards on a nine spaced grid. The cards have one of four different symbols on them - attack, defend, revive, and neutral - and arrows on some of their corners and sides.
Connect three symbols via these arrows and you make a combo. You might be able to hit your opponent or their cards, up your health, or revive a card that's been knocked out by your foe.
If you fill up the grid without making connections, you lose. Lose all of your health and you lose as well. You need to balance attack, defence, and combos that clear up some space, all the while keeping an eye on what the other player is doing.
Winning fights gets you booster packs that you can add to your deck. Tinkering with the cards you take into battle adds an element of strategy to proceedings.
When we reviewed the game we called it "fun, funny, and fundamentally unputdownable," adding that "Card City Nights is a fantastic mix of casual strategy and collectible card coolness."
And right now you can grab it for nothing at all, and if you haven't given the game a go yet, it's highly, highly recommended.
Stay tuned to find out what's behind tomorrow's door! Follow us on Twitter (@PocketGamer) or Facebook to make sure you don't miss tomorrow's free award-winning iOS game.A sibling team from Cupertino is moving on to the final round of the prestigious Siemens Competition in Washington, D.C., and a chance to win $100,000.
Anika Cheerla, 14, and Nikhil Cheerla, 17, were named national finalists in the science, math and technology competition on Nov. 14. The news came after the Monta Vista High School duo made a presentation to a panel of judges in the regional finals this month. Their project, “Mitosis Detection and Tumor Grading Using Deep Convolutional Neural Networks,” deals with identifying cell division activity in relation to dangerous tumors.
The two received a $6,000 scholarship for their project and a trip to Washington, D.C., for the finals on Dec. 5-6 at George Washington University. There they will compete against other science stars for more than $500,000 in prizes. Two first-place scholarships of $100,000 will be awarded.
Started in 1999, the Siemens Competition is a prestigious research contest focused on math, science and technology. This year, of approximately 1,600 applicants nationwide, 498 semifinalists and 96 regional finalists were chosen. Of the 96, only 10 projects–five individual and five team–are chosen as national finalists.
Judges were wowed by the brother-and-sister team’s project.
“Doctors tend to look at mitotic activity in magnified biopsy slides to determine how aggressive a tumor is and how quickly it will spread,” Nikhil said about the project. “We developed an automated system that could analyze these biopsy slides, count mitotic cells, and return a score indicative of the amount of malignant mitotic activity in a slide. Because our system is more accurate, consistent and informative than the grades that pathologists assign, doctors can use it to get more diagnostic information about tumors.”
Dr. Alexandre Cunha, director of the Center for Advanced Methods in Biological Image Analysis at Caltech and Siemens Competition judge, said in a press statement that Anika and Nikhil’s project shows real promise for advancing future technology.
“Nikhil and Anika’s research shows not only creativity but also initiative to solve real-world problems,” he said. “Using artificial intelligence to address the important problem of automatic cancer detection through computing is of great societal value. This innovation could potentially save pathologists hours of tedious manual image analysis, improve performance, and quantify cancer severity in a patient more reliably. Nikhil and Anika have shown maturity to take on such an important project at the graduate school level.”
Nikhil said being named as national finalists reaffirms his and his sister’s work.
“It’s really always great to know that other people appreciate all the time you spent investigating and researching,” he said. “Our selection also makes me optimistic that our research could be quickly integrated into clinical practice.”
Anika hopes their research can make a difference.
“We hope our mitosis detection and tumor grading tool can be easily implemented in a clinical setting to help doctors, and therefore help patients.”
In addition to their research for the Siemens Competition, Nikhil and Anika also help teach young students programming and mathematics skills through the volunteer organization MathAndCoding, started by Nikhil in 2014.
For more information, visit siemenscompetition.discoveryeducation.com.A new biography of Sherry Lansing reveals that the 2001 film — which helped turn Jolie into a major star — was one of her biggest challenges, and an experience that left her feeling empty.
Few of Paramount's films under Sherry Lansing proved as complicated as 2001's Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, which needed an actress sexual enough to resemble the computer creation while accessibly human. Only one person could pull it off: Angelina Jolie.
It was early 2000, and the 24-year-old (soon to win an Oscar) was not yet a major star. She was plagued by damaging reports about her personal life, rumored to have dabbled in drugs and to have had an odd relationship with her brother, along with an even odder one with soon-to-be husband Billy Bob Thornton, whose blood she reportedly carried around her neck in a |
for FC London and Ontario college soccer with Fanshawe Falcons.
But she is in the process of obtaining Italian citizenship and an Italian passport with the possibility of playing overseas. She’s also looking at the option of playing university soccer or taking a crack at the National Woman’s Soccer League (NWSL.)
Nothing has been decided but she hopes all the options will be on the table.
Kovacevic wasn’t planning on returning to Fanshawe to play soccer this year after a sensational first year there where she led Canadian colleges in scoring with 26 goals and was named Fanshawe’s female athlete of the year.
She’s been busy. It got busier when she decided to return to Fanshawe for a semester, something she hadn’t planned on doing at the end of last year.
“I decided keep myself busy. Why not upgrade a couple of courses so I could get into university and get my tuition paid for through a scholarship through soccer.
“To be honest though, I’m not in much of a rush right now. I see it as I’m pretty young, overseas could be an option for me or NWSL. I love that I have the option for university because I do want to get my degree but I don’t want to close any doors to playing while I’m so young.”
Kovacevic was involved with the national team program in her teens. With the news she’s been making because of her goal-scoring, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if there was contact made by the national program again but that hasn’t happened.
The fact she’s looking at expanding her footprint in the game could open more doors.
“I’m not sure when it’s going to happen or whether it will happen but I think it would be a unique experience to give it a try to see what the lifestyle is like over there. But I don’t have a plan set in stone,” she said.
She has applied for an Italian passport and citizenship. Her father is Serbian but his mother is Italian.
Meanwhile, she continues to put the ball in the net.
She has one game left with the League1 Ontario champion FC London where she has 27 goals in 16 games, more than twice the number as the No. 2 scorer in the league.
Earlier this season in just her second game of her second season with Fanshawe, she broke the school record for total goals of 26 established in 1998 by Melanie Moulton. She broke the record after scoring six goals in a game, also a Fanshawe record.
She now has 32 career goals for Fanshawe.
Two years ago, Kovacevic didn’t think she wanted to play the game anymore. Since she came to Fanshawe and became connected with FC London, things have turned around.
“I couldn’t be more obsessed with soccer,” she said. “I absolutely couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for FC London in League1 but it didn’t come easily. It came from a lot of hard work and dedication from everybody.
“This city couldn’t have come as a more perfect fit for me. No matter what I’ll do, I love the city; I love the people; I love how tight knit the soccer community is.”
Kovacevic has ingrained herself in the community. She’s playing and studying for Fanshawe; playing for FC London; and coaching with FC London’s soccer academy.
“With the time that’s left I do my best to stay on top of my courses and whenever that’s not happening, I’m sleeping,” she laughed.
Kovacevic gives a lot of credit to Mike Marcoccia, her coach at Fanshawe and with FC London.
“This past season with FC London completely changed the game for me. Mike Marcoccia gave me a different look on the game, a different way to approach it, one that I’ve never seen before,” she said. “I grew a whole different love and interest in the game. I think I am a completely different player with a different attitude and I thank Mike for that.
“I think soccer is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent is ability. In my position, it’s your job to score goals and it’s very, very frustrating if you continue to try and it doesn’t go in. My mindset that I try to stay set in is if I miss, I miss. It’s not a big deal. You have to forget about it. If you continue to stay negative, it’s not going to get any better for you. You just have to let go of your mistake and think about the next play.”Everton will look to make headway on their proposed £25million move for Steven Nzonzi over the next 48 hours.
Manager Sam Allardyce and director of football Steve Walsh are pushing to get business done early in January with Everton's squad stretched with injury and illness.
Talks are also at an advanced stage with Besiktas over the £25m signing of striker Cenk Tosun, who started for his club against Osmanlispor on Thursday night, while Sevilla are ready to agree a similar fee for Nzonzi.
Everton will look to step up their pursuit of out of favour Sevilla midfielder Steven N'Zonzi
Nzonzi fell out with Sevilla coach Eduardo Berizzo but even though the 48-year-old has since been sacked and will be replaced by Vincenzo Montella, the damage between the player and the club is deemed irreparable.
Though he has interest from West Ham, who were rebuffed in a loan bid, the 29-year-old is keen to link up with Sam Allardyce and would provide extra bite in Everton's midfield.
His arrival would likely signal a departure with question marks over Mo Besic and Morgan Schneiderlin, a potential West Ham target, but Allardyce is keen to keep James McCarthy who continued his recovery playing in a behind closed doors match at Finch Farm on Wednesday.
Everton, who also plan to add a left-sided defender, expect renewed interest in Oumar Niasse with Brighton among the clubs keen.
Wayne Rooney, meanwhile, is pushing to make the trip to Bournemouth after being hit by flu. Rooney had tried to play through his illness last week but only exacerbated the virus.
Talks are at an advance stage between Everton and Besiktas over the signing of Cenk Tosun
Chelsea are hopeful of concluding talks over a new five-year contract with Thibaut Courtois.
The Belgium international wanted to hold off from signing until the summer but Chelsea are keen to reach an agreement with Real Madrid looming large and ready to provide a counter offer.
Chelsea have concerns as they have identified Stoke City's Jack Butland as an alternative, plus Jan Oblak at Atletico Madrid.
Courtois has family in Madrid and has spoken about how he would like to move back there.
Madrid want him to compete alongside Kepa Arrizabalaga who is joining from Athletic Bilbao next month.
The 25-year-old Courtois' current deal, around £100,000-a-week, expires in 18 months' time
Chelsea are looking to tie down goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to a new five-year contract
Real Madrid have watched Ryan Sessegnon at Fulham this season but he is still expected to join Tottenham eventually.
Manchester United are also confirmed admirers of the talented 17-year-old but it is understood his preference would be to stay in London.
Madrid are looking to improve the youth players that they acquire but the prospective career path at the Bernabeu for Sessegnon would not be an easy one.
Tottenham would ideally look to move in the summer but may be prompted into action next month should United or their rivals bid.
While Danny Rose has stated his desire to fight for his place, the England international could still leave if Tottenham receive a substantial offer from suitors.
Though a Tottenham move for Manchester United's Luke Shaw has been mooted, he will stay at Old Trafford, at least until the summer.
Real Madrid have watched Ryan Sessegnon this term but he is still expected to join Tottenham
Brighton are wary of West Ham entering the race for £25million-rated Celtic striker Moussa Dembele.
Talks have taken place between Brighton and Celtic, as first revealed in Sportsmail, with the clubs looking to agree on a fee though no official bid has gone in.
However, Brighton are concerned of being used to settle on an asking price then seeing Dembele move to a more established Premier League club. West Ham have been approached to see if they want to revive their interest from last year.
Everton have also been approached about Dembele but have reservations about his fitness while they have also offered £25m for Cenk Tosun.
West Ham boss David Moyes is an admirer of Dembele but his prime concern is improving his defence and midfield. Should Diafra Sakho, who has been mentioned as a possible makeweight in a deal for Swansea's Alfie Mawson and Ki Sung Yueng, depart then Moyes will want a striker in.
Moyes ideally wants British players or those with Premier League experience to adapt quickly to West Ham's push up the table.
Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach are keen to take 19-year-old Reece Oxford on a permanent deal but have yet to make a formal offer.
Brighton will look to fend off interest from a host of clubs for Celtic striker Moussa Dembele
Leicester City have held discussions over a deal for Benfica full-back Andre Almeida.
Leicester scouts have watched the Portugal international on several occasions in recent months including against Tondela and Estoril in December and are keen to conclude a deal next week.
However, much will depend on Benfica's asking price with Almeida's release clause understood to stand at £25million.
Leicester expect offers from Watford and Newcastle for Islam Slimani which could offset the outlay.
Meanwhile, Wolves are keen on Benfica's 20-year-old attacking midfielder Joao Carvalho with winger Ben Marshall likely to depart Molineux in January.
Claude Puel's Leicester are interested in signing Benfica full-back Andre Almeida
Huddersfield Town have spoken to Monaco regarding Almamy Toure.
David Wagner is keen to strengthen in full-back areas and Toure is highly-regarded as an up and coming talent. Tottenham watched him when he first broke into Monaco's first team though the 21-year-old has still to impress consistently and has made 14 appearances this season.
Huddersfield have also asked about his clubmate Terence Kongolo on a possible loan.
Huddersfield have held talks with Ligue 1 outfit Monaco regarding Almamy Toure
Wigan Athletic are keen on Jai Quitongo at Morton.
The exciting Scotland U21 international can play on the wing or as a secondary striker. He has 18 months left on contract and League One leaders Wigan sense he can bolster their promotion push and has the potential to handle Championship football next season if they are successful.
Crystal Palace and Swansea have monitored the 20-year-old over the past year.
League One leaders Wigan Athletic are eyeing a move for Morton's Jai Quitongo
Liverpool winger Ben Woodburn has interest from Preston North End who are keen to take him on loan after missing out on St Mirren winger Lewis Morgan who is bound for Celtic.
Leeds United, Sunderland and Norwich City have also asked about 18-year-old Woodburn but Liverpool will want him to have guaranteed playing time.
Preston North End have shown interest in Liverpool youngster Ben Woodburn
Cardiff City have pulled out of a £1million deal for Celtic forward Jonny Hayes after the Republic of Ireland international broke his leg against Dundee.
The 30-year-old Republic of Ireland international only joined in the summer from Aberdeen but had been used sparingly by Brendan Rodgers and Neil Warnick was keen to take him to the Championship.
Warnock wants experienced strikers to help guide Cardiff out of the Championship and has discussed Cameron Jerome of Norwich City and Diafra Sakho at West Ham as possible alternatives.Notre Dame got its 2017 football season off to a great start on Saturday with a 49-16 victory over the defending AAC champion Temple Owls. The Irish ran for 422 yards with three players topping 100 yards for the first time in program history and the Irish defense held Temple in check most of the day. Notre Dame was far from perfect in their season opening win, but Saturday’s performance might just have been a perfect combination of dominance and sloppiness to give the players a taste of success and the coaches enough to harp on all week in practice.
The Notre Dame ground game dominated
This has been discussed a lot over the last two days, but Notre Dame lined up and ran right at eight and nine fronts and didn’t care that Temple wanted to stop the run. Notre Dame wanted to run it more. How many times over the last eight years has Notre Dame gotten cute and did what the defense wanted them to do instead of what they wanted to do? Too many.
Temple’s defense might take a step back this year after the talent they lost to the NFL, but this is still a good defense and their new head coach has a defensive background. Notre Dame didn’t care and they didn’t abandon the run when they were only getting 2-3 yards at times against the stacked line. Again, how often has that happened in the past?
All three running backs reached the end zone and the coaches can even use Tony Jones near fumble as a teaching moment this week.
But the passing game struggled and needs work
While the running game was busy racking up 422 yards, the passing game sputtered and looked like its timing just wasn’t quite there – especially on those wide receiver screens. There were a couple of those screens that could have been disasters. They weren’t against Temple, but it could be a different story against Georgia if they don’t clean those up.
Outside of Equanimeous St. Brown, no other wide receiver really stepped up either which is a concern. Notre Dame needs another receiver or two from its deep corps to step up. If that’s Chase Claypool and Notre Dame has to deal with some growing pains as he learns the position, so be it. As long as someone steps up as a viable #2 option so defenses don’t just key on St. Brown.
Both Brandon Wimbush and Brian Kelly hinted that we did not see the full offense against Temple. It’s not that Notre Dame held back purposefully either, but with the run game working, they didn’t need to get too deep into their passing game. That passing game will be needed next weekend.
Brandon Wimbush flashed both elite skills and inexperience
From a coach’s perspective, Wimbush had a perfect starting debut. He made plays, he made mistakes, and he got the win. Wimbush flashed just how dangerous of a runner he could be by topping 100 yards but at the same time, he took way too many hits. The coaches will undoubtedly be working with him this week on protecting himself better when he takes off.
Passing the ball, Wimbush made a really bad decision on his lone interception. That is something that he’ll get better at in time and gives the coaches something else to work with this week. We also saw Wimbush’s arm on his bomb attempt to Equanimeous St. Brown, but he put too much on it and it fell incomplete. Wimbush had Durham Smythe streaking down the field in the 4th quarter shortly after but he overthrew him as well.
All of these things are to be expected with a first year starter. Important thing here is that Wimbush showed his potential, but also made enough mistakes that it should be easy to keep him focused this week.
The defense kept Temple off the scoreboard most of the day
Temple moved the ball at times and had over 200 yards of offense by halftime, but the Notre Dame defense kept the Owls off the scoreboard for most of the day. Temple didn’t reach the end zone until they were already down 28-3. The Notre Dame defense also kept Temple off the scoreboard at a crucial moment in the 3rd quarter when they could have gotten back in the game. After Wimbush’s interception, Temple was knocking on the door of the end zone and could have cut the lead to 28-17 but instead Tevon Coney registered a sack to force a field goal and then Temple missed the kick.
Sacks AND tackles for loss without crazy blitzing?!?
Remember when Brian Vangorder would dial up a crazy blitz that never got home and just resulted in lots of big chunk plays for the opposing offense? Well for at least one week, Notre Dame a lot of stops behind the line of scrimmage without needing to do that. The Irish racked up 11 tackles for loss and 3 sacks while rarely blitzing. They did send an extra man from time to time, but nothing too crazy.
Temple’s offensive line is pretty solid too so Notre Dame did all that against a team with a good front. Georgia’s offensive line is not expected to be what it’s been in the past so this bodes well for this weekend.
But the secondary had several breakdowns
While the defense played reasonably well in Mike Elko’s debut, there were still enough breakdowns in the secondary for him to work on this week. In fact, the score could have been a lot different if Temple wide receivers were able to hold on to several catchable passes throughout the game. Instead, the Owls had a number of crucial drops that killed drives.
The secondary breakdowns were highlighted with Temple’s 4th quarter touchdown. After one breakdown let Temple receiver Kenny Yeboah all alone in the end zone only to drop the perfectly placed pass, another breakdown on the ensuing play resulted in Temple’s second and last touchdown of the game.
There’ll be more breakdowns throughout the season. It’s just bound to happen with a new defense. What made the breakdowns “ideal” on Saturday was that they weren’t at critical junctures like we’ve seen in the past and they didn’t have any impact on the outcome. Those are the kind of breakdowns you can live with and they are the best kind of mistakes for the players to learn from.
And missed tackles were still plentiful
Another area for Elko to work on this week was all of the missed tackles. It wasn’t quite Brian Vangorder era level missed tackles, but there were still more missed tackles than you can really live with. Nyles Morgan and Greer Martini actually were surprisingly sloppy in this department. That will hopefully get cleaned up more this week and improve each week.
Both the breakdowns and some missed tackles are expected in the first game in a new system. If they keep happening in week seven or eight, then we have some issues.
All of this came against a pretty good team too. Temple won 20 games the last two years and they should still be a pretty good team this year despite the lopsided loss to Notre Dame. So to recap, here is why the Irish had a “perfect” opener without playing perfect.
Notre Dame asserted their will on Temple and ran when Temple tried to take it away
The offensive line was dominant against a pretty good defensive front
Both units had a lot of good to build on and enough mistakes to keep the players focused and keyed in this week
A lot of players played and got experience
Notre Dame dominated a pretty team from start to finish
Add that all up and the Irish were pretty perfectly imperfect this weekend.EU referendum: the fallacy of the "big tent" 15/05/2015
Follow @eureferendum
Yesterday, when the main focus was on Farage's Ukip train-wreck, the
The paper then goes on to tell us that its writers "have drawn on the best available expertise to assess what Brexit would mean for growth, jobs, trade, immigration and Britain's position in the world", setting out the case in those terms.
In this, though, there is a central and devastatingly effective lie – the paper's claim that it has drawn on "the best available expertise", a lie that then underpins the whole of its narrative.
What the paper has done, of course, is select those parts of the argument from the pro-EU side that best suits it case, and then contrast it with the weakest and least convincing elements of the eurosceptic case, drawing them together in the framework of what is presented as a neutral assessment.
This works in the context of defining the framework – or "framing the argument" as it is known, setting the parameters of the debate and rigorously excluding those issues which do not support the paper's narrative.
A singular feature of this particular piece, though, is the way it has exploited the disarray and lack of coherence in the putative "out" campaign, so obvious that even Matts Persson
To that effect, Nigel Farage is freely quoted, as is the winning entry from the IEA's shambolic "Brexit" competition, together with Roger Bootle and Tim Congdon. Yet, the interesting thing is that, if one googles "EU referendum", the very first unsponsored entry is this blog – followed two entries later by the blogspot version – which we are
No fair-minded person, looking for a balanced argument, could be unaware of the points such as we raise. The fact that they are omitted from the Guardian piece is because the newspaper doesn't want anything which will contradict it. It wants to frame the argument, and thereby distort it, in order to declare victory on its own terms.
To counter this, the "out" campaign needs to rally round a single message and impose rigorous message discipline. That way, when the campaign proper starts, and the likes of the Guardian play their baleful games - or there are interventions by any of the boundless egos who want to have their say - we have the option of declaring that their views do not represent the official "out" position.
In a campaign where we are challenging the status quo, the only chance of success rests with reassuring voters that withdrawal from the EU is a safe option. And that comes with a carefully thought-through and coherent exit plan.
But therein lies a dispute which is developing at the heart of the plans to set up the campaign. There are those who argue that we should not rally round a single plan, but instead should seek a "big tent" grouping.
The "big tent" advocates argue that we should form the group first, and then agree a common plan. In the event that there is no agreement on what the plan should be, each component group should be free to represent their own arguments as to why we should leave, and how we should go about leaving.
Such an inclusive campaign does, of course, bring in the maximum number of players. But, in my view, that way lies chaos and certain defeat. The chances of agreement on a common plan are, as we are finding, next to nil. Thus, the "big tenters" are setting us up to go into battle with each division working to its own plan - or none at all.
This is to abandon any chance of success. As we see with the Guardian, the opposition will simply cherry-pick the weakest arguments and the most divisive players, and highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in the "out" positions. This will make it certain that we lose.
But then it seems to me that most of the players aren't even focused on winning, and what is needed to make that happen. For them, playing the game is all that matters. And to perpetuate their "big tent" fallacy, we are required to lose the referendum. Yesterday, when the main focus was on Farage's Ukip train-wreck, the Guardian ran a long piece under the title: "Brexit – what would happen if Britain left the EU?"The paper then goes on to tell us that its writers "have drawn on the best available expertise to assess what Brexit would mean for growth, jobs, trade, immigration and Britain's position in the world", setting out the case in those terms.In this, though, there is a central and devastatingly effective lie – the paper's claim that it has drawn on "the best available expertise", a lie that then underpins the whole of its narrative.What the paper has done, of course, is select those parts of the argument from the pro-EU side that best suits it case, and then contrast it with the weakest and least convincing elements of the eurosceptic case, drawing them together in the framework of what is presented as a neutral assessment.This works in the context of defining the framework – or "framing the argument" as it is known, setting the parameters of the debate and rigorously excluding those issues which do not support the paper's narrative.A singular feature of this particular piece, though, is the way it has exploited the disarray and lack of coherence in the putative "out" campaign, so obvious that even Matts Persson has noticed that it is "all over the place at the moment".To that effect, Nigel Farage is freely quoted, as is the winning entry from the IEA's shambolic "Brexit" competition, together with Roger Bootle and Tim Congdon. Yet, the interesting thing is that, if one googles "EU referendum", the very first unsponsored entry is this blog – followed two entries later by the blogspot version – which we are reactivating No fair-minded person, looking for a balanced argument, could be unaware of the points such as we raise. The fact that they are omitted from thepiece is because the newspaper doesn't want anything which will contradict it. It wants to frame the argument, and thereby distort it, in order to declare victory on its own terms.To counter this, the "out" campaign needs to rally round a single message and impose rigorous message discipline. That way, when the campaign proper starts, and the likes of theplay their baleful games - or there are interventions by any of the boundless egos who want to have their say - we have the option of declaring that their views do not represent the official "out" position.In a campaign where we are challenging the, the only chance of success rests with reassuring voters that withdrawal from the EU is a safe option. And that comes with a carefully thought-through and coherent exit plan.But therein lies a dispute which is developing at the heart of the plans to set up the campaign. There are those who argue that we should not rally round a single plan, but instead should seek a "big tent" grouping.The "big tent" advocates argue that we should form the group first, and then agree a common plan. In the event that there is no agreement on what the plan should be, each component group should be free to represent their own arguments as to why we should leave, and how we should go about leaving.Such an inclusive campaign does, of course, bring in the maximum number of players. But, in my view, that way lies chaos and certain defeat. The chances of agreement on a common plan are, as we are finding, next to nil. Thus, the "big tenters" are setting us up to go into battle with each division working to its own plan - or none at all.This is to abandon any chance of success. As we see with the, the opposition will simply cherry-pick the weakest arguments and the most divisive players, and highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in the "out" positions. This will make it certain that we lose.But then it seems to me that most of the players aren't even focused on winning, and what is needed to make that happen. For them, playing the game is all that matters. And to perpetuate their "big tent" fallacy, we are required to lose the referendum.Exodus, an all-in-one app to secure, manage, and trade blockchain assets, has announced its support for Golem on its platform.
“Our latest release brings the first new asset to Exodus in 2017 - we are looking at you Golem! This is the first of many assets Exodus will roll out this year. Surprise, surprise, Augur is up next! Do keep in mind, if you want to secure, manage or exchange Ethereum-powered assets ( Golem and soon Augur also called ERC20 ) Exodus recommends depositing and keeping a minimum of 0.1 Ethereum (ETH) in your Exodus wallet. This provides enough padding to send or exchange all Ethereum-powered assets hundreds of times”, Exodus said in an online post.
Created by Daniel Castagnoli and JP Richardson, Exodus is a desktop multi-asset wallet with ShapeShift built in functionality. It offers blockchain asset investors a platform to secure, exchange, and manage wealth inside one application.
Golem, an Ethereum-based decentralized distributed computation network, describes itself as the “Airbnb for computers”. It carried out its crowdfunding drive for its Golem Network Token (GNT) last November, in which it raised over $8.6 million in just 29 minutes, becoming the third largest platform ICO (Initial Coin Offering) at the time.
GNT is currently at the thirteenth spot in the list of cryptocurrencies by market cap (over $77 million at the time of writing).An approach to TDD in Android
If you started your Android development around the time instrumentation tests were the only tests supported out of the box, you probably remember how tedious it was to test drive an app. In fact, writing tests, whether before or after the implementation was written, was so complicated and frustrating that some of us chose to avoid them entirely.
Well times have changed and what we now have at our disposal is enough to not only write a reasonable amount of tests but also to develop our apps and libraries driven by tests. In this article I’ll share how I do TDD in Android. I won’t dive deep into the concept of TDD, I’ll simply explain the approach I use and how it has greatly improved my development. I’ll approach this with a concrete example.
A trip down memory lane
Not so long ago we - Android developers - had little or nothing more than Instrumentation Tests at our disposal to write unit tests. If you remember as well as I do, these tests were slow and practically a nightmare to maintain. The reason being that they were dependent on the Android framework and would require a device (virtual or physical) to run.
Also, while the rest of the world was already using JUnit 4 we were stuck in the past with JUnit 3. There were a couple of ports that actually made it possible to use JUnit 4, but these never saw widespread use.
Then along came Robolectric and friends to ease the pain a bit. Robolectric would mock the Android framework so that we could run our tests in the development machine rather than on a device thus eliminating the biggest reason for a slow test suite. However, it would often break with new releases and sometimes caused more issues than it fixed.
All of this contributed to the lack of a test culture within the Android world. Today, however, we are facing a different scenario. It’s been a while since Google released support for JUnit 4 and the ability to mock the Android framework. I want to share with you how I develop my apps in a TDD fashion. It should not be taken as the de facto standard. It’s also a bit behind what TDD with other frameworks looks like, where you experience very fast feedback times, but I think it deserves to be shared.
My setup
Before you read on I think it’s important to explain my setup. My experience with TDD leads me to believe that it shapes your code. It’s more like you build the code so that you can easily test it, rather than building the code and then considering how it can be tested. Therefore, I think it’s important to know and understand the design patterns and Android tools we can use before we move on.
Firstly, I always use dependency injection, and I always use constructor dependency injection except in those scenarios where it is not possible, i.e. activities. Hence why my classes usually look like this:
public class ABC { //... public ABC ( A a, B b, C c ) { this. a = a ; this. b = b ; this. c = c ; } //... }
See how the constructor receives all the dependencies as arguments? This is great because it lets me pass in mocks at testing time to the constructor.
If you try this yourself perhaps you’ll see that then your class constructors will sometimes end up having several arguments. This is not unusual. This is why I use and recommend a dependency injection library that helps you out with this. I use Dagger, but there are plenty of others to choose from. You can do it even manually, there’s nothing preventing you, but using a library that does it for you will no doubt speed up the process.
Also I don’t really use anything else besides JUnit 4 with assertj.
assertj is not required at all. It’s just a library I find very useful as it gives you more fluent assertions.
I then use Mockito to help me out mocking all these dependencies during testing.
Last but not least, I use the keyboard shortcuts in the IDE. They help me develop a lot faster. I use the standard ones in Android Studio and then I just have a custom one that runs the Gradle task testDebug. As part of this post I’ll add the shortcuts as we go, so you can also try them by yourself.
Hands on
I’d like to offer a simple hands on example for the sake of understanding, but it is nevertheless very easy to apply this approach to more complex cases.
Let’s imagine that we’re building an application which eventually will have a typical user login feature - A field for email and a field for password. I don’t want to concern myself right away with the view, so I’ll start by implementing the business logic.
For this blog post I want to take care of the validation of input fields and specifically the email field. Of course, one can argue that the validation should be done in a backend of some sorts, but for the sake of this demo I want to do some pre-validation on the client side.
I’ll first define the interface for the input field validator. My approach with TDD is to always start very simply. Here I foresee I’ll have input fields that will only contain text, so the following interface would suffice:
import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public interface Validator { enum ValidationResult { /** * The input is valid */ NO_ERROR } ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ); }
As you can see we have a simple method that takes a string and returns a validation result. As you might’ve noticed, the ValidationResult only contains one enum which doesn’t cover all use cases. This is on purpose. I prefer to add them as I develop the app driven by tests, because it will tell me which errors I actually want to handle.
In TDD you start by writing the tests, but unfortunately in Java and specially with an IDE as Android Studio that’s not as easy as it sounds. The problem is that if there’s no class created yet that we can test, then the IDE will flag the tests with errors until we actually create the class itself. Therefore, I often start by creating the bare minimum implementation for each class I test drive. In this case I’d go with something like this:
import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { return null ; } }
Obviously this doesn’t do much so let’s start by defining our business logic in terms of tests. The first thing I want to do is to create an empty test case with a setup method that I’ll fill in with the creation of an EmailValidator. Try and keep your tests under the test folder in favour of the androidTest, because we’re not doing any instrumentation tests.
The keyboard shortcut Cmd+Shift+T on macOS and Ctrl+Shift+T on other OSs helps you with the test case creation. You can use the same shortcut to jump from the implementation to the test and vice-versa making your navigation way easier.
It would look something like this:
import org.junit.Before ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { validator = new EmailValidator (); } }
First things first, I want to make sure that a valid email is considered valid by my implementation. This you can express as:
import org.junit.Before ; import org.junit.Test ; import static org. assertj. core. api. Assertions. assertThat ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { validator = new EmailValidator (); } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnNoErrorsForValidEmails () { String input = "someemail@somedomain.com" ; Validator. ValidationResult result = validator. validate ( input ); assertThat ( result ). isEqualTo ( Validator. ValidationResult. NO_ERROR ); } }
Running the tests will result in a failure since we’re returning null. Since I just need to make this test pass I just change the implementation to:
import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { return ValidationResult. NO_ERROR ; } }
Now that the tests are passing I’ll carry on with the second bit of business logic - consider the input invalid if it’s empty and return an error code for this. Again I’ll express this in terms of a unit test:
import org.junit.Before ; import org.junit.Test ; import static org. assertj. core. api. Assertions. assertThat ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { validator = new EmailValidator (); } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnNoErrorsForValidEmails () {... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInputFieldEmptyErrorIfInputIsEmpty () { String input = "" ; Validator. ValidationResult result = validator. validate ( input ); assertThat ( result ). isEqualTo ( Validator. ValidationResult. EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ); } }
The name convention for the test I’ll leave it to you. Here I use one that I like, but I understand opinions differ. At the time you create the test most probably the Validator.ValidationResult.EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD enum constant doesn’t exist. That’s ok, go ahead and create it and run your tests.
Like I said before I have a custom shortcut to run the tests, but you can always do Cmd+Shift+A or Ctrl+Shift+A which will pop up a little window where you can type anything and you’d get suggestions on what you want to do. If you’re on Android studio 2 you’d want to type in something like Gradle task hit enter and type testDebug to run the tests. On Android 1 you can type testDebug directly in the popup window and the IDE will automatically suggest the gradle task.
I guess it comes without surprise that the tests are failing. TDD says we cannot have any failing test so we need to either fix the code, or fix the test. There’s nothing wrong with the test and it’s pretty obvious the mistake is in the code itself. We can make it work by changing it to:
import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { if ( input. isEmpty ()) return ValidationResult. EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ; return ValidationResult. NO_ERROR ; } }
Now running the tests will pass with green lights. Moving on we need a failing test. As you look at the interface definition, the validate method can take null values. Let’s try that one:
Here I also find the Cmd+E |
Student loans are now more likely to be delinquent than other major types of debt. Currently, 11 percent of student loan balances have gone unpaid for more than 90 days. That’s a low-ball estimate: The Federal Reserve Bank of New York guesses that, if you exclude borrowers that have deferred their loan payments, the share of delinquent borrowers would be more than 20 percent.
Even when students pay back their loans on a standard, 10-year repayment plan, the interest does add up. The current proposals for changing interest rates on some federal loans could have a big impact on borrowers. Keep in mind that the loans that Congress is discussing right now have some of the lower rates of the student loans out there: Federal loans for parents and grad students have higher interest rates than the rates below.
The silver lining to this story is that more Americans are pursuing higher education, even if they are taking out loans to do so. Some economists are troubled by the fact that fewer people under 30 are buying homes and other goods as more are paying for college, but higher education is, on the whole, a solid place to put your money. In 2010, the median earnings for young adults with bachelors degrees were 50 percent higher than those of their counterparts with high school diplomas. But for many members of Generation Debt, the benefits of having a diploma may seem a long way off.Colossus veterans and their families gather today at The National Museum of Computing located on Bletchley Park to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Colossus, the world's first electronic computer. They will see a re-enactment of the code-breaking process from intercept to decrypt with a working rebuild of Colossus.
Pictures from the celebrations
On 5 February 1944 Colossus Mk I attacked its first Lorenz-encrypted message, the highly sophisticated cipher used in communications between Hitler and his generals during World War II.
Designed by brilliant British telephone engineer Tommy Flowers, Colossus was built to speed up code-breaking of the complex Lorenz cipher. By the end of the war there were ten functioning Colossi and they had a decisive impact in shortening the war and saving countless lives.
Colossus was the first electronic computer, but news of its existence was kept top secret for 30 years because of the sophistication and sensitivity surrounding the encryption it had helped to break.
The statistics of Colossus are astounding. It occupied the size of a living room (7 ft high by 17 ft wide and 11 ft deep), weighed five tonnes, and used 8kW of power. It incorporated 2,500 valves, 501 of which are thyraton switches, about 100 logic gates and 10,000 resistors connected by 7 km of wiring. Reading 5000 characters per second (faster than anything ever produced commercially), Colossus found the start wheel positions of Lorenz-encrypted messages to enable the decryption of 63 million characters.
Typically, it took Colossus up to four hours to establish the start wheel positions of messages. It is often surmised that the Allies might have been reading some of the decrypted messages even before they reached German High Command. By the end of the war, 63 million characters of high-grade German messages had been decrypted by the 550 people working on the ten functioning Colossi at Bletchley Park.
As the first electronic computer, the legacy of Colossus lives on. It had to be kept secret for 30 years, but many of those who worked on it went on to build other computers and technologies, using the knowledge that it was possible to build reliable machines of such complexity.
Tim Reynolds, Chair of The National Museum of Computing, said: "The achievements of those who worked at Bletchley Park are humbling. Bill Tutte's ingenuity in deducing out how the Lorenz machine worked without ever having seen it, the skill of those in the Testery who broke the cipher by hand, and Tommy Flowers' design of the world's first electronic computer Colossus to speed up the code-breaking process are feats almost beyond comprehension.
"The working Colossus rebuilt by the late Tony Sale and his team provides a mesmerising start to our story of the history of computing at The National Museum of Computing. It fascinates people of all ages and we see on a daily basis the inspiration that it provides to school groups who visit the Museum.
"February 5 will be a proud day for the Museum to host the Colossus and Tunny veterans who are able to make the journey today. This day is in honour of all the men and women who worked on breaking the Lorenz cipher."
A Short History of Colossus
German teleprinter signals encrypted by Lorenz machines were first heard in Britain by police officers on the south coast listening for possible spy transmissions in 1940.
In August 1941, a procedural error by a German operator enabled Colonel John Tiltman, a top code-breaker at Bletchley Park, to decipher a message.
Brilliant mathematician Bill Tutte began working on the case and was able to deduce the complete logical structure of the cipher machine which we now know as Lorenz.
Code-breakers in the so-called Testery, under Colonel Tester, began breaking the codes by hand, but this was very time consuming.
The head of the so-called Newmanry, Max Newman, a mathematician at Bletchley Park, believed certain aspects of the decryption process could be automated. Initially, electro-mechanical Robinson machines (named after the cartoonist Heath Robinson) were used to find the start positions of the Lorenz wheels to speed up code-breaking. But the Robinson machines had shortcomings.
Tommy Flowers, an ingenious Post Office electronics engineer at Dollis Hill, was asked to improve upon the Robinsons, but instead designed Colossus, the world's first electronic computer which enabled the Lorenz start-wheel positions to be found in a few hours, thereby greatly shortening the code-breaking process and enabling larger numbers of messages to be broken.
Colossus Mark I began operating on 5 February 1944, and was succeeded in June of that year by the Mark II. By the end of the war there were ten functioning Colossi working around the clock helping to decipher the messages of German High Command.
The deciphered messages provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on what enemy armed forces were plotting. The allies knew for example that Hitler had swallowed the bait that the D-Day landings in June 1944 would be at Calais rather than Normandy. This gave the Allies a decisive advantage.
As a direct result of Colossus, the war was shortened and countless lives saved.
By the end of the war, 63 million characters of high-grade German messages had been decrypted by the 550 people working on the Colossi at Bletchley Park.
Rebuilding Colossus
In honour of the men and women who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, Tony Sale, co-founder of The National Museum of Computing, led a team to rebuild Colossus in 1994. The idea of the rebuild came to him after snippets of information had emerged about the machines in the 1970s and 1980s.
With eight photographs of Colossus taken in 1945, the ambitious project was under way. A few circuit diagrams kept by engineers who worked on the original computer were also obtained.
On 15 November 2007, a rebuilt fully-functioning Colossus Mark II was unveiled to the public at The National Museum of Computing located on Bletchley Park. On 6 March 2012, the Colossus Rebuild was presented in a new extended Colossus Gallery and visitors were able to walk around the enormous machine for the first time.
Today the Colossus Rebuild provides a hugely popular working exhibit drawing visitors and media from across the globe. In TNMOC's educational programme for schools and colleges, it inspires young people to become the engineers and computer scientists of the future.
Recreating Tunny
The rebuild of the Tunny machine was begun by Don Skeggs in the early 1990s in conjunction with the start of the rebuild of Colossus. Work on Tunny was suspended after a few years, but was restarted by a team led by John Pether and John Whetter in 2005.
As with the Colossus Rebuild, key components for the Tunny reconstruction were salvaged from decommissioned analogue telephone exchanges, kindly donated by BT.
Tunny was completed and presented in a new Tunny Gallery at The National Museum of Computing on 26 May 2011.
A TNMOC team is currently engaged in recreating one of the Robinson machines.If there's one thing I've learned from my years of breastfeeding experience thus, it's this: I hate nursing bras.
I was never blessed with a buxom bosom, but I always thought that once I was had a baby and began breastfeeding, I would have the voluptuous breasts I dreamed of as a prepubescent teenager. Alas, whatever entity is in charge of doling out the good sized mams must have overlooked me. Even when my milk came in, and I was engorged, I still sat on the fence between a B cup and a C cup.
And whoever designed nursing bras apparently had no regard to those of us less endowed. The same level of support necessary for the larger-breasted ladies is not necessary for us smaller gals. Nursing bras were eating me alive with their 2 inch wide straps. I have no use for four clasps in the back, they just make it harder for me to get dressed.
I tried to find a nursing bra that was cute, even *gasp,* sexy. The sales lady told me she had something that might fit me in a D or E cup, even after I told her I'm a 34 B. Either she doesn't understand how bras work, or did not have a firm grasp on the alphabet.
I was fed up. I decided to take matters into my own hands. A scary thought, since these hands are not crafty hands. Nightmares of Home Economics class came rushing back. I don't want to sew my sleeves to anything again. But I took the plunge, and am quite pleased with the results, so I thought I'd share this easy tutorial. This DIY works for any sized bra, therefore, any sized lady.
Without further ado, the nursing bra conversion for the craft-challenged mama:
Here's what you'll need:
A regular bra of your size. I used a wireless. Read my note below regarding bra types.
Thread in a color to match your bra
Nursing bra clasps. You can buy black nursing bra clasps here; they also come in white.
Sewing needles. I needed more than one. I may have broken a few.
Elastic. I bought my 1/2-inch elastic here; if you want to buy the elastic off Amazon like the bra clasps, I like this 5/8-inch black elastic; you can also find it in white, pink, blue, and many other colors.
Scissors
Time: The first bra I sewed took me about an hour. I also made some mistakes and had to redo some things. Subsequent bras took anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes.
It's also a good idea to figure out what type of knot to use. This is the knot I used to start, and this is what I used for a finishing knot. If you're a craft failure like me, you'll want to practice on something before you start on your bra. Once you get it, it's easy, I promise!
I'm not a fan of swimsuit-style clasps, or other snaps. I think they're too cumbersome for clipping your bra up or down with one hand. I prefer this style, and that is what this tutorial is based on:
Step 1: Cut your bra straps. This is the most nerve wracking part. You're cutting the straps of a perfectly good bra. I made my cuts about 1 inch up:
Step 2: Sew the bottom clasp onto the end closest to the cup. I use about 3/8 inch to secure the clasp on:
Again, I'm not crafty. I don't know any special stitches. I just attack everything with a good in-and-out stitch several times to really secure everything. If you're using a matching thread, it won't matter, since the only person close enough who might notice your haphazard stitching, is your nursing baby.
Step 3: Sew the other clasp onto the strap. Same technique as above. I recommend double checking everything before you sew it together. I may have sewed this clasp on upside-down on one occasion.
Step 4: Cut a piece of elastic long enough to extend loosely from clasp to bottom of bra cup, plus a little extra (just in case!)
Step 5: Sew elastic onto the bottom of the above pictured clasp.
Step 6: Sew elastic to the bottom of the bra cup. You'll want to leave a little bit of slack, like I have in the picture. This is the elastic that keeps your strap from falling behind your back.
Step 7: Repeat on the other side
See? That wasn't so bad, right? Now you have a nursing bra that fits your personality and comfort, with the pride of making it yourself.
Here's the end product in action. I don't normally show my underwear on the internet, but I've made an exception here. I would have used my husband, but he's an inadequate and unwilling bra model.
A quick note on bra types: Underwire bras can cause mastitis and blocked ducts in the nursing mama if they don't fit perfectly. Plus, it is much harder to sew the elastic onto the wired edge.
Good luck!
Images by Jenni Buckley, Nick Buckley
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> Donate to Humanists International <NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting its latest images of Saturn's icy, geologically active moon Enceladus, acquired during the dramatic Oct. 28 flyby in which the probe passed about 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon's south polar region. The spacecraft will continue transmitting its data from the encounter for the next several days.
"Cassini's stunning images are providing us a quick look at Enceladus from this ultra-close flyby, but some of the most exciting science is yet to come," said Linda Spilker, the mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Researchers will soon begin studying data from Cassini's gas analyzer and dust detector instruments, which directly sampled the moon's plume of gas and dust-sized icy particles during the flyby. Those analyses are likely to take several weeks, but should provide important insights about the composition of the global ocean beneath Enceladus' surface and any hydrothermal activity occurring on the ocean floor. The potential for such activity in this small ocean world has made Enceladus a prime target for future exploration in search of habitable environments in the solar system beyond Earth.
In addition to the processed images, unprocessed, or "raw," images appear on the Cassini mission website at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/enceladus20151028
Cassini's next and final close Enceladus flyby will take place on Dec. 19, when the spacecraft will measure the amount of heat coming from the moon's interior. The flyby will be at an altitude of 3,106 miles (4,999 kilometers).
Additional information and multimedia products for Cassini's final Enceladus flybys are available at:
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/finalflybys
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Cassini imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
For more information about Cassini, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
News Media Contact
Preston DychesJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-7013preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.govDwayne Brown / Laurie CantilloNASA Headquarters, Washington202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov2015-337The budget end of the monitor market is suddenly rife with quality 23- to 24-inch 1080p screens with cheap IPS panels in them. You've got to love the fact that you can pick up a full HD screen running one of the best monitor technologies out there for just over a ton. It certainly makes a huge difference compared to the weak, washed-out 24-inch TN panels we were once grateful to pick up for around £200.
We were utterly smitten by the outgoing VX2336s-LED, and have been recommending it in our Rig Builder pages for months - and to our friends and family too.
These bargain IPS monitors aren't running the tippety-top of IPS panel tech, generally eschewing the high-end 10-bit or 8-bit colour per channel screens for the cheaper 6-bit technology. Realistically though, you're unlikely to be able to tell the difference unless you're a photographic guru. The old VX2336 used a lower-end 6-bit screen, but this upgraded option is pushing that up to 8-bit on the specs list.
The colour definition isn't the only thing that's been upgraded. Viewsonic has created a monitor that's superior in many ways to the previous, now-dead king. Long live the new king.
Hail to the king, baby
The first difference you'll see is in the chassis surrounding the panel. Last month I checked out the AOC i2757fm, with its barely perceptible bezel, and this Viewsonic screen is either copying very closely or, more likely, is buying in this IPS panel from the same Far Eastern factory.
Again, the bezel is invisible when the screen is powered down, and is set flush to the panel itself. When the screen is on, that bezel is around 12mm at most, with a thicker band along the bottom edge of the monitor.
Unlike the AOC screen though, the controls aren't laid into that thicker lower bezel; instead they're set into the wide stand/base that holds the whole thing up. The stereo speakers are inside that base, but sadly thatfs the only vaguely positive thing I can say about it.
When you're sat at the desk the controls are totally out of sight and reach, making it a pain in the spine to alter settings on the fly. It's tilt-only, like most budget screens, so there's no alleviating the issue. Because the controls aren't on the screen itself it offers no VESA-mounting compatibility, which is a shame as the thin bezel would lend itself well to a multi-monitor bracket.
But those are the only negatives I can see in the VX2370. The image quality is excellent, and it's hard to tell that the response time is a relatively sluggish 7ms. It's got the great IPS colour accuracy and viewing angles, although you'll need the brightness and contrast settings up high to make it really pop.
Doing so does start to affect the white levels, and there is a certain amount of colour banding, but it's barely perceptible in normal use. Minor issues with the stand and tilt-only positioning aside, this is an excellent screen for the cash, and I'd have no problem recommending it for your next budget-focused PC build.Today there are a number of different EQ’s available...so why another one? Well, Rob Papen is all about sound and he was convinced he could add something great to the Reason Rack Extension EQ world!
When you open RP-EQ in your Reason Rack you will see that it is far from a bread-and-butter equalizer and several unique elements were added to the core equalizer unit. The toolbox now includes a MONO/STEREO Split filter, which is used a lot in modern EDM/Dance music to get a very tight low end. The Air section is also fantastic on your master channel to open your mix in a stunning way.
And in true Rob Papen style, RP–EQ comes with many great Presets including contributions from several well-known DJs and Producers for instant user inspiration.It appears that somebody from BayLLLLLLor (that’s six of ’em) poured green dye into the Edmon Low Library fountain on Thursday evening after it was dyed orange for Homecoming earlier this week.
Here’s a look at the original orange dye poured in on Sunday.
And here’s what it looks like on Friday after somebody put something in the water to somehow turn it Baylor green.
Also this tweet killed me.
The last team to do this lost 40-23. Hopefully tomorrow will be worse as Mason Rudolph looks to cross off wins against every single Big 12 team he’s played.
Right now, he’s 16-2 as a starter against everybody except Baylor and 0-3 against Baylor. Those are truly astounding numbers that should change on Saturday in a big way.Kimberlite Deposits and Geology Formation of Diamonds
The geology of Diamonds consist of crystalline carbon although a significant proportion of diamonds are derived from placid deposits i.e. hosted in sediments, placid’s are secondary deposits and all diamonds were at one time or another hosted by kimberlite igneous rocks. The name Kimberlite comes from the town of Kimberley which grew up around the prolific diamond mines in northern South Africa. This is where Cecil Rhodes established to be as consolidated mines in 1888 named after the local farmer whose land the discovery was made on and you can see one of the old abandoned pits in the picture bottom right. The upper portion of the pit was dug by hand in the 1880s that’s where the photo in the top right was taken. Kimberlite most commonly form pipe shaped intrusives often fairly small in diameter but they may also form dykes or even beds of volcanic plastics surrounding the intruded pipes. Kimberlite is basically a form of peridotite in other words composed dominantly of olivine, a particular type of chrome rich granite and you’ll see why this is important when we come to talk about diamond exploration. Fresh kimberlite is hard and a dark blue green color and as it oxidizes it becomes much softer and changes to a yellow brown. The change from oxidized to fresh kimberlite occurs at the breaker slopes in the photo of the old pit in the bottom right.
Now I emphasized in that first introductory Exploration Geology Course how all the materials we mine are derived from the crust and that’s fundamentally correct however although diamonds are mined from the crust they have their origins in the mantle, more than 100 km below the base of the crust. Most of the kimberlite melt is derived from even deeper in the mantle and the diamonds are picked up by the melt on its way to the surface and that’s why I’ve included kimberlites early in this series of Exploration Geology Courses rather than lumping them with the shallow epithermal processes.
The earth is about 4.5 billion years old and although the kimberlites were introduce between 2 billion years ago and the present some diamonds started crystallizing out more than 3 billion years ago just 25% into the life of the earth. They then floated around for millions of years in the plastic crystal mush waiting for their ride up to the surface. Diamonds are only formed under continental plates where the correct temperature and pressure conditions exist not under any oceanic plates and because they formed earlier in history they generally only under old archean crust a critical point when we come to diamond exploration.
Kimberlites must be in placed fast in order to avoid the diamonds being re-absorbed or re-melted as the pressure drops. As kimberlites rise the degas large amounts of high-pressure carbon dioxide, when they get close to the surveys that gas expands and they mix with groundwater develop a fluidize almost foamy consistency that causes them to complete their journey to the surface with explosive force. There the kimberlite erupts violently but briefly forming a crater and blowing fragments of kimberlite into the air and the craters are often partially filled with mixture of ejected kimberlite fragments and wall rock that falls back to surface.
As I mentioned earlier although there are kimberlites in a variety of geological terrains, diamondiferous pipes are almost always in or above archean cratons and those are the orange areas on the map and only a few of those kimberlite types that are on archean crust actually contain diamonds and even fewer of those diamondiferous pipes contain enough diamonds to make economically viable. In fact only about 1% of kimberlite pipes host economic diamonds.
Something like 80% of the world diamond production comes either from Sub-Sahara in Africa or Russia. In Africa the big producers are Botswana, South Africa, Congo DRC, Angola and Namibia. Zimbabwe’s production has ballooned in the last two or three years with the discovery of the merengue deposit but since it was discovered by Mugabe and confiscated by Mugabe and his inner circle no production figures are available. Diamond grades of economic kimberlites vary hugely.
The premier deposit in South Africa as a phenomenal grade of almost 34,000 carats per hundred tons of ore.
In Botswana in Orapa it has a grade of about 120 carats per hundred tons.
Jwaneng also in Botswana 44 carats per hundred tons and Letseng in Lesotho a mere 2 carats per hundred tons.
So you might ask how Letseng survives economically with a pitiful grade of only 115,000th of premier’s grade. The answer lies in the stone size and quality. Letseng hosts some of the biggest diamonds ever discovered. The photo shows an exact replica of two of these mammoth stones. In diamonds the size and the quality of the stones is more important than the overall grade in terms of carats per hundred tons. This is an exception to the grade is king saying that you so often hear among minors.
How do we explore for diamonds:
We start with the knowledge that diamonds are first kimberlites and exist only above archean cratons and that they tend to form clusters within broad linear trends. The main exploration tools are geophysical surveys. Kimberlites contain magnetite and have a relatively high specific gravity so either magnetic or gravity surveys can be used so as long as the rock into which the kimberlites are being emplaced have low gravity or magnetic characteristics. The picture in this slide in the top right is a satellite image of the featured Kalahari desert in Southern Botswana roughly circular features are shallow sulk pans unrelated to kimberlites. Bedrock and kimberlites are masked by tens of meters of wind-blown sand but when you put a magnetic image over the same area you can clearly see the kimberlite pipes hidden below that sand cover. Ground prospecting relies on what’s called KIMS or Kimberlite Indicator Minerals. You’ll remember I mention the chromite rich garners that are often found in kimberlites. These are almost unique to kimberlites other accessory minerals include chromite, ilmenite, clinopyroxenes and obviously olivines all of these have higher densities than say quarts or feldspar and they are classified as kimberlite indicator minerals. KIM sampling involves taking wide space soil or stream sediment samples separating out the heavy minerals and examining them under a binocular microscope to look for the presence of KIMS. If kimberlite is founded out crop taking small bulk sample at surface may be possible. Assaying the sample and plotting the calcium against chromium content on a graph like this allows you to differentiate potentially diamondiferous kimberlites, left at the red line from barren kimberlites to the right of the red line however as with most deposits confirmation of these indirect exploration methods required drilling and testing for diamonds. Diamond exploration is one of the riskiest exploration ventures. The odds are strongly stacked against success however with good science and exploration techniques that level of risk that can be considerably reduced and the rewards when successful are enormous. Just look at the sale prices for some of these high-quality stones bottom left set 4.6 million center $10.4 million $12.36 million all for individuals stones very, very profitable.
What have you learnt on diamonds and kimberlites: Firstly all diamonds originate in kimberlite pipes or dykes including those in placid deposits. Kimberlite is an ultramafic rock derived from the mantle. Diamonds crystallize in the mantle well below the crust but they are carried up into the crust by the rising kimberlitic magma. Only 1% of kimberlite is economic and these are almost always found in or above Archean cratons. Sub-Sahara in Africa and Russia together produce 80% of the world’s diamonds. Diamond exploration relies heavily on magnetic and gravity surveys and sampling for kimberlite indicator minerals or KIM and the value of the deposit is more dependent on the quality of the stones than on the grade in terms of carats per hundred tons.The Galaxy officially announced the signing of French midfielder Romain Alessandrini on Tuesday.
Alessandrini, 27, will be a Designated Player.
He recently played for Marseille in France’s Ligue 1. He joined Marseille in 2014 from Stade Rennes. Alessandrini scored 11 goals with nine assists during his time with Marseille.
Alessandrini also spent six years of his youth career at Marseille. He made his professional debut in 2008 with Gueugnon of France’s third division.
“We are very excited to add a talented, attacking winger like Romain to our roster,” Galaxy General Manager Peter Vagenas said. “He is in the prime of his career and has spent time playing at a top division in Europe. He will play a valuable role in our team’s success this season, and we look forward to him joining the team ahead of the 2017 season.”
Alessandrini will join the Galaxy’s preseason camp at a later date.
He joins Giovani dos Santos as the current Designated Players on the Galaxy’s roster. He also joins Jermaine Jones in the Galaxy’s new-look midfield.
The Designated Player rule “allows clubs to sign up to three players, whose total compensation and acquisition costs exceed the maximum budget charge, with the club bearing financial responsibility for the amount of compensations above each player’s budget charge.”CHANDIGARH: A fast-track court in Haryana’s Rohtak on Monday sentenced seven men to death for raping and murdering a 28-year-old Nepali woman in February.Additional district and sessions judge Seema Singhal called the case a rarest of rare while announcing her judgment.The case hit international headlines and drew comparisons with the rape and murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi because of its brutality and the involvement of a minor.The Rohtak victim’s body was found there days after she went missing on February 1 with blades, stones, condoms and pieces of a stick stuffed in her private parts.“People consider women as weak creatures,” Singhal said. “…I can hear cries of women falling prey to crimes. This is a male-dominated society that believes women can be suppressed. Men, who commit such crimes, should be ashamed of their acts.”The judge, who broke nib of her pen after pronouncing the judgment, slapped Rs 1.40 lakh fine each on the convicts -- Padam Singh, 39, Manvir Singh, 21, Sarvar Kumar, 30, Rajesh Kumar, 21, Pawan Kumar, 26, Sunil Kumar, 24 and Sunil Kumar, 37.An additional Rs 50,000 fine was slapped on Rajesh, who was held guilty of unnatural act with the victim before her murder.Additional public prosecutor Surender Pahwa said they were extra careful and scrutinized every small detail given the sensitivity of the case.“Barring one shopkeeper from whom the convicts had bought condoms, all witness supported the prosecution.”A total of 57 people had deposed before the court and supported the prosecution in their statements. Three witnesses deposed in favour of the accused.Nine men had raped the Rohtak woman, one of whom committed suicide in Delhi before police could nab him.The 15-year-old minor accused in the case of Nepali origin is lodged in an observation home in Rohtak. His case is still being heard. Like the adult convicts, the juvenile is facing charges of kidnapping, gang rape and murder.The juvenile’s lawyer, Deepak Bhardawaj, said police initially believed he was 21 but later approached a court for getting instructions to determine his age.“The medical board had suggested his age to be between 14 and 16 years while the documents brought from Nepal mentioned his age as 15 years,” said Bhardwaj.Bhardwaj said the entire case was based on circumstantial evidence as there were no eyewitnesses.Public prosecutor Surender Pahwa said the maximum term that can be ordered in a special home for the juvenile is three years as the Supreme Court noted in Nirbhaya case on Monday.Pakistan’s government has for years received direct communications from the CIA regarding strikes by U.S. drones and repeatedly given its consent to their use within its territory, according to leaked CIA documents and Pakistani memos published by The Washington Post on Thursday.
The files revealed close coordination between Pakistan and the CIA between 2007 and 2011, including detailed maps, before-and-after photos of U.S. drone targets and specific instructions to the Pakistani government concerning its use of the controversial program — which is extremely unpopular with the Pakistani public and has even been condemned by the country’s current government.
Pakistan’s approval of past U.S. drone strikes has been an open secret in Washington and Islamabad for years, but the new files provide the most explicit evidence to date on how closely the two countries worked together to carry them out.
While the U.S. has since publicly discussed its drone program, the new documents cover a period when it did not acknowledge the program's existence. According to the Post, the documents from the U.S. are marked “top secret” but cleared for sharing with Pakistan.
Reached for comment by the Post, a spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry demurred on the specific claims but stated the current Pakistani government’s policy on drones.
“Whatever understandings there may or may not have been in the past, the present government has been very clear regarding its policy on the issue,” Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry told the Post.
“We regard such strikes as a violation of our sovereignty as well as international law. They are also counterproductive,” he added.
According to the Post, the CIA declined to comment on the new revelations but did not refute them.HAWTHORN assistant coach Brendon Bolton has been appointed as a member of Carlton staff in a mould-breaking deal that doesn't "put a sunset" on his time as senior coach.
Bolton, who will leave the Hawks prior to their round 22 match against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday, welcomed the deal, which allows both he and the Blues to end their partnership at any time.
Blues CEO Steven Trigg employed then Adelaide coach Neil Craig on a similar agreement in 2011, which was seen as radical at the time.
Tough for Bolts to stay for finals: Burgoyne
"There's no contract per se in the traditional sense," Trigg said on Tuesday as Bolton was officially unveiled at Carlton headquarters.
"We don't have a contract. Brendon, like myself and my management team, goes onto staff.
"It's as simple as some protection in there for Brendon and his family and some protection in there for Carlton, but otherwise we go into this with a long-term horizon and a partnership that is an on-staff partnership.
"Brendon's approach to that and ours married up to that perfectly. We think it's a terrific outcome."
Brendon Bolton has joined the Blues as their new senior coach. Picture: AFL Media
Bolton was unanimously endorsed by the Carlton board on Monday night after being recommended for the role by the Blues' coaching sub-committee.
ANALYSIS: 10 things Bolton must do
The 36-year-old said he had mixed emotions when he was told on Monday night he had won the job ahead of interim coach John Barker, who will coach the Blues for the final two home-and-away games.
His thoughts remained with Hawthorn colleague Brett Ratten, whose son Cooper was tragically killed in a car crash last Sunday.
"Yesterday was a hard day for Brett and then last night I tried to feel a little bit of elation," Bolton said on Tuesday.
"But today it's genuine excitement at trying to lay a platform for sustained success.
"It's been a different day. I only ran (Hawthorn) training a few hours ago."
Damian Carroll will step into the assistant coaching role vacated by Bolton as the Hawks prepare for their final two home-and-away games and this year’s finals series.
Hawthorn CEO Stuart Fox said after consultation with both Bolton and Carlton, it was decided it would not be feasible for the new Blues coach to "split his focus across Carlton and (the Hawks') upcoming finals series".
Bolton proved the difficulty of such a task when he had a slip of the tongue explaining the scenario.
"If you look at the mechanics of it, my mind is going to be here at Hawthorn," he said.
Bolton made a point of thanking Hawthorn football manager Chris Fagan and senior coach Alastair Clarkson, who had taught him "how to innovate".
He refused to put a timeframe on when the Blues would experience an on-field spike, simply saying the club would "invest in people and constant development and see where that goes".
He was adamant he was ruthless enough to turn around a list that has been heavily criticised for the past two seasons.
"I think leadership |
in favour of reconciliation and the transition to democracy. Almost overnight, victims of the dictatorship were emboldened to come forward and seek justice, and lawyers were prepared to take on their cases. Many people in Chile have been calling for truth and justice for years But the arrest had implications far beyond Chile's borders too. It was important because it was ordered not by a judge in Chile but in Spain. For the first time, lawyers were using the principle of universal jurisdiction against a former head of state. Their argument was that the whole world - not just Chile - had an interest in bringing Pinochet to trial. Although universal jurisdiction had been enshrined in international law since 1948, when it was incorporated into the UN. Convention on Genocide, it had been largely ignored - until Pinochet's arrest. Suddenly, it seemed, former heads of state no longer enjoyed immunity. In the end, the general was freed on health grounds and returned to Chile, where he died in 2006 without standing trial. But even though he was never brought to court, his case opened the door for countless other cross-border prosecutions. Other cases In February 2000, just days before Pinochet returned home, a court in Senegal indicted Chad's former president, Hissene Habre, on torture charges. It was the first time that a former African head of state had been charged with atrocities by the court of another African country. Mr Habre, sometimes dubbed "Africa's Pinochet", settled in Senegal after he was deposed in 1990. The case is ongoing. In the Fujimori case too, Pinochet's arrest set an important precedent. Mr Fujimori, who fled Peru when his government collapsed in 2000, was under house arrest in Chile from 2005 pending an extradition request from Peru. Everything suggested the Chileans would reject the request and allow him to stay in Chile. Mr Fujimori waged a long fight to avoid extradition But in a dramatic ruling, the Supreme Court sent Mr Fujimori back to Lima, where he is now on trial, charged with authorising death squads during the country's crackdown on Maoist guerrillas in the 1990's. "It's very difficult to imagine that happening without the Pinochet arrest," said Sebastian Brett of Human Rights Watch in Chile. "The fact that they ordered Fujimori's extradition reflects a significant change within the Chilean judiciary regarding human rights." Think twice However, Juan Mendez of the ICTJ says some governments, particularly in Africa, are now starting to challenge the principle of universal jurisdiction, saying it is being used by the West to target them unfairly, often to punish atrocities committed in times of war or civil unrest. "You could see that sooner or later there was going to be a backlash to all this and that has indeed happened," Mr Mendez said. "The real danger is that there is a negative reaction from governments in the Third World and that we lose the ability to bring cases to court." But Robert Funk, a professor in political science at Chile's Diego Portales University, says that thanks to the Pinochet case the principle of universal jurisdiction is now well established. It will make, he believes, make some leaders think twice before they step outside the confines of their home countries. "With Pinochet's arrest it became clear that international law did have jurisdiction and did have some teeth. It instilled the idea that there are some universal principles that the law can address and indeed will address," Professor Funk said.
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StumbleUpon What are these?I recently became aware that (thanks to this post by snus enthusiast and blogger Chad Jones) Swedish Match has recently released four new snus brands to their lineup. Although they are new, these are primarily popular regular brands which have increased nicotine content with the same great taste. The brands include:
Kronan White (Vit) Stark
Designed to taste similar to the original Kronan White, Kronan White Stark has a higher nicotine content. Swedish Match describes the flavor as having a
“full-bodied and flowery tobacco character with hints of violet and citrus, and a little herbs. Prillan fills the lower lip, is dry on the surface of the low rinnighet and fresh feel but a moist snuff which provides a prolonged flavor release.”
Grov Stark Original
A regular portion snus, Grov stark has a spicy tobacco flavor and strong nicotine kick. As a fan of the tobacco taste found in the original Grov, I look forward to giving this brand a try.
Kaliber Vit Special
Kaliber Vit Special is a white portion snus said to be have a soft pouch that makes for a good fit. It is also quite dry, so I imagine that it would be pretty long lasting. I’m not sure exactly what the taste on this one will be like since its a special, but I do like trying out new snuses so I will have to give this one a go!
General Long White Mint
I expect this brand to combine the fresh taste of General Mini Mint with the comfortable (and long lasting!) portions that the original General Long has. I’m not a huge mint fan, but I do find General Mini Mint to be tasty on occasion, and I imagine that a slim fullsize version could be quite interesting.
Although these brands are not yet available in our online store, expect them to become available within the coming weeks! Keep checking back to The Northerner Blog as this week will include reviews covering several popular new brands of snus including the Skruf Nord 66 line.
Related PostsWhen it comes to realm of household items, odd and eccentric conceptions are surprisingly galore. However, the combination of improved functionality and intrinsic oddity in a single design is certainly very rare. And, this is exactly what the Oasis brings to the table, with its inherent flexibility. This convenient ‘elasticity’ is derived from components like latex and polyurethane, which are essentially used for manufacturing condoms.
Conceived by Korean designer Eun Ah Kim, the Oasis bottle actually is of a circular form with a rubber like cross-section (much like a condom). This gives it a very lightweight bearing, whose structural integrity is still maintained by the durability of latex component. But more importantly, the minimal form makes Oasis completely portable and water tight at the same time.
And, it is this enhanced portability that makes Oasis an essential part of any survival kit. In fact, according to the designer, the bottle can be inflated to hold a whopping 20 liters of water. Lastly, the strengthened elasticity of its structure allows it to resist various harmful effects (both from outdoors and indoors) encountered in relief camps and emergency situations.
Via: EuNah-KimThere is so much to say — an infinite amount. So let’s try to keep this simple.
The U.S. Open starts this weekend in New York. Serena Williams is playing for her 22nd major singles title, her fifth in a row, and the calendar Grand Slam.
A 22nd major would tie the Open era record set by Steffi Graf in 1999. A fifth consecutive major would equal a streak no player has achieved since Graf in 1989. A calendar-year Grand Slam is a feat many of history’s best players never managed — Graf did it, and Margaret Court did it, but not Martina Navratilova, not Chris Evert, not Billie Jean King. To accomplish all this in one tournament, as Serena is trying to do, would be — but it is impossible to say what it would be. There is nothing to compare it to, because no one has ever done anything quite like it before.
This is a moment.
I am thinking of a passage from All Day Permanent Red, Christopher Logue’s retelling of the first battle scenes in The Iliad, which I will leave here and then come back to. All Day Permanent Red is a poem that in many ways seems tailored to Serena in her most extreme mode of fantastic ascendancy, the Serena of obliterating first serves and straining biceps and 6-0 sets and streaming hair. It is a poem in which a goddess shrieks “better to die than to live without killing!” a poem in which enemies are there to be mowed down and their bones turned under the dust.
Serena has turned plenty of bones under the dust. The passage I am thinking of, though, is gentler. Night has fallen over the battlefield, and Logue imagines:
The earth
And its attendant moon
(Neither of great importance
But beautiful and dignified)
Making their way around the sun.
I am thinking about freedom.
This is a moment because it is a culmination for Serena’s career, and this is a moment because it is a culmination for what Serena’s career represents. If she wins this tournament, the case that she is not the greatest player in the history of women’s tennis more or less evaporates, even for the few holdouts still clinging to it. Graf was amazing. Navratilova was incredible. But to many people it has been obvious for a long time now that Serena is an evolutionary advance.
For quite a while, because of her inconsistent presence in the game — the injuries, the wavering attention — it seemed unlikely that her career numbers would support this conclusion, even if it felt undeniable to anyone really paying attention. Then, at the moment when most athletes begin declining, she hired Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach and became better than ever. After turning 30, she has reeled off three U.S. Open titles, two Wimbledons, two French Opens, and an Australian Open. These are astonishing numbers. Eight majors, as many as King won in the Open era. And so she created this moment, somehow both stunning and utterly predictable, and this opportunity for a validation beyond all dispute.
There is, of course, more to it than that. As a black woman from Compton in a sport whose roots are affluent and white, Serena has always meant more to tennis, has always burned more intensely within the game, than her career trajectory alone would suggest. She has presented a threat to tennis fans opposed to change, and tennis fans have sometimes presented a threat to her. Her career has felt larger than life partly because of its transformative power and partly because of the drama that power has awakened in stadiums, over and over again: Rarely in the history of modern sports has a figure of such obvious strength seemed to stand so often in a kind of atmospheric peril. The strength was greater than the peril, and that’s one thing, apart from her talent, that she has given us.
Serena wears so many of her meanings on the surface. Her race. Her gender. Her elegance. Her background. Her resilience. These, or whatever synonyms or near-synonyms you want to substitute for them, are political attributes by nature, and Serena is a political figure, a representative figure, simply by virtue of being herself and doing what she does. Commentary around her pursuit of the Grand Slam has rightly emphasized her larger significance, whether by portraying her career as a clear narrative arc (as in this elegiac New York profile) or by exploring the interpretations she inspires (this New York Times Magazine profile by the poet Claudia Rankine, who has written better than anyone about Serena in the past few years, is called “The Meaning of Serena Williams”).
All this is as it should be. Serena is a figure of great cultural importance and great complexity. The moment before what could be her 22nd major win is a natural time to examine and celebrate her meaning as well as her forehand.
But I am thinking about freedom. Of course no one on earth is ever perfectly free, and there are as many ways to be unfree as there are people: your debt, your depression, your unreturned love, your job, your worry, your longing. One of the ways to be unfree, I think, is to be obliged to mean something. Freedom is the freedom to be meaningless. Is that obvious? A white man writing about sports, to pull an arbitrary example out of the air, is not operating in an arena where his mere participation will be construed as a political act: I am permitted to be, say, a lyric weirdo about soccer without my weirdness ramifying much beyond my own brain. This is the discretion of privilege, this leisurely prerogative whereby individuality draws its own boundaries. The more of one’s meanings are imposed from the outside, as a general rule, the further from privilege one is.
Serena’s burden of meaning places her a long way away from this kind of discretion. Her importance is too great. She faces expectations that I can barely imagine, and she lives up to them.
One of the things I love about her, though, is that she still insists on her freedom to be meaningless. Pointedly, in public, Serena refuses to be flattened into significance. She doesn’t shirk her cultural role but she also protects — and doesn’t hide — her own inner galaxy of humor, anger, sexiness, goofiness, sadness. She pouts. She yells. She shows her feelings on the court. She gets shy. She shares silly photos on social media. In a world where many NFL rookies are already playing characters in the media, Serena is only playing herself. For someone in such a complicated position, she is shockingly unguarded, and in a strangely beautiful way, her openness is what preserves her privacy. She shows us who she is, and showing us makes her inviolable.
Rankine suggests in her profile that Serena’s embrace of her humanity is partly what makes her a figure of “black excellence”: by “feel[ing] what she feels in front of everyone,” Serena refuses to obey the imperative that black champions stick to a kind of well-mannered humility. The strangeness of American life makes Serena’s capacity for absurdity both profoundly political and profoundly apolitical. To be absurd is to reject the authority of the white gaze. And then sometimes you just want to post a picture of your Yorkie in a Superman costume on Instagram.
There is so much to say about her — an infinite amount. But it is also very simple. This is a moment because Serena Williams is everything she is: one of the best athletes in the history of sports, a phenomenally talented black woman, and her own irreducible self. She will win the U.S. Open or she won’t, she will win her 22nd major or she won’t, but either way, she shows us a special version of freedom, not just through her physical talent but through her marvelous spontaneous performance of her own personality. She is important and tennis is important, but tennis is also just a game and she is also just a human being, beautiful and dignified, making her way around the sun.There was the painting of a warship that had been hit by a torpedo. It was shown in 1964, in the first gallery show of a painter who was still unknown at the time. It looked serious and dramatic, with the calm water in the distance, the inconspicuous silhouette of the ship and, underneath it all, a gigantic explosion. But then it disappeared.
Another painting that vanished forever was a work entitled "Tame Kangaroo," based on a curious magazine photo that the artist called a "wonderful" model in 1964. The painting was priced at 1,100 deutsche marks at the time. That same year, he also exhibited his portrait of Hitler, painted in 1962. It also disappeared.
These are great, vexing works. If they still existed, they would be hanging in private collections or major museums. Today, their creator is the most famous German contemporary artist, and the one whose works fetch the highest prices. Indeed, Gerhard Richter is the most important painter of our time.
The lost paintings are from Richter's very important creative phase in which he opened up new horizons for painting. In the early 1960s, he began working from photographs. The motifs were usually blurred on his canvases, and much appeared in only shadowy outlines. Although they had something about them derived from traditional painting, his artworks were also excitingly contemporary.
A Refusal to Compromise
Still, a surprisingly large number of his early works no longer exist. Richter destroyed them himself, some with a box cutter and some by burning them with other trash from his studio. He destroyed about 60 of these photo-based paintings -- finished works rather than sketches or studies -- in the 1960s. Today, they would probably be worth at least half a billion euros ($655 million). Richter was garnering his first acclaim at the time, but he was often at odds with his own art. Still, since his urge to destroy some of his paintings also made him feel uneasy, he photographed them before doing so.
These photos, most of which were never published, are now either in the Gerhard Richter Archive in the eastern German city of Dresden, where the painter was born, or in a box in his studio in the western city of Cologne. They are testaments to his refusal to compromise.
Daring to Address the Taboo
Richter is an affable man. He accompanies much of what he says with a small, quiet laugh. "Sometimes, when I see one of the photos, I think to myself: That's too bad; you could have let this one or that one survive." But he also says: "Cutting up the paintings was always an act of liberation."
He has a surprisingly clear memory of the works, almost as if they still existed. The warship, he says, seemed "too eye-catching" to him. And the kangaroo was "very funny, but I suppose it was only funny, which I don't like at all."
And his Hitler, who looked as banal as a comic-book figure, yet so tellingly evil? Long before the student uprisings of the late 1960s, Richter had the courage to put an end to the widespread tendency to repress discussion of Germany's recent wartime past. Although his aunt had been a victim of the Nazis' euthanasia campaign, his uncle cheerfully donned the uniform of the Wehrmacht, German's wartime army, when Richter painted his portrait. In doing so, he was showing how all German families had been warped.
At the time, no other artist would have dared to confront these kinds of issues -- or to paint an image of Hitler. But, today, Richter says he found the portrait and the motif too spectacular. Perhaps he should have given the work -- and his audience -- more time. It would have been a work of fundamental importance in the history of art.
Wrestling with the Received Tradition
Richter turns 80 on Feb. 9. On Friday, Feb. 3, a new show will be opening at the Gerhard Richter Archive in Dresden, to be followed by exhibitions at various museums, including the New National Gallery in Berlin and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
However, the evidence of the works he destroyed constitutes something of a separate, secret museum. These include an image of a test field with reeds, based on a photo from a farming magazine, and a painting of a woman sunning herself outdoors on a chaise lounge, which seems to portray the epitome of postwar triviality. There is also another painting of a war scene, though this one assumes the form of a comic strip. And then there are portraits of entire families. Indeed, families -- their facades, their outward appearances -- have always been an important subject for the artist.
In the years in which these paintings were made, Richter was rebelling against abstraction. He had studied in Dresden, where the style known as Socialist Realism was taught. He fled to the West in 1961, before the Berlin Wall was built. At first, he tried his hand at informal paintings in the western city of Düsseldorf, but he destroyed almost all of these abstract experiments. Indeed, Richter was fed up with this "shitty painting" until, one day, he spontaneously tried painting from a photograph -- and discovered a new form of realism for himself.
Bridging the Divide
At first, the result was something that might have been called German Pop Art, except that it was more profound. The works were often painted in gray tones, like the photos he used, which were either his own or from magazines. But they felt fresh, attractive, clever and subversive. In thematic terms, everything was possible in his paintings, just as all sorts of things can be photographed.
Richter says he was impatient. This impatience, and an insecurity that he never tried to suppress, were his driving forces. He broke his images down into pieces, destroyed their representationalism, sought new paths and found his way back to abstractionism. Before long, he was able to accept both approaches.
Puzzling Decisions
In the fall of 2011, one of his non-representational compositions fetched more than 15 million at a Sotheby's auction, setting yet record for a Richter.
Indeed, Richter is willing to part ways with his paintings every now and then, whenever he finds they've been bothering him for too long. This applies to both abstract and figurative works. One of his assistants once pulled a cut-up painting out of the garbage and, with Richter's permission, had it restored before selling it.
Today, Richter says he's surprised at how many works he continued to destroy after the 1960s. Perhaps he will return to one motif or another, he adds, noting that "otherwise it would be a shame." One painting, in particular, comes to mind. It was painted in 1990 and shows two young people standing in front of Madrid's Museo del Prado, Spain's national art museum. However, two years later, he painted over this work, turning "Prado, Madrid" into "Abstract Painting, 1992."
In some old photos, one can see Richter's former studio and canvases that he later sliced to pieces with a knife alongside some still-existing paintings. Even when the paintings are shown standing next to each other, there is rarely any evidence of what he exactly objected to in the works he destroyed or why he was so harsh in his assessments.
Mellowing Over Time
Richter says he occasionally also saves paintings from himself. In 2005, when he began working on a painting of New York's burning World Trade Center towers, he decided he would eventually destroy the painting. In fact, he even publicly stated this in an interview with SPIEGEL published alongside the first publicized photo of the painting. Then, he removed it from public view for a long time. But, today, it belongs to New York's Museum of Modern Art.
"Sometimes," says Richter, "time teaches you things." One recognizes, he adds, that although a work may not have achieved what was originally intended, something different was created instead, "something that might be more important." He now knows, he says, that the World Trade Center work is "a great painting."TAMPA BAY – Registration for the NHL/NHLPA Lightning Made Learn to Play program is now open, the team announced today. The eight-week program will be held at three local rinks from September 24 through November 19 and will be taught by Lightning alumni, staff and local coaches.
The Learn to Play program is for kids ages 4-8. Parents looking to register their children should can click here. Registration is $80 and includes a full set of hockey gear for each participant to keep, including protective equipment, skates, sticks and jerseys at no additional cost. Each participating rink will also provide affordable next-level programs.
Below is the schedule for each location:
•Brandon Ice Sports Forum (10222 Elizabeth Pl, Tampa, FL 33619): 8-9 a.m., October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, November 5, 12 and 19
•Clearwater Ice Arena (13940 Icot Blvd, Clearwater, FL 33760): 9-10 a.m., September 24, October 1, 15, 22, 29, November 5, 12 and 19
•Ellenton Ice & Sportsplex (5309 29th St E, Ellenton, FL 34222): 10:15-11:15 a.m., September 24, October 1, 15, 22, 29, November 5, 12 and 19
All lesson plans will be designed and certified by the NHL and the NHLPA, while following USA Hockey’s American Development Model that consists of cross-ice skating and skill development. All participants will be automatically registered with USA Hockey for the remainder of the 2016-17 season at no charge. Being registered with USA Hockey will allow children to move on to next-level programs.
The Learn to Play program is designed to increase the number of kids playing hockey and creates a fun and effective learning environment by delivering a positive experience to ensure players remain engaged throughout their lives. The program reduces cost barriers by providing free equipment and discounted ice time. Players and parents will be educated by former NHL players and will receive the opportunity to become more than just a better hockey player.ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos had barely finished off a 13-3 season with a bevy of scoring and passing records in hand before the usual gymnastics of Black Monday kicked in.
The kind when teams that fired coaches are looking at assistants on playoff teams for candidates.
And Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase is already on the Cleveland Browns' radar, with the Browns having already formally asked the Broncos for permission to interview Gase. Gase's name figures to circulate plenty with other openings the coming days and weeks as well.
Because the Broncos have a bye this week, Gase could interview with Browns officials, including general manager Mike Lombardi, who spent one season in Denver late in Mike Shanahan's tenure.
The Broncos, with 606 points, set a new single-season scoring record while quarterback Peyton Manning set new league records for touchdown passes (55) and yards passing (5,477). Gase has also been lauded by many in the league with his work as the team moved toward a read-option offense for Tim Tebow as well as his work with the team’s receivers when he arrived on Josh McDaniels’ staff in 2009.
Gase started coaching at Michigan State when Nick Saban was the school’s head coach.Just how much power does the National Rifle Association wield in Washington? Enough that a plan quietly proposed by federal agents to combat illegal gun trafficking along the Mexico border has languished at the Justice Department for months — all because officials are worried about what the NRA might think.
The Washington Post published an account of the internal debate today, outlining the enormity of the influence the gun lobby — led by the NRA — holds over federal gun policy and its enforcement.With the effectiveness of their “Project Gunrunner” plan under fire, agents working for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) developed a plan they thought would combat the smuggling of domestically purchased AK-47s and AR-15s to Mexico, where those weapons are fueling a violent drug war south of the border.
Despite their efforts to keep under wraps the plan to require gun dealers to report sales of multiple rifles and shotguns to ATF, the NRA caught wind of it and issued a dire warning to NRA members, the newspaper reported. The plan is gaining traction at DOJ, but sources told the Post they fear the NRA will rally its forces to kill the plan if it becomes public.
In sum, the NRA and their $250 million in yearly revenue have been the strongest force shaping the nation’s gun laws, says the newspaper.
“The White House is sensitized enough to understand it really is the third rail of American politics,” Richard Feldman, a former lobbyist for the NRA, told the newspaper. “They have figured out that it is a lightning-rod issue, and they don’t want it to injure them.”
Attorney General Eric Holder, who took criticism from White House officials for telling reporters he would push to reinstate the ban on assault weapons, declined to be interviewed for the story. All DOJ would offer the Post was a statement from spokesman Matt Miller, who said “the administration continues to support common-sense measures to stem gun violence.”
As TPM previously reported, the NRA opposes the nomination of Andrew Traver to head ATF because NRA Executive Director Chris Cox Googled him and found an interview the NRA didn’t like. Because of that opposition, Traver’s nomination isn’t likely to be approved by Congress, the Washington Post noted.
Gun control advocates are upset over what they say is lack of action from the Obama administration, contending they are loathe to speak about any gun control issues because of how politically sensitive gun rights are, as TPM has reported.
Be sure to read the Washington Post‘s full account, which traces the evolution of the NRA’s war on ATF back to the Clinton era.Hillary Clinton Makes Appeal to Gay Parents
A letter from two dads might help repair trust with gay parents after her State Deparment emails suggested she wasn't always on their side.
Hillary Clinton's State Department emails got her into trouble last year with same-sex parents, and the campaign is showing its support now by sharing a letter from an anxious gay father who is “scared of what a Republican president will mean for my family.”
The letter, signed by Georgia dads Kevin and Robbin, plus their 7-week-old son, Grey, was posted on Wednesday to the Clinton campaign website along with a fundraising appeal. They were married in New York in 2014 and then returned to their home state, where they had to adopt as single parents, essentially going through the adoption process twice.
“I want you to know that I support you because you have supported me in some of the most delicate and pivotal moments in my life,” wrote Kevin, recalling a few examples. “I remember that day in December of 2011, watching you with tears in my eyes as you said, ‘Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights.’”
The letter also shared a touching family photo, and another photo of Grey wearing an adorable, tiny Clinton campaign T-shirt.
“I support you because you are the only person running who I trust to keep our family from danger,” he wrote, then explaining his fear of what Republicans would do if elected. Indeed, all of the lead GOP contenders have said they will put conservatives on the Supreme Court who will overturn the Obergefell decision that sent marriage equality nationwide. “I’m frankly scared of Grey turning on the TV and seeing a Republican president who is outspoken about his belief that gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to marry, or that gay parents are not adequate to provide all the opportunities that a heterosexual couple can provide. I am scared of what a Republican president will mean for my family.”
Clinton herself encountered backlash from LGBT families last year when, as part of her State Department emails being released publicly, she was found to have once opposed amending travel documents to be inclusive of families headed by two dads or two moms. And she didn’t mince words at the time, back in 2011, as State considered amending travel documents to strike the words “mother” and “father” in favor of gender-neutral language.
“Who made the decision that State will not use the terms ‘mother and father’ and instead substitute ‘parent one and two’?” Clinton emailed her assistant. “I’m not defending that decision, which I disagree w and knew nothing about, in front of this Congress. I could live w letting people in nontraditional families choose another descriptor so long as we retained the presumption of mother and father. We need to address this today or we will be facing a huge Fox-generated media storm led by Palin et al.”
Read the complete letter on the Clinton campaign website.The idea here is to use the model as a way of making Beantown more energy efficient across the board. "Every city has long-term goals, but nobody knows exactly how to plan for and measure them," MIT's Carlos Cerezo says. "With this model, the city has a map to help them target and reach those goals."
One example of that is looking a building that's consuming lots of energy (and thus giving off a sizable amount of heat waste) and positioning others around it that'd use the otherwise wasted heat, Cerezo says. Another is developing autonomous power grids, "microgrids," that can withstand extreme weather conditions on their own if disconnected from the larger power network. Once a city can see how energy ebbs and flows via the big data, this sort of stuff should become easier.
"Nobody has ever modeled a city the size of Boston at this level of detail," Christoph Reinhart, also of MIT, says. But the above model's projections need to be validated against hard, real-world data before the team can reach its ultimate goal of energy-use models for every city on the globe.© Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports A man was convicted of murdering the 2-year-old son of Adrian Peterson.
Joseph Patterson has been convicted of murdering the 2-year-old son of Adrian Peterson two years ago.
Patterson was standing trial for the murder of Tyrese Ruffin committed in Oct. 2013 and was found guilty on all counts Tuesday by a Lincoln County jury in South Dakota. The charges included second-degree murder, first degree manslaughter and aggravated battery against a person under the age of three, the Argus Leader reports.
Patterson is awaiting sentencing and could spend the rest of his life in prison. His loved ones apparently took the news in a tough way.
Many of Patterson's loved ones had to be escorted out of the courtroom and courthouse for their outbursts @ksfynewspic.twitter.com/vkcjj0WUx4 — Mark Roper (@MarkRoperKSFY) September 30, 2015
It did not take long for the jury to deliberate in the matter. The Leader says it took just five hours to return the guilty verdicts.
Patterson’s attorney tried to argue Ruffin died from choking on a fruit snack, while the prosecutors said it was due to blunt force trauma.
Patterson was said to be dating the mother of the child at the time of the incident nearly two years ago. Peterson had only recently found out about the boy prior to the murder, and he had never met the young child.Despite attendance struggles at the Brickyard 400 (now known as the Crown Royal presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard) over the past five years, there’s no talk from NASCAR or Indianapolis Motor Speedway officials about discontinuing the race.
IMS officials said the commitment on both sides couldn’t be stronger for continuing the race long-term and making it stronger than it currently is.
“I don’t think either party could be more secure in its relationship with [the] other,” said IMS spokesman Doug Boles. “There is no thought internally or within NASCAR that this race shouldn’t continue.”
To bolster sagging attendance, Speedway officials are breaking new ground this year and may be willing to break even more ground in future years. For the first time, the IMS will host Grand Am and NASCAR Nationwide races over the weekend in conjunction with the Sprint Cup headliner on Sunday.
More radical changes could be coming. Speedway officials this week told IBJ that they have discussed installing lights at the massive facility—a project that would cost tens of millions of dollars—to allow races at night, particularly NASCAR events.
“Those types of discussions are more common now than they were even a year and a half ago,” Boles said. “One consideration is it would allow us to get fans out of the heat of the day.”
Erecting lights would be a major departure for Speedway officials, who previously have shunned the idea. IMS stands as one of the few major race tracks nationally without lights.
The Grand Am cars this year will race on the Speedway’s 2.6-mile road course Friday, and theNationwide qualifications and race will be held Saturday. Saturday will also feature Sprint Cup practice and qualifications.
Speedway officials are confident that this year’s race weekend will see a10-plus-percent attendance increase over last year’s weekend line up. Much of that increase will be attributed to the two new races. The Nationwide race last year was held at Lucas Oil Raceway just to the west of IMS. This year the Nationwide race will get a big boost from former IndyCar driver Danica Patrick.
Racing industry experts think 25,000 to 35,000 people will attend the first Nationwide race at the famed Brickyard, and Speedway officials said 200,000 is a reasonable expectation for the three-day weekend. The average Nationwide race brings in about 20,000 fans.
NASCAR officials estimated that 140,000 attended last year’s Brickyard 400. This year’s ticket sales for Sunday’s headline race are tracking close to last year’s, IMS officials said, but they are hopeful that cooler temperatures blowing into Indianapolis will drive strong walk-up ticket sales and push attendance over last year’s Sunday total.
Facing a decade of attendance declines, IMS CEO Jeff Belskus told IBJ that a Brickyard 400 overhaul was one of his top priorities when he took over as Speedway CEO for Tony George in July 2009.
“In 2009, we sold half as many tickets as we did in 1999,” Belskus said. “That’s a painful trend.”
IMS doesn’t divulge attendance numbers, but NASCAR estimated 2010 Brickyard 400 attendance at 140,000. Attendance was 180,000 in 2009, 240,000 in 2008, and 270,000 in 2007. In 1994, the very first Brickyard 400 at IMS drew more than 300,000, according to NASCAR.
Despite attendance declines, Speedway officials indicated that the event is still profitable. An infusion of sponsorship support from Kroger and Crown Royal at this year's event should help keep the event financially healthy.
Indianapolis is far from alone in NASCAR attendance declines. While Brickyard 400 attendance started to lag in the late 1990s, Belskus said, they were accelerated by the tire problems that occurred in 2008, when teams were forced to pit every 10 to 15 laps to replace shredded tires. The post-2007 economic swoon hasn’t helped.
IMS has added myriad popular music acts and other entertainment to try to bolster the weekend. This year will be the first time the Speedway road course and oval have been used during the same weekend.Steve Spence, an amateur organic farmer in Andrew, South Carolina, has a smart way of irrigating his vegetables. He uses water from his pond and the fish waste to fertilize his plants, a technique known as aquaponics. But the critical balance between the makeup of the water and soil means Spence has to know exactly what’s going on in both. Real-time information about the pond’s make up is imperative to know he’s giving his veggies the best drink of water.
Sensors are commercially available, but Spence found them too expensive and not nearly as flexible as he needed – “they can only do the function you purchased them for.” So he decided to customize his own. Now he monitors the water’s pH, temperature and ammonia levels, along with soil temperature, moisture levels and barometric |
would be more than 14 times higher than the $667 million Standard Chartered paid to resolve sanctions violations in 2012, the highest fine for such violations to date.
A former DOJ official said: "It's almost like more is law now."
Rationale
Sources familiar with the BNP settlement talks say there are clear justifications for a fine of as much as $10 billion, as well as other severe potential penalties, such as suspending BNP's ability to process dollar payments.
They point to the sheer volume of the suspect transactions by BNP that allegedly violated U.S. sanctions: about 10 times larger than other banks which have resolved similar cases, according to a person familiar with the matter. A second source said the high level of senior management knowledge of the conduct is another contributing factor.
A third consideration was the bank's poor cooperation with the governments investigation, an element that also figured in Credit Suisse's guilty plea and record fine.
Read MoreFrance criticizes US over BNP Paribas probe
Cases involving violations of U.S. sanctions also give prosecutors wide latitude to assess criminal penalties, prosecutors and defense lawyers said, since they are done as forfeitures rather than as fines calculated under sentencing guidelines.
When Dutch lender ING Bank agreed to forfeit a then-record $619 million in 2012 over illegal transactions with Cuban and Iranian entities, court documents said the bank moved more than $2 billion on behalf of sanctioned entities. A deferred prosecution agreement that explained the fine said only that ING acknowledged that "at least" $619 million was involved in the transactions described.
In general, sentencing guidelines provide a range of things to consider when calculating a corporate penalty, including the pervasiveness of the conduct and whether senior management participated in it, with the ability to discount a fine for companies who cooperate in an investigation and fix their problems.
But even the guidelines offer wide ranges to determine penalties, leaving prosecutors with the discretion to charge the case in a way that gets them to a penalty they seek.It is hard to imagine a time when most pharmacies carried cannabis and farmers were required to grow hemp, much like they are given incentives to grow corn these days, but that is a significant part of the history of the U.S. From the 1600s to the late 1800s, hemp (a cannabis plant containing very little THC) was harvested on U.S. soil to create materials such as rope, paper, and clothing.
In 1619, the Virginia Assembly decided to require farmers to grow hemp for these purposes, according to PBS. Hemp was also used as legal tender in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland around that time. During the 1800s, cannabis products became a popular medicinal substance found in tinctures that were sold in many pharmacies across the nation. It became a requirement to label these over-the-counter medicines containing cannabis, including cocaine and heroin, with the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906, but these things were still legal.
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Around 1910, the Mexican Revolution was starting to boil over, and many Mexicans immigrated to the U.S. to escape the conflict. This Mexican population had its own uses for cannabis, and they referred to it as "marihuana." Not only did they use it for medicinal purposes, but they smoked it recreationally, which was a new concept for white Americans. Even the term, marihuana, was unfamiliar to them, as they called it cannabis.
Southern states that were receiving the Mexican immigrants became concerned with this growing population. Newspapers ran headlines speaking of the "Mexican menace" or the "marijuana menace" and claimed Mexican men were going crazy from smoking marijuana and were killing people. El Paso, Texas became the first U.S. city to ban marijuana in 1915, and city officials started rounding up Mexicans who smoked marijuana and had them deported.
"A widow and her four children have been driven insane by eating the Marihuana plant, according to doctors, who say that there is no hope of saving the children's lives and that the mother will be insane for the rest of her life," read a New York Times story from 1927. It was clear the newspapers and tabloids were building a campaign against the plant, and much of it has been said to be based on racist ideologies against Mexican immigrants.
"Reefer Madness," the anti-marijuana propaganda film, came out in 1936. By 1937, 46 of the 48 states passed laws banning marijuana use. That same year, the Marijuana Tax Act was passed, which made it so it was illegal to have marijuana unless it was for specific medical or industrial reasons. That law was eventually ruled to be unconstitutional, but it would be replaced later on. Fast forward to the Boggs Act of 1952 and the Narcotics Control Act of 1956, which was the when the federal government started requiring minimum prison sentences for drug crimes, such as possessing marijuana. In the 1970s, President Nixon declared his war on drugs.
The Controlled Substance Act of 1970 initiated the scheduling of drugs by how dangerous they were perceived to be. Marijuana was made a schedule I drug, which meant it has no “accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was created under Nixon in 1972. The way the federal government handles punishing marijuana crimes was inspired by the Rockefeller Drug Laws, created by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller in 1973. He made it so there would be strict mandatory jail sentences for possession of drugs and led a harsh campaign against them. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan borrowed from these laws and created similar mandatory sentences at a federal level and started pursuing drug users more fervently.
As ATTN: reported before, Reagan's escalation of the drug war led the U.S. to go from 150 people in prison per 100,000 to where it stands now, just over 700 per 100,000. The motivations were originally aimed at the Mexican population, but now people of all ethnicities have suffered from harsh drug laws. That said, minority communities are still disproportionately affected by drug laws. Marijuana may be getting closer to where it was in the 1800s, with it becoming used as medicine and grown legally, but there is still progress to be made in terms of the justice system and federal law.
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The Difference Between Driving Drunk vs StonedIn September 2014, Mats Järlström, an electronics engineer living in Beaverton, Oregon, sent an email to the state's engineering board. The email claimed that yellow traffic lights don't last long enough, which "puts the public at risk."
"I would like to present these facts for your review and comments," he wrote.
This email resulted not with a meeting, but with a threat. The Oregon State Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying responded with this dystopian message:
"ORS 672.020(1) prohibits the practice of engineering in Oregon without registration … at a minimum, your use of the title 'electronics engineer' and the statement 'I'm an engineer' … create violations."
In January of this year, Järlström was officially fined $500 by the state for the crime of "practicing engineering without being registered."
*
An excerpt from one of the letters sent to Järlström by the Oregon engineering board.
It started in 2013, when Järlström's wife was caught running a red light by a camera near their home. Järlström spent a year looking into the timing of yellow lights and red light camera statistics, and learned that cameras were catching people who were running yellow lights.
The original paper that determined yellow light timing, written in 1959, is too simplistic for the modern world, he said. And yet the original calculations in them are still used all around the world.
A screengrab from the final fine order sent to Järlström.
"They only looked at a vehicle traveling safely directly through an intersection, however the equation they developed is not used for turning lanes," Järlström told me. "When you make a turn you slow down but that's not accounted for in their solution, so people are getting caught in red light cameras for making safe turns."
Järlström, understandably, wanted to get feedback on his findings. And so he reached out to the engineering board, his local sheriff, and 60 Minutes. He was even invited to give a talk about his research in front of the Institute of Transportation Engineers in Anaheim, California. He also spoke to Alexei Maradudin, the last surviving author of that 1959 paper: "He wants me to continue with this, it's amazing that I have his support," Järlström said.
The engineering board cited each time Järlström used the word "engineer" or "engineering" in emails he sent to them.
To be clear, Järlström is doing this work in his free time, for free, and does not have any control over the red lights in Oregon or anywhere else. In 2014, he sued the City of Beaverton over the length of its yellow light lengths, but that case was quickly thrown out because a judge said he lacked standing to challenge it because "for purposes of standing, Plaintiff must allege that the short yellow-light intervals create a credible threat of imminent injury to him."
"I'm not practicing engineering, I'm just using basic mathematics and physics, Newtonian laws of motion, to make calculations and talk about what I found," Järlström said.
Some of Järlström's calculations.
And yet, the engineering board in Oregon says he should not be free to publish or present his ideas. Tuesday, Järlström and the Institute for Justice sued the engineering board in federal court for Violating his First Amendment rights.
"Mats has a clear First Amendment right to talk about anything from taxes to traffic rights," Sam Gedge, an attorney for the Institute for Justice, told me. "It's an instance of a licensing board trying to suppress speech."
Järlström, for his part, said he never expected anything like this to happen when he moved to the United States from Sweden 20 years ago.
"When I got the first letter, it was this feeling of being violated and shocked that someone can be treated like this in the USA for sharing their ideas," he said. "I've done this freely, self-funded, as a civil service. I want to show these ideas to the public and I'm getting surpassed. It's been a civil rights violation since day one."
Below is Järlström's correspondence with the Oregon engineering board and the official fine notice it sent him.
mats4 by Jason Koebler on Scribd
mats3 by Jason Koebler on Scribd
mats2 by Jason Koebler on Scribd
mats1 by Jason Koebler on ScribdDragonSpeed will start on pole position for tomorrow’s European Le Mans Series Four Hours of Imola, after Nicolas Lapierre stormed to the lead of the qualifying session.
Lapierre set a 1:33.780 on his last lap, securing first position for himself and team-mates Henrik Hedman and Ben Hanley in the No. 21 Oreca 05 Nissan.
Silverstone pole-winner Mathias Beche was second for Thiriet by TDS Racing, despite a light incident with James Winslow late in the session.
Beche was 0.035 seconds behind Lapierre, and although Paul-Loup Chatin’s lap was exactly the same time, the Panis Barthez Competition driver finished third as his time was set later in the session. He had finished on top in both Free Practice sessions.
Olivier Pla and Giedo van der Garde finished next, for Krohn Racing and G-Drive Racing respectively.
United Autosports won LMP3 pole, with a time of 1:39.256 courtesy of Wayne Boyd in the No. 3 Ligier JS P3 Nissan.
The Anglo-American outfit had looked set to take a one-two qualifying position but a quick lap from Giorgio Mondini propelled Eurointernational’s No. 11 car into second.
Therefore, Silverstone winner Alex Brundle was pushed down to third, ahead of Sean Rayhall and Dino Lunardi in the No. 10 Graff and No. 19 Duqeine Engineering cars.
A brief yellow flag period came out mid-way through, as Alex Kapadia lost the front-left wheel of his Murphy Prototypes Ligier coming into the final chicane.
Soon after, Lunardi put a wheel into the grass coming into the same corner, resulting in a spin for the early leader.
Wolf Henzler took pole position in GTE for Proton Competition, in the No. 77 Porsche 911 RSR he shares with Mike Hedlund and Robert Renauer.
The German driver survived charges from Andrea Bertolini and Klaus Bachler at the end of the session but no-one could surpass his time of 1:43.440.
This left Bertolini in second for JMW Motorsport, while Bachler was third in the other Proton Porsche.
Davide Rigon took fourth for AT Racing, while the AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italias of Matt Griffin and Marco Cioci were next, ahead of Andrew Howard’s Beechdean AMR car.
The Formula Racing Ferrari was a no-show during the qualifying session, following a crash in this morning’s practice session.
The race gets underway at 2:00 p.m. local time on Sunday.
RESULTS: QualifyingGet the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
Rocket League is being updated today to support cross-play between Xbox One and PC, developer Psyonix announced this morning. This is notable ("a historic moment in multiplayer gaming," the developer says) because Rocket League becomes the first Xbox One game to allow cross-play with PC.
Lionhead's Fable Legends was also going to offer cross-play between Xbox One and PC, but that game was canceled. The PlayStation 4 version of Rocket League already supports cross-play with PC.
Psyonix also announced today that almost 2 million people have now played Rocket League on Xbox One since its launch in February. That doesn't necessarily mean the game has sold that many copies on Microsoft's console, however. Whatever the case, cross-play with PC will undoubtedly increase the pool of available players.
When cross-play goes live at 3 PM PST / 6 PM EST today, Xbox One players can choose to include--or prohibit--PC players from their matches by checking a box in the Options menu.
"We're really excited to bring Xbox One and PC players closer together," Psyonix VP Jeremy Dunham said in a statement. "Cross-network play has been something that Xbox One gamers have been asking us for since the day we launched, and thanks to Microsoft's new cross-network policies, w''re proud to give it to them."
In March, Microsoft made a big announcement when it said it would natively support cross-platform play between Xbox One, Windows 10, and other "online multiplayer networks." The move effectively opens the Xbox Live platform so that it can accommodate players on Sony's PlayStation Network, among others.
There have been no Xbox One/PS4 cross-play games yet, but Rocket League could be the first, if it's ever allowed. Psyonix said it's not a technical matter holding it back, but rather it's an issue of politics.
"The only thing we have to do now is sort of find out where we stand politically with everyone, and then it's full steam ahead to finish the solution that we've already started," Dunham said in March.SAIBA MAIS SOBRE ESTE CASO
Paulo Vieira da Silva chegou afogueado a um restaurante da zona das Antas, no Porto.
Vinha sorridente, bloco de apontamentos na mão, e quis ficar de frente para a porta. "Tenho amigos que percebem disto, não vá o Diabo tecê-las", justificou. Depois respirou fundo. Estaria indisponível para declarações ou 15 minutos de fama. Mas explicaria o que o movia, "em nome de um futuro melhor para os nossos filhos".
Desconhecido dos portugueses até há semanas, Paulo é militante e ex-dirigente do PSD no distrito, católico praticante e empresário. Saiu do quase anonimato aos 42 anos para denunciar à Justiça "o alpinista político", vice-presidente do partido, Marco António Costa, os "seus homens de mão" e a sua "rede". A tese, vertida para sete páginas e enviada ao Ministério Público em finais de abril, é esta: Marco promoveu o "tráfico de influências" e enriqueceu "sem olhar a meios". A Procuradoria abriu o inquérito 567/15.9TELSB, atualmente em curso na 12.ª secção do DIAP do Porto.
O texto da denúncia foi viral nas redes sociais. Os principais visados reagiram com honra ferida e desdém. Marco anunciou uma queixa-crime, o deputado Miguel Santos resume o caso a "teorias da conspiração" e o secretário de Estado Agostinho Branquinho não pretende perder tempo com o assunto. "Ouvir o Paulo a falar do PSD é a mesma coisa que ouvir o emplastro a dar palpites sobre o FC Porto", reagiu Virgílio Macedo, líder da distrital, lamentando as "alucinações".
Era uma vez em Fânzeres
Mas, afinal, quem é Marco António Costa? Naquele 18 de maio de 1967, Berta dos Santos quase não sobrevivia ao parto. Era o tempo das parteiras irem a casa, mas a pronta intervenção de um médico salvou a mãe e o rebento. Marco nasceu na Rua do Valado, a dois passos do jardim de infância que ainda pertence a familiares.
Modista de méritos reconhecidos, a progenitora casara com Nominando Costa, que construiria nova casa de família a trabalhar na Novopan, fábrica de aglomerados de madeira da SONAE. Vizinhos de outrora recordam o pai, "belíssima pessoa", e a figura tutelar da mãe, "de mau feitio, estilo posso, quero e mando". Fânzeres, em Gondomar, era então uma pálida aldeia, onde perduravam memórias da "fome de rato" e a família vivia remediada, sem luxos nem misérias. A terra inspirara capítulos de Os Fidalgos da Casa Mourisca, de Júlio Dinis. Tivera emigrantes no Brasil e padres com muitos filhos a desassossegar casamentos, mas ficara famosa pelos palacetes, pelas lavadeiras e pelo pão que todos os dias fazia chegar ao Porto.
Marquinho, chamava-lhe a mãe, cresceu a colecionar carrinhos, a sair à rua aperaltado, mas sem mimos maternos. Com a mãe dada ao lar e à rudeza, o rapaz "chegou-se" ao pai.
De samarra vestida, Marco foi a primeira vez ao cinema, ao Porto, depois dos dez anos. O filme Gremlins é um dos seus preferidos.
Ainda delira com a cena em que os bichinhos "estão a armar a maior confusão e aquele que tem uma penugem mais branca liga o interruptor e sai disparado".
Já era vereador em Valongo quando foi ao teatro, e hoje, quando os dossiês e as lides partidárias folgam, é fiel leitor de Miguel Sousa Tavares.
O formigueiro político em que o País se tornara nos primeiros anos de democracia toma conta da família. A mãe é vista por vizinhos a empunhar uma bandeira do PCP ou do MRPP, pois só a foice e o martelo perdura na memória de alguns. O pequeno Marco até andará, já espigadote, a exaltar a Constituição, mas seria apenas um detalhe perdido no tempo. A maioria da família puxava para o PPD/PSD e o miúdo rapidamente lá chegaria.
A mão de Mirita
Marco estava na pré-adolescência quando os pais se mudam para Valongo, a um sopro de distância de Fânzeres. Praticante de judo, chegaria a cinturão castanho e à seleção de juvenis. Abandona por causa da vida académica. Viria a licenciar-se em Direito e a ser visto em comícios do PSD a colocar aparelhagens de som. Já presidente da JSD concelhia, o grupo de amigos, onde se incluía o "shark tank" Rafael Koehler, presidente dos "jovens empresários ", vai ficar famoso por fazer da sede do partido, em Ermesinde, cenas à Gremlins.
"Portavam-se tão mal que foram proibidos de frequentá-la", recorda o médico João Bastos, então militante. "Entravam pelo telhado, queimavam cadeiras no inverno e até roubaram uma televisão, que depois recuperámos. Um regabofe!".
Por essa altura, Marco tem o seu primeiro emprego.
Dá-lhe a mão Joaquim Silva, mais conhecido por Mirita, dono da Norteáguas, empresa de furos e captações de água que viria a ganhar contratos com a Câmara de Valongo no tempo de Marco. Nunca se soube o papel do atual porta-voz do PSD junto de Mirita, nem ele esclareceu.
Viam-no com uma pasta sempre recheada de papéis. O empresário depressa meteria dinheiro em tudo o que mexia: imobiliário, combustíveis, automóveis e, claro, política. Era um "mãos largas" para escolas, associações, coletividades, mas perseguiam-no suspeitas de andar enfarinhado em atividades ilícitas. Quando algum negócio azedava, "Mirita abria ligeiramente o casaco e mostrava o prateado da pistola ao interlocutor", descreve quem o conheceu. Em 2000, o gesto saiu pela culatra: foi assassinado após um desaguisado com um cliente. Tombou de pistola na mão, sem direito a lendas, exceto esta: "Quem se aproximar também leva", terá dito o homicida. O empresário de Sobrado faleceu no seu Mirita Park, polígono industrial erguido dos escombros da Companhia Industrial de Fibras Artificiais (CIFA), cuja construção foi licenciada quando o PSD governou a autarquia.
Marco ficara amigo do filho de Mirita.
A vida que o herdeiro Rui levava, rodeado de barcos, carros de luxo e viagens, não estava ao alcance de Marco. Iam de Ferrari para a discoteca Ars Nova, em Ermesinde, faziam viagens ao Mónaco, correram redondezas e o mundo. Agora, o filho do velho Mirita (que não conseguimos contactar, nem no escritório, nem por telemóvel) coleciona processos por fraude fiscal e as Finanças detetaram gastos luxuosos de outros tempos refletidos na contabilidade das empresas.
Marco chegou à Câmara de Valongo em 1993, à boleia da vitória surpreendente do médico Fernando Melo, ex-diretor do Hospital de Valongo e governador civil do Porto. Terá sido o antigo deputado Nuno Delerue a falar ao novo presidente do puto prometedor. A campanha, faustosa, deixara desconfianças: "Já repararam que o PSD (Valongo) e a JSD (Valongo) põem e dispõem disto tudo como donos e senhores?", questionava A Voz de Ermesinde. Melo prometia ser "um bom gestor público e não um qualquer calceteiro". Valongo é por esta altura um concelho desordenado. Outrora a "Sintra do Norte", a freguesia de Ermesinde é enclave de "separatistas", indignados com os maus cheiros e a falta de água.
Marco entra para adjunto da presidência.
Consolida desde logo a amizade com o único homem que se pode dizer que é a sua sombra: Fernando Pinto, antigo segurança da noite, seu motorista até hoje. Seu, vírgula.
Requisitado ao longo de anos sucessivos por Marco para os cargos governativos que ocupou, ao abrigo de cedências de "interesse público", Fernando teve o vencimento pago pela autarquia até 25 de julho de 2013. Depois, o grupo parlamentar do PSD requisitou-o. "Fernando? Não estou a ver. Ah, sim, o Fernando Pinto! Sim, sim! É nosso motorista, mas também anda com o doutor Marco António, claro. Ele não é deputado, mas é normal partilharmos funcionários com o partido", esclareceu Luís Montenegro, líder da bancada "laranja".
Nos primeiros anos, Marco circulava pelos gabinetes à vontade. "Foi-me bastante útil no início. Ele é que dominava a política, as guerras", recorda Fernando Melo, quase a fazer 80 anos, "afastado por razões de saúde e por ter percebido como era a política ". No partido, Marco "determinou a exclusão e afastamento de muita gente capaz e bem formada, demonstrando ser incapaz de conviver com espíritos livres e independentes ", recorda José Puig, antigo deputado e ex-líder do PSD/Valongo. Na terra começara a notar-se o vaivém de empreiteiros no edifício camarário, o "regabofe e fartar vilanagem em que se transformou a cidade", escreveu-se na Imprensa local.
"Melo era decorativo. Diretamente ou por interpostas pessoas, o Marco é que sempre mandou em tudo", refere o promotor imobiliário Arnaldo Mamede. Quando o primeiro mandato termina, as construtoras não se limitavam a ter acesso livre à autarquia: sentavam-se à mesa. Em 1997, noticiam-se jantares do PSD e do presidente com "40 construtores civis" e já abundam relatos sobre as tentativas de Marco interferir em áreas sensíveis: urbanismo, habitação, águas e saneamento. "Não tenho estômago para engolir certas coisas", desabafou à época Armando Pedroso, o vereador que sairia no final do primeiro mandato com a coroa de ter resolvido o problema da falta de água e impedir a privatização dos serviços.
"Aqueles quatro anos foram a maior desilusão da minha vida. Fiquei vacinado.
O que se passava na câmara, ao mais alto nível, era tudo menos sério", recorda o eterno comandante dos Bombeiros de Valongo.
No partido, Marco vai ganhando lastro.
"Foi o coala bebé de Filipe Menezes. Empoleirava-se, era observador e tentava aprender. Fazia tudo o que ele fazia, mas já a pensar no que faria diferente, pois já era muito mais metódico, organizado e focado ", ilustra Pinto Lobão, dirigente do PSD/ Matosinhos.
Com a vitória nas autárquicas de 1997, campanha planeada e executada por Agostinho Branquinho, Marco passou a vereador do pelouro da Qualidade de Vida, Cultura, Juventude e Turismo. Antiga jornalista da RTP, Maria José Azevedo, conheceu Valongo a palmo anos mais tarde, ao liderar uma candidatura independente à autarquia. "A Manuela de Melo, minha colega na Câmara do Porto, disse-me que o Marco era trabalhador, empenhado e acima da média no pelouro da Cultura. Carregava a autarquia às costas", recorda. "Não o conheci à época, mas as pessoas ainda tinham dele a ideia de um fazedor", resume. Para as penas laudatórias locais, Marco era "fluente, oportuno ", tinha "amigos importantes e modestos " e ia tornar-se "a maior esperança do concelho".
Quando assume as pastas, Marco faz a primeira declaração de rendimentos pública.
Tem um Citroën AX 14D com nove anos, 75 ações da EDP no valor de cinco euros, um empréstimo de 55 mil euros para a casa e ganhava pouco mais de 27 mil euros por ano. Mas os primeiros sinais de riqueza são escrutinados. No início de 1998, defende-se numa carta aberta publicada no Ecos do Concelho. Adquirira um T1 antes de chegar à câmara e vendera-o por ser pequeno após o nascimento da primeira filha. Comprara outro maior. Um terceiro, na Póvoa de Varzim, pertenceria ao pai.
A tal carta terminava com Marco a colocar as contas bancárias à disposição e com uma frase para memória futura: "A minha vida é transparente."
O 'pequeno Maquiavel'
Nem todos têm essa memória dos seus anos de Valongo, de onde saiu em 2003, quando já era vice-presidente, deputado e líder do PSD/Porto, com amizades e conquistas para a vida (ver Marco e os seis magníficos).
O Plano Especial de Realojamento (PER), que permitiu a construção de mais de 600 fogos, e a privatização das "águas" foram os grandes negócios do seu tempo autárquico. As suspeitas chegaram a tribunal, nalguns casos, até hoje.
No caso do PER, o BPN Crédito processou a autarquia por considerar que esta beneficiou a ECOP, entretanto falida, permitindo à empresa de construção receber em duplicado verbas a que não tinha direito.
Na origem do caso está uma "carta de conforto" assinada por Marco António que assumia, perante a instituição financeira, a intenção do município em adquirir 46 fogos à ECOP para habitação social. Só assim, alega o BPN Crédito, foi libertado o financiamento de 1,5 milhões de euros.
O município ganhou a causa em duas instâncias, mas, este ano, o Supremo Tribunal Administrativo acatou as razões do BPN e notificou o ex-presidente Fernando Melo e a autarquia para explicações. Nas sessões até agora realizadas, antigos administradores da ECOP assumiram proximidade com Marco e as boas relações não ofereceram dúvidas. Melo disse saber pouco ou nada.
No caso da privatização da empresa de "águas" concessionada à Générale Des Eaux e hoje nas mãos da Be Water, chinesa, um relatório do Tribunal de Contas sobre o setor considerou a concessão ruinosa para o erário público, tendo sido feita sem estudo de viabilidade económico-financeira. "O saneamento não tem cor, a água não tem cor, há é necessidades dos munícipes", proclamara Marco, nas assembleias municipais.
"A história do enriquecimento de Marco António está ligada à postura que teve em Valongo", garante Celestino Neves, deputado municipal independente. "Tudo o que fosse negócio e em que fosse possível entrar e ganhar dinheiro, ele estava lá. Depois amenizava com ajudas às coletividades e obras de beneficência", explica. "Ele aqui foi considerado uma pessoa que resolvia problemas. Mas o grande faroeste urbanístico é da época dele. Estão aí os esqueletos".
Basta circular por Valongo para perceber a legenda. Em 2012, o Público resumia o dilema futuro do concelho: ser ou não ser um "cemitério de prédios inacabados".
Alguém dirá, porém, que o povo não se queixa. "A população residente nos bairros sociais está globalmente satisfeita com a sua qualidade de vida", refere um estudo da Faculdade de Letras do Porto, de 2014, sobre o PER de Valongo.
Amigo' no 'Swissleaks'
Mas façamos marcha atrás. Entre 1998 e 2003, o executivo camarário, que Marco integrou, andou na berlinda. Exemplo disso, a comitiva de 35 pessoas que a Câmara levou a Fortaleza, no âmbito de uma geminação, levantou celeuma. Criticaram-se os gastos da autarquia endividada. Do outro lado do Atlântico, a recebê-los e a fazer a ponte com as instituições brasileiras, estava Generoso dos Santos, empresário de Sobrado (Valongo), emigrado há décadas.
Estreitaram-se então laços duradouros entre Generoso, políticos da terra, empresários e jornalistas. Outras viagens se farão ao Brasil através da Bojador, agência de viagens "oficial" do município, a que recorriam Fernando Melo, Marco António e amigos. Aos 85 anos, Generoso tem ainda negócios no Brasil e em Portugal. O empresário dá avultadas quantias para as festas de São João na sua terra, mas o momento atual não é o mais feliz: apesar dos desmentidos, Generoso, familiares e sócios constam da extensa lista de 342 nomes que o Senado brasileiro investiga a propósito do escândalo Swissleaks, suspeitos de manter contas na Suíça durante anos.
Nos jornais de Valongo, Marco começou a destacar-se em traços mais nítidos.
"Farto de ser a eminência parda da câmara, quer saltar para a ribalta." Os editoriais dizem-no então "possuidor de uma ambição desmedida". É "o pequeno Maquiavel".
Ou então o "pequeno Zaqueu", referência à personagem bíblica que "precisa de subir às árvores para ser visto". Citam-se os "boys" de Marco na autarquia. E surge a "bomba" Eduardo Madeira.
Antigo vereador socialista convertido ao PSD, depois afastado da vice-presidência, Madeira denunciou durante meses, em sessões contínuas da assembleia municipal, os "podres" da autarquia. Por considerá-la "coutada" de amigos e familiares, foi condenado por difamação. Mas uma certidão extraída do processo, suportada por documentos e denúncias de Madeira, seguiu para Valongo. Três anos depois, os jornais deram a certidão como perdida a caminho do tribunal. Verdade ou não, o caso teve até hoje o repouso dos mortos.
"Muito do que disse e denunciei à época sobre a câmara e Marco António continua válido", assume. "Mas, apesar de pensar que era minha obrigação fazê-lo, eu é que fui condenado. De qualquer modo, é um assunto encerrado na minha vida e não pretendo reavivá-lo." A última referência a este processo é uma notícia do JN de 2007, que refere o extravio da certidão.
Mas o que disse o vereador, naquelas sessões camarárias? A autarquia transformara-se no local preferido "dos corruptos, dos traficantes de influências". A privatização das "águas", disse, havia sido tratada "à revelia dos vereadores" e estranhou haver adjudicações com verbas "acima do valor base". O município esbanjava recursos em propaganda, "avenças para amiguinhos e apaniguados". Marco, esse, disse o vereador, dedicava-se "à avaliação e intermediação na venda de terrenos", sugerindo valores "e até o nome das empresas" a contactar e que, "por coincidência, têm grandes interesses na Câmara". Atribuía ainda ao atual "número dois" do PSD a gestão de |
comes courtesy of Vya Jairam of the Caps Radio Network, who taped a piece on how Walker's Metro riding will endear him even more to the home crowd.
Walker started by telling Vya he plans to get a SmarTrip card, so taken is he with the mass-transit experience. See, having played most of his career in Nashville and Raleigh, he had apparently never been on a subway system before.
"So I was excited to use it, little bit nervous at first obviously," he told Vya. "But man, people were so helpful. I just kind of looked lost -- that was pretty easy to do -- and people just helped me and taught me how to go over and figure out how to pay for a ticket and how to get on. I'm sure I overpaid a bit, because I was just so scared that I was gonna get trapped in there, so I just made sure I put enough money that I could get in and out. And man, I had a great time, and I'm so excited to use it more now. Now I'm not so scared to just jump on it and head one or two stops or all the way, wherever."
He hadn't yet tried Metro before his wife and kids left town, and he said they were mad at him for not introducing them to mass transit.
"I wasn't sure to take my kids on there and my wife yet because I didn't want to get lost," he explained, "but now they're thrilled and they're excited to come back and give it a go and get downtown and go see the sights...."
"My family, mom and dad, they asked me, 'Well, what's it like, what's the makeup?' " Walker later said. "And I said 'Well, it's mostly people headed to work or home from work or to school or whatever they do.' I said 'They just go about their business, not really much chit-chatting. Just people jump on, do a few stops and they're off.' It's pretty interesting to see and it's amazing to me how it works. So for a small city kid it was pretty exciting, and now I'm so glad, because now it's so much easier to get around for me."
But, Vya pointed out, as his toothless smile becomes more famous around town, it won't be as easy for Walker to slide anonymously into a seat.
"I'll put my teeth in," he suggested. "Got to disguise it."Six Nations fixtures 2019 in full
The 2019 Six Nations will once again see the England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales international rugby union teams take each other on over the course of five thrilling rugby-packed weekends of fixtures. This is an international competition that takes place annually, with each of the six sides playing each other once.
When does the Championship start?
The 2019 fixture schedule for the Six Nations begins on Friday, 1st February 2019 with France and Wales getting the first match underway at the Stade de France in Paris, then on Saturday 2nd February 2019 Scotland play Italy at BT Murrayfield in Scotland followed by Ireland v England at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
When does it finish?
The Championship runs until 16th March 2019 when all three fixtures of Round 5 take place on the same day known as ‘Super Saturday’ which starts with Italy v France in Rome, followed by Wales v Ireland at Principality Stadium and culminating in England v Scotland at Twickenham.
What are the Six Nations fixtures for 2019?
Below are the fixtures, dates and UK kick off times of the Six Nations for 2019.
ROUND ONE
France v Wales, Friday Feb 1, 8.00pm (UK & Ireland), Paris
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Scotland v Italy, Saturday Feb 2, 2.15pm, Edinburgh
Ireland v England, Saturday Feb 2, 4.45pm, Dublin
ROUND TWO
Scotland v Ireland, Saturday Feb 9, 2.15pm, Edinburgh
Italy v Wales, Saturday Feb 9, 4.45pm (UK & Ireland), Rome
England v France, Sunday Feb 10, 3.00pm, Twickenham
ROUND THREE
France v Scotland, Saturday Feb 23, 2.15pm (UK & Ireland), Paris
Wales v England, Saturday Feb 23, 4.45pm, Cardiff
Italy v Ireland, Sunday Feb 24, 3.00pm (UK & Ireland), Rome
ROUND FOUR
Scotland v Wales, Saturday Mar 9, 2.15pm, Edinburgh
England v Italy, Saturday Mar 9, 4.45pm, Twickenham
Ireland v France, Sunday Mar 10, 3.00pm, Dublin
ROUND FIVE
Italy v France, Saturday Mar 16, 12.30pm (UK & Ireland), Rome
Wales v Ireland, Saturday Mar 16, 2.45pm, Cardiff
England v Scotland, Saturday Mar 16, 5.00pm Twickenham
Full 2019 fixture details including local and GMT kick off times.
What are the current Six Nations league standings for 2019?
The Six Nations 2019 table and all historic Six Nations tables are available on our dedicated Six Nations tables page with detailed points breakdowns and league standings.
What TV channels are showing live matches?
All of the fixtures in the 2019 Six Nations will be available for you to watch live. Fans can catch the games on BBC and ITV, while every single Wales game will also be shown on S4C. FR2 will be broadcasting every game in France, TV3 has the same honour in Ireland while DMAX has the same privilege in Italy. In America, NBC will be broadcasting every game of the Championship
Further information on all televised matches including international broadcasts can be found on our live TV broadcast schedule.
Where can fans and supporters buy tickets or hospitality?
Tickets are controlled by the host Union of each match, with a limited number of tickets made available to the visiting Union for their supporters, ie for a Wales v Scotland match, you should contact the Welsh Rugby Union in the first instance, unless you live in Scotland, in which case you could also contact the Scottish Rugby Union.
To ensure that you obtain a genuine ticket, we recommend that you only purchase tickets through an official source. Details of ticket policies and suppliers can be obtained directly from each Union.Warren East pitcher Hunter Green was selected Thursday night by the Los Angeles Angels with the 59th overall pick in the second round of the MLB draft.
Green – a 6-foot-4-inch, 180-pound left-hander – is the highest area high school pick since the draft was implemented in 1965.
The area player to be selected highest out of high school or college was Joe Blanton, who played at Edmonson County and Franklin-Simpson and was picked 24th overall in the 2002 draft as a junior at the University of Kentucky. Blanton currently pitches for the Angels.
According to Baseball America, the recommended slot value for Green’s 59th spot this year is $942,000. Green’s last scout visit was by the Angels, he said, and they called shortly before the 59th pick to tell him they would select him in that spot if he was still available. Green said he plans to bypass college – he signed with the University of Kentucky in November – and agree to a deal with Los Angeles. He’ll discuss contract details with the organization Friday. I’ll have full coverage in Friday’s BGDN, but here are a few comments from Green on Thursday night: HUNTER GREEN
Thoughts on being an Angel: “It’s absolutely amazing. Words can’t describe how happy I am. Even though things didn’t pan out how other people expected it to with the first round, that’s fine with me. The second round is still a great place to go, and just getting the opportunity to play professional baseball is a blessing.”
On dedicating the day to former Warren East teammate Michael Vincent, who died in a car wreck one year ago Thursday: ““I believe I’m an Angel for a reason. He was watching over me the whole time, and he was my angel.”
Sitting through whole process: “It was definitely hard. Some of the teams I thought were definitely going to get me, they would pass up on me, and I was starting to get worried. I’m not going to lie. I was getting very frustrated, but the Angels happened to call.”
What was the reaction in your house? “My mom jumped up and started screaming, my dad jumps up and gives me high-fives. They both started crying and started hugging me, and of course I was the happiest I’ve been in my life.”
Representing the area: “Mark (Biggs has) represented it well and made this area happy, and I give him a lot of credit for getting me where I am today. Everybody’s been behind me and supported me, so that’s awesome.”
AdvertisementsWorkers at Centennial Park are going “full bore” amid recent double-digit temperatures to get the long-shuttered park reopened, Sarnia’s chief engineer says, but expected reopening dates – at the end of May and beginning of June – haven’t changed.
“As of right now we’re still sticking with those dates because we don’t know what Mother Nature is going to throw at us,” Andre Morin said Friday.
The $11-million rehabilitation and revamp of the Sarnia Bay-adjacent park – cordoned off after asbestos, lead and other contaminants were found in the soil in 2013 – is making progress.
An update from Morin and Environmental Services Superintendent Joe Boothe this week to city council notes an armour stone wall along the shoreline is done; most lighting is done; electrical, plumbing and final finishes at the former Dow People Place are ongoing; soil remediation work is done – grading and paving queued for when the weather is consistently warmer – and concrete bases are in for playground equipment and a healing garden.
“There is pretty good progress happening, things are really moving along,” Morin said. “The contractor themselves, they really want this job done as well, but there’s just limiting factors.
“Their hands are tied in terms of when they can actually get asphalt, when they can do certain things and plant materials and that sort of stuff.”
A new approach and modified design has also been devised for the boat launch site by contractor Bre-Ex and consultant Golder Associates, the report notes. Previous attempts to build the launch failed when contractors encountered construction materials buried in backfill, making attempts to block water difficult.
Details of the plan weren’t available.
“They feel they have a solution that’s going to work,” Morin said.
“They know what they need to build. We’re hoping they will actually make that happen.”
The new design doesn’t change the size or capacity, the report notes.
Meanwhile vandalism continues to be a problem, as armour stones were recently targeted with spray paint, Morin said.
“Just childish, inappropriate symbols,” he said. “And it’s just a nuisance because then there’s an extra effort and cost to try and get rid of this vandalism.”
The city has hired after-hours security to watch the area until the job is done, he said, noting the “minor costs” are covered within “contingency and existing operational budgets.”
Copper thieves targeting the site were arrested by police, he said, noting contractors have also installed floodlights and other security measures.
Construction work is expected to wrap up in two stages this spring.
The new playground equipment and all works to the east are expected to open to the public May 26, while the remaining park west of the playground – including the new healing garden and public boat launch – is slated for opening June 2.
Talk of a grand opening celebration is underway, but nothing’s set in stone, Morin said.
“As soon as there’s something, I’m sure we’ll be putting out an update to let everybody know.”
tkula@postmedia.comFans of Toronto food trucks are in for a marginally more delicious summer. Today, council officially enacted a raft of new rules designed to cut the stifling amount of red tape around operating a mobile food vehicle in the city. The debate was drawn out over two days and delayed by a seemingly endless list of last-minute suggestions but, finally, resulted in several long-awaited changes to the rules.
Yesterday, a rally that included five food trucks assembled outside City Hall in support of looser street food rules. "We're trying to show city council how much Toronto wants food trucks to be able to go where we need to go, as opposed to the way the laws are now," said Scott Fraser of Hogtown Smoke.
Before today's vote, food trucks were only allowed to operate on private property or for a maximum of 10 minutes in a city parking lot. The needlessly uptight rules, a relic from the days of food carts, meant mobile eateries like Hogtown Smoke and Caplansky's were often hard to find.
Some councillors, including Anthony Perruzza, were concerned loosening the rules too much would lead to the "wild west." Cllr. Mary-Margaret McMahon said council risked "strangling the life out of everything" by over-regulating food trucks.
Here's a quick run down of some of the changes:
ALL FOOD TRUCKS MUST STAY A MINIMUM OF 50 METRES FROM A RESTAURANT. That's 50 metres in a straight line from the door of an "open and operating" brick-and-motar restaurant. As Metro pointed out, that could black out a large portion of downtown, but the city insists there are more than 350 suitable areas across Toronto. This rule doesn't apply if the truck is on private property or in a city parking lot. Trucks must also be 30 m from a school and 25 m from a sidewalk vendor.
PAY AND DISPLAY SPOTS ARE UP FOR GRABS. Every single pay-and-display spot in the city is fair game for food truck vendors this summer, provided they pay the applicable charges, stay no longer than three hours, and comply with all traffic rules. Only two trucks per city block, however.
PERMITS ARE GOING TO BE HOT PROPERTY. A motion by Cllr. Kristyn Wong-Tam limited the number of new food truck permits to 125 available over the next 12 months. There was concern that council loosening the rules could lead to a flood of applications and new trucks, possibly from chain restaurants, but permits will be limited to one per person.
COUNCILLORS WILL HAVE A SAY IN PERMITS. The executive director of Municipal Licensing and Standards will be allowed to work with the local councillor to decide whether a controversial permit is appropriate. Local BIAs be involved in the debate if a food truck owner wants to establish a vending zone that isn't in a pay-and-display area.
ICE CREAM TRUCKS ARE FREE TO ROAM THE CITY. The changes don't just affect new food vendors. Ice cream trucks will be allowed to stay in one spot longer than 10 minutes and set up in any part of the city. The downtown moratorium on new sidewalk vendors, e.g. the hot dog and burger stands, will stay in effect.
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: Jesse Milns/blogTOThanks for coming!
News and details about some follow up smaller CryptoParty software workshops are coming soon... so follow @cryptoadl on twitter for updates, or keep checking back here.
We'll also publish a page of links soon with software and services to start with. In the meantime, have a browse through the EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense.
If you're looking for a VPN, check this amazing VPN list by @ThatPrivacyGuy. Services are rated by 'Fourteen eyes' jurisdiction, logging, activism, configuration, availability, business practices, encryption, cookies & price. ++
Cheers,
CryptoParty Adelaide crew.
Archive of previous CryptoParty Adelaide events
What happens at a CryptoParty?
Bring a laptop, smartphone or tablet and join us for an Adelaide CryptoParty. Open to all, learn about cryptography software such as Tor - The Onion Router, PGP - Pretty Good Privacy, Public Key Cryptography, VPNs - Virtual Private Networks and OTR - Off The Record messaging, as well as other helpful applications and tips.
The party will be opened by a friendly group of cypherpunks who’ll explain what cryptography is, and how it’ll help you protect your privacy on-line and avoid data retention. Then we'll follow up with an install festival where we’ll help you install and use the crypto software you’ve just learned about.
Pizza & drinks are provided, but feel free to BYO.
Contact us
Email us at cryptoadl (at) riseup.net or use your favourite social network below.
18ED 66A3 4969 AF80
If you'd like to make a donation to keep the CryptoParties going:
1J6Qe2mX7owGnZXhfxMPyAWB42kYJoc8PH
Code of conduct
The following is a list of advice for CryptoParty attendees in the hopes of keeping discussion seamless, informative and on point.
TRY to listen and respect the moderator
TRY to give explanations and avoid acronyms
DON’T interrupt someone speaking
DON’T preach about organization or affiliation: we don’t care
DON’T infringe on a member’s privacy
DON’T gloat about your technical prowess
DON’T assume anyone knows what you’re referring to: explain yourself
DON’T monopolize the conversation
DO show respect for the women & men who grace us
DO be courteous and excellent to each other
DO be respectful of the venue of the meeting or event
Thanks to support from
CryptoParty Adelaide is completely run and funded by volunteers, so if you'd like it to continue, we need your help to run the next one!By Doug Powers • January 13, 2015 07:30 PM
**Written by Doug Powers
For fun & profit:
It’s clear that taxpayers aren’t only going to be on the hook for damages Occupy Oakland protesters caused in 2012, but will also be forced to pay them for the inconvenience of being arrested:
A federal magistrate tentatively approved a $1.3 million settlement of a lawsuit filed by Occupy Oakland protesters who said they were corralled by police outside the downtown YMCA before being unfairly arrested and held in jail for hours. In signing off on the deal last week, U.S. Magistrate Nathanael Cousins in San Francisco also granted preliminary class-action status, meaning the eight plaintiffs who sued the city of Oakland and Alameda County would share the money with roughly 400 people who allege they were unlawfully arrested on Jan. 28, 2012. City and county leaders have already approved the payout, the latest in a series of settlements of lawsuit alleging police wrongdoing during mass arrests, court records show. Plaintiffs in the case, however, need to sign off on it before it becomes final.
Notice that the Occupy Oakland lawsuit against the city doesn’t appear to include lost wages due to the lengthy incarceration period — go figure.
A breakdown of the payout:
The preliminarily approved settlement stipulates that the City of Oakland and the County of Alameda will pay the class more than $1.3 million, which will be divided equally among the class members after attorneys’ fees and class representatives’ awards are deducted. Cousins ruled that the class counsel would receive $350,000, and that each of the eight class representatives would receive $9,000.
Here’s the kind of thing a few hundred protesters could be receiving checks for, via the January 29, 2012 New York Times:
About 400 people were arrested and three police officers were injured after a weekend protest by members of the Occupy movement in Oakland, Calif., turned into a violent confrontation with law enforcement officers that led to an assault on City Hall. Demonstrators trampled a fence as they attempted to flee the police during the protest on Saturday. The clashes began about 3 p.m. on Saturday when protesters marched toward the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center and began to tear down construction barricades, and the violence extended into early Sunday. The Oakland Police Department said in a statement that the crowd was ordered to disperse after protesters “began destroying construction equipment and fencing.” “Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares,” the police statement said. Officers responded by firing smoke and tear gas canisters and beanbags, and they initially arrested 20 people. Several hours later, some protesters broke into City Hall, the police said, although some of the demonstrators said they found the building’s door ajar. Mayor Jean Quan surveyed the damage there on Sunday, and the city administrator, Deanna J. Santana, said at a news conference that the protesters had broken a window and damaged a historic model of the building. Flags were stolen, she said, and one of them was burned in front of City Hall.
Counting the latest payout, one protester in particular is closing in on a quarter of a millions dollars made from professional agitating:
Among the plaintiffs was Sri Louise Coles, who had suffered a golf-ball-size welt to her jaw from a bag of lead shot fired by Oakland police during a 2003 anti-war demonstration at the Port of Oakland. She sued the city, which settled for $210,000.
Cha-ching!
The Oakland mayor has pegged the total damage caused by Occupy protesters at about $5 million, and now they’re being paid for it.
Idiocracy, we have arrived.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBeRebecca Smith
Transport for London (TfL) thought the Night Tube would be popular; it didn't realise quite how popular.
At a meeting of the London Assembly Transport Committee to discuss progress of the services, London Underground's managing director Mark Wild said that at the moment, passenger numbers were 50 per cent higher than forecast on the Night Tube.
The services were first launched on the Victoria and Central lines on 19 August and then joined by the Jubilee on 7 October. The Night Tube will also come to the Northern and Piccadilly lines by the end of the year.
Read more: Here's when the Night Tube starts on the Piccadilly line
Chair of the Committee Caroline Pidgeon noted Transport for London (TfL) expected the Night Tube to run at a loss for first three years of operation at a cost of £24.6m. Chief operating officer Steve Griffiths said it was possible they'll break even earlier off the back of higher passenger numbers than forecast, though it would "depend on the mix of revenue".
"But clearly it can only be more positive that we said it would pay back in three years and we're seeing greater demand than what we planned in the business case," he added.
Wild added that as the Night Tube was envisaged as a network, it would only be once the five lines were in operation that they'd be able to answer that. "But it's enormously encouraging," he said.
To date, the noise pollution concern with the Night Tube has also been lower than anticipated. Wild said: "We have only had 37 unique complaints on the Night Tube so far, having said that we still have a few hotspots." The east end of the Central line in particular, and Wild acknowledged "the close proximity to buildings on surface is a challenge".
The 37 complaints haven't been broken down yet, so some could be on behalf of a street and potentially clusters of local action groups.
Read more: Sadiq Khan has named London's first night czar
In terms of future roll-out, Wild said the reason TfL can't now expand the Night Tube straight onto the District, Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan lines was because "we're doing open heart surgery replacing the signalling systems".
The weekends are being used to install the brand new signalling system, which should be in operation from 2019. "I predict the Night Tube could be expanded to other sub-service lines after the signalling work," he added, but stressed it was important to assess how the five lines progressed to have evidence for the mayor that future roll-out could be beneficial.Valar morghulis: All men (and women) must die. But when?
Welcome to a very special edition of Valar Morghulis, as we look ahead to the ninth episode of Game of Thrones Season 6, “Battle of the Bastards.” Like “Blackwater” and “The Watchers on the Wall,” this one looks to concern itself mainly with one event, in this case the battle between Ramsay Bolton and Jon Snow for control of the North. Death promises to be in abundance this episode, but as it probably won’t jump around in space too much, we will only be looking at the participants who are likely to show up in what we hope is the best episode of the year.
We have divided the characters into three groups for this edition of Valar Morghulis: those we are certain will appear, those related to the battle who might appear, and those unrelated to the battle who still might show up.
But first, let’s take a look at what we got right from last week’s episode, “No One.”
“The Waif: 95%. Okay, so we got this one wrong last week, and it was actually the Waif scoring a victory over Arya. But we aren’t counting out Arya quite yet, and that entire scene had a fishy feel to it. Call us skeptical that the Arya/Waif throwdown is over, and we still believe Arya will emerge victorious.”
We nailed this on the head. Things did not look good for Arya Stark after being gutted in “The Broken Man” at the hands of the Waif, but thanks to some magical soup from Lady Crane, Arya was soon up and running, literally.
Arya was clever to lure the Waif into her hovel before eliminating the only light source and killing the Waif in darkness. (By the way, who lit that candle? Was it burning the whole time?). Despite losing both of his pupils, even Jaqen H’Ghar approved. Read our detailed Curtain Call for the Waif here.
“Brynden Tully: 50%. Our trailer breakdown for “No One” seems to show Brienne departing Riverrun in a boat, with a horrified look upon her face. What would horrify Brienne? Mayhaps the death of the Blackfish and every other man in the Riverrun garrison?”
So the Riverrun garrison survived, but the Blackfish chose a samurai’s death and went down swinging. I remain disappointed we didn’t see it, and refuse to agree with producers about the gratuity of showing his death. Read our detailed Blackfish Curtain Call here.
Honorable Mention: Lady Crane. After spending several weeks at the top of our list, we removed her entirely as we assumed she would no longer appear on the show. Boy, were we wrong. Not sooner did Lady Crane reappear as Arya’s nursemaid that she was impaled upon her stool by the Waif. Ouch. Read our detailed Lady Crane Curtain Call here.
Okay. On to “Battle of the Bastards.”
****Percentages refer to how likely the character is to die, not survive.****
The characters we know will participate.
1. Ramsay Bolton: 99%. Finally! We’ll hopefully see this awful character meet his doom this week. Granted, it might be wishful thinking to put Ramsay at the very top of the list, but if the previous battle of Winterfell is any indication, he’ll likely lead his forces into battle. This means the bastard of Bolton will be exposed, and hopefully in quite a bit of peril. It’s certainly possible that the victorious Stark forces will simply decide to place Ramsay in chains, but if they do, I am throwing my replica of Needle straight through my TV. Save my TV, Game of Thrones producers. You don’t want its death on your hands.
2. Wun Wun: 90%. This one saddens us, as we love the giant Wun Wun, but we just don’t see how such a huge target escapes the battlefield alive. We know from the Battle of Castle Black that giants are not invincible, despite what it might have looked like during the Massacre at Hardhome last season.
We also saw in the teaser for the episode that the Bolton forces have more than a few archers on hand, and we just don’t see how all of them could miss such a huge target. We think Wun Wun will take out more than his fair share of the Bolton forces, and we’d love nothing more than to see him pick up Ramsay and smash him against a wall before he goes, but we still believe the giant won’t survive.
3. Harald Karstark: 90%. For some unexplained reason, even Ramsay Bolton has friends, and Harald Karstark is one of them. True, Robb Stark executed Harald’s father Rickard way back in Season 3, but still we aren’t sure how you take up the cause of a man like Ramsay. Either way, Harald pledged his house, one of the biggest in the North after the Starks and the Boltons, to the Bolton cause, and appears to be Ramsay’s new right-hand man.
If we are right about the death of Ramsay, we believe that Harald’s death will precede it, and we don’t believe anyone will shed a tear to see this turncloak meet his doom.
4. Tormund Giantsbane: 75%. Once again, we are saddened to even think about the death of the Tormund Gianstbane, if for no other reason than because we’ll miss his penis jokes. But either way, we believe this might be the point when the extraordinarily lucky wildling finally runs out luck. Surviving the battles of Castle Black and Hardhome seems an improbable feat in itself.
Tormund will most certainly be among the first into the fray, and with the size of the arrayed Bolton forces, we have to think he’ll also be among the first casualties. We can only hope that he manages to take out someone important down with him.
5. Smalljon Umber: 75%. Here’s yet another former Stark ally who has taken up the Bolton cause, and we can’t understand why. There was some noise about the wildlings, and since the show has gone heavy on trying to convince us that the North is full of xenophobes, we suppose that will have to do. Unlike the Karstarks, however, the Umbers were thought to be loyal house to the Starks, but that relationship ended when the Smalljon handed over Rickon Stark to Ramsay.
Considering the Umbers have broken faith with House Stark, we hope the Smalljon meets with a swift death.
6. Melisandre: 50%. I’ve been predicting Melisandre’s death for most of the season, and it appears that this might be the episode where the Red Woman finally meets her end. Unlike some of others on this list, however, I believe Melisandre will meet her fate at the hands of an ally, not an enemy.
A teaser breakdown revealed the moment we have all been waiting for: Davos finding the pyre Melisandre built to burn Shireen alive back in Season 5. We simply cannot believe that Davos will find the pyre (and likely that wooden stag he carved for Shireen), and simply shrug it off. We expect the normally steady and level-headed Davos to fly into some sort of rage, and put an end to his old enemy.
7. Davos Seaworth: 50%. If Davos survives at attempt on Melisandre’s life, he should at least make it to the battle, but surviving that is a whole other story.
We can’t see much narrative reason to keep Davos around after, and if, he kills Melisandre, despite our desire to see him become one of the rare “good guys” to survive until the end of the series. Will “Battle of the Bastards” be the last ride of Davos Seaworth? Come and see.
8. Rickon Stark 50%. Rickon has remained unseen since a brief sighting back in “Oathbreaker.” when the Smalljon handed over to Ramsay Bolton as a gift. The youngest Stark sibling remains in the hands of the most psychotic man in all of Westeros, and that isn’t what you would call a healthy living situation.
Remember those shots in the teaser images of flayed men burning on Bolton crosses? We fear that Rickon might get strung up. Ramsay, after all, is a maniac known for his brutality. We hope we’re wrong about this one.
9. Jon Snow: 25%. Yes, we know. Jon Snow is leading a numerically inferior force up against a better-equipped and organized army. And yes, there is that image of Jon foolishly standing alone in front of a heavy cavalry charge. But we still don’t see Game of Thrones producers ending two seasons in a row with the death of Jon Snow.
Producers are really attempting to show us Jon’s death might be possible, even going so far as to have Jon request Melisandre not bring him back if he falls, but we still aren’t buying it. Somehow, Jon survives this battle.
10. Sansa Stark: 20%. We think Sansa will make it through the battle as well. We doubt very much that she’ll be an active participant, and thus should remain fairly safe for most of its duration. If the Battle of the Bastards ends in a Stark victory, as we predict, we believe Sansa will be there to see the demise of her husband, Ramsay.
Sansa has come into her own this season, and if it holds, we are excited to see her transition into a more stately, Lady Catelyn-type role (although we expect she’ll be friendlier towards Jon). If Sansa does somehow perish in the battle, we aren’t sure where that would leave House Stark.
The characters that might participate.
11. Littlefinger: 15%. Thanks to some rather clever Redditors, we know that Sansa wrote to Littlefinger for aid back in “The Broken Man.” As Baelish seemed rather keen to help out Sansa in “The Door,” we assume the Knights of the Vale will show up at some point. When they do, we think their first priority will be protecting Littlefinger, allowing him to squirm away once more.
12. Brienne: 10%. We know that geography has no place in the world of Westeros, so it’s not out of the question that Brienne and Pod rowed their way up to Winterfell in just one episode, but we aren’t sure. If Brienne does arrive during the battle, our guess is it that it would be rather late, so she should remain safe for this week.
13. Podrick Payne: 10% Remember that everyone wants to hit a squire, so if Brienne and Pod do somehow show up, it could be Pod that pays the price.
14. Arya Stark: 5% Could this episode bring us another Stark family reunion? Arya did state at the end of “No One” that she was headed home, and she may have meant Winterfell? It would take a long while to get from Braavos to Winterfell, but like writer Bryan Cogman said, not everyone’s storylines occur at the same time.Former Vice President Al Gore appeared alongside Hillary Clinton in Miami to fire up young millenial voters – though some of them were firing up their Instagram accounts while he lectured about the dire risks global warming.
'Please take it from me: every single vote counts,' Gore told the crowd at Miami Dade College.
Gore told the student-heavy crowd about the disputed 2000 election, in case some of them under 25 years old hadn't heard about it.
'Take it from me it was a very close election,' Gore said, prompting cheers of 'You won!' from the crowd.
'I don’t want you to be in a position years from now where you welcome Hillary Clinton and say, "Actually you did win, it just wasn’t close enough to make sure that all the votes were counted" or whatever,' the former vice president said.
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Former Vice President Al Gore, who narrowly lost the presidency in 2000, campaigns with Hillary Clinton in Miami Tuesday
He also spoke about climate change, pointing to a three-inch sea level rise since Hurricane Andrew in parts of the state.
'Sometimes a fish from the ocean swims on the streets of Miami-Dade and Delray, Ft. Lauderdale,' Gore said.
He then spoke of tropical diseases like becoming 'endemic,' with new Zika cases reported in the state already rattled by an early appearance.
'Mosquitos mature faster and then the virus in the misquito incubates much faster and they bite more often,' Gore explained.
Gore, who lectured in New York after he left the White House, continued his discourse on mosqito biology. 'The temperature goes up, their metabolism goes up and they spread the diseases,' he said.
CHAT ROOM: A student, top left, checks her phone while Al Gore warns of the threat of climate change
HI MOM: Another woman, pictured in head scarf, takes a break to check in with her mobile device, while another woman either reads from her phone or takes a picture
IT'S PROBABLY DAILYMAIL.COM: One of the few men placed behind Gore and Clinton for the event also took a minute to check his phone
Gore spoke about climate change and the 2000 election while Hillary Clinton looked on. A woman in a blue shirt checked her phone
Some students seated behind him could be seen checking their phones while he spoke about the stinging mosquito threat.
During Clinton's remarks, she immediately had to contend with a protester who called her husband a 'rapist.'
Gore's appearance was meant to fire up young voters in south Florida and around the country. Clinton wants to harness Gore's credibility on climate change, calling him 'one of the world’s foremost leaders on climate change.'
Before she could get going, a man held up a flier with a picture of Bill Clinton's face and the word 'RAPE.' Clinton faced down a similar protester who wore a 'RAPE' t-shirt in Ohio Monday night.
Not long afterward, a second protester interrupted her remarks.
'Lets focus on what’s really important in this election,' Clinton said, as the crowd cheered and tried to shout down the man.
Eventually uniformed officers removed him from the facility at Miami Dad College.
The explosive charge was a reference to Jaunita Broaddrick, who accuses Bill Clinton of raping her in a Little Rock hotel room in 1978.
Clinton leads Donald Trump by about 3 per cent in the RealClearPolitics average in Florida
'Lets focus on what’s really important in this election,' Clinton said after she got heckled in Florida
Donald Trump brought Braoddrick and three other Clinton accusers to the second presidential debate on Sunday. Clinton denies the charge, and there was never any legal proceeding. |
by SEGA Europe, as discovered by TSSZ News today. The whois on the domain says it was registered on September 07, 2016 and was last updated today. Which is funny because SEGA Europe President & COO Jurgen Post said back in September that Shenmue HD remakes had their full attention. Does this mean Shenmue HD remakes are in the works over at SEGA? Who knows, there is the possibility that SEGA just snatched up ShenmueHD.com before a domain scalper could and really have no intents in doing a remake.
I think its a positive sign, especially since SEGA as of late have been more willing to listen to what fans want. Maybe ShenmueHD.com will be put to good use and the internet will be happy? I guess we shall see, soon enough.
[update] After doing some more research, I found that SEGA Europe registered the domain with a certain email and when I reversed searched that email it said SEGA registered THREE Shenmue related domains including ShemnueGame.com and ShenmueRemastered.com. More info here. These Shenmue domains are the only registered domains they did in 2016. [/update]A baseball fan who’s been battling kidney disease for 14 years received the most heartwarming and emotional news this week. Steve and Heather Winfree were opening baseball cards one night and going through the pack — players like Noah Syndergaard, Ben Zobrist, and Mike Trout were part of the pack. At the end of the pack, there was a special card made just for Steve: the card announced that he would be receiving a new kidney thanks to his wife, who had found out she was a matching donor. Let the happy tears begin.
Steve and Heather also processed what it took to make this reveal possible, which led to a lighthearted moment:
Heather: “I got the phone call, and I went into the stairwell at work, and I just started bawling my eyes out.” Steve: “That means you lied to me today.” Heather: “Haha, I made a little fib.” Steve: “I knew something was up. I knew something was up. ‘Cause you told me to go to Sports Clips and told me to get the MVP. You never tell me to get the MVP.” Heather: “Treat yourself.” Steve: “You always tell me that’s a Christmas present. And so I was talking to the lady cutting my hair. I was like, ‘I think something’s up.’ And she goes, ‘Why?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m waiting on a transplant and my wife told me to come get an MVP and she never lets me get an MVP. I have to go to Great Clips and only when it’s $6.’” Heather: (to the camera) “The MVP is too expensive.”
The Winfrees talked to MLB.com about the moment, and they said that opening baseball cards is a hobby of theirs to take away from the stress of Steve’s condition:
The couple says baseball cards are a type of stress relief and a hobby they can enjoy together, so for Heather to pick up a pack at the local store wasn't out of the norm. "There were a lot of times where he would be in the hospital and I would grab a pack and we would open them," she explained. "The low-key fun gets our minds off of the every day stresses." "She kept saying 'you have a special insert there,'" Winfree told MLB.com. "I knew something was up because she never films me."
According to MLB.com, Heather will undergo further testing to make sure she’s good to go through surgery, and if she is, their transplant will take place at the end of the month. So, to the Winfrees: thank you for sharing this really special moment in your lives, and best of luck with the surgery.
I'M GETTING A NEW KIDNEY!! MY WIFE IS A MATCH!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!! I'M BAWLING MY EYES OUT RIGHT NOW! We got the reaction on film too!! — Knoxville Kidney Guy (@Steve_Winfree) July 7, 2017
(via Cut4/MLB)Along with the 16 arrests, four businesses were cited or closed in the area, Ald. Harry Osterman said. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Josh McGhee
UPTOWN — On Monday, the Chicago Police Department arrested 16 people in connection to drug dealing around Argyle Street, according to Ald. Harry Osterman (48th).
Along with the 16 arrests, four businesses were either cited or closed in the area as a result of the police action, Osterman said via email Tuesday.
"A number of these individuals were gang members who have been involved with the violence that has plagued this part of our community and were cited for selling narcotics within 1,000 feet of Goudy and McCutcheon schools," he said. "This police operation is an important step to improving the safety on and around Argyle street. A safe Argyle area is important for the entire community."
The takedown was lead by the city's narcotics and vice units and struck "the heart of gang operations," according to the Police Department.
Eight of the individuals arrested were documented gang members, and 13 were listed on the Police Department's strategic subject list, a compilation that uses an algorithm to calculate the natural tendency of an individual to be a victim of gun violence, according to the Police Department.
Other violations identified during the two-month long operation include:
• 10 Administrative Notice of Ordinance Violations issued to a building in the 5000 block of North Sheridan. The building has been ordered closed by Building Commissioner due to serious code violations.
• 10 building code violations and two gambling machines seized in the 1100 block of West Granville Avenue.
• Four building code violations issued to a building in the 1100 block of West Argyle Street.
• Eight building code violations issued to another building in the 1100 block of West Argyle Street.
The Lincoln Police District will have more officers in the area over the next few weeks, and the community is invited to two "positive loitering" in the area. The gatherings will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Argyle Street and Kenmore Avenue and 6 p.m. Friday at Argyle Street and Broadway, Osterman said.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:New Delhi: The more-than-a-month-long budget session began on tempestuous note with the opposition UPA trying to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government on the issue of inflation even as the Congress intensified its campaign to claim the post of leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha.
The opposition’s insistence on a discussion on the price rise and the recent rail fare increase led to repeated adjournments in the Lok Sabha and eventually business was abandoned for the day. In the Rajya Sabha, finance minister Arun Jaitley participating in a short-duration discussion blamed the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for the poor state of Indian Railways and inflationary pressures.
“Prices for some commodities rise because of lack of supply; it is not possible to fill this gap in five weeks (since the Narendra Modi government took over)," he said, adding, “What surprises me is that the party which brought the economy to this state wants to put the blame on someone else today."
The Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left parties staged a walkout expressing dissatisfaction over Jailtey’s statement.
The Modi-led BJP, which ousted the Congress-led UPA government on the plank of price rise and corruption in the recent Lok Sabha election, took charge on 26 May. It has since been under attack for its inability to curb the spurt in prices of essential commodities.
Last week, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced a series of measures including strict legal action against hoarders and increased the number of government outlets selling onions and potatoes to contain prices.
Parliament’s budget session, which began on Monday, is expected to end on 14 August and will have 28 sittings. Railway minister Sadanand Gowda will present the rail budget on Tuesday and Jaitley will present his first Union budget on 10 July.
In the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley also fiercely defended the increase in rail fares. “The present railway minister had a Hobson’s choice. Railway fares had to be increased or it would have become difficult for railways to operate," the finance minister said amid protests from the opposition.
According to the interim budget presented this year, the railways reported a loss of ₹ 30,000 crore in the passenger segment, Jaitley said.
The government recently increased passenger and freight tariffs by 14. 3% and 6.5%, respectively.
The tension between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress continued outside the house, too. Mounting pressure on the ruling party over its demand for the post of leader of the opposition, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said: “We are the single largest party. We are entitled to leader of opposition’s post."
She said the party has not decided yet whether to approach the judiciary on the matter.
Rejecting the BJP’s allegation that the Congress was desperate for the post and has not accepted defeat, the Congress president said: “That is not true. We have lost the elections. We are aware of that."
While the BJP argues that the Congress, which has been reduced to 44 members in the Lok Sabha, falls short of the required 10% of the 543-member house to claim the post, the Congress says the speaker should consider parliamentary practices; many constitutional posts including the appointment of the anti-corruption ombudsman require consultation with the leader of the opposition.
A political analyst said the BJP may have to build a cooperative working relationship with the UPA in opposition in order to push its agenda in Parliament. “The message sent out by the opposition today was clear that unless the ruling party reaches out to the opposition parties and build a cooperative and constructive relationship, it will be difficult for the BJP to push its agenda despite having clear majority in the Lok Sabha," Balveer Arora, chairman of the Centre for Multilevel Federalism, a New Delhi-based think tank, said.
Arora said the BJP could oblige the Congress in its demand because “no precedence is binding for every session and the House has its own freedom to set new precedents for its smooth functioning".
Ragini Verma and PTI contributed to this story.OnePlus likes to talk a big game about everything it does, and that statement is even more true when it comes to Dash Charge, the fast-charging feature introduced in the OnePlus 3 and 3T. If you follow the company's social presences, you'd notice at least a few mentions of Dash Charge every week, but this new video is a whole other ball game.
OnePlus got Emily Ratajkowski, who seems like the personification of a millennial (hate the word, but it's the most suited here) celebrity to explain how Dash Charge works, vocal fry and all. Presumably, loads of cash changed hands in the process, but not enough to make Emily seem less bored during certain segments of the 2min+ video.
Overall though, I think OnePlus did a nice job with a cute presentation, some funny graphics and light jokes, and as much technical detail as can be explained without making the video seem like it is a physics class snoozefest taught by a gorgeous teacher. But that doesn't detract from the moments when you feel that Emily is reading those jargon words off a teleprompter and struggling to look interested or believable.
At least if you didn't completely understand Dash Charge before, now you should have a better understanding of how the technology, which is licensed based on OPPO's VOOC, works and why it requires a specific adapter and cable.Author’s collection
Author’s collection
Unedited transcript of the July 12, 2012, phone conversation between Glen Weldon, author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, and his editor, Eric Nelson.
Weldon: Hello?
Editor: Hey, Glen. Got a minute?
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Weldon: Hey, Eric. Uh, sure.
Editor: I just read Chapter 5, and I got to the Krypto stuff.
Courtesy of Turner Publishing
Weldon: OK.
Editor: … All the Krypto stuff.
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Weldon: Yeah. [Chuckles.] Awesome.
Editor: Thirteen pages.
Weldon: … Excuse me?
Editor: You wrote 13 pages.
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Weldon: … I uh, I don’t …
Editor: About a dog.
Weldon: Ah.
Editor: Glen, who are you writing this book for? Who exactly is this person in your head who’s prepared to wade through 13 pages about Superman’s dog? It’s you, isn’t it?
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Weldon: OK, let me just stop you right there. I think I see the issue. You are talking about Krypto as if he’s just a dog. He’s not just a dog, Eric.
Editor: Here we go.
Weldon: He is a dog...
Editor: “ … in a cape.”
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Weldon: Yes, he is a dog in a cape, Eric. And that … that is awesome. OK? Empirically so. That’s just science. I mean … did you read that section? Really read it?
Editor: Oh, I read it. All 13 pa …
Weldon: Because it doesn’t sound like you really read it.
Editor: I’m cutting it, Glen. Sorry. I gotta cut Krypto.
Weldon: [Sputtering.]
Editor: The contract says, “75,000 word manuscript.” You turned in how many?
Weldon [mumbling]: … 150.
Editor: 150,000 words. And this book’s about Superman—who he is, what he represents, how he’s changed—so if we gotta cut something, then maybe, I don’t know, 13 pages about his pet doggie might be a good thing to start with, I feel.
Weldon: [Silence.]
Editor: Hello?
Weldon: Let me walk you through it.
Editor: Oh, fer …
Weldon: Let me explain it to you while I have you on the phone. Why Krypto the Superdog is awesome. What he’s there for. Why he matters.
Author’s collection
Weldon: The year! 1955!
Editor: Oy …
Weldon: On the nation’s movie screens, a smoldering young heartthrob named James Dean was setting millions of hearts a-throbbin’! Bill Haley and His Comets had the country up on its feet and dancin’ to a brand new beat!
Editor: Can we maybe not do this?
Weldon: And in the pages of Adventure Comics No. 210, Superboy, the Boy of Steel, was about to make a startling discovery that would change his world—indeed, his very UNIVERSE—forever.
Editor: [Sighs.]
Weldon: Ever since TV’s The Adventures of Superman had debuted four years before, editors of DC’s Superman comics had decreed that his funnybook adventures should read like extensions of his television adventures. That meant scaling back Superman’s comic-book exploits to reflect the low-budget aesthetic of the television show. Thus, for years in the comics, the most powerful being in the universe had largely contented himself with nabbing jewel thieves and rescuing Jimmy Olsen from kidnappers—still, again, some more.
But the Space Age was dawning. The comics’ writers and editors began to chafe against their TV-mandated constraints; after all, a comics page comes with an unlimited special-effects budget. Things could and should get weird.
The period in comics history when stories started getting truly and thoroughly bananapants—when Batman would cavort through space and time and Jimmy Olsen would get turned into a giant Turtle-Man—is designated the Silver Age, to distinguish its whimsical tone from those earlier, more earnest wartime adventures known as the Golden Age.
For Superman, the Silver Age was a time of newly intense emotions—a period when his word balloons filled up with Choke!s, Sob!s, and Gasp!s. Suddenly, his lost planet Krypton—which for the first two decades of his existence had merited only a handful of passing mentions—became his obsession, injecting a heavy-handed but nonetheless new and powerful dose of melancholy into his character.
Now, Eric, there are those comics historians who place the beginning of the Silver Age in the June 1958 issue of Action Comics No. 241, “The Super-Key to Fort Superman!” which gives readers a walking tour of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. [Pause.]
Editor: But you disagree.
Weldon: But I disagree!!
Editor: See this is precisely the kind of insular nerd-fight that no one cares ab …
Weldon: The Silver Age of Superman starts here! With the Man of Steel discovering that another Kryptonian has survived the destruction of his home planet! And! In a further, quintessentially Silver Age twist! That the survivor in question? [Pause.] Is his very own childhood pet!
Editor: [Sound of aspirin bottle shaking.]
Author’s collection
Weldon: As our story opens, Superboy learns that a super powerful pup has staged a mass breakout from the Smallville dogcatcher’s paddy wagon. Superboy tracks the hound to the wreckage of the rocket ship that has recently delivered it to Earth.
Inside, the Boy of Steel finds a note (“Why, it’s in the language of Krypton, the world of my birth!”), explaining that the ship was one of a series of test rockets launched by Superboy’s father Jor-El as he set upon his doomed quest to build a fleet of space-arks that would save his people.
Editor: You don’t say.
Weldon: Reunited with his beloved (albeit long-forgotten) pet, Superboy cries a tear of joy. But his delight turns to despair when the willful pup’s superpowered antics prove to be too much of a handful; just as Superboy is reaching the end of his tether (“Krypto, as much as I love you, you spell trouble rather than fun for me! I wish I knew what to do with you! I’ll have to sleep on it!”), the dog resolves the issue by flying into space to romp and play throughout the universe. The Boy of Steel looks after him wistfully, wishing for the dog to return “j-just to say hello!”
Author’s collection
Weldon: Just four months later, the Dog of Steel returned—and this time (and from now on), thought balloons make readers privy to his thoughts. By issue’s end he earns himself a costume and a secret identity.
As Krypto, the superpup sports a small red cape and an S-shield dog tag. When staying with the Kents, however, he wears a brown spot of shoe polish on his back and answers to the name of Skip.
Author’s collection
Weldon: Krypto spent much of the Silver Age off by himself in outer space, chasing comets and whatnot. Having doggy adventures. He even made himself a swank Doghouse of Solitude out of some meteors …
Author’s collection
Weldon: … and led the Legion of Super-Pets, whose august roster included Beppo the Super-Monkey (another of Jor-El’s test animals); Streaky the Super-Cat (an Earth cat who’d acquired superpowers through exposure to “X-kryptonite”); Comet the Super-Horse (actually a centaur-turned-horse, who also spent some time as Supergirl’s boyfriend LOOK IT’S COMPLICATED); and, later, Proty II (an animate, shape-changing lump of protoplasm).
During this time, Krypto was a key component of the burgeoning Super-family. The TV show ended its run, and writers were free to get wild— but this new freedom was daunting. Rather that muck around with Superman, they instead devoted themselves to building a rich and diverse cast of characters, thus deepening and diversifying his relationships to those around him. But first came Krypto. If Superman ever had need of the Dog of Steel, he simply let out an ultrasonic whistle or used his super-ventriloquism …
Editor: Come on.
Weldon: The Silver Age, Eric. Super-ventriloquism. Canonical superpower. As I was saying, Superman could bust out his super-ventriloquism and Krypto would be by his side in seconds.
Author’s collection
Weldon: And so it went, throughout the ’50s and ’60s. But as comics entered the 1970s, a wrong-headed desire for “relevance” held sway. Superman was depowered in an attempt to make him more relatable (it didn’t take), and many of his most whimsical Silver Age conceits fell out of favor. Krypto got demoted to a backup feature in the anthology title Superman Family. His storyline got off to a classic Silver Agey start: He moved to Hollywood, adopted a new secret identity (Jocko), and landed the starring role in a movie called … The Adventures of Krypto.
There, he befriended an LA cop named Ed Lacy whose nephew had disappeared after being falsely accused of murder. Together, Lacy and Krypto wandered the highways and byways of America. For over a year they traveled from city to city, solving crimes and righting wrongs as they searched for the young man in an effort to clear his name. It was like an awesome cross between The Fugitive and Lethal Weapon.
Editor: Uh- huh.
Weldon: If Harrison Ford was a troubled black kid. And Mel Gibson was a dog in a cape.
In 1986, DC called a do-over and rebooted its entire universe of characters from scratch, including Superman. Editor Julius Schwartz asked writer Alan Moore to write a story that would bid a fond farewell to the classic Man of Steel and the decades’ worth of goofiness that had accrued to him.
“Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” was an odd tale, with a palpably somber, even maudlin tone. But it did give Krypto the hero’s death he deserves, as the super-pooch sacrifices himself to save his master from the evil, radioactive clutches of the Kryptonite Man.
Author’s collection
Weldon: Krypto stayed dead for a good long while. But this is comics we’re talking about, and when a dog in a cape goes away, it leaves the kind of vacuum that nature, and nerds, abhor. He came back in 2001, minus the thought balloons, and dutifully cropped up in Superman stories from time to time, like a good boy.
In 2011, DC Comics pulled yet another metafictional mulligan, starting all their characters over. Krypto disappeared again.
But just over a year into the so-called “New 52” reality, writer Grant Morrison brought Krypto back by having Superman rescue him from the Phantom Zone—the incorporeal Kryptonian prison. I mean, if you want to call him Krypto.
Editor: … What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I?
Weldon: Well, he’s almost there. He’s got the full complement of superpowers, like Krypto. And the S-shield dog tag. Like Krypto.
Editor: I don’t understand. What are you saying?
Author’s collection
Weldon: I’m saying he doesn’t have a cape. I’m sorry, but Krypto is a dog in cape. You tell me you’re bringing Krypto back, and I’m all, “Woo! Dog in a cape!” But then you bring him back without the cape. It’s like you saying, “There’s cake in the board room!” But then when I get there, it turns out to be a cake made of vegetables and cigarette butts and regret. A cake of lies.
Editor: Uh-huh. OK.
Weldon: A cake of lies.
Editor: Settle down. You’ve convinced me. I won’t cut Krypto.
Weldon: Well, good. Because what you were saying, about cutting him … that was crazy. That was a crazy thing a crazy person says. Crazily.
Editor: We’ll just trim it down. A bit.
Weldon: That’s … fine, I guess. As long as we keep the main points.
Editor: Down to a paragraph.
Weldon: … What?
Editor: A paragraph.
Weldon: I … Good lord, man, I can’t sign off on that. One paragraph on Krypto? Harbinger of the Silver Age? That’s insane.
Editor: I’ll send the edits. You’ll see. It’s much tighter.
Weldon: I mean I can’t imagine. A paragraph. Good grief.
Editor: You’ll see. You know, it occurred to me: You go on for 13 pages, and you never tell me the only thing about Krypto that I was even marginally interested in.
Weldon: What, really? What is it?
Editor: You never tell us what breed he is, Glen.
Weldon: What … breed? [Chuckles.]
Editor: Yeah. … Wait, what’s funny?
Weldon: Well, Eric, that question you tossed out there so idly, like it’s nothing, just so happens to be the subject of an intense and, at times, acrimonious debate that has been raging for over half a century. From his very first appearance, there have been those who insist that, given the shape and floppiness of his ears …
Editor: [Click.]
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No jobs, no way to repay career college loans, food stamp defunding, no free Obamacare, horrible urban public education, rising rents, escalating utility costs, unaffordable food, and expanding and wildly escalating violent crime, the government lied to the nation’s poor and most vulnerable people. Everything for the poor is getting rapidly worse.
Elderly people and single women with children are being evicted in record numbers. Dollar stores are now grocery stores for the poor and some of the most rapidly growing corporations due to Bridge Card transactions. Epidemic numbers of senior citizens, women and children, Black males, and veterans are hungry and homeless, and it’s going to get worse.
The poor in all nations are the most reviled populations. They are considered to be lesser human beings and, thanks to the U.S. government, your punishment as poverty-ridden people is increasing. Seniors are in the same reviled boat. The government sees the poor, the under-educated, the elderly, and the disabled as dispensable populations. Equally, America remains a nation that largely fears people of color, truth. Therefore, and hear me well; take these words of advice seriously:
Group up with family members and move out of the urban centers. Try to convince grandparents, parents, middle-aged and younger adults and children to live under one roof and to share expenses.
Try endlessly, every day, to secure jobs. If four or five adults can find even part-time work, your family will get by, and you may be able to get elderly family members to take care of children while the working-age adults work. Pool your money.
Learn to grow large food gardens and to keep and butcher chickens. It’s not hard; it’s just work, but work that sustains your families. If you can rent in a rural area with some acreage and fencing, consider raising larger meat animals as well; again, not hard to learn, just work.
Get rid of most electronics that create laziness and dependency on entertainment. These devices are purposefully addictive and damaging to human initiative. Get rid of the TV first. It lies incessantly and makes everyone lazy and ignorant.
Pull together and become seriously interested in self-sufficiency, learn new skills, and eliminate dependency on bad government. Trust me: the government is not interested in you or anyone else minus the one percent. You know this is true.
Eliminate all partying, drugging and drinking and become the outstanding parents that your children deserve. Become the people God meant you to be. You cannot continue to make excuses for self-destructive behaviors. You must become ethically and proactively self-reliant.
Take a skills inventory of all the adults in your extended family. Everyone has specific talents, and all are marketable. Start small home-based businesses, where all profits stay within the family. Use Amish businesses as a model, and investigate all that Amish families grow and sell, build and sell, and market and sell; with all dollars earned supporting entire families.
One of the biggest indicators of ongoing and generational poverty is urban living. Why? Because urban centers cater to wealthy movers and shakers, bankers, investors, and to corporate wealth and political power. Washington DC is the kingpin of the urban wealth and power model, and most of its financial backers and their corporations operate within urban America. DC only and ever serves the richest of the rich.
Most people, Average Joe and Jane, do not ever find (nor should they) extreme wealth, because extreme wealth is only achievable with massive slave labor bases (minimum wagers, Third World sweat shops, part-timers, etc.). Strive to achieve reasonable wealth for your families based upon your works, talents and efforts, but you must get out of the urban wastelands to do so. Otherwise, generational poverty will continue because it is systemically guaranteed that you will remain poverty-ridden. Equally, when the poorest people of this nation finally realize the betrayal of this government, the urban areas will become far worse and far more dangerous than they are at present. Get your families out and get off the systemic poverty paradigm.
Get the money together to move. Figure it out. Find rural or small bergs to move into, and begin the process of self-preservation and self-respect through work and family, and stop partying; all partying. It is not okay to drink and smoke weed. It is a crippling legacy to leave to your children and it destroys their childhood memories. Equally, get your children into better school systems or, better yet, consider homeschooling. The urban schools have devastated the urban poor with horrible educations for the nation’s entire history, which you well know.
Rural living, gardens, tending to animals, and the safety of rural lifestyles are wonderful for children, and they grow up as highly skilled adults having learned primary life skills; none of which being available opportunities for inner-city children. Also, remember that your senior family members are likely to be the most skilled and talented family members. Have them apprentice you and your children so that their skills are learned and passed down.
With all this said, make a plan and get out of the inner-city areas. You can do this, and you will breathe so much easier once you are free from the systemic trap and doom of governmentally orchestrated poverty. Equally, should the entire nation go haywire with a nation-sized “crisis”, urban centers are the last places you want to be with your families. When you look at potential rental homes, have cash on hand. Everyone is strapped and cash money talks.
More than 60 ministers, rabbis and other faith leaders in Virginia were left in limbo earlier this week as they waited for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether it would issue a stay in the case of Bostic v. Schaefer, a case challenging the commonwealth’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, also known as the Marshall-Newman Amendment.
The ban on performing or recognizing same-sex marriages in Virginia, recognizing out-of-state legal marriages, or any form of relationship that emulates marriage was previously overturned by a federal judge in February, who ruled that the ban was unconstitutional. Although that judge, Arenda L. Wright Allen, issued a stay on her order, the case was appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which voted 2-1 on Aug. 13 to uphold Allen’s ruling.
Opponents of same-sex marriage, including Prince William County Clerk of Court Michele McQuigg, as well as the office of Attorney General Mark Herring, a marriage equality supporter, asked the Supreme Court to issue a stay until the case can be appealed and decided by the full court. Barring a stay, which would have to have been issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, who oversees the 4th Circuit, same-sex marriages would be able to start on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 21.
In the run-up to Thursday’s deadline, 66 clergy from various denominations, many affiliated with the group People of Faith for Equality in Virginia (POFEV), signed up to officiate any potential weddings for gay and lesbian couples. Forty-nine of those clergy had said they were willing to appear at local courthouses to help with marriage ceremonies that were likely to occur if a stay had not been granted.
“I think they’re going to grant the stay, and I’d be surprised if they don’t,” Dr. Rev. Robin Gorsline, president of POFEV, said on Monday. He added that many of the POFEV-affiliated clergy had not made concrete plans due to the uncertainty over whether or when the stay would be issued.
Gorsline and his partner, Jonathan Lebolt, were also left in limbo. Although the two had participated in a public commitment ceremony in front of family and friends in 1999 while they were living in Brooklyn, N.Y., the couple has not yet gotten married, hoping to wed in Virginia. Gorsline noted that Aug. 21, the day on which marriages would be legal if no stay was issued, was the anniversary of his and Lebolt’s commitment ceremony.
As of press time Tuesday, Gorsline said POFEV was not planning to hold any events or rallies if the stay was issued, saying it made no point to call attention to something that didn’t happen.
“What is more likely, if there is a stay, then that just means we have more work to do,” Gorsline said, noting that his organization was going to continue holding “witnesses to love,” or demonstrations outside of county courthouses and the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond designed to show support for marriage equality and call upon those with political power to repeal the commonwealth’s discriminatory ban.
Rev. David Ensign, of Clarendon Presbyterian Church in Arlington, was one of 31 clergy in Northern Virginia who agreed to perform same-sex marriages, noting that his church has been performing them for years despite the state’s refusal to recognize such marriages as valid. Ensign himself performed his first same-sex wedding 10 years ago, and his first legal wedding last March in the District for two of his longtime church members. But he says he’s seen a sea change in the larger population.
“What’s changed for us is that we’re no longer alone anymore,” Ensign said. “The people are ahead of the politicians on this, especially in terms of the Virginia General Assembly. They’re definitely not in step with younger voters who will be deciding what the General Assembly looks like in future years.”
Rev. Anya Sammler-Michael, of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Sterling, also volunteered to perform same-sex weddings at the Loudoun County Courthouse should they ever become legal. Sammler-Michael says that her church, too, has been holding same-sex ceremonies for years despite the statutory and constitutional bans. Leading up to Thursday, she said she was “watching intently” and checking email updates to see if a stay was going to be issued.
“The big hope is that things might happen sooner than we thought they might,” Sammler-Michael says of how rapidly the challenge to the marriage ban has moved through the courts. “I’ve wanted to see equality for as long as I’ve been living in Virginia. As a minister, I’m just glad to support it however I can.”Restaurant chain in the United States
Waffle House, Inc. is an American restaurant chain with 2,100 locations in 25 states in the United States.[2] Most of the locations are in the South, where the chain is a regional cultural icon.[3] Waffle House is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
Plaque commemorating the first Waffle House restaurant
History [ edit ]
The first Waffle House opened on Labor Day weekend in 1955 at 2719 East College Avenue in Avondale Estates, Georgia.[2] That restaurant was conceived and founded by Joe Rogers Sr. (1919–2017) and Tom Forkner (1918–2017).[2][5] Rogers started in the restaurant business as a short-order cook in 1947 at the Toddle House in New Haven, Connecticut.[6] By 1949, he became a regional manager[3] with the now-defunct Memphis-based Toddle House chain, then he moved to Atlanta. He met Tom Forkner while buying a house from him in Avondale Estates.[2]
The first Waffle House restaurant in Avondale Estates, now a museum, with the original "syrupy" font on the sign
Rogers's concept was to combine the speed of fast food with table service with around-the-clock availability. He told Forkner, "... You build a restaurant, and I'll show you how to run it," recalls Tom Forkner.[3]
Forkner suggested naming the restaurant Waffle House, as waffles were the most profitable item on the 16-item menu. The fragile nature of waffles also made the point that it was a dine-in, not a carry-out, restaurant, but it confused patrons as to meal availability other than breakfast.[3]
Rogers continued to work with Toddle House, and to avoid conflict of interest, sold his interest to Forkner in 1956. In 1960, when Rogers asked to buy into Toddle House, and they refused, he moved back to Atlanta and rejoined Waffle House, now a chain of three restaurants, to run restaurant operations.[6] Shortly after Joe returned full-time, Tom followed suit and left Ben S. Forkner Realty.
After opening a fourth restaurant in 1960, the company began franchising its restaurants and slowly grew to 27 stores by the late 1960s, before growth accelerated. The company is privately held and does not disclose annual sales figures, but says they serve 2% of the eggs used in the nation's food-service industry. The founders limit their involvement in management, and as of 2013, Joe Rogers Jr. was CEO and retired late 2013, and Bert Thornton is President.[3]
Although the Waffle House chain is concentrated in the Southeast, it has reached as far to the north as Austinburg, Ohio, near Ashtabula, as far to the west as Goodyear, Arizona, in the suburbs of Phoenix, as far to the south as Key Largo, Florida, and as far to the east as Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In 2007, Waffle House repurchased the original restaurant, which was sold by the chain in the early 1970s and was most recently a |
prepare for which students drop out of high school and join coaching institutes with dedicated two-year training programs. One town in the western Indian state of Rajasthan runs a gamut of these coaching institutes, the first of its kind charging close to 100,000 rupees ($1,575) for a two-year tutorial program.
American and British parents, on the other hand, are much less likely to pay for extra academic support for their kids–only about 25% said they had done so. And their view that university education is too expensive is also strong--71% of them in each of the two countries said so.
In India and China, parents are more than willing to pay for their children’s education and will even rope in grandparents for additional funds, the survey found. They expect it to take them about seven years to repay loans taken to cover the fees. Though the report adds that parents “tend to underestimate how long it will take their child to repay their university debts.”
Some Indian parents contemplate sending their children to universities abroad because they believe students receive a more rounded education overseas–rather than learning how to cram for exams. Others are deterred from staying in India by inefficiencies. Last year, the University of Delhi delayed admissions as it debated whether undergraduate degrees should be three or four-year programs.
Indian parents are willing to spend more than they would in their own country to give their child the experience of studying abroad. Nearly 60% of those interviewed said they would consider paying at least 50% more to get a degree from a foreign university.
Chinese parents are the most enthusiastic with almost 70% of them saying an education abroad is worth the extra money. Parents in France, Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. would rather their children stay in their own country to study.
According to a recent report from the Institute of International Education, more than 102,000 college and university students in the U.S. in 2014 were Indian, the second-highest number of international students choosing to pursue American degrees after those from China.
The HSBC survey is based on responses received in March and April from 5,500 parents in 16 countries across the world. The parents interviewed have at least one child aged 23 or younger who is either enrolled in a university, or who soon will be.
For breaking news, features and analysis from India, follow WSJ India on Facebook.A retired Russian naval officer in St. Petersburg is on trial on charges of spying for Ukraine.
The St. Petersburg city prosecutor’s office said on April 13 that retired Captain Vladislav Nikolsky, 69, is accused of giving unidentified Ukrainians access to material relating to Russian military vessels -- some of it classified.
Investigators said he did so by posting documents online and giving the Ukrainians login IDs and passwords needed to gain access.
They said some of the material posted by Nikolsky while he was employed by the Scientific Research Institute of Ship and Weaponry Production of Russia's Armed Forces and Fleet in 2011 was classified.
Nikolsky faces up to 20 y retired Russian naval officer in St. Petersburg is on trial on charges of spying for Ukraine.
The Stears in jail if convicted.
With reporting by fontanka.ruSpaceX provided another glimpse into their future ambitions by announcing they have completed a review of their 2014 abort test for their commercial crew program. The company also announced they would begin testing of their new Raptor engine – a key element of their Mars mission architecture – early next year at NASA’s Stennis Space Center.
SpaceX Status:
Most of SpaceX’s current focus is on the upcoming salvo of missions, with the second launch of their upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 aiming to follow up the success of the Cassiope mission.
The launch vehicle – and its passenger, the SES-8 satellite – are both undergoing launch processing at SpaceX’s SLC-40 complex. However, the launch date has since slipped to a NET (No Earlier Than) November 22 launch date, per L2’s SpaceX section.
Efforts into the Upper Stage re-start investigation are ongoing, following its issue during the Cassiope mission. While the Canadian satellite was successfully deployed, a re-start of the stage was attempted as part of SpaceX’s fully-reusable launch vehicle aspirations.
The relevance to the SES-8 mission is the requirement to re-start the upper stage as part of the satellite’s mission profile. It is understood the stage re-starts without issue during ground testing, but may have a unique issue once in the cold vacuum of space.
With the delay to the SES-8 mission, the prospect of the next flight of the F9 v1.1 – carrying the Thaicom-6 satellite – occurring just one month later are all-but gone.
A separation of 30 days between launches is understood to be a hard limit, resulting in the Thaicom-6 mission having to avoid the holiday period and re-target for a launch in the new year.
All launch dates are subject to change, with the realigned target of November 22 for SES-8 a preliminary placeholder, subject to approval from the Eastern Range. Should approval be granted, the launch window will stretch from 13:28 to 15:28 local time, per L2.
Dragon Abort Test:
Following the SES-8 and Thaicom-6 missions, SpaceX will move into preparations for the fourth Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
The CRS-3 (SpX-3) mission is tracking a February 11, 2014 NET – also subject to change based on the success of the preceding launches and the continually busy Visiting Vehicle (VV) schedule at the orbital outpost.
With an eye to the future, one where Dragons could be transporting NASA astronauts to the Station, as opposed to just cargo, SpaceX and NASA completed a review of a 2014 test of Dragon’s abort capabilities – a key element of allowing humans onboard their spacecraft.
Thus far, every Dragon has successfully returned home via current method of parachute landings into the Pacific Ocean. This will eventually be replaced by propulsive landings on terra firma.
With future Dragon spacecraft sporting a series of eight SuperDraco liquid engines – built into the side walls of the capsule – these thrusters will also provide an initial Launch Abort System (LAS) capability, by producing up to 120,000 pounds of axial thrust to drive the Dragon away from a failing launch vehicle.
Because the system is integrated with the Dragon – as opposed to a Tower system that normally requires jettison shortly after first stage flight – the spacecraft can technically abort within much longer periods.
In preparation for a summer 2014 test, SpaceX recently laid out its plan to demonstrate the Dragon spacecraft’s ability to abort in the event of an in-flight emergency.
The in-flight abort test plan provided an assessment of the SuperDraco engines, the software that would issue the abort command, and the interface between the Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 rocket on which the spacecraft will be launched.
“It’s critical to have a launch abort system in which NASA and SpaceX can have confidence,” noted Phil McAlister, director of Commercial Spaceflight Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “When you put humans aboard, safety and reliability are paramount and this review and the upcoming tests will help prove their space transportation system is on the right track.”
The review – conducted last month at at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California – included experts from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
It was also the eighth of 15 milestone under SpaceX ‘s NASAs Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which runs through to the summer of 2014.
The overall plan involves a pad abort test in the spring of next year, involving a Dragon being launched from the test stand via the ignition of the abort engines, prior to the initiation of the separation command. At around 5,000 feet, the spacecraft’s parachutes will deploy resulting in a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean.
A successful test will allow for the in-flight abort test to occur in the summer.
Click here for additional SpaceX News Articles: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/tag/spacex/
“With NASA’s support, SpaceX continues to implement the necessary modifications to equip Dragon to fly crew,” added former Shuttle astronaut Garrett Reisman, commercial crew project manager at SpaceX.
“SpaceX and NASA believe in rigorous flight testing and we are looking forward to putting our SuperDraco launch abort system through these critical tests, starting with the pad abort test in the spring and followed by the in-flight abort test in the summer.”
During the in-flight abort test, a Dragon spacecraft will launch on a standard Falcon 9 from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral launch site, with an abort command issued approximately 73 seconds into the flight – during the MaxQ phase of ascent.
To monitor the test, Dragon will be outfitted with about 270 special sensors to measure a wide variety of stresses and acceleration effects on the spacecraft. An instrumented mannequin, similar to a crash test dummy, also will be inside.
The Dragon will be recovered via the deployment of its parachutes for a splashdown in the Atlantic, where a ship will be pre-positioned for simulated rescue operations, before the Dragon is returned to Port Canaveral by barge.
However, the forward plan – per SpaceX’s ambitions – is the use of the Draco engines during the end portion of the mission, allowing Dragon to land propulsively. Once this capability is online, in tandem with the return of the First and Second stages, SpaceX will be in the position of returning all of the launch system hardware to the ground for reuse.
Propulsive landing of the Dragon will be one of the key technologies used when SpaceX begin to fly crews on the spacecraft. However, the timing of the switch from water to ground landings will be negotiated between SpaceX and NASA.
While funding concerns for the Commercial Crew Program have resulted in internal manifests (L2) showing the first NASA crew to fly on a commercial vehicle to the ISS (USCV-1) has slipped to the end of 2017, SpaceX should be in the position to debut the crewed Dragon via an internally selected crew, sometime around 2015.
However, Earth isn’t the only landing destination for Dragon, with SpaceX holding ambitions of landing on the Moon and more notably Mars.
Nicknamed “Red Dragon” – SpaceX have made no secret about heading to Mars, even publishing a graphic of their spacecraft touching down on the Red Planet.
Almost as interesting as seeing Dragon on Mars are the support modules in the backdrop. All Mars missions will require a large amount of hardware being staged at Mars to provide all the necessities the human crew will need to survive on the Red Planet – and the ability for them to return home.
As with NASA’s own plans for crewed Martian missions, you need a very big rocket to loft large elements of hardware uphill and on its way to Mars.
SpaceX Raptor:
Key to SpaceX’s Martian exploits is likely to be a new engine known as the Raptor.
Raptor would provide a major sea-change in SpaceX’s propulsion, given it is set to be powered by methane and liquid oxygen (LOX), as opposed to the RP-1 kerosene and LOX currently employed with Falcon 9’s Merlin engines.
Although the engine – first referenced in 2009 – was initially cited for a role powering an Upper Stage, it appears that the Raptor is now serving as the main engine for the first stage of a new, yet-to-be-formally-announced rocket.
Very few details have been released by SpaceX, even when directly queried by this site earlier this year. However, the announcement of an agreement with the Stennis Space Center has revealed the company is indeed working on the development of the Raptor.
Under a future engine testing agreement, SpaceX will upgrade the E-2 test stand at Stennis with methane capability.
“This agreement supports SpaceX’s efforts for continued engine research and development in parallel with our growing operational testing programs,” noted Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President. “We are excited to bring this R&D program to Stennis, and we look forward to a long term relationship with the center and the state of Mississippi.”
The only detail about the engine in the release noted it will be capable of generating nearly 300 tons of thrust in vacuum, around four times more powerful than the Merlin 1D.
However, it is possible a Raptor engine set could become the baseline for a huge future rocket to be used by SpaceX for missions to Mars, along with a potential role with a Mars ascent stage.
As such, Raptor could be focused on a future role with the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT) architecture.
Per the near-term goals, infrastructure improvements at the E-2 test stand will begin upon execution of the announced agreement, with testing expected to start in early 2014.
(Images: via SpaceX, NASA and L2’s SpaceX Special Section, which includes over 1,000 unreleased hi res images from Dragon’s three flights to the ISS. Special section also contains presentations, videos, images (Over 3,500MB in size), space industry member discussion and more.)
(Click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/ – to view how you can access the best space flight content on the entire internet and directly support NASASpaceflight.com’s running costs)
*Please remember to share this article on social media using the below options. You have a responsibility to promote space flight content to your friends and family via one simple click*'Kelly File' host Megyn Kelly on June 2, 2015. [Fox News]
The implementation of an affirmative consent law in New York state had Fox News host Megyn Kelly concerned on Tuesday, as she fretted that men are presumed guilty too often in college sexual assault cases.
“It is important to improve the rights of women who are victims of sexual assault on college campuses,” she told colleague Brit Hume. “But we are going in a direction where we almost entirely eliminate the rights of men. And there’s a presumption now in these campuses, thanks to the Obama administration, of guilt. There’s a presumption of non-consent. And if you are a young man who gets accused, it’s your burden to go in there and prove consent, and we’re getting to the point where you have to have a contract. And if you don’t, you’re gonna be presumed a rapist.”
As CBS News reported, the new law will require students in New York private colleges and universities to ensure there is “clear affirmative agreement” between them if they have sex.
The law also gives students the right to report any incident to either local police or their campus counterparts, and creates a system ensuring accuracy in campus reports of sexual assault to state officials.
But while she supported efforts to reduce sexual assaults on campuses, Kelly also linked the law to advocacy groups like the Affirmative Content Project. (ACP)
Kelly showed a picture of a “Contract Card” the ACP sells on its website, saying it called for students to write down their consent.
While the card encourages students to take a picture with their partners holding it and fill out a form on the back, it also states, “If you decide not to follow steps 1 or 2 — please take this moment to agree to have consensual sex with each other. YES means YES.”
For his part, Hume argued that advocates for affirmative consent “have never had any sex,” and described laws like the one in New York part of the “re-regulation of sex,” a change from the social mores during his own college days, when universities had strict rules regarding mingling between men and women.
“That was a recognition of the fact that, as you might have put it back then, ‘boys will be boys’ and guys are pretty lusty,” he said. “And you needed to be careful when you got them around young women, particularly if there was parties and alcohol, so the rules were pretty tight.”
The sexual revolution, Hume argued, was the precursor to what he called today’s “hook-up culture.”
“Just take a look at spring break across this country,” Kelly added.
“It was the culmination of the de-regulation of sex,” Hume responded. “Now what we’re seeing is, because people particularly don’t like some of the results of that, they’re trying to re-regulate it, and that’s where we are.”
Kelly also criticized the federal Office of Civil Rights’ 2011 message to universities stating that they should make sure that due process for the accused in sexual assault cases “do not restrict or unnecessarily delay the protection for the complainant.”
“It’s all about the complainant. Which, OK, but there are other rights,” she said. “And there’s a question about whether these universities should be engaged in the business of adjudicating these disputes at all, as we’ve seen in the Duke case, in that Columbia University case and others. Serious questions attached to them.”
Watch the discussion, as posted by Media Matters on Tuesday, below.Tunnels — like Boston's I-93, put underground by the Big Dig — can be particular hotspots for this localized air pollution. Tufts University researchers have found that by the time a motorist reaches the end of the 93 tunnel, the level of air pollution particulates may be 10 times as high as it is on the highway a couple of miles away. Those two or three minutes in the tunnel are likely to expose you to a higher concentration of air pollution than any other part of your day.
"Everyone thinks: air pollution — breathing in, lungs, respiratory disease," he says. "But the particles also affect your circulatory system. They drive inflammation. And the main health outcomes — the largest, most tangible health outcomes — are actually cardiovascular: heart attacks and strokes."
Professor Doug Brugge of Tufts Medical School, who studies particulates, says that though clean air laws have made heavy smog a thing of the past in the United States, these invisible, odorless particles are still a major health concern, particularly for people who live right near highways.
Yes, German researchers have found that people who are prone to heart attacks become much likelier to actually have one within an hour of being in heavy traffic. Why isn't exactly clear, but scientists say that air pollution appears to play a role — in particular, ultra-fine particulates, nano-sized airborne toxins whose levels tend to be highest around highways and in tunnels, especially in heavy traffic.
The third piece is less obvious: "Air pollution has been tied to cardiovascular outcomes and sometimes acute outcomes — things like heart attacks," Levy says.
That triple whammy includes two effects of traffic that everybody already knows are bad for the heart: the stress, and the finding that people with longer commutes tend to exercise less.
"You potentially have a triple whammy, where you’re piling on different cardiovascular stressors all tied back to the same root cause, commuting," says Dr. Jonathan Levy, a professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Huntress-Rather is practically a textbook case of what longer car commutes can do to bodies and minds. The evidence has been mounting in study after study in recent years, adding up to strong reason to believe that the worsening traffic in Boston — or any metropolitan area — does not just cost drivers time. It may also cost them health.
"I had always prided myself in being in good physical shape and meditating and doing all the things that would keep me from having high blood pressure," she says. "And I immediately made the connection between not working out, spending endless hours in the car and feeling totally stressed most of the time. I was either commuting or worrying about commuting."
Huntress-Rather didn't immediately blame her commute; she blamed herself for eating too much and feeling too tired to exercise. But she hit a turning point when her nurse practitioner told her she’d need blood pressure medication.
A harrowing hour, or more, hunched at the wheel, watching out constantly for aggressive or distracted drivers. In the months that followed, the effects on her health were dramatic: "I gained back 40 pounds that I had lost, developed low back pain and high blood pressure," she says.
"The first day I drove to work and said, ‘Oh, Lord, what have I done?’ " she recalls. "After having a short commute for quite a few years, I hadn’t done the commute before in rush hour traffic and I was absolutely stunned at how long it took — it was over an hour."
Four years ago, Barbara Huntress-Rather got a great job, as director of quality improvement for a health care company that serves fragile seniors. Just one problem: She lived in Lawrence, and the new job was in Lynn.
Those two or three minutes in the I-93 tunnel are likely to expose you to a higher concentration of air pollution than any other part of your day.
But professor John Durant, who oversaw that Tufts research, offers three simple remedies: Roll up the windows, turn on the air conditioner, and close the vents that bring in outside air.
"Those three measures," he says, "will reduce exposures by a significant amount, by close to 90 to 95 percent."
If only it were so simple to offset the other health risks of long car commutes. Here's a sampling, from the last few years of research: Longer commutes may mean...
• more depression and anxiety; • more social isolation; • higher weight; • lower life satisfaction and happiness; • less sleep; • less exercise, lower fitness; • higher cholesterol; • higher blood sugar; • higher blood pressure; • more back and neck aches. • One Swedish study even found that people who commute more than 45 minutes each way are 40 percent likelier to get a divorce.
Most of these risks do not rise by very much, and many do have commonsense remedies — deep breathing and other stress relief techniques, for example, or conscious efforts to exercise more when not commuting.
And of course, the ultimate remedy is to drive less and switch to public transportation or "active commuting" — walking or biking. And for everyone to drive less.
But if you feel like you have to drive, you might want to do an informal, personal version of what’s called a Health Impact Assessment. That’s what Levy of BU and his team did in 2012, when the MBTA was planning service cuts and fare hikes aimed at saving about $160 million.
Levy's team calculated roughly what the cuts would cost in health and time if they made people drive more — everything from added air pollution to less exercise. Their conclusion: Trying to save $160 million could cost $300 or $400 million.
Our commuter, Huntress-Rather, did her own math and made a radical decision. She really likes her job, and had planned to work until she was 70. But instead, she’s taking a financial hit and planning to retire at just 65. She'll live near the beach, where she can take long walks. The last day of her long commute is coming very soon.
"May 25!" she says with an audible sigh of relief.
She decided that getting home so tired every day that all she can do is numb out by binge-watching brainless reruns is no way to live.
"I just felt like time was slipping away, and I wasn’t enjoying it," she says. "I don’t enjoy sitting in a car, not moving. I had to do it."
She's going to start working out again, she says, and get her good health back.
Tips For A Healthier Commute
It's become a whole little genre: headlines that warn, "Your commute is killing you!"
Dr. Edward Phillips, director of Harvard Medical School's Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, says he'd never say that to a patient. But he would tell them that longer car commutes are linked to higher weight and less happiness. "[And] I would tell them to take any other option for a more active commute, including walking, biking, use of mass transit."
1. Consider a 'hybrid commute'
"Even if you're saddled with a long car commute, look for maybe a hybrid commute," Phillips says. 'I'm not talking about driving a hybrid. I'm talking about combining driving with mass transit, or parking a little further from your office, maybe in a cheaper spot. Pick up some extra steps in the morning; and you've got to get back to your car in the afternoon.
"While you're at it, add some steps during the workday, break up that continuous sitting, and overcome the deleterious effects of a long commute."
2. Avoid air pollution
As professors Brugge and Durant explain above, air pollution particles tend to be found in particularly high concentrations in poorly ventilated tunnels and where traffic is high. Durant suggests three preventive measures for tunnels: Close the windows, turn off the vents and turn on the air conditioner.
His other tips: Buy a lighter car that burns less fuel, and hope everyone else does, too. Shorten your commute by driving at a less busy time, or take less crowded roadways (though that may add time.) Avoid spikes of air pollution exposure, such as in tunnels and at busy intersections.
3. Cut stress
Glaringly obvious but so seldom acted upon: If you leave earlier, the trip will be less stressful.
Otherwise, on the mind-body front, this MSNBC post headlined "5 ways to keep your commute from killing you" (See? It's a whole genre!) offers some tricks of emotional engineering to cope with the lovely gamut of daily commuting emotions, from rage to despair over lost time.
Some sound easier said than done, though. Like: "Reframe your thinking, and instead of letting anger over traffic or aggressive drivers make you act the same way, use this 'downtime' in a positive, productive way."
Bottom line: Fill your commuting time with good content (preferably from your favorite purveyor of public radio, of course.)
4. The new smoking?
Confession: I knew commuting was often tedious or stressful, but I'm struck by the multitude of health harms that researchers have found. In many cases a longish commute adds only a few percentage points to your risk; for example, a Gallup poll found that 20 percent of people who commute under 10 minutes have high cholesterol, compared with 27 percent of people who commute over 90 minutes. Among those super-short commuters, 24 percent were obese, compared with 30 percent of super-long commuters.
But across the many aspects of mental and physical health affected by commuting, the percentage points add up. Raising the question: Should we see long commuting as a health risk a little like smoking? It's surely not as harmful, but if "sitting is the new smoking," couldn't commuting be as well? And could awareness of those risks help spur even healthier behavior while not in the car?
5. Big picture: Try everything
Ask experts for tips on what you can do at the individual level and the discussion inevitably expands to the big picture.
Brugge of Tufts says that health-conscious commuters might want to support advocacy for more and better public transportation and "active transportation" — biking and walking.
The air pollution from vehicles, he says, is a public health problem on a par with obesity and smoking, "the other major public health problems of our time — but somehow it is not as well recognized," though it's estimated to lead to 100,000 American deaths per year.
"I think you have to pursue an issue like this from every direction you can," he says. "You can encourage public transportation and active transportation. You can encourage cars that are cleaner. You can encourage — as in Somerville — protection in buildings near highways that reduces exposure inside buildings. Even at a very individual level, you can roll up windows and turn off the outside air vents in your car as you go through a tunnel and when you're in heavy traffic.
"I don't think you privilege one of those things and say, 'This is it.' I think you pursue all of them and over time, you hope some of them --like cleaner vehicles and better public transportation — make some progress. And enough of them make progress that there's substantial change."
Readers, reactions? Tips? Did health effects persuade you to change your commute?The European Space Agency (ESA) has expressed its desire to further collaborate with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for space missions. This news comes after India’s historic launch of 104 satellites, in one go.
In conversation with Times of India, ESA’s Senior Scientific Advisor Mark McCaughrean, who is visiting India for the first time, said, “ESA plans further collaboration with ISRO in various space missions. Had an informal discussion with former ISRO chairman UR Rao at Bangalore. The current ISRO chairman, AS Kiran Kumar was in a meeting in Delhi that day. Earlier, ESA had collaborated with ISRO on Chandrayaan-1 mission to Moon.”
Up until now, the ESA has collaborated with 22 nations including India, China, Japan, Russia and the US in space missions. The ESA is planning 15 space missions, which will include Bepe Colombo to Mercury in 2018 and JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) to Jupiter in 2022.
While the Bepe Colombo will be the first probe to Mercury, it will also be a joint mission between ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). McCaughrean believes the Sun's enormous gravity poses a challenge to place the spacecraft into a stable orbit around Mercury.
On the other hand, the explorer JUICE, will spend at least three years making detailed observations of the giant gaseous planet Jupiter and three of its largest moons - Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. He said, “Missions to Neptune and Uranus haven't been planned yet as it would take about 20 to 30 years to reach there.”Depth was a big reason why the New York Rangers made it to the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, but with a slew of free agents – both restricted and unrestricted – it could be a challenge to maintain that strength.
The New York Post’s Larry Brooks took an in-depth look at that situation, indicating that Brad Richards’ buyout will be used to retain current players rather than making a typically splashy Rangers acquisition.
While he focused first on Rangers forwards, there are some key details about their defense.
For one thing, Brooks reports that the Rangers are dangling a three or four-year deal worth about $4 million per season to Anton Stralman (pictured). Some likely look at that as a fine offer for the unrestricted free agent, yet the advanced stats community labels him as a “secret star.” It should be interesting to see if the 27-year-old draws much more interest than that offer would suggest if he does hit unrestricted free agency, especially since the market is pretty dry.
The Rangers hope to keep Stralman in the fold, but it sounds like Justin Falk played his last game for the team. Brooks reports that they’ll pass on qualifying the 25-year-old at a $1.025 million clip, allowing him to become a UFA.
Ultimately, Brooks believes that Richards’ $6.67 million will funnel into the pockets of the breakthrough line of two RFA’s (Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello) plus one UFA (Benoit Pouliot):
Brassard probably goes from $3.2 million to at least $4.5 million per on a multi-year deal, if not closer to $5 million. Zuccarello, perhaps the biggest bargain in the league in leading the Rangers in scoring (19-40-59) while earning $1.15 million, probably is going to command at least $4 million per on a long-term deal, and maybe $4.5 million. And Pouliot, who rescued his career working for $1.3 million, likely is going to get at least $2.5 million.
Cap Geek estimates that the Rangers will have $23.78 million in cap space this summer, yet with an unclear cap ceiling that might be a little lower, it’s likely safer to call it approximately $23 million. Let’s consider what Brassard, Zuccarello, Pouliot and Stralman would cost combined based on Brooks’ numbers:
Brassard: $4.5 – $5 million
Zuccarello: $4 million
Pouliot: $2.5 million
Stralman: $4 – $4.5 million
Range for Rangers: $15 – $16 million
The Rangers also need to re-sign Chris Kreider and John Moore (both RFAs) while making decisions on the likes of Brian Boyle and Dominic Moore (both UFAs), so Brooks is probably accurate in saying that the Rangers will spend most/all of their excess cash on keeping the band together.
Naturally, Stralman could end up pricing himself out of Sather’s budget and guys like Boyle could fetch a ransom on the market, so this situation could change. Sather’s also known for being a tough negotiator with restricted free agents, so perhaps Brassard and Zuccarello wouldn’t be so expensive.
Every now and then, a team rides some contract year hot streaks to unexpected success, making for some tough organizational decisions. It’s only tougher to assess some of these players considering Alain Vigneault’s very different philosophy compared to John Tortorella. However this situation shakes out, it should be almost as entertaining to watch as the Rangers were during their impressive playoff run.
Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins[Major Updates]
New Rabam Skills (available at level 57) for DK, Striker, and Mystic.
New main skills, the "Absolute" Skills, for Warrior and Ranger.
PvE buffs for most classes.
Black Spirit's Rage can be locked.
[Event]
New Event: Halloween in Wonderland (same as NA)
New Event: Prelude for Skill Changes
- From Oct 19th to Oct 26th
- Drop rate for Kzarka and Liverto Weapons will increase during the event period.
- Skill EXP +20% during daily EXP Boost hours.
- Training Manuals (Skill) are 50% off.
- Armstrong’s Skill Guide is available on the mileage shop.
[Characters]
You can now use the same main/sub skill twice for two Enhanced Skills when the two Enhanced Skills use the same main/sub skill.
Fixed a glitch that occurred when you press certain keys while auto walking.
[Warrior]
Fixed an issue where the skill effects for Spinning Slash were not applied in certain situations.
PvE damage for Balance Strike has increased.
- I: 667% * 2 > 1001% * 2
- II: 757% * 2 > 1136% *2
- III: 833% * 2 > 1250% * 2
PvE damage for Flow: Hilt Strike has increased.
- 867% * 2 > 1300% * 2
PvE damage for Solar Flare has increased.
- I: 523% * 4 > 680% * 4
- II: 597% * 4 > 776% * 4
- III: 667* 4 > 867% * 4
- IV: 733 * 4 > 953% * 4
PvE damage for Merciless has increased.
- I: 713% * 3, max 2 hits > 856% * 3, max 2 hits
- II: 771% * 3, max 2 hits > 925% * 3, max 2 hits
- III: 827% * 3, max 2 hits > 992% * 3, max 2 hits
- IV: 869% * 3, max 2 hits > 1043% * 3, max 2 hits
PvE damage for Armor Break has increased.
- 328% * 3 > 568% * 3 (damage will still be 238% when used during cooldown.)
Flow: Overwhelm will recover 60 HP per hit.
AoE for Pulverize has changed.
Pulverize will recover HP upon using the skill, not when the skill successfully lands.
The descriptions for Jump Slash and Ultimate: Spinning Slash have been edited to match the skills’ actual damage.
Required levels for learning the following skills have decreased.
- Solar Flare III: 60 > 59
- Solar Flare IV: 62 > 60
New upgraded pre-awakening skills, Absolute: Skills, have been added.
- After completing the awakening weapon quest, you can learn the Absolute skills in the main skill menu.
- In order to learn the Absolute level of a skill, you need to have all levels of that specific pre-awakening skill before.
- Absolute skills have higher damage, and can hit more targets.
- For the Fall Arsha Tournament 2017, PvP damage for Absolute skills are low at the moment. The damage will be buffed after the tournament.
[Ranger]
New upgraded pre-awakening skills, Absolute: Skills, have been added.
- After completing the awakening weapon quest, you can learn the Absolute skills in the main skill menu.
- In order to learn the Absolute level of a skill, you need to have all levels of that specific pre-awakening skill before.
- Absolute skills have higher damage, and can hit more targets.
- For the Fall Arsha Tournament 2017, PvP damage for Absolute skills are low at the moment. The damage will be buffed after the tournament.
Required levels for learning the following skills have decreased.
- Elven Rage III: 60 > 59
- Elven Rage IV: 62 > 60
- Nature’s Tremble III: 61 > 60
Fixed an issue where the skill description for Ultimate: Tearing Arrow did not match the actual skill effect.
Fixed the graphical glitch with Lahr Arcien Helmet R.
[Sorceress]
Required levels for learning the following skills have decreased.
- Grim Reaper’s Judgment III: 60 > 59
- Grim Reaper’s Judgment IV: 62 > 60
- Cartian’s Nightmare III: 60 > 59
- Cartian’s Nightmare IV: 62 > 60
[Berserker]
PvE damage for Devastation has increased.
- I: 879% * 6 > 1099% * 6
- II: 983% * 6 > 1299% * 6
- III: 1087% * 6 > 1359% * 6
- IV: 1191% * 6 > 1289% * 6
Required levels for learning the following skills have decreased.
- Titan Blow III: 60 > 59
- Titan Blow IV: 62 > 60
- Flame Buster III: 61 > 60
Fixed the graphical glitch that occurred when Beast Roar is used after Fearsome Tyrant.
[Tamer]
Allround Spinner and Legendary Beast Dance with Black Spirit’s Rage will now make enemies fall down from horses when the skills are used against horseriding enemies.
Required levels for learning the following skills have decreased.
- Allround Spinner III: 60 > 59
- Allround Spinner IV: 62 > 60
- Legendary Beast Dance IV: 61 > 60
[Valkyrie]
PvE damage for Purificatione’s |
, original shows, exclusive bonus episodes, stand up comedy albums and more. Please remember to use the offer code “MENTAL” because it gives me credit for bringing a new subscriber to Stitcher Premium and that helps me financially and the podcast needs it. I wish I didn’t have to do this but there it is. Every little bit helps.
Episode notes:
Visit Susanna's blog at www.malibumom.com Buy her book I'll Be The Death of Me at Amazon.
Episode Transcript:
Paul Gilmartin: Welcome to episode 141 with my guest, Susanna Brisk. I’m Paul Gilmartin. This-- that was a weird how I, “I’m Paul Gilmartin.” This is The Mental Illness Happy Hour: an hour or two of honesty about all the battles in our heads from medically diagnosed conditions, past traumas, and sexual dysfunction to everyday compulsive, negative thinking. This show’s not meant to be a substitute for professional mental counseling, I mean, Christ, listen to me. You’re in trouble. You’re in trouble if you start taking what I say seriously [laughs]. Actually, I have some good advice. The show is not meant to be a substitute for professional mental counseling. It’s not a doctor’s office. Oh I’ve gone way off-track. Danger, Will Robinson. It’s not a doctor’s office. It’s more like a waiting room that doesn’t suck. I should just stick to what I’ve been saying every time instead of trying to ad lib. I just get off track.
The website for this show is mentalpod.com. All kinds of good stuff there. You can read blogs by me, blogs by guest bloggers, and you can fill out surveys, which as you know, I love to read on the podcast. You can see how other people have filled out surveys. They’re done anonymously, so people really spill their inner lives onto these, and they’re quite fascinating. You can support the show by going to the website, as well. Not a lot of surveys. This show is going to be light on surveys. I’m getting ready to head to Toronto. I’m actually recording this a couple of days ahead of time even though it’s being posted the usual time. Really looking forward to doing the group recording on Friday night and the live recording with Scott Thompson on Saturday night. If you want any more details about that, go to the website, mentalpod.com. They’re on the homepage, there’s details about when and where and how to get tickets, etc, etc. Though the group recording you don’t need tickets for. La la la la la la la. Yeah, so not a lot of surveys on this episode. Let’s get into it.
This is from the Struggle in a Sentence survey filled out by a woman who calls herself Demink. She’s in her 30s. About her depression she writes, “I am stumbling in a dream where the lights are dimming and I can’t quite keep my eyes open.” About her anxiety, “I’ve lost control and I’m dying. Going insane and letting everyone down all at the same time.” About her codependency, “I can’t want to leave, because it means I am stuck with stupid old me. Man, that sounds pathetic.” Being a sex crime victim, “I hate my body for fooling men into stealing from me the experience of trusting my emotions, mind, and spirit with another person.” That is heavy. That is really heavy. I would take the blame off of yourself though, by saying that you fooled men into stealing that from you. You had no part in them taking that from you. That was taken from you. So that would be me coming in with a red pen and proofreading your pain.
This is from the Struggle in a Sentence survey, and this is filled out by L. She is between 16 and 19. I love when I get young listeners that are so articulate. It usually seems to be young women, just seem to be so much more articulate about their emotions than guys at that age. About her depression she writes, “My heart’s attached to an anchor at the bottom of the sea.” And then why is the teenage girl poetry always so horrible? Yet when they do the Struggle in a Sentence it’s so beautiful? Maybe I’m not reading the right teenage girl poetry. About her anxiety, “Needles pricking into every pore.” About her alcoholism and drug addiction, “Euphoria in the form of liquid or smoke. The crashes are catastrophic.” About her bulimia, “Filling with emotion, only to be emptied to a husk.” About her anorexia, “Abstinence. I am nothing. I need nothing. A permanent guilt for existing.” About her codependency, “The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming and shameful, but it outweighs my pride in depending on others.” Thank you for that, L.
This is from M. Same survey. She’s in her 20s, and she writes about her depression, “It feels like everything I am looking at and everyone I am talking to is on the other side of a thick plate of glass. It’s there, but it’s distant and unreachable.” That is how I have always been describing my depression and my alcoholism and drug addiction. That’s what it feels like when it’s bad, yeah. About her anxiety, “I’ve lived with it for so long that its presence is comforting, and its absence, fighting.” I’d never thought about the absence of anxiety being frightening. About her alcoholism and drug addiction, “I love feeling as close to nothing as possible.”
I suppose this is where I should probably say something pithy to kick us into the episode, but I don’t have anything to say, so I’m going to lean on Pema Chodron and read just a quote from her book, When Things Fall Apart. “At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance. Through meditation, that’s what we being to undo. If we see that we have no mindfulness, that we rarely refrain, that we have little well-being, that is not confusion, that’s the beginning of clarity. As the moments of our lives go by, our ability to be deaf, dumb, and blind just doesn’t work so well anymore. Rather than making us more uptight, interestingly enough, this process liberates us. This is the liberation that naturally arises when we are completely here, without anxiety about imperfection.”
[intro plays]
PG: I’m here with Susanna Brisk, who I just met for the first time. We corresponded via email. I’m not really sure where to begin. There’s so much from your life, and I’ve just gotten the broad strokes from reading about you. I’m not really sure where to begin. So I guess let’s start from the beginning. You’re how old roughly?
Susanna Brisk: Ooh, ouch. Is that where we’re starting? I can’t imagine where we’re going to go if we start there. I’m 39.
PG: Okay.
SB: I’m actually going to start lying about my age next year, but this year I really am 39.
PG: Awesome, well then you’re going to be 39 forever, so that’s awesome.
SB: For the next ten years, and then I’ll be 49 for the next ten.
PG: What’s the fear underneath people knowing your real age? That you won’t get work? That you’ll be judged?
SB: I think I’ve probably just lived in Hollywood too long, because there’s definitely a stigma about women aging. I haven’t done anything to myself yet. But I think it’s probably just from being an actress and a model when I was younger. It’s probably left over from that. I mean no one really gives a shit about anyone but themselves, so.
PG: [laughs] That’s the bottom line.
SB: Yeah, it’s kind of an irrational fear, as if anyone’s going to be sitting at home taking notes on how old I am.
PG: I mean, have you ever said to yourself, “Oh no, not that person. They just turned 40.” [laughs]
SB: No. But women, we do have to deal with a little more stigma. I mean look at Sean Connery, and then all the love interests are like 25. It’s kind of disgusting.
PG: Oh yeah, the double standard is pretty gross. My favorite, too, is the schlubby guy on the sitcom that has this smoking hot wife.
SB: Hot, hot size-zero wife. Yeah, I know.
PG: So you were born in Europe.
SB: Estonia, in the former Soviet Union, yeah.
PG: What was that like? So you got about, what, ten years of living there? How long--
SB: Actually I was three when I left, but I have a very good memory for some reason. Very good long-term memory, so I remember a lot about it. But yeah, I grew up with these kind of communist intelligentsia parents. Actually intelligentsia and they hated communism. That was their whole thing, was like they were anti-communist. That’s why we left.
PG: Did they know anybody that was pro-communist? It just seems like everybody except the people in charge were miserable under communism.
SB: No, there were party members. I had a great uncle who was part of the communist party. He definitely was really gung-ho about communism. He lived in Australia, and he would always complain about how everyone was on the street and the way that they just let people down. The government wouldn’t take care of its people. Meanwhile he was living in like a projects kind of a thing for free in a lovely apartment, care of the government. So it never really made sense.
PG: In Australia?
SB: Yeah. I mean you can’t say the projects, exactly. It’s more like the housing commission, public housing.
PG: They have unwaxed surfboards.
SB: In Australia?
PG: Yeah, that’s the ghetto of Australia is where they can’t afford wax.
SB: [laughs] Well that’s why I had to leave, because I’m not a surfer and I don’t drink beer.
PG: I want to give a shout-out to our listeners in Australia. We have tremendous support from our Australian listeners.
SB: Oh that’s great!
PG: A lot of donors, I get a lot of emails from people down there. I just want to take a minute to thank them for being so awesome.
SB: Hi, Aussies! How are ya? That’s because you don’t really get to talk about these things in Australia. I think that there’s a real-- it’s an English thing. It’s a stiff upper lip kind of thing. “Here, have a beer, mate. You’ll be alright. She’ll be alright.” You don’t talk about depression, you don’t talk about mental illness. They’re not topics like they are here. Well certainly in Los Angeles, most people I know have a therapist, most people have some kind of something going on, and they’re very open about it. But it’s definitely not the case in Australia. They have a very high suicide rate, did you know that?
PG: No I didn’t.
SB: One of the highest in the world.
PG: I did not. That is one of the last places I would’ve guessed. I would’ve always thought the Nordic countries.
SB: That’s right, but no. There is a high suicide rate. It’s Japan, it’s Australia, and I think it’s Sweden that are high.
PG: So sad to think of a blonde person in a sauna wanting to end it all. It’s like, if you could just see yourself through my eyes.
SB: [laughs] Are you talking about an Australian or a Swedish person?
PG: No, a Swedish person.
SB: Because that could apply for an Australian, too. A lot of blondes.
PG: Yeah I don’t think of saunas when I think of Australia, though. So is that where you moved, from Estonia to Australia?
SB: Yeah, I grew up in Australia with these Russian parents, and I went to Orthodox Jewish school. I was picked on a lot for being Russian.
PG: And having red hair, I would imagine?
SB: Yeah, there’s that. There’s always that. Then you grow up and you’re like, “Well, now you try to get my color, bitches.”
PG: [laughs] Excuse me, I forgot to plug in my laptop, so I was just wandering over to go do that.
SB: That’s okay.
PG: By the way, we are in-- this is our first recording in my new digs, my new rented office. So far so good. We were getting some audio noises, some hums and crackles and pops before we started rolling, but so far, nothing yet.
SB: Good, fingers crossed.
PG: Fingers crossed.
SB: Yeah, it’s kind of bare in here. There’s nothing on the walls. It kind of feels like you’re face-to-face with your own demons. There’s nothing to distract you.
PG: If you had to pick for a movie a room where a businessman at the end of his rope would shoot himself, this is the room. But the table that we’re recording on was--
SB: Gorgeous.
PG: --the front tree of my yard. So I feel like that brings a little bit of warmth and--
SB: A little bit of cheer.
PG: A little bit of cheer to it.
SB: Maybe you could put a poster up of The Shining on the wall. That might help cozy the place up a little.
PG: [laughs] So tell me, what was your childhood like growing up in Australia? So you were considered--
SB: Oh, it was fucking fantastic.
PG: You were a red-haired Russian. What was your family dynamic like? Were you guys close? Were you emotionally-- did you guys express emotions to each other?
SB: We expressed too much emotion. There’s no shortage of emotion in my family. Everyone is very intense. They’re Jews and Russians, so everybody screams all the time, even-- they’re just talking, but they’re screaming. My grandmother, who did a lot of the job of raising me, because a lot of children of these Russians who came out in the ‘70s were only children and then they were raised by the grandmother. My grandmother was borderline. I know that now, borderline personality disorder. But at the time, it was just like she’s very strange. Everybody knew babushka was a little strange.
PG: Could turn on a dime.
SB: In a second, very mercurial. She was very hard to predict. She was kind of like up my ass all the time. Not literally, thank god. But she was a force of nature. She never stopped. She only had one mode. She was manic. She drank six cups of coffee a day, massive cups, with like six things of sugar in it. She was obsessed with sugar. She used to read Der Spiegel magazine, which is this German--
PG: German, yeah.
SB: --S&M porn. Random--
PG: Der Spiegel was?
SB: Often, often featured. Yeah, there’d be a page open and there’d be some weird photo shoot with people in leather. I’d be like, “Oh I don’t understand.”
PG: That’s so funny, I never remember-- we had a German deli across from me in Chicago, and I took German in college, so every once in a while I’d thumb through one of theirs. All I can remember is occasionally there were topless pictures. But I would see if there was anything I could read anything in German, and of course I never could. But I don’t remember anything kind of that--
SB: All I remember is the S&M pictures, because I was just like, “What’s that?”
PG: So would she come down ever? Or was it always up?
SB: No, she was always up, and that’s what I was trying to figure out from my mom years later. I was like, “Was she--“ because I thought maybe she was bipolar because she was so manic. She was like, “No, she never needed much sleep. She very rarely even sat down.” She never seemed to be depressed, but at the same time she was always angry. There was always an undercurrent of anger. Everything you did, if she didn’t like what you did, the eyebrow would go up. She’d have this collection of sounds that she made, like “Ah! Cha! Gah! Ah cha!” like this. Sort of like your snap crackles that are happening on your podcast. That’s what she sounded like. Her hand would swipe at you, “Ashhe! Ashhe!” Be like, “Babushka, you look so good today.” “Ashhe!” Like anything you said was just not good enough. It was not good enough.
PG: Was she ever pleased by anything?
SB: No.
PG: What a sad--
SB: She would sit at family gatherings and be like, “What is this all for? What is this? What is this for? What a waste of time.” You couldn’t please her.
PG: Did you ever turn the switch off trying to please her?
SB: I still haven’t [laughs]. I don’t think-- she’s dead, long gone. I’m still trying to please her.
PG: Do you feel like you have her voice kind of inside you guiding you sometimes?
SB: Probably, yeah. I feel her with me sometimes. I had a car accident about a year ago, and I felt her there when I survived it. So maybe--
PG: So a positive thing.
SB: --she was taking care of me. Yeah, and I loved her. I adored her. I saw her more than I saw my parents, because my parents were immigrants struggling and working all the time. All I wanted to do was be with my parents. I really didn’t get to be with my parents much. My father was starting his jewelry business. He worked all the time. He was kind of angry all the time. I always felt like I was in the way. My mother’s just a character. My mother’s been swearing, since I was like seven years old, in Russian. It would be the kind of thing where - there’s an episode in my book, actually - she was washing the floor in the kitchen. I was like, “Can I help you, mommy? I want to help you.” She’s like, “Ah, fuck off. I don’t need your help.” It was like that. It was just very intense, and I didn’t really understand it. I would just kind of run to my room and cry a lot.
PG: There is a team in my hockey league that is 90% Russian. If they get down by one goal, they just start attacking each other.
SB: [laughs]
PG: You can hear them from across the ice, just screaming at each other. I’ve always wondered, is that just them? Or is that like a cultural thing?
SB: It’s genetic and cultural. It’s in our blood to be down on ourselves and on each other. I mean, “Failure is not an option.” It’s just the culture. It’s like you wean it from your mother’s breast kind of thing. It’s just in there.
PG: Do you ever wonder what-- do you think it’s because of all the wars and the dictatorships and the abuse of power over the centuries in Russia that just kind of ingrains that collective suffering?
SB: I think so. And then when you have the Jewish thing on top of it, you’ve just got a very traumatized people. It’s just in the blood. It just becomes passed on through the generations as kind of soul darkness. I don’t think that your real soul is actually dark. I think that everyone has a light inside them. But just above that, there’s a little layer of “nothing’s really going to work out”. If that was the ethos, it was just like, “Life will fuck you. Deal with it.”
PG: It is such a poisonous way to go through life. So completely understandable, but it’s such a-- it’s like we get one shot at the buffet. Do we really want to just sit and complain about the food and say, “Eventually this is going to come out in the form of a shit”?
SB: [laughs] Yeah, you don’t want to focus on the whole toilet part of it. You want to enjoy the food.
PG: Yeah. But it’s so hard. Easier said than done.
SB: It’s true, yes.
PG: So you’re around your-- you call her your “babushka”?
SB: Babushka.
PG: Babushka.
SB: Mm-hmm.
PG: What do you think you’ve gotten from your relationship with her that has benefitted you?
SB: That’s a very good question. She used to bring me books, and she encouraged me having a stamp collection. She taught me how to knit. She taught me how to play the piano. She spoke eight languages fluently.
PG: What?
SB: I speak five, yeah. I’m like a slouch in my family. They’re all just geniuses. They’re all brilliant.
PG: What languages did she speak? Obviously Russian.
SB: She spoke Russian-- well in Estonia, you spoke Russian, German, and Estonian. Then on top of that she’d picked up French, Yiddish--
PG: English.
SB: English, that’s right. Her English and-- let me think. I haven’t thought about this.
PG: Oh that’s enough.
SB: I think she spoke maybe Hungarian and maybe… What am I missing? Little bit of Hebrew. Yeah, I mean she was just amazing. And she had perfect pitch. She could play the piano, and she taught me piano. She gave me, genetically, I have a talent for playing the piano. So I think it’s kind of more the genetics.
PG: She must’ve been annoyed by people that couldn’t keep up with her.
SB: She couldn’t stand people. She couldn’t stand people anyway. She was just the complete isolationist. She had these decades-long correspondences with people, but she couldn’t stay friends with somebody if you lived nearby. She had a best friend called Madam Wartmann, and they were always fighting. They were always not talking to each other, because it was too close. I said in my book, she would’ve loved Facebook, because it was like the perfect amount of intimacy for her. She just couldn’t handle-- she didn’t suffer fools, and to her, everybody was a fool. So I mean, I kind of think she was probably suffering, but my mother doesn’t think that she was suffering. She just thinks that she was the only person who ever lived like that on the planet. But that’s not possible. Everybody is in some way like somebody else. It took me decades to figure out that she was borderline because of that. Because my mother was always like, “Well your grandmother, you know. She was singular. There’s no one ever been like her.”
PG: When did she pass?
SB: My son is now eight, and it was right after he was born.
PG: How many kids do you have?
SB: I have two kids. They’re eight and nine. They’re boys and they drive me insane. I really hope they’re not mentally ill. That’s basically my whole--
PG: Did you have any brothers growing up?
SB: No, no siblings.
PG: So you are getting an education.
SB: Nothing.
PG: You were an only kid?
SB: Yeah, totally. Only child, yeah. I don’t understand boys. I don’t understand anything about it. I finally actually bought myself a Barbie townhouse, because I just gave up on being able to play with dolls, because they’re such boys. They’re best friends and then they’re punching each other a minute later. Some moms are just, “That’s alright. It’s alright, honey. We’ll let them sort it out.” But it’s very troubling for me, because I don’t understand boys. I understand men more, but I don’t understand boys.
PG: You know how girls will hold hands and--
SB: Talk to each other and stuff, yeah.
PG: --talk to each other. Boys’ way of doing that is wrestling and punching and getting into trouble. That is how we find our place in the world and that’s basically how - at least for me - that’s how I related to my friends, was tackling each other, playing jokes on each other, daring each other, doing things that were gross to make each other laugh. That’s how. Because you wouldn’t grab your buddy’s hand and go, “I just feel really close to you.”
SB: [laughs]
PG: You know? Everybody would’ve piled on top of you and called you a fag.
SB: Right, a homo.
PG: Etc, etc, yeah. So yeah, that’s so--
SB: Wow, I got an education today. I really didn’t understand that until this moment.
PG: Unless they start torturing animals and burning shit down--
SB: No, my kids are not sociopaths, no.
PG: --then I think, in my opinion-- I mean, I don’t know, I’m just a former standup comedian that used to cook chicken [laughs]. But in my opinion, that’s totally normal. That’s how I was, that’s how all my friends were.
SB: Interesting.
PG: There was almost like a, “How far can we push things until there’s blood, and then pull back just a tiny bit?” So just know that that’s inside them, constantly, “How far can we push this until one of us bleeds?”
SB: Oh god, what a nightmare. Thus, the trips to the emergency room.
PG: But eventually they’ll--
SB: Settle in and become productive--
PG: --be interested in girls.
SB: They are already.
PG: Well that takes some of the edge off.
SB: Yeah. Sometimes one of them will play with themself and he’ll look right in my eyes, “Look, mommy.”
PG: [laughs] Seriously?
SB: I’m dead serious. I’m like, “Sweetie, do that on your own time.” I don’t want to shame him, I want him to be able to explore his body. But I’m just like, “That’s not for mommy, sweetie.”
PG: Good for you.
SB: “Do that in your bed.”
PG: Good for you.
SB: In a few years, ew, ew. I’m going to be changing those sheets. Ew!
PG: [laughs] Kicking the pillowcase to the laundry room.
SB: [laughs]
PG: That must be a tough thing for moms and dads to navigate, when there is that burgeoning of their sexuality that you don’t want to shame them, but you also want them to know-- you don’t want them to--
SB: When it’s appropriate.
PG: Yeah, you don’t want him to--
SB: You don’t want him taking his dick out in class for god’s sake.
PG: Exactly, or at somebody else’s house in front-- “that” mom, and him saying, “But my mom says it’s not a problem.”
SB: Yeah, that’s right. Well it’s hard enough I think when you’re mentally well. But when you have issues, everything just becomes more difficult. Because I feel like I feel my kids’ pain more. When they’re upset, it’s taken me a long time and a shit-ton of therapy to be just like, “Okay, he’s upset right now, and that’s okay.” Because I had suicidal ideation from when I was seven. I mean I literally was seven years old, and I remember wanting to kill myself. That was like 32 years ago, I’ve had suicidal ideation.
PG: Do you still have it?
SB: Occasionally, yeah. It’s actually been pretty good right now. But it’s almost like I want to say, “Just do it already.” [laughs] “Stop thinking about it.”
PG: That’s funny, because somebody would see you in a coffee shop, they would be like, “Why can’t I be that put-together? She’s got the gorgeous, curly, auburn hair. She’s statuesque. She’s got two beautiful kids.”
SB: Right yeah, but you just meet me for a couple of minutes and that whole illusion will slide away very quickly. Because I’m very open about my struggles. On my blog and even just when I meet people, I’ll often just say-- they’ll be like, “Oh you seem happy today,” or something, and I’ll be like, “Yeah, I’m medicated. I’m correctly medicated.” I don’t want there to be a stigma about what we all go through. It doesn’t seem fair to have to deal with that and then to have to hide it as well.
PG: Exactly.
SB: So that’s why I love what you’re doing here. I do.
PG: Aw thank you. I appreciate that. So let’s talk and go back to when you were seven. What do you think that was about, the suicidal ideation? What do you remember wanting to avoid or get rid of that suicide would bring you?
SB: That’s a very good question, because I think it happened after my grandfather died. I wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral because suddenly-- I mean my dad’s an atheist. These are not really Jewy-Jews. We had traditional Judaism. It was mainly about the food. Suddenly they got so Jew-y and so Orthodox and I couldn’t go to the funeral. I think that affected me--
PG: Why couldn’t you go to the funeral?
SB: Because if you haven’t had one parent die, you’re not supposed to hear the Kaddish if you’re a kid. Again, this archaic lore that they just randomly decided to follow when they would totally eat pork on Shabbat. They were totally not religious. I went to school with religious kids, so I was always trying to get them to light candles, just trying to reconcile all of these worlds, I guess, and trying to figure out where I fit in. I just remember being in my classroom and just putting my head on my desk and just thinking, “I want to die.” The kids were picking on me, I was crying every day. I don’t even know how I got it, but then I made these suicide pills. I had a little Hello Kitty or a Bobby and Kate little plastic pencil holder, and I took my mom’s paracetamol, which is like Tylenol, like a little capsule, and I opened it and I crushed up some of her other pills. They turned out to be birth control pills.
PG: [laughs]
SB: I don’t know if I thought she had cyanide in her bathroom thing, but so I closed them up and I kept them for just in case. I mean who does that at seven? That’s weird. That’s when people say to me, “America’s over-medicated. Everyone’s on medication.” It’s like, “Well that’s not really my problem,” because I know that I had a problem really early on, because that is not normal.
PG: Common--
SB: But not normal.
PG: --but not normal maybe.
SB: Right.
PG: So many people I know, if they didn’t think about suicide at that age, they wanted to be with a different family. I had that one, where I just - oh God - I so badly wanted to be raised by a different family. And just going into fantasy. Was fantasy kind of a drug for you as a kid?
SB: Oh absolutely, yeah. I loved to read, and I was so caught up in this whole thing that I’m going to be an actress. Even when I was really little. I would draw billboards of myself, and I would play different characters. So I’m 39 and that hasn’t happened, but we plug on [laughs].
PG: [laughs] As you say that, what feelings--
SB: [laughs] I just feel like I want to cry right now.
PG: Why?
SB: Because it’s so funny to think that you get older, and to have the same dream that you had when you were four is kind of ridiculous in a sense, because I’ve changed so much even in the last six months. How can I be the same person I was when I was four? But I just think life is kind of a little bit of a bait-and-switch, to be honest.
PG: What do you feel like was promised to you, and what do you feel like you were given instead?
SB: I don’t think anybody really ever promised me anything, because I didn’t grow up with a great sense of entitlement, because we didn’t have very much. But I think I thought I would be happy more consistently than I am. Even though I am, at a baseline, pretty content. I have to say that I’m better than I was a couple of years ago or ten years ago. The lows are less low. But I just feel life’s kind of a gib. Everyone’s like, “Oh have kids.” Don’t fucking have kids. Seriously, listen to me. Listen to my words. Do not have kids. It’s not what it seems to be. It’s a lot of shit-work, housework. Not that I think I’m better than that, but you know what, I’m better than that.
PG: [laughs]
SB: It’s like, what is this life that I have? I can’t believe my life sometimes, honestly. Like you said, from the outside, it looks wonderful. I live in Malibu, for god’s sake. Malibu, California. What’s wrong with Malibu? Nothing. But it’s like driving these kids to football and soccer, I mean really? Is this it? Is this life? Parenting’s the ultimate bait-and-switch.
PG: What do you do to feed yourself? Because if you don’t have something other than driving the kids to soccer practice and cooking dinner or whatever it is-- I would think it would be the rarer person that could be completely fulfilled by that.
SB: There’s lots of women in Malibu who are totally fulfilled by that. They’ve had big lives, and they’re happy with what they’ve achieved, and they’re on the PTA. They’re volunteering and they’re room-mom this and parent-mom that.
PG: But are they really happy or are they just presenting it? We’ll never know, but--
SB: They’re happier than I am. I mean, I write. That’s my thing. I write and I act, and that makes me feel like it’s okay. Even if I never make a living in this business, which it’s been 22 years and I’m kind of tapping my watch going, “Okay.” I know I’ve moved a lot of people and I have a lot of people who really appreciate my work, but the creativity itself, the actual process, is what saves me, definitely. And sex [laughs]. Lots of fucking.
PG: Are you married?
SB: No, I’m separated, yeah. 11 months.
PG: Oh no.
SB: We were together 14 years and married for 12. I was married to someone who I’m sure that you know, because everybody in comedy knew him. I became sort of his wife as opposed to-- you know, I was a stand-up comic for 12 years, I was obsessed with it. I got on TV very early in Australia, and then I think I was kind of young and couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities like I could have. But who knows all the reasons why things happen the way they do? Then I went to New York, because I was like, “I’m going to be a star!” Then New York didn’t care. Then I met my husband and it was really much more about me being his wife. I felt like that overshadowed even my huge way too big personality. It did overshadow it for many years.
PG: Are you comfortable sharing who your ex-husband is?
SB: I was married to Barry Katz. It’s very easy to find out on Google, so I mean I may as well. Do you-- you know Barry?
PG: Yeah, the manager?
SB: Yeah.
PG: Yeah, yeah.
SB: And he’s doing a podcast now that’s really successful and--
PG: With Jay Mohr?
SB: Yeah. Actually he’s doing his own podcast called Industry Standard. It’s doing really well.
PG: Oh good.
SB: Yeah, we’re still really good friends. We live in the same house. It’s kind of unusual. I wanted to do a reality show, but he’s too private. I hate that. Bravo were interested in maybe doing a show with us, because I live downstairs in the guest room next to the kids, and he lives in the master. We’re just totally amicable. It’s been 11 months, and we’re really good friends. It’s unusual. It’s an unusual situation. We love each other! We’re still family.
PG: What was it that drove you apart, then?
SB: I don’t want to go into that too much, because I do want to safeguard his privacy--
PG: Say no more. Say no more.
SB: --but let’s just say I turned 35 and he turned 50. I wanted one thing, and he wanted to nap.
PG: [laughs]
SB: So that really pushed us apart.
PG: Do you ever feel like there was an extra allure to him because he was powerful in comedy and you were trying to become powerful in comedy?
SB: I think it was probably about 10-20% of my attraction for him, but I was really in love. We were really in love. We have a very sentimental relationship. There are thousands and thousands of these greeting cards - they’re in boxes now in his closet and mine are in the garage - of, “I love you. I live for you. You saved my life. You’re my world.” I think, for him at least, he got very stuck on the idea of the relationship more than the reality. I think he went through a really hard time with my mood struggles. I didn’t really understand it until we were separated, what he went through. It’s terrible to watch someone you love suffer.
PG: Do you think he picked you because he’s a fixer?
SB: Yeah, I think he’s a bit of a rescuer, yeah.
PG: I think most managers are. The ones that are successful have to be invigorated by putting out fires and soothing and comforting |
old arbor] vs. plantation debate that is best left for another article.
When seeking a specific production of a famous tea, there are always more reasonably priced options which will allow the consumer to avoid fakes and save a few bucks. Dayi productions will rarely afford either luxury. It is not a secret that China is the world’s most skilled forger of all things, be it Louis Vuitton bags or solar panels. Puerh is no exception. Entire businesses are dedicated solely to faking Dayi products.
Let me repeat that again for emphasis. There are businesses out there, in large wholesale tea markets, whose entire livelihood is built around making and selling fake Dayi products. Consumers who desire certainty of authenticity ought look to smaller factories with less fame. Sometimes a less flashy brand will afford the confidence that you are getting what you pay for.
Or better yet, pay attention to what is in the cup, not on the wrapper. Follow this simple advice and you will never be disappointed.As the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority prepares to dole out the first portion of the $6 billion Measure B funds, Midpeninsula cities are raising concerns that the agency could be putting onerous restrictions on projects for Caltrain grade separations.
Palo Alto and Mountain View city officials expressed alarm recently that VTA planners seemed to be setting a rigid template for eight projects from Sunnyvale to Palo Alto that would separate roadways from the railroad tracks. Those concerns centered on a brief outline buried in a staff report for a Friday, April 21, VTA board workshop. The excerpt noted that to receive funding, rail-crossing projects "would maintain the tracks at grade level with traffic and pedestrian access either over or under the tracks."
For transit advocates and city officials, this was reportedly the first time they had heard VTA dictate specific standards for grade-separation projects, which they say could disrupt months of city planning.
For example, Mountain View officials last year decided against a grade separation at the Castro Street rail crossing, figuring that money could be better spent on closing the street and rerouting traffic to Shoreline Boulevard. Meanwhile Palo Alto officials have heavily favored running Caltrain in a below-grade tunnel or trench with road crossings above.
Adina Levin, co-founder of the group Friends of Caltrain, said it was now unclear whether either city's vision for pursuing grade separation would satisfy VTA's guidelines for Measure B funding.
"Does this mean (Mountain View's plans) wouldn't get funding even though they would be less expensive?" she said. "I think VTA has a reasonable intent, but this particular policy is not the right way to go."
Those concerns were echoed by several speakers on Friday morning at a VTA board meeting to discuss allocating just under $300 million next year for the first phase of the new transportation sales tax. This initial allotment includes just $7 million in grants for early grade-separation planning, but a total of $700 million is planned for these projects over the 30-year lifespan for the sales tax.
At the meeting, VTA officials appeared somewhat surprised by the uproar. Scott Haywood, a project manager, emphasized that the VTA would take the cities' concerns into consideration before the agency's full board meeting in June to approve the final budget for the initial round of sales tax money.
"Staff was directed by the board to be flexible where the grade-separation project funding is concerned and to work closely with the cities to come up with alternative language in the proposal," wrote VTA spokeswoman Stacey Hendler Ross in an email to the Mountain View Voice. "There will be at least four more opportunities for public review of the proposal before it goes to the board for a June vote."
Midpeninsula cities have had a complicated relationship with VTA, especially last year as the transit agency asked for support from regional political leaders for its sales-tax initiative. The request stirred up grievances among north county and west valley leaders because they felt VTA had spent the bulk of past tax measures on projects benefiting San Jose, particularly construction of a long-sought BART connection to the city. They ended up supporting the measure after VTA officials pledged to cap BART spending at 25 percent.
By lending their support, Midpeninsula elected leaders came to believe they would have control over how to design grade-separation projects, explained former Palo Alto Mayor Pat Burt.
"The VTA staff proposal to only consider designs with tracks at ground level restricts proper alternatives analysis," he wrote in an email. "This may not result in the most cost-effective design and may not best meet the broader set of design issues that are critical to the communities."
In any case, the $700 million earmarked for grade separations is already expected to be inadequate to pay for all eight Caltrain crossings from Sunnyvale to Palo Alto. VTA staff note that the difference will need to be paid by "outside funding sources" -- in other words, the cities along the Caltrain line.
Multiple Midpeninsula cities are pursuing grade-separation projects in tandem to prepare as Caltrain upgrades its system for faster and more frequent service. The train agency is currently working to phase out its older diesel-engine trains for a faster electrified system. Caltrain officials are also planning to eventually use the train corridor for the statewide high-speed rail line.
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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.The governments of Canada, Ontario and Toronto have announced $1.185 billion in funding for flood protection of the Toronto Port Lands, a precursor stage to developing a significant new mixed-use neighbourhood on the city’s east waterfront.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and Toronto Mayor John Tory joined Waterfront Toronto CEO Will Fleissig at a noon-hour ceremony June 28 to announce the funding. The Government of Canada will contribute $384 million to the project and Ontario and Toronto will each give $400 million.
The Port Lands Flood Protection project will take approximately seven years to complete and will be delivered by Waterfront Toronto.
A statement from Waterfront Toronto quoted a third-party economic impact study that estimates spending on construction alone will generate approximately $1.1 billion in value to the Canadian economy and create 10,829 person years of employment.
The Port Lands Flood Protection project will create two new outlets for the Don River, including a wide new river valley, that will steer flood waters into Lake Ontario, as well as provide new parks, aquatic habitat and infrastructure such as roads, bridges and a transit right-of-way. It will also help clean up contaminated soil and prepare land for development, said media statements from the partners.
Trudeau explained the dual purpose of the new spending in remarks delivered on the east Toronto waterfront.
"Flood protecting the Port Lands presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imagine and create a prosperous, inclusive, sustainable community right at the doorstep of downtown," Will Fleissig
Waterfront Toronto
The first is resilience, he said — to protect the lands from flooding during major storms. Flooding in the Don Valley shuts down GO trains and homes are damaged beyond repair.
"We need to take steps now to ensure the lands we are gathering on can be used and enjoyed for decades to come," said Trudeau.
The climate change remediation measures also unlock economic potential, he said.
"It is not going to be able to be fully developed until it is cleaned up and flooding protection systems are put in place," he said. "Fifteen-hundred jobs will be created during the cleanup and development phases and 80,000 jobs located in the east harbour area upon completion."
Trudeau said over 12-million feet of new commercial development space will be added to Toronto’s downtown once the project is completed, and 30,000 units of new housing will be built.
Wynne called it the greatest new source of developable land in the downtown of any city in North America.
Last September early-phase funding was announced, with the three levels of government pledging $65 million in infrastructure spending under the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund for the Cherry Street Storm Water and Lakefilling project, which is included in the $1.185-billion cost, Waterfront Toronto explained.
In his remarks, Fleissig acknowledged collaboration in planning for remediation of the Port Lands going back to 1991 and recognized the ideas generated by the Lower Don Lands Design Competition a decade ago.
Fleissig credited Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (New York), Behnisch Architects (Los Angeles) and Ken Greenberg (Toronto) with recommending retention of the Keating Channel and adding a second waterway to the south.
"Flood protecting the Port Lands presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imagine and create a prosperous, inclusive, sustainable community right at the doorstep of downtown," said Fleissig.
He said the timeframe for the development of parks, infrastructure and the multi-use developments that will follow is the next six, seven or eight years but in the meantime there will be significant new development in the vicinity within the next two to four years.
He said thanks to ongoing Waterfront Toronto revitalization efforts, including partnerships with the City of Toronto and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, there has already been $10 billion in private investments.
"As you can see right behind us, the fruits of that partnership are the cranes that you see building in the east bayfront," he said. "Since 2001 that view has changed, transforming an underused industrial parkland and parking lots into high-quality sustainable neighbourhoods.
"There will be continuous market development. We know that the development is coming east, it will continue on the east bayfront area and then roll right into Villiers Island."
Tory said the government investment will help the City of Toronto meet its obligations under its TransformTO program, initiated in two stages starting last December, setting targets of a 30-per-cent reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050.
Port Lands protection: What will $1.2 billion buy?
TORONTO — There are four main components to the Port Lands Flood Protection project as outlined by the Province of Ontario:
• Earthworks. This component will include 1.5-million cubic metres of excavated soil, additional soil remediation and the handling and placement of excavated soil required to implement grade changes and create over 1,000 metres of naturalized river valley, a new greenway and a sediment management area north of the Keating Channel.
• Roads, services and utilities. This part of the build involves the installation of new municipal infrastructure including watermains, wastewater and storm water sewers. It will also involve the creation of roads and a transit right-of-way and the relocation of hydro utilities.
• Bridges and dockwall structures. This component will include the design and construction of three new bridges and the extension of the Lake Shore Boulevard Bridge to create a wider opening over the river. Dockwalls will also be modified and created.
• Parks and naturalized areas. This component will create 29 hectares of new naturalized area in the river valley, including 14 hectares of aquatic habitat, plus an additional 16 hectares of new parkland. Also included is the construction of trails, boardwalks, overlooks, a small boat launch and fishing sites within the floodplain area.The 2016 WorldTour season is now upon us and it’s the first time we’ve seen all of the new ProTeam bikes lining up against one another. Here’s what’s new and interesting in 2016.
Bikes
There aren’t any huge shake-ups this season with teams changing bike sponsors. Specialized still has the most teams riding its bikes: three with Astana, Etixx-QuickStep, and Tinkoff. With two Grand tour teams and one Classics team we’ll surely see Specialized on the podium again this season. Two teams — Movistar and Katusha — ride Canyon while Scott also supplies two teams (IAM and Orica-GreenEdge).
Cervelo is now back in the WorldTour with Dimension Data (not that it hurt them last season). There’s no change for Merida, Trek and Cannondale who all have joint title sponsorship of teams, and for BMC who has a title sponsorship. Rounding out the WorldTour teams, like last year, are Giant, Bianchi, Lapierre, Ridley and Pinarello, all with one team.
Groupsets
Back in 2011 SRAM sponsored eight teams; last year they sponsored one (Ag2r La Mondiale). In 2016 they’re back up to two teams with Katusha switching to SRAM eTAP from Campagnolo.
Shimano still supplies the most teams with seven sponsorships in 2016 while Campagnolo supplies three.
We’ve seen prototypes of Rotor’s hydraulic groupset and FSA’s electronic groupset, but there’s no sign on any of the team bikes at the Tour Down Under. When these groupsets do show up at the races, we’ll likely see FSA on Etixx-Quickstep (as we did last year) and Rotor on Lampre-Merida or Dimension Data.
There’s very little or no mechanical shifting to speak of in WorldTour peloton now. A few of the top climbers such as Alberto Contador and Vincenzo Nibali were seen using the mechanical versions of their sponsored groupsets — Dura Ace for Contador and Super Record for Nibali — but we will have to wait to see if they’ll stick to that for this season.
Wheels
Katusha has switched from Mavic to Zipp wheels this season and Tinkoff has switched from Roval (Specialized) to HED, but only for the time trials. HED seems to be the go-to wheel brand for teams that are able to pick and choose their own components.
Other than that there are no differences in 2016. Shimano still tops the charts with six teams using its range of carbon wheels, everything from the C35s through to C50s and the C80s for fast, flat days. Shimano’s sub-brand Pro also supplies these teams with its range of Disk and tri-spoke wheels.By Michael Rubin, Special to CNN
Editor’s Note: Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes. The views expressed are his own.
Iraq is on a precipice from which it may never recover. The fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, to forces ostensibly from the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), may simply be the tip of the iceberg. What has happened in Iraq increasingly appears not simply to be a binary struggle between government and insurgent, but rather a more complicated problem that may be impossible to fully unravel.
I drove from Tikrit through Beiji to Mosul earlier this year, and into Syria along the same roads ISIS and other insurgents now use. Even then, government control over Mosul was tenuous. Iraqi soldiers at checkpoints on the outskirts of town urged me and my driver to reconsider my trip because Mosul was not safe; they relented only because a local vouched for me. After all, while Tikrit was home to former President Saddam Hussein and his immediate entourage, Mosul was the hometown of much of Saddam Hussein’s officer corps. It still is. As I continued on to the Syrian border, a special security agent at a checkpoint separated me from my taxi driver and another man accompanying us to ensure that I was there of my own free will. A senior security official in Baghdad subsequently told me that was standard protocol. It also reflects, however, the lawlessness of that area.
While Americans focus on the shock of al Qaeda flags over Mosul, Iraqis describe a more complicated scene. One Iraqi reported that insurgents in Mosul told his brother that they were not al Qaeda, but rather veterans of Saddam’s army. Rumors are rife throughout Mosul and Tikrit that Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, Saddam Hussein’s vice president and the most senior official of the previous regime who evaded American capture, has returned from Syria and is leading renewed insurgency.
While many diplomats and analysts remember Saddam as a brutal but secular dictator, the reality was more complicated. After Operation Desert Storm drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in 1991, Saddam found religion. He inserted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) on the Iraqi flag and actively courted more radical Islamists. In 2000, three years before the U.S.-led invasion, Islamist vigilantes terrorized unveiled and professional women in Baghdad, beheading several for “prostitution” and allegedly shirking more conservative Islamist precepts.
More from GPS: How to respond to the ISIS threat
The U.S. military discovered this the hard way in 2003. After the initial invasion, Gen. David Petraeus and the 101st Airborne Division he commanded took charge of Mosul. Rather than purge senior Baathists, Petraeus empowered them. Former Baathist Gen. Mahmud Muhammad al-Maris, for example, was assigned to lead Iraqi Border Police units guarding the Syrian border, and he picked another former Baathist, Gen. Muhammad Kha'iri Barhawi, to be the city’s police chief.
Petraeus explained his strategy at the time: "The coalition must reconcile with a number of the thousands of former Ba'ath officials…giving them a direct stake in the success of the new Iraq." The result was false calm, good for Petraeus’ carefully crafted image, but shortsighted. Barhawi reportedly used his position to organize insurgent cells comprised of Islamist and Baathist insurgents working hand-in-hand. In November 2004, he effectively handed the keys to the city to them. Just as occurred this week, they burned police stations, emptied prisons, and forced tens of thousands of Moslawis – as residents of Mosul are called – to flee. Only a decisive American military assault restored calm.
The reality in Mosul, Beiji, and Tikrit is that the enemy is not simply al Qaeda, but a coalition of forces dedicated to the eradication of both democracy and Shiite power in Iraq. With American and U.N. officials pressuring long pressuring Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki to reverse de-Baathification and to empower former regime officials, what happened earlier this week seems an eerie repeat of events of a decade ago.
Both the Kurds and neighboring states may have poured fuel on the fire, not realizing the conflagration they would spark would so quickly burn out of control. Reports from Mosul suggest the insurgents used Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missiles in their assault. Because the Kurdistan Regional Government had purchased Kornets from Bulgaria, their alleged use has sparked rumors across Iraq that the Kurdistan Regional Government might have “leaked” weaponry to the insurgents in order to weaken al-Maliki as he seeks to build a coalition to ensure a third four-year term, something many Kurds find anathema. If true, Kurdish President Masoud Barzani was too clever by half, as Mosul’s collapse has saddled him with tens of thousands of displaced persons for which to care. That said, an al Qaeda-affiliate separating Iraqi Kurdistan from Baghdad may lead Barzani and many Kurds to reconsider whether they should not simply declare independence.
More from CNN: Takeover threatens wider world
Should an independent Kurdistan arise out of the ashes of northern Iraq’s fall to insurgents, the Turks might have no one to blame but themselves. With ISIS taking several dozen Turkish diplomats, intelligence agents, special forces, and their families taken hostage in Mosul, Turkey may be experiencing Islamist blowback despite having allowed ISIS fighters and other Islamist militants unfettered entry into Syria. If so, Turkey now learns a lesson that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and even pre-civil war Syria have previously learned: Play with al Qaeda and get burned.
Reversing Mosul’s fall will not be easy. U.S. rhetoric about providing the al-Maliki government with intelligence and perhaps aerial support is just that – rhetoric. After all, if the United States and Iraqi central government had good intelligence with regard to the insurgency, they would not have been caught flatfooted in the first place. It is easy to suggest supporting Iraqi counterterror efforts with American drones or even manned flights, but it is far less certain where the United States would base such platforms and, again, how they could develop actionable intelligence absent assets on the ground. After all, Mosul is an urban environment, and the insurgents are dressed no differently than remaining civilians.
The Iraqi government could theoretically retake Mosul, but not with precision: It would be a Pyrrhic victory achieved by decimating the city, the equivalent of treating brain cancer by cutting off the patient’s head. But with ISIS and former Baathists rallying “volunteers” for an assault on Baghdad – and Iran preparing to intervene should the insurgency continue to spread – it is not only Iraq on the precipice. The only hope may be a full-fledged and joint Iraqi Army and Kurdish peshmerga assault on Mosul. It won’t be pretty: Moslawis have not forgiven the peshmerga for the looting in which they engaged in 2003. Yet sometimes there are no good options, although perhaps the bad can be blunted if the current crisis and its peak into a dystopian future encourage reconciliation among Iraq’s mainstream politicians. If not, not only will Iraq become Syria 2.0, but the ensuing storm could engulf other regional states like Lebanon and Jordan.
Iraq is at the precipice. The coming week will decide whether it climbs down, or falls.Doug Ford says he'll cut 15 per cent from the Municipal Land Transfer Tax each year for four years if he's elected mayor, while his two most high-profile opponents have no plans to trim it.
Ford made the announcement Wednesday after a meeting with the Toronto Real Estate Board. He said the tax, which earns the city more than $300 million a year in revenue, is unfair and hurts Toronto's housing market.
The cut Ford is proposing represents about $50 million in annual revenue to the city.
Ford said he would offset the lost revenue with money saved by contracting out garbage on the east side of the city. His eventual goal would be the complete removal of the tax, which is charged to anyone who buys a home or business in the city.
Ford said the MLTT is an "unfair tax" that hurts the economy and the city's housing market.
On a house with a sale price of $500,000, the purchaser would pay $5,725 to the city.
John Tory told reporters that he doesn't think the tax can be trimmed at this time, as the city relies on its revenues.
"It can't be cut right now, in my view, because there's $350 million that comes from it that is paying for much-needed services, including public transit and all manner of other things," he said.
"You'd obviously like to look at reducing any tax you can, but you've got to be able to figure out where you're going to get the money from before you make a promise like that."
Olivia Chow said she does not support "phasing out" the land-transfer tax, while reiterating her call to make the tax "even more progressive" by increasing it by one per cent on transactions over $2 million.Brian Hoyer is leaning toward signing with the Houston Texans, but the free-agent quarterback also will field an offer from the New York Jets on Monday, sources have confirmed to ESPN.
The Texans still are expected to sign Hoyer, the former Cleveland Browns quarterback who is looking for an opportunity for a starting job.
Brian Hoyer posted a winning career record (10-6) as a starter with the Browns. Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports
Hoyer likely will have to compete for a starting job with either Houston or the Jets. The Texans brought back quarterback Ryan Mallett earlier Monday, agreeing to a two-year, $7 million deal with the quarterback, a source told ESPN. Mallett's deal includes $1.75 million in guaranteed money, according to a source.
If he chooses to sign with the Jets, Hoyer likely will contend with turnover-prone Geno Smith, who has been New York's primary starting quarterback in each of the past two seasons.
Hoyer, 29, won the starting job in Cleveland last season in a training camp competition with Johnny Manziel and got off to a fast start.
He brought the Browns back from a 27-3 halftime deficit to tie the season opener in Pittsburgh before the Steelers won on a last-second field goal, and guided the biggest road comeback in NFL history in a 29-28 win over Tennessee.
Hoyer threw three interceptions in Atlanta in November but led a last-minute drive that won the game. At that point, the Browns were 7-4 and in the playoff chase.
Editor's Picks More from ESPN.com Brian Hoyer is not the long-term answer at quarterback for the Texans, according to Pro Football Focus' Steve Palazzolo.
But he was yanked the following week in Buffalo, and his season was never the same. Hoyer played tight the next week against the Colts and lost his job as the starter to Manziel the next week. Hoyer returned only when Manziel pulled a hamstring after six woeful quarters on the field.
For the season, Hoyer threw for 3,326 yards with 12 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. His season rating was 76.5, which ranked 31st in the league. But Hoyer is the only one of the Browns' 22 starting quarterbacks since 1999 to have a winning record as a starter (10-6).
Hoyer spent three seasons as Tom Brady's backup and got his chance with the Browns in 2013. He led the team to wins over Cincinnati and Minnesota before tearing his ACL less than five minutes into a win over Buffalo.
ESPN NFL Insider Adam Caplan, ESPN's Josina Anderson, ESPN.com Texans reporter Tania Ganguli and ESPN.com Browns reporter Pat McManamon contributed to this report.“…rape is not just a blow to one person; it is a blow to the whole family. A victim of rape is never healed with the passing of time. With every look given by a father, the wounds open again.” - Bahareh Maghami, a victim of rape in Iran April 2010
Echoing earlier reports by human rights groups, the British media has recently highlighted the case of a young woman from Iran, "Leyla", who was allegedly abducted, detained and raped by that country's security forces because her fiancée was involved in the demonstrations that followed Iran’s disputed presidential election last year.
It’s a terrible story and sadly not a unique one. Following the post-election demonstrations, the Iranian authorities cracked down with astonishing severity on anyone perceived to be involved in criticism of the status quo. Thousands of people were arrested: students, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists and human rights campaigners were all targeted. Hundreds of people were subsequently tried unfairly in mass "show trials", some of which led to executions. But as more people were released from detention, the details of abuse, including rape of both men and women, were repeated again and again.
The Iranian authorities acknowledged that some abuse took place in the Kahrizak detention centre – where former detainees emerged with stories of rape, torture and appalling conditions leading to at least three deaths – but that example aside, the Iranian government's reaction has been to dismiss and repress all other allegations of abuse.
Ebrahim Sharifi, a 24-year-old student from Tehran, was seized by plainclothes security officials in June 2009 and held incommunicado for a week before being released. He told Amnesty that he was bound, blindfolded and beaten prior to being raped. He also endured severe beatings and mock executions.
When he tried to file a judicial complaint, intelligence agents allegedly threatened him and his family. The case judge said: “Maybe you took money [to say this]… [and] if you go through with this, you will surely pay for it in Hell.” The investigating Judicial Committee announced that his allegations of rape were fabricated and politically motivated.
Two members of the government-supported Basij militia, now in the UK, have also told the British media that they witnessed systematic rape on men and boys in a park in the southern city of Shiraz. Other Basij members had forced young men and possibly boys into a series of shipping containers in the park, where the rapes took place. The two complained, including to their superiors, which led to them having to leave Iran.
Women in detention have also frequently reported sexual insults and threats of rape being used against them. Zahra Kamali, a student arrested in July 2009, told Amnesty International that her interrogators taunted her with wanting to sleep with other men, and touched her breasts. She said that her then cellmate, a women’s rights activist held with her was treated the worst: "She told us that her interrogators had attached cables to her nipples and given her electric shocks. She was so ill she would sometimes faint in the cell.”
It is women who remain discriminated against more generally in Iranian law – a woman’s testimony in court is worth half that of a man’s, for example. Women’s rights campaigners continue to be harassed, intimidated and arrested. Amnesty is campaigning for Ronak Safazadeh, a women’s rights campaigner jailed in 2009 for five years on what appear to be trumped-up charges.
All acts of rape are grave abuses of human rights. But the abuse takes on an added significance when the rapist is a public official. The UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture states that rape constitutes torture when it is carried out by public officials or happens at their instigation. International and regional human rights bodies have ruled that rape by officials always amounts to torture, and cannot be considered to be simply a common criminal act.
The use of rape as a form of torture (or as a weapon of war) is certainly not unique to Iran. But that does not mean these reports can be ignored. Greater international scrutiny of Iran’s human rights has been rebuffed by the government: it has not allowed some eight UN human rights rapporteurs to visit the country and has used UN meetings to deny reports of human rights violations.
The human rights situation in Iran has become so dire that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other organisations last week called on the UN Secretary General to appoint his own special envoy to investigate and report on the situation in the country, and to issue a more comprehensive report on human rights in Iran.
All this will be of little comfort to those like Leyla, Ebrahim and Zahra mentioned above. But the international community must ensure, for their sake and for those of countless other Iranians, that the focus on Iran is not restricted solely to its nuclear plans but also to the human rights of its people.
Kate Allen is the UK Director of Amnesty International.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a NASA/ESA/ASI mission to explore the Saturnian system. The ESA component consists largely of the Huygens probe, which entered the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, and descended under parachute down to the surface. The Cassini spacecraft is undertaking an extensive exploration of the Saturnian system with its rings and many satellites. Cassini completed its initial four-year mission to explore the Saturn System in June 2008 and the first extended mission, called the 'Cassini Equinox Mission', in September 2010. A second extended mission, called the 'Cassini Solstice Mission' was completed September 2017; this allowed scientists to study the Saturnian system until the summer solstice is passed in May 2017. After covering one half of a Saturnian year since its arrival at the system, Cassini concluded its mission by plunging into the gas planet's atmosphere.
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Huygens: the top 10 discoveries at Titan 14 January 2015 On 14 January 2005, at 13:34 CET (12:34 UTC), ESA's Huygens probe entered the history books by descending to the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. This was humanity's first successful attempt to land a probe on another world in the outer Solar System. Read more
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Reflections at the end of Cassini 14 September 2017 On 25 December 2004, after a seven-year journey as part of the international NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, ESA's Huygens lander separated from NASA's Cassini orbiter to make a lonely, one-way voyage to Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Read more Ground stations go dancing with Cassini 15 July 2017 A complex coordinated 'dance' between ESA and NASA tracking stations is following Cassini during its Grand Finale. May, June and July have been busy months, as a series of complex ground-station tracking passes involving ESA's Deep Space Antennas (DSA) and NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) captured a series of Grand Finale radio science passes. Read moreWeeks of protest against the Romanian government's efforts to water down anti-corruption laws culminated in a massive crowds nationwide on February 5 of about a half million lights of their mobile phones as they protest against the Romanian government's contentious corruption decree in front of the government headquarters at the Victoriei square in Bucharest on February 5, 2017.Romania's government formally repealed contentious corruption legislation that has sparked the biggest protests since the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, ministerial sources said. The emergency decree, announced on Tuesday (January 31, 2017), would have decriminalised certain corruption offences, raising concerns in Romania and outside that the government was easing up on fighting graft. Centre-right President Klaus Iohannis, elected in 2014 on an anti-graft platform, previously had called the decree "scandalous" and moved to invoke the constitutional court. (AFP Photo/ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI)
Bucharest (AFP) - Romanian MPs voted Tuesday to definitively shelve a controversial decree that had sought to water down anti-corruption legislation but ended up unleashing the nation's biggest protests in a quarter-century.
The left-leaning government had already revoked the decree earlier this month but it still needed to be repealed through a parliamentary vote.
"This decree's saga has finally come to an end. The government's unfair and nontransparent move has been corrected," said the head of the centre-right opposition, Raluca Turcan.
On January 31, less than a month after being sworn in, the Social Democrat (PSD) government adopted an emergency decree that critics say would have protected corrupt politicians from prosecution.
The proposed changes, which also sparked concern in Brussels and Washington, would have made abuse of power a crime punishable by jail only if the sums involved exceeded 200,000 lei (44,000 euros, $47,500).
Critics say that this would have let off PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who is currently on trial for alleged abuse of power.
Dragnea, who denies the charges, insisted he would not have benefited from the decree.
The law has triggered weeks of rallies, peaking on February 5 with an estimated half a million people nationwide.
Despite the decree's withdrawal, thousands of protesters have vowed to continue demonstrations until the government quits.
Even since before Romania joined the European Union in 2007, Brussels has taken it to task over the endemic problem of corruption and organised crime.
The country has intensified its fight against corruption in recent years with the creation of a powerful anti-corruption agency, which has seen the arrest of hundreds of senior officials and politicians.
Graft watchdog Transparency International ranked Romania below all but three of its fellow EU states in a January report based on public perception of the prevalence of corruption. Worldwide, the country ranked 57th.FOXBORO -- It may not be long before Patriots quarterback Tom Brady tells Steelers coordinator Keith Butler to "study the rule book and figure it out."
Butler made an appearance on Steelers.com's Coodinators' Corner show this week and hinted that the Patriots do things that border on illegal, seemingly referencing their use of odd formations in the Divisional Round of the playoffs two seasons ago as an example.
"I don't think they're doing anything special," Butler said when asked why it's so difficult to prepare for the Patriots offense. "I think sometimes they do things outside the box sometimes, you know, that might be on the edge of being legal or not legal.
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"They've done a couple of things in the past... putting an offensive tackle out as ineligible but he's not really. And so sometimes the emphasis by the NFL in terms of what they call and what they don't call, they use that a little bit. And they've been accused of doing a lot of things. But the thing we've got to do is ignore that and play, and hopefully we can give them something they haven't seen from us."
After the Patriots ran their unusual formations against the Ravens in January of 2015, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh insisted that no one had ever seen those formations before, and he was certain the league would look at their legality. Reacting to Harbaugh's comments that night, Brady defended his team's tactics.
"Who knows? Maybe those guys gotta study the rule book and figure it out," Brady said at the time. "We obviously knew what we were doing and we made some pretty important plays. It was a real good weapon for us. Maybe we’ll have something in store next week."
Brady added: "I don’t know what’s deceiving about that. [They] should figure it out."
In the aftermath of the game, the league was open about the fact that New England's formations were, in fact, legal. However, the following week, the NFL's head of officiating Dean Blandino pointed out that Nate Solder's touchdown grab in the AFC title game should not have counted due to an illegal substitution call that was missed.
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The Patriots have yet to run much in the way of formational trickery this season, save for an alignment in Week 5 against the Browns in which Solder was lined up as the left guard next to center David Andrews. On the opposite side of the formation Joe Thuney lined up outside right tackle Cameron Fleming as a tight end. That play resulted in a short LeGarrette Blount run.
Butler added that, "If we're going to beat them, we can't get beat mentally, either, in terms of making mistakes. We can't make mistakes -- mental mistakes. And we have to tackle. If we can do those two things, that will increase our chances of winning immensely."
You can listen to the full interview with Butler -- during which he calls Rob Gronkowski more of a receiver than a blocker and Julian Edelman "more of a possession receiver" -- right here.Maggot secretions could provide drug that can kill 12 strains of deadly superbug MRSA
A liquid produced by green bottle larvae has been shown to kill MRSA, C difficile and the E coli food poisoning bug in lab tests
Green bottle maggots could provide doctors with a powerful new drug against MRSA, a study has found.
Scientists have turned a brown sticky liquid produced by the larvae into an antibiotic capable of killing 12 different strains of the deadly superbug.
The drug, named Seraticin, can also combat the C |
systems to you guys, we will definitely have a firm idea of any lore that’s behind that to certain degree: if there’s any secret places; or if it was maybe formerly inhabited or not; or visited by a different species. We’ll probably have, at least at the beginning, a good idea of that but I think where the system goes from there will depend a lot on who finds it and how they present it.
AW: Some people may want to keep the system for themselves; for their org; for their pirate group and use it as some kind of black market hub for certain things. Others may just turn around the information; give it to the UEE; sell it off; and then invite people in. So there’s definitely going to be an element where you the players will be able to help determine it. If there are any important story points that we want to get across there that’s probably something we would have figured out before you get to it.
WW: Yeah, I mean until we have procedural generation of systems up and running it’s all going to be lovingly handcrafted. Which means we’ll work with Design and talk to them and come up with and idea for the systems. And it will definitely be interesting to have the systems that have had zero human interaction, or at least probably that mysterious human interaction, I don’t know, like there’s interesting things we can do where you find remnants of a old civilisation of humans that you didn’t know had been there.
AW: Potentially! Potentially!
WW: So that’ll be very different from a lot of the system lore we’ve been developing which is “right, what has the impact of humans been on this system?” But starting in fresh it means the backers will get to have a say in all those possible directions and what ends up winning out; or how that planet it either terraformed or not; or who are the settlers that take a ride on your Starliner out to that system. So it’ll be really cool to see.
AW: yeah I fully expect we might have an idea about what a system is going to be and then you guys will get in there and do something to it that we just never expected. That’s going to be kind of fun I think!
@21:42 Manta78 asks:
How will alien language barriers be handled in the PU? Will our characters automatically understand alien languages or will we need a translator (NPC or some sort of device that can be purchased in game)? Can languages be learned by the character?
WW: So this is something that we’ve had initial talks on and as we’re continuing to work with the linguists to develop the language, we still kind of sorting out exactly how it’s going to work in game, we have a couple ideas so far. One of them is that your Mobi-glass will come with standard really rough translator that can translate stuff in real time for you, but it wouldn’t be able to capture all the full nuances of a native speaker.
WW: So you would be getting the general idea of what an alien is saying in their language but you wouldn’t be able to fully pick up on everything because we want to reward players who take the time, were going through all the effort of making these languages, real languages and speakable so we want to reward players who take the time to actually learn them because that’s awesome.
WW: You asked if characters would be able to learn languages and kind of, I think the current direction might be that there won’t be like a thing you can buy where your character speaks banu, if you want your character to speak banu, you’re going to have to learn banu yourself and what you might be able to buy is an NPC who can translate for you or a better translator for your Mobi-glass or something like thats some kind of ingame mechanic but, by making there different layers of interactions with, but yeah if you want to learn that language, you’re going to have to learn the language.
AW: Yeah so if you’re a trader who’s going to Xi’an territory a lot, it’ll definitely benefit you to get a little bit more in detail of that because you might be able to pick up on small handers, small phrasing things that might lead you in a different direction than someone who wanders in there for the first time who(?) will be able to get sale.
WW: So orgs start drawing straws on who’s going to have to learn those languages. But hopefully we’ll have more information on that as we continue to develop.
AW: Yeah, it’s definitely something we’re thinking about.
Outro:
WW: Cool. Well that makes ten questions so thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our very not set in stone and unconcrete kind of just feelings more than answers. We feel how things might work out and a really big thank you once again to you subscribers for making this possible and for everyone who believes in Star Citizen and is helping us bring the game to life.
AW: Thank you backers appreciate it. always fun answering your questions and we’ll see you next time Around the Verse.
WW: No no. See you around Ten For it’s a different show.
AW: What? This isn’t Around the Verse?
WW: You can’t use that..
AW: Can’t use that?G-Dragon’s comeback has been confirmed as a solo album, set to be released in early June!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUoNJHKAeBM/?taken-by=xxxibgdrgn
Yang Hyun Suk has confirmed the solo album himself, through an Instagram post made on his personal account.
#짐정리하다유물발굴 #1993 #하여가시절 #GD태양5살때 #이때내이름은아이들 #지금은YG A post shared by YANG HYUN SUK (@fromyg) on May 29, 2017 at 8:09am PDT
His post reveals that the album is officially complete as of today, after their final recording session.
A post shared by YANG HYUN SUK (@fromyg) on May 29, 2017 at 9:14am PDT
“G-Dragon will release a new album in the beginning of June.” — Yang Hyun Suk
A post shared by 권지용 (@xxxibgdrgn) on Apr 28, 2017 at 7:49pm PDT
G-Dragon has also finished filming the MV for his title track and will be holding his solo world tour, starting June 10.We've talked up the Atlanta Falcons' Julio Jones as a potential top-five receiver all offseason. Now teammate Roddy White is doing the work for us.
"He's going to be really good this year. I mean really, really special," White said.
The duo's competitiveness and confidence showed in a recent interview with NFL.com and NFL Network's Albert Breer. The Associated Press writes that White and Jones believe they can be the top wide receiver duo in the league.
It's not a crazy thought. The top three receivers in the game -- Calvin Johnson, Andre Johnson, and Larry Fitzgerald -- all lack a great No. 2 wideout. (Titus Young could change that for Johnson and the Detroit Lions.)
We looked through each roster to see if any duo beats White and Jones. Tight ends are not allowed to be used in this discussion, so combining the New England Patriots' Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski doesn't count.
After thinking about it a while (drum roll, please), we'd take the Falcons. If we could pick one wide receiver duo, just for 2012, it would be White and Jones. Here's the entire top top-five.
1. Roddy White and Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons: The versatility of both players puts them over the top.
2. Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz, New York Giants: The best big-play combination of the NFL.
3. Greg Jennings and Jordy Nelson, Green Bay Packers: They get knocked ever-so-slightly because Aaron Rodgers and Mike McCarthy's system make them look so good.
4. Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers: These two young players complement each other so well. (Assuming Wallace shows up for work.)
5. DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin, Philadelphia Eagles: A little too similar in style for our taste.
Honorable mention: Calvin Johnson and Titus Young (Detroit Lions), Wes Welker and Brandon Lloyd (New England Patriots), Miles Austin and Dez Bryant (Dallas Cowboys).Recently, John Daniszewski, vice president for Standards at the Associated Press, offered guidance regarding that rebrand and the accompanying litany of terms and definitions that follow in its slip-stream: “Let’s tackle them.”
We couldn’t agree more.
But while reporters strive to capture accurately the meaning of Alt-Right in concept, reporters must capture its subjects in person with a level of care and attention to a history that long predates the rebranding.
Such care has been lacking.
Even when outlets present more substantive moments of defining terms such as “ethno-nationalist” and “white nationalist,” they often display a willingness to meet Alt-Right leaders on their own terms. The impact of such reporting is normalizing.
Photographing these leaders, for example, against the backdrops of their families and neighborhoods or reclining in hotel rooms is, to indulge a cliché, a million miles from what our democracy and our society would resemble for millions of other Americans if individuals like Richard Spencer, widely profiled since the election, held political or civic power.
Such editorial choices reflect just how far some are from reckoning with the history of organized white supremacy, its canon of propaganda and the brutality both have inspired. Simply defining these individuals as white nationalists who target ethnic and social groups is equally distant from capturing them and their work as descendants of organized white supremacy and the viciousness with which they have pursued their campaigns.
Consider eugenicist Harry H. Laughlin and the tens-of-thousands of victims who suffered his programs of forced sterilization, both here and in Nazi Germany. Think of Tom Metzger and the type of racial violence he has propagandized and even been found liable for inspiring. It is not enough to define the Alt-Right accurately when the structural white supremacy its leaders and figureheads are fighting to preserve has been pervasive, brutally so, in the lives of so many for so long. These leaders must be viewed against the backdrop of organized white supremacy and the concrete images of destructive hate it has produced.
Reporters must be more mindful of those afflicted by ideas like Laughlin’s than they are of Richard Spencer’s carefully curated appearance and persona, what he is having for dinner and what wine he choses to accompany. We must all work harder to cast him and others like him not just against this moment in politics, but against the entire history of American-branded white supremacy.
Let’s ponder some examples that have been published since the election.
The progressive stalwart Mother Jones, apparently perceiving a misstep in promoting their reporting on Spencer, appears to have deleted a tweet that led to their recent profile of him.
In a moment of media consumption where data scientists have proven only 40 percent of Twitter users click-thru to the actual articles they share, these images and headlines matter. The actual headline of that piece is “MEET THE WHITE NATIONALIST TRYING TO RIDE THE TRUMP TRAIN TO LASTING POWER,” which is strong. But the piece displays some problematic authorial and editorial choices.
The article begins:
“Richard Spencer uses chopsticks to deftly pluck slivers of togarashi-crusted ahi from a rectangular plate. He is sitting in the Continental-style lounge of the Firebrand Hotel, near his home in the upscale resort town of Whitefish, Montana, discussing a subject not typically broached in polite company. ‘Race is something between a breed and an actual species,’ he says, likening the differences between whites and people of color to those between golden retrievers and basset hounds. We are well into our third round of Arrogant Frog, a merlot that Spencer chose because its name reminds him of Pepe, the cartoon frog commandeered as a mascot by the "alt-right" movement that has been thrust from the shadows by Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Spencer says Pepe could also be seen as the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian frog deity, Kek: "He is basically using the alt-right to unleash chaos and change the world," he says, looking slightly annoyed when I crack a smile. "You might say, 'Wow,' but this is literally how religions arise." If Pepe is the alt-right's god, then Spencer is its self-styled prophet.”
Spencer is not Pepe’s prophet; he’s Laughlin’s ideological fail-son.
Several weeks after publishing the profile, Mother Jones updated the piece with an acknowledgement of Spencer's "victory" speech in Washington, D.C., during which Spencer described America as a "white country" and proclaimed, "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!" But missing in that update is an acknowledgment that Spencer is a eugenicist, a believer in racial-Darwinism as envisioned by Laughlin – and, yes, Adolf Hitler – and also advocated for more recently by hate group leaders like John Tanton, founder of the Federation for American Immigration Reform and the Center for Immigration Studies.
In a photograph accompanying the Mother Jones profile, Spencer is pictured in a suit against a backdrop of an elevator’s interior, adorned with polished mirrors and brass and deep stained wood. The effect is that of a funhouse mirror –– the history of white supremacy vanishes in the stylized pictures and beautifully rendered descriptions.
Indeed, failing to see the Alt-Right for what it is truly is risky.
Alt-Right flyers associated with Spencer’s work are being hung in the hallways of college campuses nationwide, where white supremacists are working to infect the discussion. Placing the propaganda of the so-called Alt-Right alongside that of the Ku Klux Klan, the oldest body of terrorism afflicting this country, one more notices the “prophet’s” wine-stained teeth rather than the shape of his plate.
The flyer below echoes the pseudosciences of eugenics and phrenology not “typically broached in polite company."
And lastly, consider Lauren M. Fox’s piece on Spencer at Salon: “The Hatemonger Next Door,” which was published in 2013, long before Trump’s candidacy.
“We are undergoing a sad process of degeneration,” Spencer said, coming back to minority births in the U.S. “We will need to reverse it using the state and the government. You incentivize people with higher intelligence, you incentivize people who are healthy to have children. And it sounds terrible and nasty, but there would be a great use of contraception.’”
Spencer didn’t mean the government should encourage people to use birth control pills and condoms. He was advocating for some type of government-forced sterilization.
‘They could still enjoy sex. You are not ruining their life,” Spencer said. But even Fox admitted, as Spencer would later delight on NPI’s website, that, she “was alarmed by the number of times I had found myself nodding along with him.”
In a moment that at least one other outlet has pointed out, Spencer would later applaud this piece on the websites of NPI and Radix as an example of how he and others might deceive reporters, even when reporters are attempting to construct pieces critical of him and his beliefs.
Let that warning stand.
In its piece, “’There’s nothing wrong with being white.’ Trump’s win brings ‘white pride’ out of the shadows,” the Los Angeles Times sought to find out how widespread Spencer’s bigotry was by comparing some of his sanitized opinions to those of two other white voters.
Though it is important for reporters to take the temperatures of Americans during moments like this election and others, the piece risks normalizing Spencer’s views by equivocally comparing them to a small sampling of white voters. Furthermore, the piece’s author evidences Spencer’s views on topics beyond the election with two partial quotations, five words total.
And though the piece doesn’t focus on Spencer specifically, it is topped with the picture below.
After acknowledging that hundreds of “hate incidents” have occurred after the election, the author notes, “Protesters have blocked streets in dozens of cities over a vote they see as affirming racism and xenophobia.” Instead of stating that Trump’s campaign and election have affirmed and emboldened myriad bigotries, the author moves fact into the subjective territory of those protestors’ motivations and views.
In describing whites emboldened by Trump’s campaign and election, the piece underscores the need for the very paradigm shift argued herein whenever reporters find themselves covering white supremacy.
After all, Spencer does not hold beliefs rooted vaguely in racial anxieties or “pride,” and he did not find voice for them in the Trump campaign. By creating a journal and an organization that uphold white supremacist thinkers and theorists, he is placing himself in their canon and lineage.
Describing him accurately requires no leap from objectivity. We must call white supremacy what it is and display its present day alongside its past. In doing so, we can avoid casting Spencer as a metonym: a cultured image standing in for organized white supremacy, one whose image drains out the terror and hate that his movement embodies. In covering the views of Americans alongside those of white supremacists, our stories should focus on why these beliefs exist against factual backdrops that challenge their rationality, particularly in a country where for so many facing structural racism is an everyday truth.
Tying this all together, let’s consider another so-called “Alt-Right” leader, Matthew Heimbach, who has received far less media attention than Spencer as of late. Heimbach did appear front-and-center, though, in a piece The New York Times published this past weekend, “An Alt-Right Makeover Shrouds the Swastikas.”
Beyond the title, the piece displays a sincere attempt to correct the wrongs of previous coverage. But a more accurate depiction is not a picture of Heimbach at home, child in arms, but those that he and his followers post on social media.
Here, for example, is a tweet that Heimbach seems to have since deleted from Twitter.
That tweet was cross-posted to his Facebook account, where it has also vanished. Before it did, though, one of his “friends” replied by posting this cartoon:
That cartoon, and those like it, recalls the images that filled Metzger’s “zines” promoting his his group White Aryan Resistance through the 1980s and early 1990s, and even later on his website.
Resulting from a court case that spanned 1988-94, Metzger was forced to pay damages to the family of Mulugeta Seraw, an Ethopian immigrant who was beaten to death by racist skinheads who had left a gathering earlier that day in Portland, Ore., where one of Metzger’s recruiters had implored them to act as, to borrow from the cartoon above, “Mighty Whiteys” and not “Humble Honkeys.”
This is where the history of white supremacy – those cartoons, flyers and quotes from Spencer earlier in this piece – intersect and instruct us on its consequences. It is that intersection that ought to comprise the background against which Spencer, Heimbach, and others must be seen. The deep stained wood and brass handled interiors of hotel elevators are deceiving.
It seems some journalists are struggling to balance the realities of calling racism by its true name with their own loyalty to objectivity –– no matter how they subjectively define it.
Daniszewski cautions journalists to be specific and deliberate when writing about the Alt-Right. “Avoid using the term generically and without definition, however, because it is not well known and the term may exist primarily as a public-relations device to make its supporters’ actual beliefs less clear and more acceptable to a broader audience," Daniszewski wrote. "In the past we have called such beliefs racist, neo-Nazi or white supremacist."
And here’s a tweet from Evan Osnos, a staff writer at the New Yorker, dated a week prior to Daniszewski's piece. Here’s one from Jamelle Bouie of Slate and CBS News.
And consider this headline from InsideHigherEd.com, published on 11/28/2016: “White Power Leader's New Target: Colleges.”
A deeper criticism is needed. Americans need reporters to contextualize Spencer not through his carefully crafted image but alongside his progenitors and their work, the Harry Laughlin’s and others who have wrought unending pain on hundreds of thousands of those who comprise the groups that Spencer and his ilk are, as Daniszewski notes, seeking to deny rights. And, as we would argue, much worse.
Heimbach and Spencer must be understood alongside Tom Metzger and his “Mighty Whiteys” and, therefore, before the destroyed bodies of victims like Seraw, who in death reflect a record of the most criminal and serial consequence that can be described when one engages with the reality of organized white supremacy in the United States.Granted, college isn’t just for training young people for the world of work. But if we truly believe that a college education is the best path toward general prosperity and personal fulfillment, we need to do more to ensure that our college graduates are economically viable.
One way to accomplish this is to establish certification as a platform in which the roles and interests of key players in the higher education system – students, educators, and employers – are explicitly articulated and tightly integrated. Functioning as a feedback loop, certification can then help achieve a goal that is at least as crucial as controlling tuition costs: Helping individuals stay employable and competitive in a professional landscape where the desired skills and competencies change rapidly.
DIPLOMAS: TIME FOR AN UPGRADE
We sometimes call a diploma a “sheepskin.” Why? Because until around a hundred years ago, that’s what most of them were made from. Then, paper diplomas began to appear. After centuries of usage, that was the big upgrade to this technology. And there really haven’t been any since.
Typically, we don’t think of diplomas as a “technology.” But they are. Economists often speak of their “signalling” value. Equipped with a diploma, a job-seeker broadcasts numerous positive attributes to potential employers: Perseverance, self-governance, competence in at least one area.
Employers, in turn, use diplomas as screening mechanisms. If you don't have a diploma, you don't get an interview. According to the New York Times, even employers looking for receptionists and file clerks require a bachelor’s degree these days. “When you get 800 résumés for every job ad, you need to weed them out somehow,” an executive recruiter told the newspaper.
So a diploma is essentially a communications device that signals a person’s readiness for certain jobs.
But unfortunately it’s a dumb, static communication device with roots in the 12th century.
That needs to change.
At my alma mater, Stanford University, a bachelor’s degree currently costs more than $160,000 in tuition alone. Less than ten miles from Stanford, however, another school, Foothill College, also issues degrees. There, you can get a two-year associate's degree for around $2,790, or less than 2 percent of what you’d pay for a Stanford degree.
The problem is if the baseline requirement to obtain a job interview, even for positions like “receptionist” and “file clerk,” is a four-year bachelor’s degree, then in practical terms an associate’s degree is not even worth 2 percent of a Stanford degree. It’s worth zero.
So despite the fact that colleges and other education providers have established a variety of alternative programs and degree options, at a variety of different price points, employers have simply placed more and more emphasis on traditional four-year degrees.
Not that this means employers are satisfied with the system.
In March 2013, the radio show Marketplace teamed up with The Chronicle of Higher Education and asked around 700 employers to grade the nation’s colleges and universities on how well they were employing their graduates for the workplace.
53 percent of them said they “had trouble finding recent graduates qualified to fill positions at their company or organization.” 28 percent said colleges did only a “fair job” of producing successful employees. They also said that more than grades, major, or what school a person attended, “employers viewed an internship as the single most important credential for recent grads.”
At first glance, this perspective is baffling. Employers insist that college degrees are a prerequisite for employment, even for low-skilled clerical positions. And yet what they find most telling is not how well people do in four-year-degree programs, but how well they do in settings that approximate workplaces.
Thus, there’s actually reason for hope here. The more employers realize that four-year degrees don’t necessarily guarantee the attributes they value most, the more likely they’ll be to demand a system that does.
DESIGN SPECS FOR A SMARTER DIPLOMA
We spend years of our lives working to obtain a diploma. We invest substantial capital in it. And yet compared to the nuanced portraits of our aptitudes and attitudes that our teachers presented to our parents on our first-grade report cards, a college diploma is an opaque and unrevealing document.
If we were building a higher education system from scratch, would our records of assessment and certification look anything like today’s diplomas? Ask a hundred people to build a better diploma, and you’ll probably end up with a hundred different solutions. None, however, would look like a traditional sheepskin.
In my opinion, these are the characteristics a 21st century diploma should have:
It should accommodate a completely unbundled approach to education, allowing students to easily apply credits obtained from a wide range of sources, including internships, peer to peer learning, online classes, and more, to the same certification.
It should be dynamic and upgradeable, so individuals can add new credentials to it as they pursue new goals and educational opportunities and so that the underlying system itself is improvable.
It should help reduce the costs of higher education and increase overall value.
It should allow a person to convey the full scope of his or her skills and expertise with greater comprehensiveness and nuance, in part to enable better matching with jobs.
It should be machine-readable and discoverable, so employers can easily evaluate it in numerous ways as part of a larger “certification platform”
Two hundred years ago, what you learned about Latin, the Bible, and mathematics when you were 21 was just as likely to be true when you turned 70. So you spent four straight years in college lecture halls and libraries, you acquired skills and knowledge that would serve you for life, and then you were done.
Now, in today’s fast-changing world, it makes more sense to learn provisionally, opportunistically, as new challenges and necessities arise.
To make this style of learning more practical, we need certification for it that employers will grow to trust and value even more than they do traditional bachelor’s degrees because the efficacy will be so much better.
Imagine an online document that’s iterative like a LinkedIn profile (and might even be part of the LinkedIn profile), but is administered by some master service that verifies the authenticity of its components. While you’d be the creator and primary keeper of this profile, you wouldn’t actually be able to add certifications yourself. Instead, this master service would do so, verifying information with the certification issuers, at your request, after you successfully completed a given curriculum.
Over time, this dynamic, networked diploma will contain an increasing number of icons or badges symbolizing specific certifications. It could also link to transcripts, test scores, and work examples from these curricula, and even evaluations from instructors, classmates, internship supervisors, and others who have interacted with you in your educational pursuits.
Ultimately the various certificates you earn could be bundled into higher-value certifications. If you earn five certificates in the realm of computer science, you might receive an icon or badge that symbolizes this higher level of experience and expertise. In this way, you could eventually assemble portfolios that reflect a similar breadth of experiences that you get when you pursue a traditional four-year degree.
For students, the more modularized approach to instruction embodied in such diplomas would have immediate benefits. Traditional four-year degrees maximize tuition costs, because they only award certification for lengthy courses of study that require substantial capital investments. A more modularized system would move beyond this all-or-nothing approach. Instead of taking general education classes for two years and then dropping out and ending up with little to show for their efforts except two years of debt, students could make smaller investments—in money and time—to acquire specific credentials.
This approach would also encourage students to think more strategically about specific learning paths to pursue, and make it easier to integrate internships into their education. Instead of randomly choosing courses to fulfill “general education” and “support courses” requirements, a student on a more modularized path might focus on, say, the six courses necessary to earn a certificate in “Workplace Communication Skills” or “The Future of Space Exploration.” And then complete an associated internship before moving on to subsequent certificate programs.
At LinkedIn, we’ve developed a broad “Skills & Expertise” taxonomy that our members use to describe their attributes, and which then serve as the basis for endorsements from colleagues. For example, some of my skills include “Entrepreneurship,” “Project Management,” and “Viral Marketing.” In a more outsourced form of Apple University, the in-house program that Apple now uses to teach its executives to think more like Steve Jobs, companies could use this taxonomy to publicize the skills and experiences they value most, and education providers could develop curricula that leads to certification in these areas.
For champions of a traditional liberal arts education, encouraging our nation’s youth to major in “Project Management for Yahoo!” may sound like a higher education inferno even Dante himself couldn’t stomach.
But the national mandate to produce more college graduates—as expressed by President Obama and many others—doesn’t arise from our imminent shortage of Comp Lit majors. It arises from our desire to give more people access to training that can put them on a path to economic security, and to help them develop the skills that can keep America competitive on a global level.
Diplomas that get updated over time as new certificates are added, and which exist as part of larger certification platform, could transform the ways that employers use diplomas. Traditionally, bachelor’s degrees have offered an easy way to winnow a pile of a thousand resumes into a pile of twenty resumes—but they’re also a very limited filter. Because the specific information they codify about a person is minimal, they’re more far more useful for weeding than finding.
As certification gets more granular, however, and as diplomas contain more information and exist as part of a larger, networked ecosystem, new possibilities emerge. Want to find ten potential employees who have amassed at least three certificates related to brand management and have at least five positive endorsements from their instructors? A 21st century diploma should allow you to do that.
THE DIPLOMA AS PLATFORM
One of the main reasons the college degree persists as a technology is because it doesn’t need a user manual. We know what a traditional college degree signifies in general. We’re familiar with many of its nuances. A degree in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from CalTech means one thing. A degree in Sculpture from Bennington means something else.
How, in a landscape of infinite certificates, will we determine which ones to value and trust? This is the problem that has always plagued alternate forms of certification, and it will only intensify as digital instruction becomes more full-featured and effective.
One organization trying to bring a sense of order to the imminent chaos is Mozilla, the non-profit that oversees the development of the open-source web browser, Firefox, and where I’m on the Board of Directors. In 2011, Mozilla introduced Open Badges, an initiative to develop free software and an open technical standard that any organization or individual can use to issue verified digital badges that symbolize a skill or achievement attained through either online or offline study or participation in some activity.
For example, you might earn a badge for completing a six-week “Introduction to Statistics” course, or for consistently making high-value contributions to an online message board where math students seek help on their homework.
As a person earns badges from multiple sources, they’re all stored in a private repository called the Mozilla Backpack. There, you can arrange your badges into themed groups and choose which ones to share on social networks and other sites. Each badge comes with a great deal of metadata attached to it, including information about the issuer, what the badge signifies, the criteria used to assess your achievements, and on some occasions, links to the work you did in pursuit of the badge.
Already, Peer to Peer University, the YMCA of Greater New York, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Disney-Pixar, to name just a few, have issued or are developing badges using Mozilla’s technical standard. Mozilla is a good initial step, but there are many attributes that are important – ranging from employer trust to persistent storage of the certification if the source goes away – that still need to be worked out.
Creating a shared standard for attaching machine-readable information to certifications is an important first step for getting employer buy-in. Another key step will involve aggregating this data. If millions of people start storing their certification information in a common repository like LinkedIn, certification will evolve from a product (i.e., a traditional diploma) into a platform that can be easily searched and analyzed.
With certification as a platform, not just a product, the feedback loops between all parties will tighten. Education providers will have more capacity to track what employers are looking for and adjust their curricula accordingly. Students will have more explicit guideposts to follow, so they can invest their tuition dollars and time into developing skills that will truly increase their chances of transitioning successfully to the workforce. Employers will be able to use certification as a finding mechanism, not just a screening mechanism.
With certification as platform, “Weed out everyone who doesn’t have an Ivy League diploma” will evolve into “Let’s find someone who possesses these specific skills and attributes that will help our organization.” With certification as a platform, the communication device currently known as the ‘diploma’ becomes a much richer signal that will help businesses hire better and help individuals learn and grow faster.
Making this transition won’t happen overnight. But if we truly want to use technology to transform higher education, we can’t just confine our efforts to transforming instruction. We have to transform certification too. In doing so, we have an opportunity to create a new system that makes it clear to students what skills are most relevant and in highest demand, and thus gives them a chance to pursue these skills more strategically.
But our higher education system can’t implement such changes alone. The business world has to embrace certification-as-a-platform, too. As long as it continues to depend on a 12th century communications device, the diploma, as its preferred gateway to entry, we won’t be able to fully capitalize on 21st century innovations in technology and education.
Reid Hoffman is co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a partner at Greylock, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and co-author of the book The Start-Up of You. Greg Beato was a contributing writer on this piece.
Image via Shutterstock.Yesterday, the New York Times reported that at least a dozen Mormons are facing church discipline, primarily for their vocal support of women’s ordination or same-sex marriage.
Not all of these Latter-day Saints face possible excommunication, as do John Dehlin and Kate Kelly; some, such as Kate’s parents, have had their temple recommends removed because of their support for her ideas.
Given the current climate, it seems prudent to explore what Jesus might have done, particularly since the LDS Church teaches that “in gospel learning, as in all things, Jesus Christ is our perfect example.”
So I searched the scriptures and prepared this exhaustive list of all the people Jesus excommunicated from full church fellowship, along with the specific reasons for those disciplinary actions:
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Tests vs. Types
When should you use tests and when should you use types? What information and guarantees do we get for our efforts?
I’ll walk through a simple, slightly contrived, example with Python, C, Haskell, and Idris. I’ll look at what you can tell about the implementation without knowing or examining it.
I’m going to ignore ‘escape hatches’ which can explicitly violate the guarantees of the language (For example: C extensions, Haskell’s unsafePerformIO, unsafe type coercion). To do otherwise would mean you couldn’t say much at all and this blog post would be very short.
Contents:
The Specification
Given a list of values and a value, return the index of the value in the list or signify that it is not present in the list.
In this case, the implementation is very simple. You may wonder what value tests or types have for this problem. The properties I’m going to talk about here also apply in general to much more complicated code. You can imagine the implementation is ten thousand lines of incomprehensible spaghetti code if that helps you see the utility.
Python
def x ( y, z ): # Implementation elided
Note that I’m not interested in exploring unchecked properties of the program like variable names and textual documentation, so I have deliberately been unhelpful. I’m interested in information that, given your tests pass and your type checker succeeds, cannot be wrong.
There’s pretty much no useful information in this first example other than we have a function that takes two arguments. For all we know, this could find the index of a value in a list, or it could send an offensive email to your grandmother.
Analysis
Without tests or types, not only are you writing brittle code, you’re almost entirely dependent on unchecked documentation. Because this kind of documention is checked by people and not by machines it can easily become out of date and wrong.
Documentation ✗ We know the intended behaviour You have no indication of the behaviour of this function. You hate your grandmother. You’re a monster.
Guarantees ✓ Memory safe Python is a garbage collected language and handles this for us.
Python With Tests
def test_happy_path (): assert x ([ 1, 2, 3 ], 2 ) == 1 def test_missing (): assert x ([ 1, 2, 3 ], 4 ) is None
So, now we know our function works and that when the value is missing the result will be None?
Well… no. This is only one example. Unfortunately, we’re working with an infinite domain, and no number of examples can constitute a proof that our function works as intended. More testing can increase our confidence but never sate our doubt.
It might seem absurd that it would return None for 4 but not 5, and for this example you’re probably right. We may be happy with our level of confidence and stop here. Again, this would make for a very short blog post, so let’s imagine the implementation is not so obvious.
If tests cannot show us something in general, only particular cases, this implies that tests cannot show an absence of errors. For example, there is no test we could write that would show that our function never throws an exception or never goes in to an infinite loop |
early 20th-century multifaceted dispute and armed conflict that formed part of the background to the Balkan Wars. The specific naming dispute, although an existing issue in Yugoslav–Greek relations since World War II, was reignited after the breakup of Yugoslavia and the newly gained independence of the former Socialist Republic of Macedonia in 1991. Since then, it was an ongoing issue in bilateral and international relations until it was settled with the Prespa agreement in June 2018, the subsequent ratification by the Macedonian and Greek parliaments in late 2018 and early 2019, and the official renaming of Macedonia to North Macedonia in February 2019.
The dispute arose from the ambiguity in nomenclature between North Macedonia, then known as the Republic of Macedonia, the adjacent Greek region of Macedonia and the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. Citing historical and irredentist concerns, Greece opposed the use of the name "Macedonia" without a geographical qualifier such as "Northern Macedonia" for use "by all... and for all purposes".[1] As millions of ethnic Greeks identify themselves as Macedonians, unrelated to Slavs, Greece further objected to the use of the term "Macedonian" for the neighboring country's largest ethnic group and language. North Macedonia was accused by Greece of appropriating symbols and figures that are historically considered part of Greek culture such as the Vergina Sun and Alexander the Great, and of promoting the irredentist concept of a United Macedonia, which involves territorial claims on Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, and Serbia.
The dispute escalated to the highest level of international mediation, involving numerous attempts to achieve a resolution. In 1995, the two countries formalised bilateral relations and committed to start negotiations on the naming issue, under the auspices of the United Nations. Until a solution was found, the provisional reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM) was used by multiple international organisations and states. UN members, and the UN as a whole, agreed to accept any name resulting from successful negotiations between the two countries. The parties were represented by Ambassadors Vasko Naumovski and Adamantios Vassilakis with the mediation of Matthew Nimetz, who had worked on the issue since 1994.[2]
On 12 June 2018, an agreement[3] was reached between Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras and his Macedonian counterpart Zoran Zaev,[4] where the name "Republic of North Macedonia" would be adopted.[5][6] A referendum was held in Macedonia on 30 September 2018, with voters overwhelmingly affirming support for EU and NATO membership by accepting the agreement, albeit with 37% voter turnout.[7] After the agreement was ratified by both sides, it entered into force from 12 February 2019.
History
Background
Ancient kingdom of Macedonia c. 200 BC
In antiquity, the territory of present-day Republic of Macedonia equated approximately to the kingdom of Paeonia, which lay immediately north of ancient Macedonia. (The modern Greek region of Macedonia approximately corresponds to that of ancient Macedonia.[citation needed]) After the Romans conquered Greece in 168 BC they established a large administrative district in northern Greece which added Paeonia to other territories outside the original ancient Macedonia, and used the name 'Macedonia' to describe the whole of this new province. This province was divided in the 4th century CE into Macedonia Prima ("first Macedonia") in the south, encompassing most of the ancient Macedonia, coinciding with most of the modern Greek region of Macedonia, and Macedonia Salutaris ("wholesome Macedonia", also called Macedonia Secunda – "second Macedonia") in the north, encompassing partially Dardania and the whole of Paeonia. Thus Macedonia Salutaris encompassed most of the present-day Republic of Macedonia. This situation lasted, with some modifications, until the Ottoman Empire absorbed the remnants of the eastern Roman Empire in the 15th century. Ottoman Macedonia then became part of Rumelia, controlled by the Ottoman Empire up to 1913. In 1893 a revolutionary movement against Ottoman rule began, resulting in the Ilinden Uprising on 2 August 1903 (St. Elias's Day). The failure of the Ilinden Uprising caused a change in the strategy of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) from revolutionary to institutional. It split into two wings: one led by Yane Sandanski and fighting for autonomous Macedonia inside the Ottoman Empire or inside a Balkan Federation, and a second Supremist wing supporting the inclusion of Macedonia in Bulgaria. After the Ilinden Uprising, the revolutionary movement ceased and opened a space for the Macedonian Struggle: frequent insurgencies of Bulgarian, Greek and Serbian squads into Ottoman Europe, including the ill-defined territory of the wider Macedonian region. In 1912 rivalries resulted in the First Balkan War of 1912–1913, and the Ottomans lost most of their European lands.
In 1913, the Second Balkan War began in the aftermath of the division of the Balkans among five entities to have secured control over these territories: Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Montenegro (all hitherto recognized). Albania, in conflict with Serbia, Montenegro and Greece, declared its independence in 1912, striving for recognition. The Treaty of London (1913) assigned the region of the future Republic of Macedonia to Serbia. The outbreak of the First World War allowed Bulgaria to occupy eastern Macedonia and Vardar Macedonia, helping Austria-Hungary defeat the Serbs by the end of 1915, and leading to the opening of the Macedonian front against the Greek part of Macedonia. Bulgaria would maintain control over the area until their capitulation in September 1918, at which point the borders reverted (with small adjustments) to the situation of 1913, and the present-day Republic of Macedonia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. This period saw the rise of ideals of a separate Macedonian state in Greece[8] and the development of nation building[9] by the League of Communists of Yugoslavia in their third congress in Vienna in 1926. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes changed its name in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the present-day Republic of Macedonia was included as South Serbia in a province named Vardar Banovina. During World War II, Axis forces occupied much of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1941. Bulgaria as an associate of the Axis powers advanced into the territory of the Republic of Macedonia and the Greek province of Macedonia in 1941. The territory of the Republic of Macedonia was divided between Bulgaria and Italian Albania in June 1941.
The Yugoslav People's Liberation War began officially in 1941 in what is now North Macedonia. On 2 August 1944 (St. Elias's Day), honoring the fighters of the Ilinden Uprising, the Anti-fascist Assembly for the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM), meeting in Serbia, constituted the Macedonian state (Democratic Federal Macedonia) as a federal state within the framework of the future Yugoslav federation. In 1946 the People's Republic of Macedonia was established[by whom?] as a federal component of the newly proclaimed Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito. The issue of the republic's name immediately sparked controversy with Greece over Greek concerns that it presaged a territorial claim on the Greek coastal region of Macedonia (see Territorial concerns below). The U.S. Roosevelt administration expressed the same concern through Edward Stettinius in 1944.[10] The Greek press and the Greek government of Andreas Papandreou continued to express the above concerns confronting the views of Yugoslavia[11] during the 1980s and until the Revolutions of 1989.
In 1963 the People's Republic of Macedonia was renamed the "Socialist Republic of Macedonia" when the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It dropped the "Socialist" from its name a few months before declaring independence from Yugoslavia in September 1991.
Formation of the Republic of Macedonia
Strong Greek opposition delayed the newly independent republic's accession to the United Nations and its recognition by the European Community (EC). Although the Arbitration Commission of the Peace Conference on the former Yugoslavia declared that the Republic of Macedonia met the conditions set by the EC for international recognition, Greece opposed the international community recognizing the Republic due to a number of objections concerning the country's name, flag and constitution. In an effort to block the European Community from recognizing the Republic,[12] the Greek government persuaded the EC to adopt a common declaration establishing conditions for recognition which included a ban on "territorial claims towards a neighboring Community state, hostile propaganda and the use of a denomination that implies territorial claims".[13]
In Greece, about one million[14] Greek Macedonians participated in the "Rally for Macedonia" (Greek: Συλλαλητήριο για τη Μακεδονία), a very large demonstration that took place in the streets of Thessaloniki in 1992. The rally aimed to object to "Macedonia" being a part of the name of then newly established Republic of Macedonia. In a following major rally in Australia, held in Melbourne and organised by the Macedonians of the Greek diaspora (which has a strong presence there),[15] about 100,000 people protested.[16][17] The major slogan of these rallies was "Macedonia is Greek" (Greek: H Μακεδονία είναι ελληνική).[14]
Greece's major political parties agreed on 13 April 1992 not to accept the word "Macedonia" in any way in the new republic's name.[18] This became the cornerstone of the Greek position on the issue. The Greek diaspora also mobilized in the naming controversy. A U.S. Greek group, Americans for the Just Resolution of the Macedonian Issue, placed a full-page advertisement in the 26 April and 10 May 1992 editions of the New York Times, urging President George H. W. Bush "not to discount the concerns of the Greek people" by recognizing the "Republic of Skopje" as Macedonia. Greek-Canadians mounted a similar campaign.[citation needed] The EC subsequently issued a declaration expressing a willingness "to recognize that republic within its existing borders... under a name which does not include the term Macedonia".[19]
Greek objections likewise held up the wider international recognition of the Republic of Macedonia. Although the Republic applied for membership of the United Nations on 30 July 1992, its application languished in diplomatic limbo for nearly a year. A few states—Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovenia, Croatia, Belarus, and Lithuania—recognized the republic under its constitutional name before its admission to the United Nations.[12] Most, however, waited to see what the United Nations would do. The delay had a serious effect on the Republic, as it led to a worsening of its already precarious economic and political conditions. With war raging in nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Croatia, the need to ensure the country's stability became an urgent priority for the international community.[20] The deteriorating security situation led to the UN's first-ever preventative peacekeeping deployment in December 1992, when units of the United Nations Protection Force deployed to monitor possible border violations from Serbia.[21]
Compromise solutions
Map of Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia
During 1992, the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia all adopted the appellation "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" to refer to the Republic in their discussions and dealings with it. The same terminology was proposed in January 1993 by France, Spain and the United Kingdom, the three EC members of the United Nations Security Council, to enable the Republic to join the United Nations.[22] The proposal was circulated on 22 January 1993 by the United Nations Secretary General. However, it was initially rejected by both sides in the dispute. It was immediately opposed by the Greek Foreign Minister, Michalis Papakonstantinou. In a letter to the Secretary General dated 25 January 1993, he argued that admitting the republic "prior to meeting the necessary prerequisites, and in particular abandoning the use of the denomination 'Republic of Macedonia', would perpetuate and increase friction and tension and would not be conducive to peace and stability in an already troubled region."[23]
The president of the Republic of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, also opposed the proposed formula. In a letter of 24 March 1993, he informed the President of the United Nations Security Council that "the Republic of Macedonia will in no circumstances be prepared to accept 'the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' as the name of the country." He declared that "we refuse to be associated in any way with the present connotation of the term 'Yugoslavia'".[23] The issue of possible Serbian territorial ambitions had been a long-running concern in the Republic of Macedonia, which some Serbian nationalists still called "South Serbia" after its pre-World War II name.[24] The government in the Republic of Macedonia was consequently nervous of any naming formula which might be seen to endorse a possible Serbian territorial claim.
Both sides came under intense diplomatic pressure to compromise. The support that Greece had received initially from its allies and partners in NATO and the European Community had begun to wane due to a combination of factors that included irritation in some quarters at Greece's hard line on the issue and a belief that Greece had flouted sanctions against Slobodan Milošević's Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The intra-Community tensions were publicly exposed on 20 January 1993 by the Danish foreign minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, who attracted the ire of Greek members of the European Parliament when he described the Greek position as "ridiculous" and expressed the hope that "the Security Council will very quickly recognise Macedonia and that many of the member states of the Community will support this."[25]
The Greek Prime Minister, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, took a much more moderate line on the issue than many of his colleagues in the governing New Democracy party.[12] Despite opposition from hardliners, he endorsed the proposal in March 1993.[26] The acceptance of the formula by Athens also led to the reluctant acquiescence of the government in Skopje, though it too was divided between moderates and hardliners on the issue.
On 7 April 1993, the UN Security Council endorsed the admission of the republic in United Nations Security Council Resolution 817. It recommended to the United Nations General Assembly "that the State whose application is contained in document S/25147 be admitted to membership in the United Nations, this State being provisionally referred to for all purposes within the United Nations as 'the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia' pending settlement of the difference that has arisen over the name of the State."[27] The recommendation was agreed by the General Assembly, which passed Resolution 225 on the following day, 8 April, using virtually the same language as the Security Council.[28] The Republic of Macedonia thus became the 181st member of the United Nations.
The compromise solution, as set out in the two resolutions, was very carefully worded in an effort to meet the objections and concerns of both sides. The wording of the resolutions rested on four key principles:
The appellation "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" is a provisional term to be used only until the dispute was resolved. [29]
The term was a reference, not a name; as a neutral party in the dispute, the United Nations had not sought to determine the name of the state. [29] The President of the Security Council subsequently issued a statement declaring on behalf of the Council that the term "merely reflected the historic fact that it had been in the past a republic of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". [23] The purpose of the term was also emphasised by the fact that the expression begins with the uncapitalised words "the former Yugoslav", acting as a descriptive term, rather than "the Former Yugoslav", which would act as a proper noun. [29] By also being a reference rather than a name, it met Greek concerns that the term "Macedonia" should not be used in the republic's internationally recognised name.
, not a name; as a neutral party in the dispute, the United Nations had not sought to determine the name of the state. The President of the Security Council subsequently issued a statement declaring on behalf of the Council that the term "merely reflected the historic fact that it had been in the past a republic of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". The purpose of the term was also emphasised by the fact that the expression begins with the uncapitalised words "the former Yugoslav", acting as a descriptive term, rather than "the Former Yugoslav", which would act as a proper noun. By also being a reference rather than a name, it met Greek concerns that the term "Macedonia" should not be used in the republic's internationally recognised name. The use of the term was purely "for all purposes within the United Nations"; it was not being mandated for any other party. [29]
The term did not imply that the Republic of Macedonia had any connection with the existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as opposed to the historical and now-defunct Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.[23]
One additional concern that had to be taken care of was the seating of the Republic of Macedonia in the General Assembly. Greece rejected seating the Republic's representative under M [as in "Macedonia (former Yugoslav Republic of)"], and the Republic rejected sitting under F (as in "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", which turned the reference into a proper noun rather than a description). Instead, it was seated under T as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" and placed next to Thailand.[29]
In due course, the same convention was adopted by many other international organisations and states but they did so independently, not as the result of being instructed by the UN. For its part, Greece did not adopt the UN terminology at this stage and did not recognise the Republic under any name. The rest of the international community did not immediately recognise the Republic, but this did eventually happen at the end of 1993 and start of 1994. The People's Republic of China was the first major power to act, recognising the Republic under its constitutional name on 13 October 1993. On 16 December 1993, two weeks before Greece was due to take up the European Union presidency, six key EC countries—Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom—recognised the Republic under its UN designation. Other EC countries followed suit in quick succession and by the end of December, all EC member states except Greece had recognised the Republic.[26] Japan, Russia and the United States followed suit on 21 December 1993, 3 February 1994, and 9 February 1994 respectively.[30]
Continuing dispute
Despite the apparent success of the compromise agreement, it led to an upsurge in nationalist agitation in both countries. Anti-Western and anti-American feelings came to the fore in Greece, in response to a perception that Greece's partners in the EC and NATO had betrayed it.[25] The government of Constantine Mitsotakis was highly vulnerable; it had a majority of only a couple of seats and was under considerable pressure from ultra-nationalists. After the country's admission to the UN, the hardline former foreign minister Antonis Samaras broke away from the governing New Democracy (ND) party along with three like-minded deputies who resented what they saw as the prime minister's unacceptable weakness on the Macedonian issue. This defection deprived ND of its slim parliamentary majority and ultimately caused the fall of the government, which suffered a landslide defeat in the general election of October 1993. It was replaced by the PASOK party under Andreas Papandreou, who introduced an even more hardline policy on Macedonia and withdrew from the UN-sponsored negotiations on the naming issue in late October.[25][31]
The government of the Republic of Macedonia also faced domestic opposition for its part in the agreement. Protest rallies against the UN's temporary reference were held in the cities of Skopje, Kočani and Resen. The parliament only accepted the agreement by a narrow margin, with 30 deputies voting in favour, 28 voting against and 13 abstaining. The nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party (then in opposition) called a vote of no confidence over the naming issue, but the government survived with 62 deputies voting in its favour.[32]
The naming dispute has not been confined to the Balkans, as immigrant communities from both countries have actively defended the positions of their respective homelands around the world, organising large protest rallies in major European, North American and Australian cities. After Australia recognised the "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" in early 1994, tensions between the two communities reached a climax, with churches and properties hit by a series of tit-for-tat bomb and arson attacks in Melbourne.[33]
Greek embargo
The relations between the two countries further worsened in February 1994 when Greece imposed a trade embargo on Macedonia which coincided with the UN embargo on Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on its northern border.[34] The combined blockade denied Macedonia access to its closest and most accessible sea port, Thessaloniki, and rendered its main north-south trade route useless. The country was forced to supply itself through the undeveloped east-west route.[35] During the embargo oil was imported to Macedonia via the Bulgarian port of Varna, which is located over 700 km from Skopje, on tank trucks using a mountain road.[36] It has been estimated that Macedonia suffered damages of around US$2 billion due to the trade embargo.[37] Greece received heavy international criticism; the embargo lasted for 18 months, and was lifted after the interim accord between the two countries was signed in October 1995.[38]
Interim accord
Greece and the Republic of Macedonia eventually formalised bilateral relations in an interim accord signed in New York on 13 September 1995.[40][41] Under the agreement, the Republic removed the Vergina Sun from its flag and allegedly irredentist clauses from its constitution, and both countries committed to continuing negotiations on the naming issue under UN auspices. For its part, Greece agreed that it would not object to any application by the Republic so long as it used only the appellation set out in "paragraph 2 of the United Nations Security Council resolution 817" (i.e. "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia").[citation needed] This opened the door for the Republic to join a variety of international organisations and initiatives, including the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Partnership for Peace.[42]
The accord was not a conventional perpetual treaty, as it can be superseded or revoked, but its provisions are legally binding in terms of international law. Most unusually, it did not use the names of either party. Greece, "the Party of the First Part", recognised the Republic of Macedonia under the term "the Party of the Second Part".[12] The accord did not specifically identify either party by name (thus avoiding the awkwardness of Greece having to use the term "Macedonia" in reference to its northern neighbour). Instead, it identified the two parties elliptically by describing the Party of the First Part as having Athens as its capital and the Party of the Second Part having its capital at Skopje.[29] Subsequent declarations have continued this practice of referring to the parties without naming them.[43]
Cyrus Vance was the witness of Interim Accord as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations.[44]
Stalemate
The naming issue was effectively at a stalemate until the 2018 agreement.[34] Various names had been proposed over the years, for instance "New Macedonia", "Upper Macedonia", "Slavo-Macedonia", "Nova Makedonija", "Macedonia (Skopje)" and so on. However, these had invariably fallen foul of the initial Greek position that no permanent formula incorporating the term "Macedonia" was acceptable.[18][45] Athens had counter-proposed the names "Vardar Republic" or "Republic of Skopje", but the government and opposition parties in Skopje had consistently rejected any solution that eliminated the term "Macedonia" from the country's name.[46] Following these developments, Greece has gradually revised its position and demonstrated its acceptance of a composite appellation, with a geographical qualifier, erga omnes (i.e. the incorporation of the term "Macedonia" in the name, but with the use of a disambiguating name specification, for international and intergovernmental use).[47][48][49][50][51][52] The inhabitants of the Republic were overwhelmingly opposed to changing the country's name. A June 2007 opinion poll found that 77% of the population were against a change in the country's constitutional name, and 72% supported the Republic's accession to NATO only if it was admitted under its constitutional name. Only 8% supported accession under the reference "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".[53]
A number of states recognized the Republic of Macedonia by its constitutional name. A few had recognised it by this name from the start, while most others had switched from recognising it under its UN reference. By September 2007, 118 countries (61% of all UN member states) had recognised the Republic of Macedonia under its constitutional name.[54] Some observers had suggested that the gradual revision of the Greek position means that "the question appears destined to die" in due course.[55] On the other hand, attempts by the Republic to persuade international organisations to drop the provisional reference have met with limited success. A recent example was the rejection by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of a draft proposal to replace the provisional reference with the constitutional name in Council of Europe documents.[56]
The compromise reference is always used in relations when states not recognising the constitutional name are present. This is because the UN refers to the country only as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Moscow's ambassador to Athens, Andrei Vdovin, stated that Russia will support whichever solution stems from the UN compromise talks, while hinting that "it is some other countries that seem to have a problem in doing so".[57]
Most Greeks reject the use of the word "Macedonia" to describe the Republic of Macedonia, instead calling it "ΠΓΔΜ" (Πρώην Γιουγκοσλαβική Δημοκρατία της Μακεδονίας, the Greek translation of "FYROM"), or Skopje, after the country's capital. The latter metonymic name is not used by non-Greeks, and many inhabitants of the Republic regard it as insulting. Greeks also call the country's inhabitants Skopians (Greek: Σκοπιανοί). Greek official sources sometimes also use the term "Slavomacedonian"; the U.S. Department of State has used the term side by side with "Macedonian", albeit having them both in quotation marks.[58] The name "Macedonian Slavs" (Македонски Словени) is another term used to refer to the ethnic Macedonians. A number of news agencies have used it (although the BBC recently discontinued its use on the grounds that people had alleged it was offensive), and it is used by the Encarta Encyclopaedia. The name has been occasionally used in early ethnic Macedonian literary sources as in Krste Misirkov's work On Macedonian Matters (Za Makedonckite Raboti) in 1903.
Although the two countries continue to argue over the name, in practice they deal pragmatically with each other. Economic relations and cooperation have resumed to such an extent that Greece is now considered one of the Republic's most important foreign economic partners and investors.[59]
2005–2006 proposals and the "double name formula"
In 2005, Matthew Nimetz, UN Special Representative, suggested using "Republika Makedonija-Skopje" for official purposes. Greece did not accept the proposal outright, but characterised it as "a basis for constructive negotiations". Prime Minister Vlado Bučkovski rejected the proposal and counterproposed a "double name formula" where the international community uses "Republic of Macedonia" and Greece uses "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".[49][50]
Nimetz was reported to have made a new proposal in October 2005; that the name "Republika Makedonija" should be used by those countries that have recognised the country under that name and that Greece should use the formula "Republika Makedonija – Skopje", while the international institutions and organisations should use the name "Republika Makedonia" in Latin alphabet transcription. Although the government of the Republic of Macedonia accepted the proposal as a good basis for solving the dispute, Greece rejected the proposal as unacceptable.[60]
In December 2006, the newly-elected nationalist VMRO-DPMNE-led government of the Republic announced the intent to rename Skopje Airport "Petrovec" to "Aleksandar Veliki" (Alexander the Great).[61] Matthew Nimetz was invited to Athens in January 2007, where he commented that the efforts to mediate in the issue over the name were "affected and not in a positive way".[62]
NATO and EU accession talks
The Republic of Macedonia's aspirations to join the European Union and NATO under its constitutional name caused controversy in recent years. Under the Interim Accord of September 1995, Greece agreed not to obstruct the Republic's applications for membership in international bodies as long as it did so under its provisional UN appellation. Leading Greek officials had repeatedly stated that Athens would veto the country's accession in the absence of a resolution to the dispute.[63][64][65] The Greek foreign minister, Dora Bakoyannis, stated that "the Hellenic Parliament, under any composition, will not ratify the accession of the neighbouring country to the EU and NATO if the name issue is not resolved beforehand."[64][65]
The Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis had initially denied ever committing himself unequivocally to exercising Greece's right of veto, stating instead that he would only block the neighbouring country's application for EU and NATO membership if it sought to be admitted as the "Republic of Macedonia",[66] but on 19 October 2007, he stated that without a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue, the country could not join either NATO or the EU.[67]
Negotiations between Athens and Skopje were resumed on the 1 November 2007, continued on 1 December of the same year, and a bilateral meeting was held in January 2008. On 19 February 2008 in Athens, the delegations of the two countries met under the auspices of the UN mediator, Matthew Nimetz. They were presented with a new framework, which they both accepted as a basis for further negotiations. The new framework was intended to be secret so that negotiations could take place, but was leaked early in the press. The full text in Greek was published initially by To Vima and circulated speedily in all major media. It contained 8 points, and the general idea was a "composite name solution" for all international purposes.[68] It also contained five proposed names:[68]
"Constitutional Republic of Macedonia"
"Democratic Republic of Macedonia"
"Independent Republic of Macedonia"
"New Republic of Macedonia"
"Republic of Upper Macedonia"
On 27 February 2008, a rally was held in Skopje called by several organisations in support of the name "Republic of Macedonia".[69] Greek nationalist party Popular Orthodox Rally also organised a similar rally in Thessaloniki on 5 March, in support of the name "Macedonia" being used only by Greece.[70] The Greek church and both major Greek parties strongly discouraged such protests "during this sensitive time of negotiation".[71][72]
On 2 March 2008, in New York, Matthew Nimetz announced that the talks had failed, that there was a "gap" in the positions of the two countries, and that there would not be any progress, unless there were some sort of compromise, which he characterised as "valuable" for both sides.[73][74] After Greek PM Karamanlis's warnings that "no solution equals no invitation",[75] the Greek media took it for granted that Greece would veto the coming NATO accession talks for the country, in the Foreign Ministers' summit on 6 March 2008 in Brussels.[76][77]
Meanwhile, in a newer poll in Greece, the "composite name that includes the name Macedonia for the country" seemed, for the first time, to be marginally more popular than the previous more hard-lined stance of "no Macedonia in the title" (43% vs 42%). In the same poll, 84% of the respondents were pro-veto in the country's NATO accession talks, if the issue had not been resolved by then.[77][78] All Greek political parties except the small nationalist party Popular Orthodox Rally support the "composite name for all uses" solution, and are vehemently opposed to any "double name" formula which is proposed by the republic.[79] This shift in the official and public position was described by the PM of Greece as "the maximum recoil possible".[75]
Following his visit to Athens in an attempt to persuade the Greek government not to proceed to a veto, the NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer implied that the onus to compromise rested on the Republic of Macedonia.[80] In the same spirit, the EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, expressed his fear that "it might have negative consequences on FYROM's EU bid, although it is a bilateral question, Greece—as any other EU member—has the right to veto".[81][82][83] On 5 March 2008, Nimetz visited Skopje to try to find common ground on his proposal, but announced that "the gap remains".[81]
As earlier anticipated, on 6 March 2008, in the NATO Foreign Minister's summit in Brussels, Greek minister Dora Bakoyannis announced that "as regards the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,..., unfortunately, the policy followed by our neighbouring country in its relations with Greece, on the one side with intransigence and on the other with a logic of nationalist and irredentist actions tightly connected with the naming issue, does not allow us to maintain a positive stance, as we did for Croatia and Albania.... As long as there is no such solution, Greece will remain an insuperable obstacle to the European and Euro-Atlantic ambition of FYROM".[84][85]
On 7 March 2008, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Daniel Fried, made an unscheduled visit to Skopje, with the message that the two sides must cooperate with Matthew Nimetz to find a mutually acceptable solution for the naming dispute.[86]
Concerns were expressed in Skopje and Athens on the stability of the governing coalition of VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and subsequently the negotiating power of PM Nikola Gruevski with regards to the naming dispute, after the leader of DPA Menduh Thaçi accused the government of not complying with its requests about the rights of Albanians in the Republic of Macedonia.[87] Greek media considered the option that the crisis might be a diplomatic way of increasing the pressure on the Greek side.[88] Following a call for cooperation by the president Branko Crvenkovski, the other four major parties agreed to support Gruevski's government until NATO's convention in Bucharest on 4 April 2008.[89][90]
The possibility of a failure of the ascension talks was met with unease by the ethnic Albanian part of the population that places more importance on EU and NATO membership than on the Macedonia name issue.[91]
Following the declaration of Athens for a veto, the press in Skopje reported increased intervention from the United States to solve the dispute, through Victoria Nuland, the U.S. NATO ambassador.[92] Antonio Milošoski announced that "Nimetz's proposal remains unchanged".[92] The daily newspaper Dnevnik reported that diplomatic sources claimed that this would be the last attempt from the American leadership to help in finding a solution, and that the target of this effort would be for the country to retreat from its position in regard to a "double name formula" and for Greece to accept something along these lines.[92] It continued by saying that the U.S. would exercise pressure on both sides to find a solution before NATO's summit, so that the alliance could be expanded.[92] Olli Rehn urged "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to show the correct political will in seizing the opportunity to find an acceptable solution for both parts".[92]
A new meeting between Nimetz and the two parties was arranged on 17 March 2008 in Vienna, in the office of the former UN special envoy to Kosovo and ex-president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari.[93] Nimetz noted that he did not present any new proposals, thanked the United States with whom he said he was in contact, and urged more countries to help in solving the dispute. He also announced that he was more optimistic after this meeting, and that he focused only on the solutions that could be applied by NATO's summit in April.[94]
Map of the Roman Province of Macedonia showing its division into 'Macedonia Prima' and 'Macedonia Secundus' or 'Salutaris'
According to the press in the Republic of Macedonia[95] Nimetz now limited his proposal to three names of the five that were proposed in his original framework:[68]
"Republic of Upper Macedonia"
"New Republic of Macedonia" or "Republic of New Macedonia"
"Republic of Macedonia-Skopje"
Of the three, Greek media have reported that the only serious contender was "New Macedonia", which was the solution favoured at the time throughout the round of negotiations by Washington, which regarded it as the "most neutral" option.[96] According to some reports, all three proposals were swiftly rejected by Skopje on the grounds that "neither would constitute a logical basis for a solution, given that all had been rejected by one or the other side over the last 15 years".[97] Greek diplomatic sources have intimated that international pressure has now shifted towards the former Yugoslav republic.[98]
A special meeting outside the auspices of the UN was arranged on 21 March 2008, at U.S. ambassador's to NATO Victoria Nuland's house in Brussels, between the two foreign ministers Dora Bakoyannis and Antonio Milošoski and with the presence of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Daniel Fried.[99][100] Following the meeting, both ministers stressed for the first time their "commitment" for finding a solution until NATO's summit.[99][100]
In 2011, the first voices seeking compromise started to be heard in Skopje.[101] The president of the |
3667 Drafting for Core 1402 12.8 none N3651 Variable Templates 14, 14.7 __cpp_variable_templates 201304 predefined N3669 Fixing constexpr member functions without const various none N3673 C++ Library Working Group Ready Issues Bristol 2013 various none N3658 Compile-time integer sequences 20 __cpp_lib_integer_sequence 201304 <utility> N3668 exchange() utility function 20 __cpp_lib_exchange_function 201304 <utility> N3471 Constexpr Library Additions: utilities 20.2-20.4 none N3670 Wording for Addressing Tuples by Type 20.2-20.4 __cpp_lib_tuples_by_type 201304 <utility> N3672 A proposal to add a utility class to represent optional objects 20.5 __has_include(<optional>) 1 predefined N3656 make_unique 20.7 __cpp_lib_make_unique 201304 <memory> N3421 Making Operator Functors greater<> 20.8 __cpp_lib_transparent_operators 201210 <functional> N3462 std::result_of and SFINAE 20.9 __cpp_lib_result_of_sfinae 201210 <functional> N3545 An Incremental Improvement to integral_constant 20.9 __cpp_lib_integral_constant_callable 201304 <type_traits> N3655 TransformationTraits Redux 20.9 __cpp_lib_transformation_trait_aliases 201304 <type_traits> N3469 Constexpr Library Additions: chrono 20.11 none N3642 User-defined Literals for Standard Library Types 20.11 __cpp_lib_chrono_udls 201304 <chrono> 21.7 __cpp_lib_string_udls 201304 <string> N3662 C++ Dynamic Arrays 23.2, 23.3 __has_include(<dynarray>) 1 predefined N3470 Constexpr Library Additions: containers 23.3 none N3657 Adding heterogeneous comparison lookup to associative containers 23.4 __cpp_lib_generic_associative_lookup 201304 <map>
<set> N3644 Null Forward Iterators 24.2 __cpp_lib_null_iterators 201304 <iterator> N3671 Making non-modifying sequence operations more robust 25.2 __cpp_lib_robust_nonmodifying_seq_ops 201304 <algorithm> N3654 Quoted Strings Library Proposal 27.7 __cpp_lib_quoted_string_io 201304 <iomanip> N3659 Shared locking in C++ 30.4 __cpp_lib_shared_mutex 201304 <mutex>
C++11 features
STUB: this table should be considered a very rough, preliminary, incomplete draft
Significant features of C++11 Doc. No. Title Primary Section Macro name Value Header N2249 New Character Types in C++ 2.13 __cpp_unicode_characters 200704 predefined N2442 Raw and Unicode String Literals Unified Proposal 2.13 __cpp_raw_strings 200710 predefined __cpp_unicode_literals 200710 predefined N2765 User-defined Literals 2.13, 13.5 __cpp_user_defined_literals 200809 predefined N2927 New wording for C++0x lambdas 5.1 __cpp_lambdas 200907 predefined N2235 Generalized Constant Expressions 5.19, 7.1 __cpp_constexpr 200704 predefined N1720 Proposal to Add Static Assertions to the Core Language 7 __cpp_static_assert 200410 predefined N2343 Decltype 7.1 __cpp_decltype 200707 predefined N2761 Towards support for attributes in C++ 7.6 __cpp_attributes 200809 predefined N2118 A Proposal to Add an Rvalue Reference to the C++ Language 8.3 __cpp_rvalue_references 200610 predefined N2242 Proposed Wording for Variadic Templates 8.3, 14 __cpp_variadic_templates 200704 predefined
Conditionally-supported constructs
STUB
C++98 features
STUB: especially for exception handling and RTTI
Detailed explanation and rationale
C++14 features
Many of the examples here have been shamelessly and almost brainlessly plagiarized from the cited paper. Assistance with improving examples is solicited.
N3323: A Proposal to Tweak Certain C++ Contextual Conversions
This paper specifies a small change that is considered to be more of a bug fix than a new feature, so no macro is considered necessary.
N3421: Making Operator Functors greater<>
Example:
#if __cpp_lib_transparent_operators sort(v.begin(), v.end(), greater<>()); #else sort(v.begin(), v.end(), greater<valueType>()); #endif
N3462: std::result_of and SFINAE
Example:
template<typename A> #if __cpp_lib_result_of_sfinae typename std::result_of<inc(A)>::type #else decltype(std::declval<inc>()(std::declval<A>())) #endif try_inc(A a);
N3469: Constexpr Library Additions: chrono
N3470: Constexpr Library Additions: containers
N3471: Constexpr Library Additions: utilities
These papers just add constexpr to the declarations of several dozen library functions in various headers. It is not clear that a macro to test for the presence of these changes would be sufficiently useful to be worthwhile.
N3472: Binary Literals in the C++ Core Language
Example:
int const packed_zero_to_three = #if __cpp_binary_literals 0b00011011; #else 0x1B; #endif
N3545: An Incremental Improvement to integral_constant
Example:
constexpr bool arithmetic = #if __cpp_lib_integral_constant_callable std::is_arithmetic<T>{}(); #else static_cast<bool>(std::is_arithmetic<T>{}); #endif
N3624: Core Issue 1512: Pointer comparison vs qualification conversions
This paper contained the wording changes to resolve a core issue. It did not introduce a new feature, so no macro is considered necessary.
N3638: Return type deduction for normal functions
This paper describes two separate features: the ability to deduce the return type of a function from the return statements contained in its body, and the ability to use decltype(auto). These features can be implemented independently, so a macro is recommended for each.
Examples:
template<typename T> auto abs(T x) #ifndef __cpp_return_type_deduction -> decltype(x < 0? -x : x) #endif { return x < 0? -x : x; }
N3639: Runtime-sized arrays with automatic storage duration
Example:
#if __cpp_runtime_arrays T local_buffer[n]; // more efficient than vector #else std::vector<T> local_buffer(n); #endif
N3642: User-defined Literals for Standard Library Types
This paper specifies user-defined literal operators for two different standard library types, which could be implemented independently. Furthermore, user-defined literal operators are expected to be added later for at least one other library type. So for consistency and flexibility, each type is given its own macro.
Examples:
N3644: Null Forward Iterators
Example:
N3648: Wording Changes for Generalized Lambda-capture
Example:
N3649: Generic (Polymorphic) Lambda Expressions
Example:
N3651: Variable Templates
Example:
N3652: Relaxing constraints on constexpr functions / constexpr member functions and implicit const
The major change proposed by this paper is considered to be strictly a further development of the constexpr feature of C++11. Consequently, the recommendation here is to give an increased value to the macro indicating C++11 support for constexpr.
Example:
N3653: Member initializers and aggregates
Example:
N3654: Quoted Strings Library Proposal
Example:
N3655: TransformationTraits Redux
Example:
N3656: make_unique
Example:
N3657: Adding heterogeneous comparison lookup to associative containers
Example:
N3658: Compile-time integer sequences
Example:
N3659: Shared locking in C++
Example:
N3662: C++ Dynamic Arrays
For new headers, we have a long-term solution that uses __has_include. There was not sufficient support and a number of objections against adding macros to existing library header files, as there was not consensus on a place to put them.
There is also a simple workaround for users that are not using libraries that define the header file: supplying their own header that is further down the search path than the library headers.
Example:
#if __has_include(<dynarray>) #include <dynarray> // code that uses std::dynarray #endif
N3664: Clarifying Memory Allocation
The substantive change in this paper just relaxes a restriction on implementations. There is no new feature for a programmer to use, so no macro is considered necessary.
N3667: Drafting for Core 1402
This paper contained the wording changes to resolve a core issue. It did not introduce a new feature, so no macro is considered necessary.
N3668: exchange() utility function
Example:
N3669: Fixing constexpr member functions without const
This paper contained the wording changes to ensure that a minor change proposed by N3652 did not impact the standard library. It did not introduce a new feature, so no macro is considered necessary.
N3670: Wording for Addressing Tuples by Type
Example:
N3671: Making non-modifying sequence operations more robust
Example:
N3672: A proposal to add a utility class to represent optional objects
See N3662 for rationale.
Example:
#if __has_include(<optional>) #include <optional> // code that uses std::optional #endif
N3673: C++ Library Working Group Ready Issues Bristol 2013
This paper was just a collection of library issues. It did not introduce a new feature, so no macro is considered necessary.Recent conversations have focused on the question of whether home birth is safe. Here is why it's the wrong question to be asking.
A recent heated dialogue between journalists Michelle Goldberg and Jennifer Block about the safety of home birth has been the latest in a recent media flurry about the rise in home births reported by the CDC in January. A New York Times Magazine profile of Ina May Gaskin, arguably our nation’s most famous home birth midwife, was just one of the most mainstream of the recent articles, and seems to have stirred up much scrutiny of the practice.
I feel compelled to dip my toe into the conversation, if only to try and steer it in a different direction. The source of the back and forth between Goldberg and Block centers on this question: “Is home birth safe?” It’s not a new question; in fact it has been debated since the beginning of obstetrics and hospital birth at the turn of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, though, it’s exactly the wrong question to which to be devoting so much air time. A scant share of all women giving birth in the United States do so at home. Despite the reported 29 percent increase in home births nationally between 2004 and 2009, fewer than one percent of births happen out of hospital. While home birth gets much scrutiny, particularly when wealthy white women are seen as forging a new trend by choosing it, the place where the majority of women give birth in the United States — the hospital — goes largely un-scrutinized.
Hospital births do get a lot of attention in birth activist circles (where I spend significant time, as part of my work at Radical Doula). Midwives and doulas will quickly recite the problems with hospital birth, e.g., why high intervention rates (c-sections, inductions) are bad for mother and baby. But outside of that arena, where it’s arguably most needed, the conversation is stalled.
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Here is the reason this matters: we are in the midst of a maternity care crisis. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: our maternity care system is broken. Why? Because our maternal and fetal mortality rates are worse than 40 other countries worldwide, despite the fact that we spend more money than anyone else on maternity care. And where is almost all that care being delivered? In hospitals.
More than thirty percent of all births in the United States are through c-section — a rate twice what the World Health Organization identifies as a dangerous level of c-sections. Maternal mortality is actually on the rise — more mothers are dying from childbirth-related causes now than thirty years ago. I could go on, but I’ve said this all before.
I realize that things which are deemed “new trends” often get attention, despite the fact that we are only talking about a small minority of people. But there is another reason I think this crisis isn’t getting the air time it deserves — it disproportionately affects women of color. Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. And remember, these are hospital births we’re talking about here. While CDC data showed an increase in home births from 2004 to 2009, non-Hispanic White women accounted for 90 percent of this increase. Women are dying from childbirth in our hospitals at alarming rates, under the care of obstetricians and nurse midwives. Something is wrong here.
I don’t hide the fact that I’m a supporter of the midwifery model of care. I do think home births can be a safe and viable option, given adequately trained providers and a relationship with emergency back up services if necessary (something that because of the history of hostility between midwifery and obstetrics is hard to come by). But I’m interested in seeing our energy and scrutiny focused on the vastly dominant portion of our maternity care system: hospitals. While some people know well what challenges arise in that environment, the stories of parents who’ve lost children or mothers in hospital aren’t often publicized in the same way as are those of that small share of home births. We know they happen — mothers and babies are dying from childbirth-related causes in our hospital system. Malpractice rates for OB-GYNs may be high, but the stories of what sometimes happens under their care doesn’t get the same level attention. Why? Because doctors practicing in hospitals have an army of institutional supporters that protect them legally, financially, and in the media.
As I’ve said before, we desperately need innovation and new approaches to maternity care. Whether you think midwifery and home birth are viable alternatives or not, it’s hard to ignore the statistics that say what we’re currently doing isn’t working. We should be able to guarantee better (not perfect, but better) outcomes for parents and children. If I were to play the blame game, I’m going to look to where almost everyone is giving birth — the hospital. It’s likely that we’re not going to find just one solution that will reverse our rising maternal mortality rate, or our infant mortality rate (not to mention the less discussed, but also important, disability from childbirth-related causes); we will need a range of solutions.
I do think maternity care provided out of hospital by trained providers (yes, even midwives without nursing degrees) deserves our attention. I think evidence-based care should be the standard across maternity care disciplines, but right now it seems that the scrutiny spotlight is unfairly trained in only one direction. It’s the direction that affects very few people, and this imbalance undercuts efforts to do the work of improving birthing outcomes in all settings.
Midwifery, particularly Certified Professional Midwifery, the focus of Goldberg and Block’s conversation, is an under-resourced and extremely marginalized movement. It’s a movement with almost no institutional support, little lobbying power, and with a number of powerful groups (the American Medical Association, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, even the American College of Nurse Midwives) working against it. It’s hard to imagine a movement so maligned being able to prove its worth in that kind of climate, even if Rikki Lake and the New York Times Magazine choose to promote it.
Let’s focus our scrutiny on the system that is failing us, and figure out how we can make it better. A few things that would help greatly in this matter: transparency about c-section rates from hospitals, an independent body investigating deaths from pregnancy-related causes, and real pressure on the obstetrics community to follow their own advice on practicing evidence-based medicine.About 700,000 guns were handed in to Australia's buyback nearly 20 years ago. Credit:Dean Sewell Thank you, Australia, for recognising that guns are not toys. That they shouldn't be used for entertainment purposes and that they don't imbue a person with power, nor do they command respect. Thank you for not celebrating them as extensions of masculinity. Thank you for not living in a false reality, on an imagined frontier, where everyday people think they're super-hero cowboys and that God guaranteed them a gun. Thank you, Australia, for changing a law when the law wasn't protecting the people it was meant to serve.
Thank you for putting the protection of your people above the protection of a doctrine. Thank you for not being fossilised by your constitution. Thank you, Australia, for not accepting the excuses for owning a gun. Thank you for understanding that wanting to have a gun to play with at the shooting range on the weekend is a selfish indulgence, not an inalienable right. Thank you for caring about your fellow man more than your gun.
Thank you for being intelligent enough to know that more guns don't make people safer. Thank you for not capitalising on your citizens' fear while you arm their enemies and make $36.2 billion selling weapons to other countries. Thank you, Australia, for doing the job my country can't: making its people safe. I realise that there are still occurrences of gun violence in Australia, but nothing like there is in America. When we first moved to Australia, my husband and I lived in Fitzroy for three years. Friends questioned our safety there. We usually laughed in response.
In a gun culture, there never really is peace. There is a constant, heightened state of alert. In crowded places, the shopping centre, the cinema, school campuses, sporting events, in places where we should feel safe, there is the nagging fear of gun violence always present. You don't realise the weight of the fear of living in a gunned-up society until you don't live there anymore. Living here, I am less afraid, less suspicious of my fellow man as well. When everyone has a gun, anyone can be the one who's going to shoot you. America's gun laws foster an unhealthy suspicion of its citizens and turn people against each other. An "I'll shoot you first" mentality is not one of camaraderie and unity. But, fed by fear, it's the false sense of power and control that a gun provides that does the most damage to a society.
Instead of being frightened of the next random act of terrorism, people are afraid of each other. So what do they do to control that fear? They buy a gun to defend themselves. Yet not one of the 62 mass shootings in the United States over the last 30 years has been stopped by an armed civilian. So I watch all of this from a safe distance, in a safe country, and I feel almost guilty for my gratitude. I'm an American. I'm proud of my country for so many things, but for this, for these countless acts of preventable violence, I am terribly, terribly ashamed. When the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting happened, I watched from my sunny living room while my almost one-year-old daughter crawled around the Christmas tree. It was summer here, Australia at its best. A warm breeze, sun glinting off the pool in the backyard. But on the television screen was the worst horror I could ever imagine. So many dead children. So many unopened packages beneath so many trees. So many cold little beds. So many birthday parties that would never come, graduations, weddings, families that would never be and so many families that would never be the same. My body ached for them as though those children and those families were my own.
I could never imagine something so horrible happening to my child, a man-made bullet tearing through her tiny body, stealing her future from her and that love from my life. I sat there and watched the parents scream. I watched the tears. I watched the friends and family try to console. I was angry. I was sad. And when I picked up my daughter and squeezed her and held her to me and kissed her baby-fat cheeks, I was grateful. I was grateful to live here in a country that does more than say gun violence should be stopped. It's done something about it. Thank you, Australia. Aubrey Perry is a Melbourne-based writer and artist who is originally from the United StatesTreasurer Scott Morrison has a family trust. Malcolm Turnbull does not Credit:Andrew Meares
A Fairfax Media analysis has identified that almost half (47 per cent) of Coalition MPs or their immediate families have an interest in trusts, a proportion considerably higher than previous parliaments and much greater than in the wider population. Of the 105 Coalition MPs, 49 have a personal or family interest in a discretionary trust, while active involvement in family trusts is closer to 5 per cent in the general population. Among senior members of the government, the proportion is greater still, with half - 10 out of 20 - of cabinet with trusts. This includes foreign minister Julie Bishop, employment minister Michaelia Cash and immigration minister Peter Dutton, as well as key economic portfolio holders Scott Morrison and Kelly O'Dwyer. Labor MPs are much less trust-inclined, though the proportion of Labor MPs with trusts is growing. About 21 MPs or families in the current ALP caucus (22 per cent) now have trusts. This includes deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, shadow attorney general Mark Dreyfus and fellow Victorians, David Feeney and Tim Watts.
South Australian senator Nick Xenophon is a prominent crossbencher with a trust, and Victorian senator Derryn Hinch also have them. Senator Nick Xenophon has a family trust. Credit:Andrew Meares Neither Prime Minister Turnbull nor Opposition leader Bill Shorten has a family trust. On Friday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stressed he did not have a family trust and that he had "always been very conservative" in his approach to tax. But he confirmed there were no plans for "sweeping changes" on taxing trusts. "Trusts are a very legitimate form of business structure," he told 3AW's Neil Mitchell. "They're very widely used in small businesses, in family business, particularly with farms."
The popularity of trusts among MPs compared to the general population is consistent with the observation that they disproportionately benefit wealthier Australians – particularly those on incomes of $500,000 or more – at the expense of average taxpayers. Serious reform of the tax advantages of trusts has not been proposed since Howard-era treasurer Peter Costello was stymied in his attempts by his Coalition colleagues in the early 2000s. University of NSW trust tax law expert Dale Boccabella estimates that trust tax perks are costing government coffers $2 billion a year or more, a bill picked up by other taxpayers. Even though the Coalition lost 17 seats at the July 2016 election, the number of its MPs with trusts has risen, up from 43 in previous parliament, and from 35 in the Gillard/Rudd years when Labor ran a minority government. And where records or reports are available, they point to far fewer MPs in the past with trusts, especially in Labor-dominated parliaments.
Trust use is also increasing in the wider community. Unpublished figures provided exclusively to Fairfax Media by the Australian Taxation Office reveal almost 643,000 discretionary trusts (most family trusts are this kind) in Australia in the 2014-15 financial year (the most recent figures), about twice the number of 20 years earlier. Despite the growth, only about 5 per cent of the nation's 13.4 million taxpayers have discretionary trusts, a fraction of the equivalent percentage for Coalition MPs. Peter Dutton has a family trust. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Another 13 government MPs have self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) or other investment vehicles.
Lack of transparency is an issue with both trusts and SMSFs. While MPs are required to declare family trusts and super funds along with companies and shareholdings, they are not obliged to declare investments made by trusts or SMSFs. It is possible, therefore, for a resources minister to have large shareholding in a mining company, through a trust or SMSF, but not declare it. Tanya Plibersek has a family trust. Credit:Wayne Taylor This week Transparency International called on the government for greater scrutiny of trusts, including a national public register. When told of the Coalition interest in trusts, Transparency chief executive Serena Lillywhite said: "This may explain why it's taken so long for a regime to be developed to clamp down on the use of trusts and shell companies". Trusts are a legal means of handling personal, business and family finances, and Australia has many forms of them, some of which are devoted to looking after people with disabilities, and children.
But the vast majority of discretionary trusts, in particular, appear to have no purpose other than to minimise tax. This week Fairfax Media sought comment from Mr Turnbull and most of the Coalition MPs with trusts. Only two MPs responded, both backbenchers. Neither Mr Turnbull nor Mr Morrison responded. The usually forthright Senator Xenophon also failed to respond. An earlier version of this story wrongly reported that independent MP Andrew Wilkie had a family trust. He no longer is involved in a trust.About Background Characters Pony-Dragon Relations Pony4Koma 90 Chillaxed To The Marrow (Master Q Parody) meiyeezhu 43 Muffin's Baby GreenBrothersArt 46 Love Is Magic: Page 5 GreenBrothersArt 26 Love Is Magic: Page 4 GreenBrothersArt 15 Love Is Magic: Page 3 GreenBrothersArt 23 Love Is Magic: Page 2 GreenBrothersArt 17 Love Is Magic: Page 1 GreenBrothersArt 40 The WonderClone UltraTheHedgetoaster 33 Chinese Fire Alarmist (Master Q Parody) meiyeezhu 60 You Rock My World Mighty-Muffins 40 MLP: Fim - Without Magic Part 60 PerfectBlue97 232 MLP: FiM - Without Magic Part 52 PerfectBlue97 266 MLP: FiM - Without Magic Part 49 PerfectBlue97 213 MLP: FiM - Without Magic Part 50 PerfectBlue97 276 MLP: FiM - Without Magic Part 30 PerfectBlue97 212 MLP: FiM - Without Magic Part 31 PerfectBlue97 239 MLP: FiM - Without Magic Part 26 PerfectBlue97 227 Wine Essence P21 DinkyUniverse 15 Peach Fuzz's Reef Warming DinkyUniverse 31 Wine Essence P20 DinkyUniverse 21 Comic 88: Meanwhile 2 ZSparkonequus 66 Comic - Ms. Heartstrings viwrastupr 544 Noctavia (Master Q Parody) meiyeezhu 53SANDY, Utah — Rio Tinto Stadium, the home of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake as well as the USL Real Monarchs, today announced a partnership with Auric Solar to install the State of Utah’s largest privately-owned solar array at the world-class Sandy venue.
Rio Tinto Stadium’s 2,020-kilowatt system of solar panels installed on existing stadium structure as well as new covered parking areas nearby will offset 73 percent of Real Salt Lake’s total annual stadium power needs – the largest offset in North American professional sports. The ambitious project expected to be completed in six months, and operational in October 2015.
“We are partnering with Auric Solar to increase our power efficiency while hosting more than 50 massive events each year in Sandy,” said RSL and Monarchs Owner Dell Loy Hansen. “The new solar covered parking structures will improve the quality of parking options for our 15,000+ season ticket holders and provide our state and the surrounding environment with the largest solar energy offset for any U.S. professional sports venue.”
The environmental impact of the new solar array carries the equivalent of removing 450 cars from the road, or planting 47,278 trees annually.
Auric Solar at Rio Tinto Stadium Fact Sheet
- 6414 solar panels @ 315 watts each (2,020 kilowatts or 2.02 megawatts)
- 94 percent of the system installed on new solar-covered parking structures (South, South West and North of venue)
- System will offset 73 percent of the stadiums power needs, the LARGEST solar offset for any professional sports stadium in North America
- Rio Tinto Stadium will boast the 4th-largest solar array of any professional sports stadium in North America
- No. 5: FedEx Field, 2,000 kW (Landover, Md.)
- No. 4: Rio Tinto Stadium, 2,020 kW (Salt Lake City, Utah)
- No. 3: Pocono Raceway, 3,000 kW (Blakeslee, Pa.)
- No. 2: Lincoln Financial Field, 3,000 kW (Philadelphia, Pa.)
- No. 1: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 9,000 kW (Speedway, Ind.)
- Rio Tinto Stadium will now own the largest solar array in Major League Soccer – double the size of Gillette Stadium’s 1,000 kW array in Foxborough, Massachusetts)
“This project will put Real Salt Lake at the forefront of energy production in all of professional sports,” said Jess Phillips, principal of Auric Solar. “Auric Solar is helping the club harness the power of the sun to reduce its power consumption on a grand scale. It is impressive and ambitious to see the organization’s commitment to the community and environment.”
Nearly 95 percent of the solar array (made up of 6,414 solar panels) will be installed on new solar-covered parking structures, including an entirely new parking lot on the north side of the stadium.
“Auric Solar’s expertise make them the perfect partners to make Rio Tinto Stadium energy self-sufficient, while also improving the fan experience with the addition of covered and lit parking,” said Andy Carroll, Vice President of Corporate Partnerships for RSL. “Our unique ability to assist Auric Solar in building brand awareness, both locally and across the industry, makes this partnership fully-integrated, mutually-beneficial, and uniquely symbiotic. The entire Auric team – led by founders Trent Vansice and Jess Phillips – consists of great people, providing all of the ingredients for an exceptional long-term partnership.”
Auric Solar originally started out of a garage in South Jordan, Utah, in 2010 and has quickly become the largest solar provider in Utah. Auric Solar is also one of the fastest growing in the country with an average year over year growth of 173 percent. This was accomplished by focusing on customer experience, quality, timeliness, and providing a financially responsible way to switch to solar power. Auric Solar is now the most positively reviewed solar provider in the U.S. by solarreviews.com. Headquartered in Midvale, Utah, the company has expanded to service all of Utah and Idaho.Loom Knit Ladies Slippers Socks
I was asked by one of my readers about knitting Mary Jane shoes on a loom. I wanted to help this beautiful lady that knits for charity ( I’m a sucker for charity knitters ) as well as the one that asked me for adult booties. I also wanted make a pattern that could be used for the The Pink Slipper Project. By merging those three requests I have come up with a Loom Knit Ladies Slippers pattern and video tutorial quick and easy enough for beginners.
Your main stitch through out this project will be your basic e-Wrap and 2 rows of Flat stitch. There is a little tiny bit of math and an itty bitty bit of sewing. But the kicker.. YOU’RE DONE IN 2 HOURS or less depending on how quick you flip your loops!
Scroll down to the bottom for pattern and video. Let me know your comments and questions in the comment section at the very end of the post. Love, Love, Love questions and comments. ALL are Big time appreciated.
Get your 24-peg loom, hook and timer. I want to know how long it took YOU to make these cozy ladies slippers.
Ideas for the Ladies Slippers
The Baby Booty
In March of 2015 one of the young ladies from our Facebook Fan page shared a picture of her baby booties. I just loved it. I really think the buttons did it for me. So for this pattern a button was a must have. The question then was where to place them on a Ladies Slippers. On the top like Tamairas or to the side.
She had also made a few mild adjustment to the original pattern which I thought made a huge difference. I wrote a small post about the story behind her little slippers and her written pattern. To read them click HERE.
Mary Jane Shoes
The idea of a loom knit pair of Mary Janes sounded extremely appealing to me. I figured that this simple and cutesy style of shoe lend itself very well as Ladies Slippers.I had seen it before as a needle and crochet project – why not on my trusty loom?
Well I would attempt the project for my loyal readers – wasn’t sure what I would end up with as a design. One thing I was forced to eliminate this time was the strap. Will do another design later on to include this detail … so stay tuned.
Ladies Slippers: Supplies, Notes and FREE Pattern
SUPPLIES:
Loom: 24-Peg. I used the Darice knitting loom
Loom Hook: Any hook will work. I used my Knifty Knitter with a rubber grip.
Yarn: 70-90 yards of any yarn #4 worsted weight or above. Make sure that it’s machine washable to make life easier. If you use worsted weight knit with 2 strands as 1.
Needles: Yarn Needle and Embroidery Needle ( if adding a button )
Ruler or Measuring Tape: You will need to measure the length of your foot.
Row counter: This is Optional. I used a a Hand Tally. Paid less than $2 and got free shipping.
PATTERN NOTES: How Many Rows?
First things first: To know HOW MANY ROWS – YOU NEED TO MEASURE AND DO THE MATH
1. Stand up to measure you foot.
2. Divide the foot in 2 parts: foot / heel
3. Measure the foot – Measure the heel
3. Make a notation of the 2 measurements
4. You will multiply every 1 Inch by 4.
Note: There are 2.54 centimeters in 1 inch.
Image Credit: Hayden Family Foot & Ankle Clinic, PLLC
You should have 2 numbers – 1 for your foot and 1 for your heel. These will help you know how many rows for YOUR Ladies Slippers.
MY Example: I’m a shorty with a tiny foot. Mine measures 9 inches, 4 for my foot, 5 for my heel.
The math 4×4=16 (foot) and 5×4=20.(feet). 16 Rows for my foot and then 20 Rows for my heel – BUT…
VERY important: So that your Ladies Slippers don’t fit like boats – Subtract 1 inch off (4 Rows) of the foot part.
So for my slippers I knit 12 Rows for my foot and then 20 Rows for my heel. Looks Small – Fit Perfect.
FOR A SHOE SIZE CONVERSION ( US and UK ) CHART: Click HERE
Now You Can Start Knitting
The Pattern for Ladies Slippers
CAUTION: These slippers can be dangerous on some surfaces. See suggestions at the end of the pattern to help them grip better.
The Pattern is Free on this Website. To Buy a Printable PDF through Craftsy: Click HERE
Mark your loom. From the Anchor Peg ( the lonely one sticking out from the base ) count 3 pegs from the right and 3 pegs to the left. You will not be knitting those 6 pegs for now. You will knit 18 pegs as a flat panel.
The Heel
Cast-on 18 pegs: Warp the 18 pegs. Use the Flat Stitch for the cast-on row.
Row 1 for heel : e-Wrap knit 18 pegs
Now continue to knit your flat panel until you’ve reached the number of rows needed for your heel ( Do the math – see “Pattern Notes: How Many” above )
The Foot
Row 1 for foot: Now wrap all your pegs including the empty ones. You will use the e-Wrap knit stitch for the ones with 2 loops and the Flat Stitch for 6 more pegs.
Now continue to knit in the round until you’ve reached the number of rows needed for your foot. ( Do the math – see “Pattern Note: How Many” above )
Cast-off
Use the Gathered Method. As if you were closing a hat.
Now tighten the first row of knitting. This is optional.
Sew-up the heel part of your project. Round of the bottom of heel by folding the pointy part and sewing it flat.
YOUR LADIES SLIPPER IS DONE!
Decorate any way you like.
Suggestions:
CAUTION: These slippers can be dangerous on some surfaces.
1. I suggest cutting out a sole for your slippers out of leather, shoe insoles or stiff felt. Sew or glue the sole onto the slippers. If you used felt add little dots with something like Puffy paint for fabric.
2. Because you will be walking around in these its a good idea to ScotchGard your work. There is a version just for fabric that works well for knit wear.
3. If you plan to add a button. Instead of looking for matching thread – just unwrap the yarn you used (most yarns are 4-ply) and use a 2-ply thread of the yarn with a large needle to sew on the button. Note that your yarn needle doesn’t fit the holes of the average button.
The Video for Ladies Slippers
It’s a good idea to watch the video completely from start to finish before starting your project. This practice helps you be more confident that the pattern is doable and gives you a heads up on each step before it happens.
If you like the video make sure not to miss out on the next one. To Subscribe: Click HERE
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Tagged: footgear, house shoes, loafer, moccasins, shoes, socks, women, womensFrom RAD Studio Code Examples
This sample shows how to integrate and use REST services in your application by using the Spitcast API in a C++ application.
Location
You can find the SurfSpotFinderApp sample project at:
Start | Programs | Embarcadero RAD Studio Berlin | Samples and then navigate to: CPP\M |
it's true that we look to MAXIM as a guide for some things. After all, since it's [sic] launch over eight years ago, it has gone on to become one of the most successful magazine titles ever. Who wouldn't want to emulate that success?
[citation needed]
On August 15, 2006, the revamped Cracked Magazine finally appeared. The first issue was a significant departure from Cracked's previous incarnation, notably in its sharp reduction of comics and illustrated content. The new format was more text-heavy, and was overtly indebted to modern "lad mags" like Maxim, Stuff and FHM, although the media website Gawker.com wrote, "Very little remains of the old Cracked – a Mad ripoff that had tread water in various incarnations for almost half a century. Much was made of the new direction now ripping off Maxim instead, but aside from a "look and feel" resemblance in terms of layout, the much more obvious (attempted) homage runs to Spy."[30]
The Washington Post's Peter Carlson harshly reviewed the debut, listing some of the issue's contents and then adding, "Are you chuckling yet? Me neither."[31] Later, Carlson quoted Cracked's Michael J. Nelson, who'd contributed a short guide to the worst comedy movies ever. Wrote Nelson in his article, "Bad comedies are worse than anything else in the whole of human history." Added Carlson, "Reading Cracked, you understand exactly what he means."
After just three poor-selling issues, the failing magazine was canceled in February 2007.[32] Citing distribution problems for its demise, editor Jay Pinkerton claimed that the remaining staff would be focusing its energies toward the Cracked website, as well as unspecified book projects. The company's website, Cracked.com, continued on and has become known for its humorous lists and compilations, such as "6 Most Ridiculous Things People Claimed to Legally Own".[33] A book collection in that vein, You Might be a Zombie, and Other Bad News, was published in 2010.
A two-volume history of the magazine, If You're Cracked, You're Happy, written by Mark Arnold, was published in June 2011.[34]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Religious instruction needs to start in the family, but parents have been too long left unfed
When it comes to teenagers, you expect a certain amount of eye rolling and apathy, but put those same kids in a faith formation class for an hour and fifteen minutes at the end of a long school day and right at the dinner hour and you’ll see a level of teenage disinterest that could make you wither on the spot. That’s what my husband and I faced when we stood before the 21 high school sophomores we teach at our upstate New York parish.
The scene was nothing new and nothing unexpected. We taught most of the same kids last year since they’re in a two-year program that will culminate in confirmation this spring. However, I’m willing to wager that their apathy isn’t necessarily related to a surge of teenage surliness but rather to a lack of foundational catechesis, and I say that while having taught many of these kids in fourth and fifth grade. I have used every trick in the book—from group activities to stump-the-teacher sessions to outright bribery through baked ziti and brownies—to get these kids to hear me when I talk about the Mass, about the Gospel, about our beautiful Catholic teachings and traditions. Yet every year, when they reluctantly return to class, I find I’m grateful if even half of them remember the Our Father.
When I look out at these kids—regardless of age, regardless of whether they’ve gone to Catholic or public elementary school—I assume I am seeing 75 percent as future ex-Catholics.
The blame falls squarely in the lap of the Church, which has, for decades, let the parents of these children go spiritually hungry, through misguided catechesis in their youth and preaching that failed to challenge and engage them as adults. As Pope Francis told priests at ordination this year: “May your homilies not be boring; may your homilies touch the heart of the people because they come from your heart …”
Some might say that even with unchallenging preaching the Holy Eucharist should be enough to draw people in, but how can that be if people have no grasp of the power and wonder of the Sacrament because no one has taught them—not in a classroom and not from the pulpit?
People are hungry, yes, but before they can run to Jesus in the Eucharist, they must walk into a parish on any given Sunday and hear the words that feed their flagging spirits and find fellowship that reminds them they are not alone. As a speaker and retreat leader I can tell you, from both personal experience and from encounters with other Catholics around the country that neither of those things exist in abundance in US parishes. Some communities are getting it right, but these lucky few are the sad exceptions, not the happy norm.
And so people go elsewhere. Perhaps to the nondenominational church up the street where the preaching is riveting and relevant and the community is fully engaged and made up predominantly of former Catholics. They don’t have Eucharist, but people are feeling fed, and returning, week after week. When you sit in Mass this Sunday, try to experience it as a newcomer, and ask yourself: If this was your first and only experience of Catholicism, would you ever return?
Back when I wrote my Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Catholic Catechism, I heard the same refrain time and again from adult Catholics disconnected from the faith: “Why didn’t I learn any of this when I was growing up?” Many of them were raised, as I was, in what I call the “Era of the Collage,” with lots of cutting and pasting of happy Jesus, but little basic information about the things that sustain you for a lifetime, the beauty of a living, breathing faith. I credit my mother with bridging the wide chasm that grew between my official religious education and my actual faith, and that’s why I know we first and foremost need our families to turn our Church around.
Catechesis must begin by drawing families in, by making them feel welcome, by giving them something more than registration deadlines and weekly envelopes. Only when they feel as though they belong in this Church—to this Church—will they be open to retracing the spiritual steps of their childhood and embracing the path of faith as an adult. When they do that, they will bring their children with them, and faith formation will no longer be seen as a ticket that must be stamped in order to receive a sacrament and then “graduate” from religion, but rather as a first step on a lifelong journey.
Of course teens will be teens, and they will still roll their eyes and answer questions with stony silence, but beneath that will be a foundation of real faith, and the powerful, life-giving knowledge that they are loved beyond measure by a God who created them, and saved them, and waits for them.
I believe the kids sitting in our class acting like they couldn’t care less about religion desperately want and need a God like that, as do their parents. Unless we find a way to make God real and relevant to their lives, he will always remain an abstract idea to be sat through, rather than engaged, which is a loss not just for them but for all of us.
Mary DeTurris Poust is a retreat and pilgrimage leader and the author of seven books on Catholic spirituality. Visit her website at http://www.notstrictlyspiritual.com.
[Editor’s Note: Take the Poll – Should we reform religious ed?]The Freedom From Religion Foundation, concerned about dangers to public health posed by ritual circumcision, has contacted New York state, local and national officials about the religious practice.
According to reports by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, ultra-orthodox Jewish parents are exposing newborns to herpes simplex virus infections by allowing adult men called mohels to place their mouths on boys' penises to draw blood away from the circumcision wound. At least two infants have died from the infection, two others have suffered brain damage, and other victims must deal with a chronic, lifelong infection that can cause painful lesions.
The "bris" or "brit milah" is traditionally done on the eighth day of life and is followed by a celebratory meal. Oral suction of the wound, "metzitzah b'peh," is limited to primarily Hasidic communities.
FFRF is a state-church watchdog based in Madison, Wis., with about 20,000 members nationwide and more than 1,100 in New York state. Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel wrote a letter Feb. 12 to several officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, District Attorney Cyrus Vance, heads of the state and city health departments and U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer.
"To put the seriousness of this infection in perspective, the reported cases show that a newborn infected with HSV by a mohel is seven times more likely to die than a climber attempting to summit Everest or a U.S. soldier fighting in World War I," Seidel wrote.
"Currently, the only regulation to protect children from this outrageous practice is informed parental consent. This must change. The government should stop placing adults' desire to impose their religion above the health, safety, and lives of defenseless infants," he said.
FFRF called on Vance to prosecute those responsible. "No person's religious rights would be hindered by prohibiting this criminal act. Without regulation, the helpless infants' rights are trampled in the name of a religion they cannot begin to grasp. Adults do not have a religious right to expose their children to disease and death."
Seidel noted that current state law bans knowingly transmitting an infectious venereal disease, endangering the welfare of the child and reckless endangerment. "The exceptions carved out for religion could be amended or these laws could actually be enforced."Listen guys, I love this website and I love to come here when I should be doing my job/cleaning/housework.
But I gather that some of you haven't played baseball at a competitive level, or at all. AND THAT'S FINE. I'm not ragging on you, Baseball is hard, expensive, and crazy hard to do at any level of competence. I love baseball, yet I also kind of hate it. It's a sport of perfection and a sport that requires extreme patience and dedication to play even at a mediocre level, and one that blew out my elbow at the tender age of 15.
That being said, there seems to be a great deal of ignorance around the art and mechanics of pitching and hitting. Again, not pointing fingers or blaming people, but I roll through comments sometimes and think "Hell, has this person ever picked up a baseball?" Things like "Albert Pujols/Stanton has such a pretty swing", or "why doesn't [insert name] pick up a change-up just to give him another pitch?".
Guys, come on. Albert Pujols' mechanics have always been terrible. Find me a coach in the country that thinks that Pujols' swing is something to teach to youngsters. They don't exist. As for change-ups, they are insanely hard to master. And a bad change-up is a worthless pitch.
But I digress. Lets talk change-ups.
The change-up is an amazing pitch. It's also incredibly difficult to master. It's a pitch that requires a ton of practice and a great deal of finesse. I'll talk briefly about the three change-ups that are most often seen. The split-change (SC), three-fingered change (TFC), which I threw, the circle change (CC), and briefly about palm-balls, vulcan changes, and cut change-ups.
SPLIT CHANGE OR SPLITTER
So lets begin with the split-change. Also called a splitter, and a split-fingered fastball. All the same, pretty much. There are arguments about low-spin splitters not being change-ups, but those are more like forkballs.
First off, I could never throw a split-change. They require a lot of flexibility and big hands. I was a two-pitch side-arming righty, with heavy emphasis on sinkers and sliders. Check out the grip, via The Complete Pitcher (I'm not a huge fan of the book/website, but the grips are pretty standard).
First off, notice how big this guy's hands are. That's the first requirement for a split change. In general, pitchers need big hands, some pitches need bigger hands for the pitches to function at all. This is one of them. The split-change is a hard pitch to even be able to throw, since it requires a good deal of hand flexibility, and big hands/long fingers to grasp the ball. Without those big hands, you can't exert the necessary control to throw it with any degree of success. Some people like to throw it with a bit of a downward motion, similar to a sinker. Others don't. It's a matter of personal preference.
And a change-up, no matter the type, is a finesse pitch, with a split-change being no different. Leave it hanging, it will get crushed. Leak it inside, a pull-happy hitter will demolish it. And that's also what makes the pitch dangerous, as it can be somewhat erratic, even to experienced split-change pitchers.
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Here is a splitter thrown by Jeurys Familia, which Alex Gordon punishes. The reason? He didn't get enough pressure with his index or middle finger, the ball spun too much, and it hung. And a hanging split-change is just a fastball without movement. Making it worse, it was on the inside part of the plate in a lefty batter's kill zone. MLB does a good breakdown, check it out. [Ed. note: seriously, don't skip that video. Awesome Statcast info within]
Hang a splitter, and you will lose the World Series.
Now, the split-change can do a couple things. There is the low spin-rate split-change, which acts more like a forkball and it tumbles. This is the pitch, along with a faster split-change, that made Jack Morris so effective. To slow the pitch down, the ball is chocked deep into the hands. This creates more friction, and reduces spin. It'll tumble around. Here is a video of Jack Morris explaining his forkball/split-change combo.
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But my favorite splitter in the game, which is thrown most consistently, is the Masahiro Tanaka's. It's thrown with good velocity (86-90 mph), it has a bit of wiggle and great late movement. He consistently throws it at the bottom of the zone, and it's devastating. It's the best split I've seen since 2009 Tim Lincecum. Also note the grip here.
Now that's a thing of beauty. Check out that sink, and the arm-side wiggle. It's beautiful. Combine that with excellent fastball command, and it makes it lethal. When pitching with a splitter, if you can locate a fastball at the knees, and drop in a splitter, it's unhittable. Here, Mike Trout was looking for that knee-high fastball, and he swings over and early. That is a completely fooled batter.
OK one more, just because.
THE CIRCLE-CHANGE
I hate this pitch. It's the pitch I tried to master, and it's damned impossible. So I settled for a three-fingered change.
Regardless, this pitch is thrown very differently, and depending on the pitcher, it often is thrown with screwball-esque pronation. It's also a pitch that can be thrown with different releases.
Check out Justin Verlander's circle-change, as well as a different look by the Complete Pitcher.
And a closer look.
The circle-change requires, you guessed it, biggish hands. It's thrown by making a circle with the index finger and thumb. It's thrown similarly to a normal change, but it has arm-side wiggle. Those on the professional circuit throw this pitch with strong pronation. To see what that is like, put a baseball in your hand. Now, rotate your thumb down. That's proper circle-change pronation.
Ever wonder why the screwball disappeared? This pitch is why. It acts like a screwball when thrown with proper pronation. It runs away from opposite handed batters, and in on the same side batters. All the same change-up rules apply, don't put too much pressure on it (drives it into the dirt), or too little pressure (floats it).
This pitch is really hard to master. The pronation of the arm is very counter-intuitive. Fastballs have very little action going on in the wrist, same with most sliders (sliders are a story for another day). Curveballs are the opposite, (curveballs are very complicated, I'll talk about them another time) with the thumbing making a "thumbs up" motion as you rotate the ball with top spin.
It's hard, but a good one is lethal. Check out my favorite circle-change, the Mad Max Special.
Runs into the right-handed batter. Check out the lefty view:
That pitch dives away! Its a thing a beauty. Like a screwball, it dives towards the arm side of the pitcher. Another good one is Felix Hernandez.
Now, check out the split between this pitch and his fastball.
For a pitcher, a good circle-change is the great equalizer against opposite-handed batters.
EVERYTHING ELSE
As for everything else, here is what you need to know.
Palmballs are dumb. You choke the ball fully in the hand, all the way to the palm. Otherwise, the grip is identical to the three-fingered change-up. Here is Trevor Hoffman's palmball. The point of the ball is to get as little spin as possible. So it tumbles. No one throws them, besides the occasional reliever.
Change-ups are also pretty varied. Many pitchers find the specific grips they find comfortable, and they stick with it. Others throw what I call "cheater's change-ups".
This is something you see with younger pitchers, or pitchers that like to change arm slots while they pitch, to mess with hitters' eye levels. Instead of gripping the ball with a change-up grip, they shorten their stride towards the plate by a bit, usually 1/2 - 1 feet. This slows the ball down. You don't really see this in the major leagues as much. Mostly because its a huge tell. Also, it can mess with pitcher's mechanics.
So, three-fingered change-ups are considered standard. Here it is.
This is what I threw. It's the change-up for guys that are not gigantic, and it's usually the pitch you teach to beginners.
Here is the Johan Santana change, the pitch that turned him into a pitching machine.
His change-up was a bit unusual in it's grip, which is why I included him. Three-fingered change-ups are super varied. Johan Santana also threw a circle-change, but his three-fingered change was filthy. FILTHY. It has such good late fade.
Here is his no hitter. So good.
stlnym-johan-throws-first-nohitter-in-mets-history.0.html
CONCLUSION
Change-ups are hard. They can be thrown in many ways, and each is unique to the pitcher that throws it. But let's stop saying "hey, that guy should just throw a change-up to give guys a second look."
As we've seen, a good change-up is a powerful weapon. A bad one is a batting practice pitch. Even the best change-up artists make mistakes, and are punished for them.
Here. You guys remember this?
That might be the only time I've literally fallen to my knees and teared up watching baseball. This moment was soooo painful it hurts. This is what happens to bad change-ups. As I mentioned, bad change-ups lose World Series.
Oh. Cut change-ups? I've heard people talking about them, I've never heard of them before. Vulcan change-ups are glorified forkballs, and only Joaquin Benoit throws one that I know of.
Thus is the change-up in it's many forms. Let me know If you guys want more, and what you want to know.Hey, I have a good news for you! Yep, Microsoft intend to sends you a free Intel Galileo board!! Take a look in this post and check how to join in this program.
Microsoft’s Build 2014 Conference, a developers event, Microsoft talked about the In the, a developers event, Microsoft talked about the Internet of Things. With this new website: http://www.windowsondevices.com/ you can sign up and Microsoft will send you a kit with the Intel Galileo and the SDK
If you want to join in, sign in Windows Developer Program for Internet of Things at http://www.windowsondevices.com/, check your email, and wait for your board!
If you don’t know the Intel Galileo, take a look in this overview:
If you want to get more new, tutorials about Android, Arduino, Python, …., just follow my blog! Thanks for reading,
Aron.
Hey!! I’m available for freelances!! If you need anything, just contact me!NASA has awarded contracts to three American propulsion companies to aid the U.S. federal space agency with the development of advanced deep-space Electric Propulsion systems – including VASIMR – needed to one day transport astronauts to destinations beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
New Propulsion elements for deep-space exploration:
As part of NASA’s phased approach to the development of technology and systems needed to carry astronauts on long-duration, deep-space missions, the agency’s Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate’s (HEOMD’s) Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) division has committed to the “rapid development and testing of prototype systems and validation of operational concepts to reduce risk and cost of future exploration missions.”
Part of this initiative includes the development of systems that will aid in the human and robotic exploration of Beyond Earth Orbit targets.
To do so, however, requires new propulsion systems that have previously been unnecessary for Near Earth Orbit exploration – where traditional chemical-based propulsion works best toward the short duration and relative close proximity of missions and their destinations.
To support the development of these new systems, a set of three objectives for in-space power and propulsion were developed.
According to the HEOMD’s AES status update from 4 November 2015, these objectives include the development of a 100 kW class Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) system, as well as the development of technologies for “nuclear thermal propulsion to enable rapid transport of crew to Mars” and development of “high energy, modular power systems for exploration missions.”
To accomplish these objectives, NASA has contracted with three commercial companies to undertake a 100 continuous hour test of 100 kW electric propulsion systems
Additionally, progress is also being made on the development of “fuel elements, reactor concepts, and affordable ground testing methods” for nuclear thermal propulsion design.
To date, in addition to the contract awards already in place, NASA and its partner agencies have completed fabrication and testing of a new graphite composite fuel element for a 2,800K hot hydrogen flow system for potential nuclear thermal propulsion elements.
Contracts and specific goals:
To accomplish all of the advanced propulsion goals, NASA awarded three contracts to Ad Astra, MSNW, and Aerojet Rocketdyne to develop “propulsion technology systems in the 50- to 300-kW range to meet the needs of a variety of deep-space mission concepts beyond capabilities currently being developed for ARM (Asteroid Return Mission) SEP,” notes the HEOMD AES presentation.
In all, the three private companies were chosen by NASA to develop – via fix-priced, milestone achievement contracts – an advanced electric propulsion (EP) system over a three year period.
These developed EP systems must have a broad specific impulse range of 2,000 to 5,000 seconds, an operational end-to-end total efficiency greater than 60%, and an in-space lifetime greater than 50,000 hours (with more than 10,000 of those hours specifically designed for operational use).
Moreover, the systems must have a total mass less than 5kg/kW.
In the final year of the contracts, all three companies are expected to be able to demonstrate an EP system with a “minimum of 100 hours of continuous operations at power levels of at least 100 kWs in a relevant TRL 5 (NASA Technology Readiness Level 5) environment.”
To this end, Ad Astra has agreed to develop a Thermal Steady State VASIMR (VAriable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) with “scaleability for human spaceflight.”
VASIMR propulsion technology uses radio waves to ionize and heat propellant and magnetic fields that in turn create a plasma that is then accelerated to create thrust for a spacecraft.
VASIMR’s method of heating plasma for propulsion purposes was first developed from research surrounding nuclear fusion.
For Ad Astra, NASA awarded the Texas-based company a contract on 7 August 2015 – which will be in effect through 6 August 2018 with two, one year options.
Already, Ad Astra has revealed that it plans to complete all subsystems for their VASIMR test article by August 2016.
This process will take Ad Astra through the first year of its system design, which will then continue into the second year of operations and testing when the company will perform first and second stage low thrust plasma tests.
The second year of the contract will also see Ad Astra complete second stage and plasma dump preparations as well as conduct first and second stage integrated low thrust plasma tests.
All of this work will lead to the third year of the contract, when an integrated duration high thrust plasma test is slated to occur.
Throughout Ad Astra’s three-year contract, the company will demonstrate a “5 single core VASIMR thruster with PPUs (Power Processing Units), the VX-200SS, in thermal steady-state for at least 100 continuous hours at 100 kW.”
The contract from NASA, worth $9.06 million USD, will allow Ad Astra to “Leverage its privately funded superconducting magnet, propellant management system, power processing units, and unique vacuum capabilities to test the steady-state performance of its integrated thermal design.”
In addition to the $9.06 million USD contract from NASA, Ad Astra will also share approximately $11.78 million USD as part of the development process.
However, it is not just the Ad Astra company that NASA has turned to for development of new EP technologies.
The Washington state based Limited Liability Company MSNW won a contract from NASA on 17 September 2015 for development of a flexible high power electric propulsion system for exploration class missions, notes the HEOMD AES presentation.
MSNW’s contract from NASA is worth $1.5 million USD, with a total cost sharing of $1.5 million USD, for development of a 100 Joule electrodeless Lorentz Force thruster.
MSNW, whose contract will last until 16 September 2018, has a 36 month schedule which will see the first 6 months focused on thruster assembly.
By the 12th month of the contract, MSNW will have a full thermal engineering model of a 100 kW pulse operated thruster.
Two years into the contract, the company will have demonstrated “steady thermo-vac thruster and PPU operations.”
Three months later, MSNW will have completed upgrades to its Pulsed High power facility, all leading to a 100 hour, 100-200 kW integrated test in the 36th month of the contract.
Moreover, in addition to Ad Astra and MSNW, NASA is also understood to be in contract negotiations with the Aerojet Rocketdyne company, also based in Washington state, for development of a 100 kW EP system with a 250 kW nested Hall thruster.
As of publication of the HEOMD AES presentation on 4 November 2015, the contract between NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne had not yet been finalized, though the presentation does note that the contract award is expected in late November.
This contract, however, differs from the others as it is a 12-month base contract with two one-year options.
Aerojet Rocketdyne’s contract will see the company “Demonstrate performance capabilities to TRL 5 with 100 kW input power for 100 hour at thermal steady-state, implement the XR-250, 250 kW Hall thruster, and demonstrate the XR-100, 100 kW system extensible to MW class systems.”
Despite the difference in contracts, Aerojet Rocketdyne has developed a three-year test program, in which the first year will see the testing and demonstration of components for the system, a second year demonstration and test in the TRL 4 category, followed by a third-year demonstration test in the TRL 5 category.
The total contract from NASA is understood to be worth $6.273 million USD, with government directed funding to GRC of $986,000 and to JPL of $722,000.
An additional $11.958 million USD will be contributed through Team Corporate, though all of these figures are subject to final negotiations.
(Images: Via NASA and L2)
(To join L2, click here: http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/)Here’s the piece from the Seacoast Online:
Nearly a decade after establishing roots in New Hampshire, members of the Free State Project are welcoming their 1,000th member to the Granite State.
The milestone member relocated this week and has found a home on the Seacoast, according to local members of the pro-liberty activists group.
Founded in 2001, the goal of the Free State Project was to recruit 20,000 libertarian-leaning people to move to a single state to concentrate their efforts. New Hampshire was selected as the target state in 2003.
Since then, 1,000 people from all over the country have moved to the Granite State and officially registered as members of the organization.
Portsmouth resident Michael Finger was the 932nd member to move to New Hampshire.
Finger said the way the Free State Project works is that participants sign a statement of intent, declaring they will move to New Hampshire within five years of the movement getting 20,000 signatories.
More than 11,500 people have signed the statement of intent.
Finger said he ended up moving to New Hampshire over the summer because he got anxious and decided to follow a separate, but related effort, called Free State Now.
Instead of waiting until the movement got 20,000 signatories, Finger said, the Free State Now effort encouraged people to not wait and make the move as soon as possible.
Finger, who moved from Manhattan with his wife, said he chose to move to Portsmouth out of all of the other places in the state.
“We like New Hampshire because we like the way it is,” he said. “People are friendly and it seems a little bit more sane.”
Finger said he considers himself to be a “refugee” from a big-government state.
Like many other members of the Free State Project, Finger said he moved to New Hampshire because of the state’s business-friendly climate.
“It’s got a low unemployment rate and it’s easy to start a business,” he said.
Finger owns a consulting firm called Centinel Consulting, on Middle Street. He said many of his friends in the city also own businesses and have moved from places such as Colorado and California.
Erik Voorhees, a former resident of Colorado, said he moved to New Hampshire with his girlfriend nearly one year ago.
Voorhees said he joined the Free State Project because he liked its principles.
“I like that it is effectively trying to move more libertarian types to one small geographic area to have a much larger impact,” he said. “People of our political persuasion tend to be scattered around. I consider this to be quite a smart thing.”
Voorhees, 27, said the movement is full of diverse and progressive people of all ages and interests.
“I know Free-Staters of all ages, from age 5 to 88 years old, and everywhere in between,” he said.
“This is an important benchmark” said Free State Project President Carla Gericke, who moved from New York City in 2008. “It shows people are willing to vote with their feet for more freedom. We are modern day pioneers.”
The “First Movers” have made vast strides, according to Gericke.
At least 12 are now state representatives, and numerous others serve on school and town boards. Others have founded or worked with organizations that highlight liberty-oriented issues, such as the N.H. Coalition for Common Sense Marijuana Policy; the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, which grades state representatives according to their voting records; and Cop Block, a police accountability organization.
Some have created a strong independent media presence in New Hampshire, such as Free Talk Live, a nationally syndicated radio talk show based in Keene.
Others have also started private charities and mutual aid societies, such as Shire Sharing, which delivers care baskets to the needy, and Fr33 Aid, which provides volunteer first-aid at events such as Liberty Forum and the Porcupine Freedom Festival.
When asked about the reasons for the movement’s growth, Gericke said a combination of factors have been at play. She cited the economic downturn, the popularity of Ron Paul and his message of limited government, the growing national debt, the federal government’s overreach on issues such as education and health care, and the country’s involvement in wars under President Barack Obama.
“With its ‘live and let live’ culture, its livability, its low taxes, its relative prosperity,” Gericke said, “New Hampshire is well-situated to become the beacon of liberty for the rest of the country.”Join us for our second worldwide sprint
We had such a great time doing that last sprint, so we're doing it again!
We'll hold the sprint Saturday, December 1st here in Lawrence, KS, and virtually around the world. We'll run things much the same as we did last time around.
We plan to devote at least 24 hours of focused work to get some of this done in an organized fashion, and also to encourage new people to contribute. If all goes well on Saturday, we'll probably continue to Sunday.
Anybody can participate and contribute, and there's no obligation or expectation. If you've never contributed to Django before, this is the perfect chance for you to chip in.
More information is available on the wiki.
Most participants will likely be working from their own homes/offices in their respective countries, but if you'd like to come hang out with us in Lawrence, email jacob -at- jacobian -dot- org. We can provide transportation to/from the Kansas City airport (MCI) and can recommend a good hotel in town. Also, a limited amount of free lodging (i.e. our couches) is available.
All participants -- not just those meeting in person -- should feel free to add their names to the wiki page.In a case of no honor among thieves, a group of attackers has found a way to hijack the Petya ransomware and use it in targeted attacks against companies without the program creators' knowledge.
A computer Trojan dubbed PetrWrap, being used in attacks against enterprise networks, installs Petya on computers and then patches it on the fly to suit its needs, according to security researchers from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab.
The Trojan uses programmatic methods to trick Petya to use a different encryption key than the one its original creators have embedded inside its code. This ensures that only the PetrWrap attackers can restore the affected computers to their previous state.
The Trojan also removes all mentions of Petya from the ransom message, as well as its signature red skull designed in ASCII.
Petya first appeared a year ago and immediately stood out from other ransomware programs. Instead of encrypting files directly, it replaces the hard drive's master boot record (MBR) code, which normally starts the operating system, with malicious code that encrypts the drive's master file table (MFT).
The MFT is a special file on NTFS volumes that contains information about all other files: their name, size, and mapping to hard disk sectors. The actual contents of the user's files are not encrypted, but without the MFT, the OS no longer knows where those files are located on disk.
Unlike other ransomware infections that only lock access to certain files by encrypting them, Petya locks access to the entire computer. With a corrupted MBR and MFT, the operating system will no longer start, and users will only be greeted by a ransom message on the screen when they turn on their computer.
The decision to hijack and use Petya without its authors' consent is clever because it solves several problems for the PetrWrap attackers. First of all, they don't have to write their own ransomware program, which is hard to get right, and they don't have to pay someone else for a ready-made solution either.
Second, because it has been around for a while, Petya has had time to mature into a well-developed piece of malware. The PetrWrap attackers use Petya version 3, the latest variant of the program, which, unlike previous versions, has no known flaws. That's because its creators have perfected their encryption implementation over time.
Creating something like Petya from scratch would not only be prone to errors but would also require knowledge of writing low-level bootloader code for the MBR.
Once inside a network, the PetrWrap attackers look for and steal administrative credentials. They then use the PsExec tool to deploy the malware to all endpoint computers and servers they can access.
There is no tool to decrypt the MFT of hard disk volumes affected by Petya, but because this malware doesn't actually encrypt the file contents, some data recovery tools might be able to reconstruct the files from hard disk raw data.The San Francisco Chronicle is for sale inside a newspaper box on October 13, 2013 in San Francisco. (Photo by Margarethe Wichert/Getty Images)
The hiring freeze started right after Jill Tucker was hired by the San Francisco Chronicle in 2006. The paper was losing tens of millions of dollars a year and shedding staff through buyouts and attrition. Layoffs started a couple of years later.
“I was the least senior reporter here for four or five years,” says Tucker, who covers K-12 education for the Chronicle. One of the senior editors who hired her told her, in 2007, that he didn’t think he’d ever hire another journalist again.
The scale and duration of the Chronicle’s losses at the time were staggering. The paper lost money for 12 years, before, during, and after the recession, hemorrhaging $50 million or more per year in 2008 and 2009, according to its parent company, Hearst Communications. In early 2009, Hearst, which is privately held, made those losses public for the first time, and announced that it would sell or shut down the Chronicle if it couldn’t cut costs quickly and deeply |
can simply claim it’s using antibiotics “preventively,” continuing to reap the benefits of growth promotion and continuing to generate resistant bacteria. That’s the loophole.
But the document released Wednesday delivers five pretty specific guidelines on how “prevention” should be defined, including that antibiotics prescribed preventively should be “targeted to animals at risk of developing a specific disease,” i.e., not given willy-nilly to “prevent” the theoretical possibility of some hypothetical disease. It adds: “FDA would not consider the administration of a drug to apparently healthy animals in the absence of any information that such animals were at risk of a specific disease to be judicious.” That’s the strongest statement I’ve seen from the FDA on the prevention loophole.
Laura Rogers, who directs the Pew Charitable Trusts’ human health and industrial-farming campaign, calls that language “promising.” She adds: “This is the first official FDA policy on disease prevention, acknowledging that it is a problem.”
There does, of course, remain the whole “voluntary” problem, as Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, stressed. “We have urged that these changes be mandatory, given how urgent the problem of antibiotic resistance is,” Halloran said in a statement.
And US Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who since 2007 has been heroically pushing legislation that would definitively crack down on antibiotic use on farms, issued the following lament:
The FDA’s voluntary guidance is an inadequate response to the overuse of antibiotics on the farm with no mechanism for enforcement and no metric for success. Sadly, this guidance is the biggest step the FDA has taken in a generation to combat the overuse of antibiotics in corporate agriculture, and it falls woefully short of what is needed to address a public health crisis.
The fate of Slaughter’s antibiotic crackdown proposal, called the “Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act,” illustrates the industry’s power in shaping policy. Check out the roster of groups that lined up to lobby on the 2011 version of Slaughter’s bill, courtesy of OpenSecrets—it reads like a meat/pharma industry trade convention floor show. The groups have lavished millions on the effort to defeat Slaughter’s bill, which has thus far never come close to passing.
With congressional action looking impossible, the FDA’s weak tea is all we have. But it could be weaker—at least the FDA gummed up that loophole with a few potentially substantial obstacles to agribusiness as usual.Another month another installment of our Windows Phone statistics report. With Lumia 1020, HTC 8XT, Samsung ATIV S Neo and other phones publicly announced, there is not much on the new device front, but we have quite a few interesting developments in the charts. Read on to find out more.
Data source
This report is based on data collected from 836 Windows Phone apps running AdDuplex SDK v.2. The raw data analyzed was collected over the day of July 10th, 2013 (UTC time). We have made every attempt to consolidate different reported phone model names under their canonical retail model names, but it is possible that some of the rare model name variations were not accounted for.
Worldwide stats
The world is changing rapidly. Lumia 520 was only the fifth most popular Windows Phone last month but the trend was clear and, it’s no surprise, that it shot up in the chart straight to number one. The worldwide flagship (well, until 1020 is available for purchase) has slid to number 2, followed by Lumia 620 which moved up one slot since last month. Former leaders Lumia 710 and 800 are on the way down, and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Here’s a glance at the Lumia 520s rapid climb to prominence.
As you can see, almost 1/5 of all the new app installations happen on the 520 now. So, if you are building global Windows Phone apps you should definitely consider testing them with 520 in mind (512mb of RAM, no front camera, etc.)
Nokia continues its domination in the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem and has gained another percent compared to last month. And there’s very little hope HTC or Samsung will make a serious comeback in the nearest future. I guess only Huawei could move the needle with W2 when it’s released in markets where the Chinese phone maker has a strong presence.
Windows Phone 8 has claimed another 8% from WP7 this month. We’ll have to wait and see if it gets to 2/3 next month.
United States
Lumia 521 has more than double its share in the US and moved from #10 to 5. Lumia 928 has almost doubled its footprint too. That said the top 4 remained unchanged, equally losing some minor percentage points to the above mentioned newcomers. As for the manufacturers, you can see that Huawei made some gains in the low single digit end of the chart.
And WP8 is closing in on the 3 quarters of the US install base. Pretty soon (if not yet) it will be safe to ignore WP7 if your primary target market is US. Unfortunately for Windows Phone 7 owners we are starting to see a trend in that direction already.
At the Lumia 1020 event AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega stated that “AT&T sells more Windows Phones than any other carrier.” I will be the first to admit that our stats should not be treated as gospel, but they contradict this statement slightly. Verizon has a pretty noticeable edge on AT&T in terms of Windows Phone 8 usage according to our stats.
That’s all we had to say about US this month. Let’s take a look at some statistics from all over the world.
United Kingdom
Not much has changed in the UK since we last looked at it 2 months ago. The most notable progress was made by our “old friend” – Lumia 520. It went from 3.4% share to 12.4%. Inline with ~3x worldwide growth over the same period.
The Netherlands
I don’t think we’ve covered the Netherland before. Mostly due to the fact that we receive comparatively low number of visitors from there to feel comfortable about making generalizing statements. That said the country has one of the most active Windows Phone developer communities in the world, so we couldn’t ignore it any longer.
The most notable thing about it is this is probably the first time we’ve seen Huawei W1 in the top-10.
Poland
Poland is one of the WP’s strongest markets and it’s good to see more WP8 devices in the top compared to what we’ve seen the last time we looked there. This means that the WP7 success has a strong chance of converting to even greater WP8 success.
Russia
Lumia 520 has moved from below the fold 2 months ago to number 5 and 9.5% share in Russia. 720 has quadrupled its share too.
India
We usually try to interchange countries from month to month but the rise of Lumia 520 in India is too fascinating to ignore. From the really impressive 20.8% last month it went to mind-blowing 31.3% this time around. Looks like Nokia India has a winner on their hands.
Brazil
Last time we looked at Brazil in February it was heavily dominated by Lumia 710 (57%!). 710 is still the king there, but it lost some serious ground. We can see the 520 moving into the second position and it will likely continue grabbing the share from the aging leader. Lumia 620 is doing great too.
Africa
We have never covered any African countries before. Primarily due to the fact that we couldn’t find any one of them to have enough visitors to fit our reporting standard. But we couldn’t ignore it any longer and decided to combine 4 countries in one chart. It’s obvious that manufacturers and carriers operate differently in different countries, populations have different buying power, etc., but it’s better than nothing, right?
Windows Phone 8 Lumias control more than 50% of the market, which is great. Another thing to notice is that all 10 devices in the top are made by Nokia. What happened to that Huawei 4afrika initiative?
About AdDuplex
AdDuplex is the largest cross-promotion network for Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps empowering developers and publishers to promote their apps for free by helping each other. AdDuplex was established in January 2011 in Vilnius, Lithuania. As of June 2013, more than 3,300 apps actively use AdDuplex to gain more visibility.MI5 is monitoring applications to set up "free schools" to ensure they do not become a cover for teaching extreme views, the Education Secretary disclosed yesterday.
Michael Gove said that the intelligence services were checking the backgrounds of organisations and individuals bidding to run the schools, which are state-funded but independent of local authorities.
"I have been crystal clear that we should not have schools which are set up by extremists, whether they're Christian fundamentalists, Islamic fundamentalists or any other sort of outrageous and beyond-the-pale organisation," he told BBC1's Andrew Marr show.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
"There have been one or two disturbing cases with existing state schools where people have been trying to subvert them." Mr Gove said he had also set up a team in the Department for Education to check applications for extremist ideology and the Government was reviewing the science curriculum to ensure "there is no space for the teaching of wackoidal theories".
The first 24 "free schools" open this month.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowWhen going back to replay classic games I played as a kid to mine them for knowledge, I always fear that any games from the NES era or earlier are too old to learn much from.
I tend to assume that many elements of modern design will be missing: no training, bad difficulty ramping, haphazard level design, and so forth. Before writing this article, I was under the impression that many "good design principles" I've come to know and love were invented during the SNES era and iterated on from there.
The NES was the Wild West of game development, I thought, lawless and free.
So when I went back on Link's 25th anniversary to play the first Zelda game and maybe write an article about it, I was a bit gun-shy.
As it turns out, I was totally wrong! Instead of finding something outdated with a ton of nostalgia value, I found an excellent primer in the fundamentals of non-linear game design.
In an interview, creator Shigeru Miyamoto once said that with The Legend of Zelda, he wanted to evoke the feelings associated with exploration in the player:
"When I was a child," Miyamoto said, "I went hiking and found a lake. It was quite a surprise for me to stumble upon it. When I traveled around the country without a map, trying to find my way, stumbling on amazing things as I went, I realized how it felt to go on an adventure like this." – via Wikipedia
To achieve this feeling, Miyamoto and company invented a number of really clever tricks to create non-linear levels that are still useful today.
I can still hear the music in my dreams... MY DREAMS!
So What Are We Doing Here?
While going through The Legend of Zelda, I played each level and then did an in-depth analysis of the level on paper. This kind of analysis is pretty standard fare; I do it all the time on colleagues' level designs. There are a few things I'm always looking for:
Level Flow. How do the spaces in the level fit together? Where is the player supposed to go, and will she know how to get there?
. How do the spaces in the level fit together? Where is the player supposed to go, and will she know how to get there? Intensity Ramping. Does the intensity of the experience ramp up in a satisfying way? Do monsters get more difficult as the level goes on? Does the player get a chance to learn how the enemies work and then display her mastery later on?
. Does the intensity of the experience ramp up in a satisfying way? Do monsters get more difficult as the level goes on? Does the player get a chance to learn how the enemies work and then display her mastery later on? Variety. Is there sufficient variety in the gameplay? Do enemy encounters frequently repeat themselves? Are the spaces varied in interesting ways?
. Is there sufficient variety in the gameplay? Do enemy encounters frequently repeat themselves? Are the spaces varied in interesting ways? Training. If the design requires new skills from the player, does it teach and test those skills appropriately?
In this article, I'll apply the same methodology to the first level from the original Legend of Zelda. Fortunately, this is made easier by the fact that top-down maps of the level designs are easily and readily available. I'm only going to cover the first dungeon in this article, but the principles apply to all of them.
If you'd like to check them out yourself, you can find the maps I used here: Mike's RPG Center. (By the way, Mike is awesome and gave me permission to use his maps in this article. Thanks, Mike.)
Level Flow
Breakdown
Based on my memories of the game, one of my assumptions going into this experiment was that the rooms in the dungeons were laid out haphazardly. I always remember getting the feeling that I was navigating my way through the rooms almost randomly, spitting in the designers' faces and getting to the end only because of my mighty gaming talents!
After analyzing the flow of the dungeons, I quickly abandoned this notion. As it turns out, the dungeon layouts are very carefully planned and the flow is very cleverly executed.
First, I analyzed the critical path. The critical path is the shortest path through a level without using secrets, shortcuts, or cheats. Basically, it's the path the designer intends the player to take through the level unless she gets really clever.
It's worth noting that the critical path often doesn't require a player to complete 100 percent of a level; it just requires her to complete the mandatory objectives within the level.
For each of the dungeons, the critical path is almost always linear. There are very few instances where the player is required to re-traverse ground she's already seen. The only exception to the linearity rule tends to be two or three rooms at the beginning of the dungeons that allow you to choose between a small subset of rooms.
The player begins in Room 1 and can choose to go to Room 2 or Room 3. Rooms off the critical path are faded (click for full size).
Optional rooms (and sometimes entire paths) branch off from the critical path and reward the player with bonuses. The levels are also full of shortcuts that cut across the critical path. If the player has bombs, for example, she can skip from Room 5 to Room 8 in the above diagram.GETTY - STOCK PHOTO DOG POISONING ALERT: Nine pets in same neighbourhood treated for seizures (example photo)
The RSPCA is investigating the cases but says it cannot say whether the dogs were deliberately targeted or accidentally poisoned. All the cases are centred around the Dunkirk area of Nottingham and have been reported over the past three weeks. The dogs showed similar neurological symptoms of seizures an impaired movement.
GETTY - STOCK PHOTO Vets at the PDSA in Dunkirk highlighted the poisoning threat
These must have been very distressing incidents for the dogs and their owners Laura Kirkham
Vets at the PDSA in Dunkirk highlighted the poisoning threat after shocked owners brought their pets into the charity’s surgery with classic signs of poisoning. RSPCA inspector Laura Kirkham said: “These must have been very distressing incidents for the dogs and their owners. “Poisoning causes a lot of pain and distress and sadly can be fatal. There is the worrying possibility that someone may be poisoning animals deliberately so if anyone has seen anything suspicious please contact us.”
Dog owners are being urged to look out for signs of poisoning, which can vary and include depression, lack of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea, breath difficulties, appearing drunk and uncoordinated, twitching and suffering seizures. Anyone suspecting their pet has been poisoned should contact their vet immediately. The RSPCA is also warning the public to be careful putting down potentially poisonous substances such as slug pellets and also ensuring they are stored safely rather than dumped by roadsides or in parks. “While we do not know if these incidents are deliberate or accidental we do want to remind people that deliberately poisoning an animal could mean an unlimited fine and six months in prison under the Animal Welfare Act,” say the RSPCA.
GRAPHIC CONTENT: Worst cases of animal cruelty Mon, November 28, 2016 WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: As part of our new 'STOP THE CRUELTY' campaign we take a look at some of the most horrific cases animal cruelty. Play slideshow PA 1 of 32 Handout photo issued by the Orangutan Foundation of Aan, a critically-endangered orangutan who was blinded after being shot more than 100 times with an air rifle. Aan is to undergo an operation that could restore her sight.News veterans say such errors used to be met with more than a shrug. Media shrug at Boston blunders
The inaccurate report by CNN and other news organizations about an arrest in the Boston bombing case was arguably one of the most flagrant errors on a story of major national consequence in years.
When the news organizations later corrected their mistakes, there seemed to be something missing — any big shows of contrition, or even a sense of the magnitude of the error.
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It fell to Twitter and the merciless mockery of Jon Stewart, who devoted much of “The Daily Show” to skewering CNN’s John King, to call out the media for their failures.
( WATCH: John Stewart slams CNN on Boston reporting)
In an earlier era, many news veterans told POLITICO, a wrong report on a story the whole world was watching would have produced major repercussions — groveling apologies from reporters and editors, journalism seminars on the dangers of letting rumor outpace fact, and maybe even a few firings at the outlets involved.
In a new media era, many journalists — and perhaps many in the audience as well — seem to accept that information on a big story is fluid and fragmentary, and are ready to move on without pausing long for either apology or explanation, other than to blame their sources.
“Clearly there was confusion or some misinformation,” King told viewers. During more than 25 years at The Associated Press and CNN, King fashioned a reputation as one of his generation’s most dogged reporters.
( Also on POLITICO: FBI releases photos of 2'suspects')
As of Thursday afternoon, Fox News, CNN, the AP and The Boston Globe had still not apologized for incorrect reporting more than 24 hours earlier. The AP said Wednesday that a suspect was in custody. King and then Fox said an arrest had been made. The Globe tweeted that a suspect was being taken to the courthouse.
“It may be less momentous when you make a mistake because there’s so much news coming and it’s so fast that the next report just overtakes the last one,” said David Westin, president of ABC News from 1997 to 2010. “It used to be you would go on the air and make a formal retraction.”
( PHOTOS: Boston Marathon bombing and aftermath)
These days, an error brings ridicule and scorn — but little clamoring for disciplinary action or public pressure for internal reviews. Many in the industry believe the next news bulletin simply replaces the error.
“The sands cover over the footprints very, very quickly,” said Westin.
“There was a time when, rightly or wrongly, we thought we had a handful of news sources that were authoritative,” he added. “It puts a huge responsibility on the shoulders of the consumer of news to sort through and figure out what is true.”
And in an age of vanishing media mea culpas, it fell to Stewart to enforce standards.
Follow @politicoThe three handsets announced today are all expected to arrive in the third quarter (read: any day now), and all stick very close to the leaked spec sheets we learned of a few months ago. in fact, there weren't a lot of surprises at all. The Nokia 700, which we knew as the "Zeta," claims to be the world's most compact touchscreen monoblock smartphone; it features a 1GHz CPU, a 3.2-inch AMOLED "ClearBlack" display with Gorilla Glass, NFC, 5MP full-focus camera, pentaband 3G radio, and is constructed using green materials such as bioplastics and recycled metals. The 700 also claims a talk time of 7.3 hours and will come in five different colors. We should see the Nokia 700 offered for around $390.
The Nokia 701, aka "Helen," is said to feature the brightest ever mobile phone display, taking advantage of a 3.5-inch IPS LCD screen with the same ClearBlack tech and Gorilla Glass found in the 700. It appears to have the best specs of the bunch, with a 1GHz CPU, pentaband 3G radio, NFC, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED and a front-facing camera, and 8GB internal storage (expandable up to 40GB using a microSD card). The 701 comes in four hues and offers a stellar 17 hours of GSM talk time (8.8 hours on 3G). The total package comes with a higher price, of course -- the device plans to sell for $420.
Finally, the Nokia 600 "Cindy" is meant to be a music-centric phone sold at a lower price point. With that said, the specs still look pretty good here: alongside the 1GHz CPU, 3.2-inch nHD display, 5MP full focus camera with LED and 720p video capture, NFC, FM transmitter and 2GB internal storage (with external memory available using microSD), it's also Nokia's loudest phone, registering at 106 phons. The 600 also features an FM radio with internal antenna, eliminating the need to plug in headphones to listen in. Battery life is still very good, rated at 15 hours of GSM talk time. Expect the unsubsidized version of the phone to cost roughly $260.
Show full PR text
Nokia launches three no-compromise mass-market smartphones powered by Symbian Belle
Published August 24, 2011
Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 smartphones introduce latest Symbian software update while new NFC-enabled stereo Bluetooth headset takes advantage of NFC pairing and sharing functionality
Espoo, Finland and Hong Kong - Nokia today announced the launch of three feature-packed, mass market smartphones, bringing the latest smartphone functionality at attractive price points and including market-leading innovation with Symbian Belle. The Nokia 700, Nokia 701 and Nokia 600 extend the range of available designs, features and functionality in the Nokia Symbian smartphone range. Symbian Belle powers all three, with single-tap NFC technology sharing and pairing, the most personal user interface so far and a more powerful mobile Web browsing experience. As well as allowing content to be shared between devices, NFC capabilities allow any of the three new smartphones to pair with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers or Bluetooth headphones and headsets. To extend the range of available NFC-enabled accessories, Nokia is also announcing the launch of the Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset, which can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.
Symbian Belle range
While all three smartphones contain recognizable Nokia features, they each represent a very distinct set of priorities to allow users to choose what matters most in a smartphone. The most compact touch screen monoblock smartphone in the world (Nokia 700); a sleek and stylish smartphone with the world's brightest mobile display for indoor or outdoor use (Nokia 701), and Nokia's loudest entertainment smartphone (Nokia 600) all bring firsts to the Nokia product portfolio.
"After bringing exciting new features to the Symbian user experience only two months ago with Symbian Anna, we are now driving the platform even further with our most competitive Symbian user experience ever," said Ilari Nurmi, Vice President at Nokia. "Symbian Belle and the three new handsets we are launching today show our commitment to continue delivering Symbian products that allow people to choose what is most important to them in terms of user experience, design, functionality and price. These will not be last products or updates we will deliver on Symbian."
"With the announcement today Nokia has made it clear that Symbian will continue to play an important role in its product portfolio along side Windows Phone 7" said Nick McQuire IDC. "There is a sense of urgency in the way improvements and innovation are being delivered to the platform that demonstrates how committed Nokia is to make Symbian products a competitive smartphone choice."
Nokia 700: Nokia's smallest smartphone
At only 50 cubic centimetres, weighing 96gm and at 110 x 50.7 x 9.7 mm, the Nokia 700 not only becomes Nokia's most compact smartphone in the Symbian range, it is the most compact touch monoblock smartphone in the world. What it lacks in size it makes up for in functionality, with single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capabilities, a 1Ghz processor, 3.2 inch AMOLED screen ClearBlack display, 2GB of internal memory (with the option of using a 32GB microSD card for a total of 34GB), HD video capture and 5MP full focus camera with LED flash. The Nokia 700 is also Nokia's most eco-friendly smartphone. With a long battery life, extensive use of eco-friendly materials and features to minimize battery consumption, it is the perfect smartphone for any environmentally-conscious smartphone user.
Nokia 701: Nokia's brightest smartphone
Nokia 701 The Nokia 701 is a sleek, slim smartphone incorporating the world's brightest ever mobile phone display, based on a 3.5 inch ClearBlack display that makes it perfect for indoor and outdoor use. It also has active noise cancellation for the clearest sound quality and, like the other new smartphones, provides single-tap NFC pairing and sharing capabilities, allowing content to be shared and sound to be streamed wirelessly to headphones and NFC-enabled speakers.
Based on the popular Nokia C7 design, the Nokia 701 smartphone also has a 1GHz processor, 8MP full focus camera with dual LED flash and 2 X digital zoom, 2nd front-facing camera and HD video capture. It comes with 8GB internal memory and the possibility to increase to 40GB by installing a 32GB microSD card.
Nokia 600: Nokia's loudest smartphone
The Nokia 600 smartphone delivers a big sound and a big personality in a small package and is Nokia's loudest at 106 Phons. With built-in FM radio antenna for listening to radio without headphones and FM transmitter that makes it possible to broadcast music from your phone to any FM radio, the Nokia 600 is a music-lover's dream. With 60 hours of music playback time, an incredibly powerful internal loudspeaker and the ability to also stream music wirelessly to NFC-enabled accessories, it is the perfect smartphone to get the party started.
Available at a lower price point than the Nokia 700 and Nokia 701, the Nokia 600 still comes with a 1 GHz processor; 5MP full focus camera with LED flash and HD video capture, and 2GB of internal memory with ability to increase to 34GB using a 32GB microSD card.
Symbian Belle
Symbian Belle is the latest in a series of planned software updates to the Symbian platform, which started with Symbian Anna and will continue into 2012. Symbian Belle increases the number of home screens from three to six providing more room to display applications and services. Live widgets, now come in five different sizes, making the home screens come alive and giving users more flexibility to personalize the user experience. It also includes a pull down menu and taskbar to access notifications from any of the home screens and further enhancements to the Web browsing experience. All in all, Symbian Belle provides Nokia's most competitive, seamless and intuitive Symbian experience so far.
One of Symbian Belle's most exciting features is the single-tap NFC sharing and pairing capability. This allows contacts, videos and images to be shared with other NFC-enabled devices and smartphones, as well as pairing with NFC-enabled mobile accessories such as speakers and headsets. Gaming fans also benefit from the NFC capabilities of the new handsets with the ability to unlock additional levels in Angry Birds or find a hidden blade in Fruit Ninja just by touching two NFC-enabled devices together. On the Nokia 701 smartphone, which comes preloaded with Asphalt 5, two friends can even pair to compete on the same racetrack.
Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset
The new Nokia Essence Bluetooth Stereo Headset uses special active noise cancellation technology to eliminate an unprecedented 99.8% of background noise - delivering pure, high-fidelity sound no matter how noisy the surroundings for people who don't want to sacrifice audio quality when going wireless. Using NFC technology, the Bluetooth headset can be paired with any NFC-enabled smartphone simply by tapping the two devices together.McGill University's medical school in Montreal has been put on probation for failings in several areas, dealing a blow to one of Canada's most prestigious educational faculties.
The Canadian and U.S. bodies responsible for accrediting medical faculties across the continent inspected the undergraduate program at the university this year and cited inadequacies in two dozen areas.
The dean of medicine, David Eidelman, admitted the investigators turned up "more problems than we expected."
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"Obviously, we're disappointed, it's not going to help our reputation in the short term," Dr. Eidelman said in an interview on Wednesday. "My job now is to make sure this gets fixed."
In a letter to faculty and students, Dr. Eidelman said the university has 18 to 24 months to "demonstrate significant progress" on the problems authorities identified.
The flaws include concerns over students' learning experiences and the quality of instruction in women's health. They are bound to cause alarm at a university with an international name. McGill's medical faculty is the oldest in Canada, and consistently ranks among the top in the country. Last fall, McGill boasted that, for the 10th year in a row, Maclean's magazine named it top university in the country among institutions with medical-doctoral programs.
The university also noted that it moved up to 11th place among the world's top universities for clinical, preclinical and health education in the 2011-2012 Times Higher Education rankings.
According to the McGill website, the faculty of medicine was founded in 1829, and was McGill's first faculty. This is the first time the medical school has been on probation.
The U.S. Liaison Committee for Medical Education makes routine visits to faculties every eight years along with the Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools. A joint team visited McGill in February and found 24 out of a total of 132 criteria lacking.
In a letter to McGill principal Suzanne Fortier on Monday, the evaluators said the probation decision was based "on the constellation of standards with which the school is out of compliance."
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"The breadth and depth of these findings have seriously compromised the quality of the medical education program," they wrote.
The findings do not threaten the future of students enrolled in the school, whose diplomas will be recognized. However, it puts the program under a cloud until the issues are addressed.
Placing medical faculties on probation is rare, affecting about one school out of 144 in the United States a year, according to the U.S. accreditation group.
"In general, probation is not common, and it's a sign of serious concern," Dan Hunt, co-secretary for the U.S. Liaison Committee for Medical Education, said from Washington, D.C. "You really don't want to have this happen."
The problems at McGill range from administrative matters to deeper issues. In one of the more significant findings, the assessors said the school failed to ensure all students had the same experiences regardless of which hospital or clinic they were training in.
"We were not ensuring that the curriculum was carefully monitored [so that] students were receiving the education experience we expected them to," Dr. Eidelman said.
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Investigators also found that students reported they were receiving inadequate instruction in women's health and family and domestic violence.
Dr. Eidelman said the faculty set up a task force after getting preliminary findings from the accreditors in April. Members came up with an action plan and most of the issues will be addressed by the end of this year, he said.
McGill is not the first Canadian medical faculty to be targeted by accreditation bodies. The University of Saskatchewan's medical school has been on probation more than once, and Dalhousie University's medical school was put on probation in 2009.Speak volumes… by not saying a word. On Tuesday, Dec. 16 Apple Inc. announced that Steve Jobs would not do the keynote at the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo. That’s okay. They also announced that they would no longer attend the conference in the future. That’s not okay. For 25 years, a very loyal and passionate Mac community has descended upon the halls of Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA to see, hear, and learn more about the computers they love. By announcing their departure from this beloved show hosted by IDG, Apple is sending a message to the entire community–professionals, hobbyists, media, Mac User Groups, and even IDG themselves–that they care nothing for the community who supported them through thick and thin. If you’re attending the Macworld Expo keynote on Tuesday, Jan. 6, you can send a message to Apple by remaining silent during the 2009 keynote. While Phil Schiller is on the stage, let there be no applause, no whistling… just utter and complete silence. My name is Lesa Snider King and I’m mad at Apple.Sinclair Broadcast Group, a network of television stations that has already shown themselves to be a Trump propaganda arm, is about to massively expand its ability to broadcast, thanks to Donald Trump's FCC.
A network of television stations with a history of feeding their audiences a steady diet of pro-Republican, pro-Trump propaganda is about to experience a significant expansion, increasing their ability to spread their one-sided message from coast to coast.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which already owns a massive amount of local television stations across the country, is making an expansion bid through the purchase of Tribune Media in a deal worth $3.9 billion. For the deal to go through, Sinclair will require approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — which, under Donald Trump, will most likely be a rubber stamp.
When the deal is approved, Sinclair will own 223 television stations in 108 media markets, with a footprint in 39 of the top 50 markets, giving it the ability to send its message to 72 percent of American households.
Giving this type of broadcast power to Sinclair is troubling, as it will help to fulfill one of Trump’s authoritarian dreams: A television network devoted to him and his exclusionary message.
The New York Times reports that even before the merger, Sinclair operates like something out of an authoritarian dystopia. Heads of the network, located in Hunt Valley, MD, send out video packages to local stations labeled “must run.” These video segments, which run during the news on Sinclair-owned stations to hide their true intent, are right-wing propaganda and disinformation pieces.
The Times notes the content of these segments:
During the election campaign last year, it sent out a package that suggested in part that voters should not support Hillary Clinton because the Democratic Party was historically pro-slavery. More recently, Sinclair asked stations to run a short segment in which Scott Livingston, the company’s vice president for news, accused the national news media of publishing “fake news stories.”
Sinclair has a history of promoting the Republican Party through its local television stations. During the 2004 presidential election, when then-Senator John Kerry challenged President George W. Bush, Sinclair took Bush’s side and hijacked the airwaves to broadcast an anti-Kerry documentary in order to smear his military record.
Since that event, Sinclair has developed significant ties to Trump. Politico reported that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior aide in his White House, had “struck a deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group during the campaign to try and secure better media coverage.”
In exchange for access to the Trump team, “Sinclair would broadcast their Trump interviews across the country without commentary,” meaning their lies, misstatements, and other smears would air on the network without being challenged or fact-checked.
Kushner reportedly bragged that Sinclair’s outsized presence in markets like Ohio, which went for Trump, would help them reach a larger audience there than even an international network like CNN.
The Trump administration rewards those who demonstrate loyalty to Trump, and they have shown that in spades. Sinclair now has the opportunity to operate as his digital mouthpiece across most of America, and he is near certain to give them the thumbs up, while waging war against free speech rights of those who challenge him.
In the ongoing information war, Trump and Sinclair are poised to go nuclear.Armed police arrest a 50-year-old man in the street in Welling, south-east London, in connection with the death of Lee Rigby
Detectives investigating the murder of soldier Lee Rigby today arrested a 50-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
The suspect was arrested in Upper Wickham Lane, Welling, south-east London, Scotland Yard said. An address is also being searched in south-east London.
The arrest involved armed officers and the 50-year-old man was stopped in the street. No shots were fired and the man was led away after being stopped at gunpoint around 3pm this afternoon.
Police will have a maximum of 96 hours, including all possible extensions, to charge or release him.
The arrest is the tenth officers have made over the murder of Rigby, who was hacked to death in Woolwich, south-east London.
Earlier on Monday the Metropolitan police said three men who were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the killing were released on bail.
The men – aged 21, 24 and 28 – were arrested in south-east London on Saturday, three days after the 25-year old soldier was killed. They have been bailed to return to a south London police station.
The two men arrested at the scene of the murder after being shot by police – |
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It also pays to shop around for phone and internet service. There are a growing number of choices out there, including smaller competitors and online alternatives that could help you save big money on all your telco bills.
CBC News scoped out various options and highlights some here that are easy to obtain and, yes, perfectly legal.
Get free cellphone service
Exceeding your cellular plan's talk minutes every month?
Waterloo, Ont., companies Fongo and TextNow both have apps that offer free cellphone service using Wi-Fi or your mobile phone's data connection.
Simply download either app to your cellphone at no charge and sign up. You'll immediately get a phone number, voicemail and countrywide calling — for free.
TextNow also offers free unlimited texting in North America while Fongo charges $1.99 a month. Both apps also have low-cost long-distance deals.
Agnes Thomson, 80, in Powassan, Ont., downloaded a mobile app to get free cellphone service using her internet.
A word of warning, when relying on Wi-Fi, a weak, congested or spotty connection could lead to diminished or temporarily dead service.
But the hiccups don't bother 80-year-old Agnes Thomson in Powassan, Ont. About a year and a half ago, she ditched her home phone and got a secondhand iPhone.
Thomson didn't sign up for a cellular plan. Instead, she just uses the Fongo app and her home internet service.
Now, her only phone-related expense is two cents a minute to call family in Scotland.
"I enjoy it," says Thomson. "I can talk for a while and won't be getting a big bill."
Get cheap home phone service
Just can't part with your landline? You might consider getting a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) system for your home phone. It enables you to make calls using the internet.
Companies like TekSavvy offer the system for a monthly fee, typically much lower than the cost of a traditional landline.
But you can score an even cheaper deal by purchasing a device like MagicJack or Ooma. You connect it to your home phone and your internet router, and get VOIP service plus features like voicemail for around $4 or less a month.
Stephen Weyman uses a device called MagicJack to get free home phone service that works via the internet. (Stephen Weyman)
Stephen Weyman in Moncton, N.B., has been using MagicJack for the past five years. He bought the device online, but you can also find it in stores like BestBuy for about $45. That includes a free year of service.
"It's very easy to use and set up and it's much cheaper than home phone service," says Weyman, who runs the consumer tips website HowToSaveMoney.
He also says the service is reliable — as long as your internet doesn't fail.
Share your Netflix password
This tip may sound improper … but it's not. Last month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings declared that sharing your password for the streaming service is just fine.
He stated it's something Netflix has to live with, because there's so much legitimate password sharing going on. "So there's no bright line," on the issue, he said.
However, that doesn't mean you can now share your service with your entire extended family.
A standard $9.99 Netflix plan allows watching on only two screens at the same time. An $11.99 premium plan allows for the maximum of four screens playing simultaneously.
Explore streaming and antenna options
Still clinging to cable because Netflix just isn't enough? You have a couple of other streaming service options: Bell CraveTV and Rogers Sportsnet Now.
Cineplex also offers a huge selection of movies that Canadians can download to rent or own.
To get the main Canadian networks for free, try an indoor or outdoor antenna. Indoor ones may pick up fewer channels, but they're super easy to set up and can cost as little as $20.
But before splurging, Weyman recommends checking out the resource site TVFool, which helps you figure out which over the air channels are accessible in your area.
Weyman also points out that many Canadian networks — including specialty channels like Bravo, HGTV and The Comedy Network — have content available for free online. Weyman offers a comprehensive list on his website.
And if you don't enjoy watching shows on your laptop, there are simple ways to transfer the content onto your TV.
Connect your laptop to your TV with an HDMI cable and you'll be able to watch online content on your television. (The Source)
The easiest method is to buy an HDMI cable, retailing for around $20. Use it to connect your laptop or tablet to your television and any online video you play will show up on your TV screen.
For a wireless connection, Weyman suggests getting a Google Chromecast, which costs around $45. Plug the device into your TV set and you'll be able to stream video onto your television, cable-free.
Shop around for TV and internet
There are a growing number of smaller providers offering Canadians TV, internet and home phone services at competitive prices.
Many people have heard about the growing company, TekSavvy which offers internet and home phone deals.
But there are other small companies offering competitive rates including for TV packages. For example, Zazeen, VMedia, and CIK Telecom offer the skinny basic TV package for well below the usual price of $25. Internet service is required and the companies only serve certain provinces.
You can also find internet deals from the big providers' discount brands. Bell's Virgin and Rogers' Fido brands are both currently offering deals for unlimited high-speed home internet.
For help finding the cheapest plans for telco services in your area, check the price comparison website CompareMyRates for a rough idea of what's available.
Keep in mind that while the site might show services available in your province, not all of them may be accessible in your community. You'll still need to confirm availability with each provider.
Many Canadians are convinced they can get the best deals by bundling their products with just one company. But with all the options out there, you might find better prices by shopping around and taking the best offer for each individual service.art by PonyEcho
It's been several months since I last took a blog to just say "thank you" to all my fans and friends, and to the Fallout: Equestria community as a whole. Since then, I've gotten a whole lot of new watchers. (I now have more followers than Knighty!? How did that happen?!) As usual for these blogs, I want to thank all you -- for the wonderful comments and favorites, for sharing your kindness and your friendship with both myself and others, and especially for all the labors of love that through which you have added to this wonderful community. But this time, I want to do just a little something more. A while ago, one of you sent me this beautiful quote:
Truer words have rarely been spoken. In the Equestrian Wasteland, these words ring true for every hero who stands up for what's right. It speaks of every character we have drawn, written, or otherwise imagined and shared who has been willing to light a candle in the darkness. To every character who has drawn a line in the sand.
art by Pinkuh
full resolution available here
But even more so, it speaks about each of you who have drawn, written, sculpted and sewn. Everyone who has composed, sang, read and voice-acted. Every one of you who has created, and then been brave enough to share those creations openly, regardless of the slings and arrows that might come your way.
Several days ago, a fan who was struggling with his own writing asked me for encouragement. I told him to keep practicing. I advised him to focus on improving his grammar, spelling and punctuation. (Perfection isn't required -- not even professional writers are perfect; that's what they have professional editors for -- but clear and effective communication is.) I told him not to allow himself to give up, or to become frustrated even if it takes years to be able to really express what he wants to through his medium. I told him that hard work and dedication will pay off.
It was good advice. But as encouragement, it could have been better. As encouragement, I should have included the quote above.
So now I'm passing that quote on to all of you.
Thank you.
"Littlepip's Approval Clap" by Teschk
P.S.: Barring something unusual, next week's journal should be the next piece of "Origin Story". I've got four "pads" written of what I suspect to be about ten -- each being the most crucial part of what would have been a story chapter. (And for those who pointed out that pieces of a Daring Do rough draft would make a far from ideal OTP, you're absolutely right. But it's a framing gimmick. And besides, this is the universe of Fallout: Equestria, where a wasteland pony with sufficient know-how, a lab coat and a tin of Mint-Als could hack Twilight Sparkle's personal terminal... cryptography was clearly not the ponies' most advanced science. ) I and hope to have the fifth finished before posting the next.
Until then:William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg.
He was the ruler of the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda from 1803 until 1806 and of the Principality of Orange-Nassau in the year 1806 and from 1813 until 1815. In 1813 he proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands. He proclaimed himself King of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg on 16 March 1815. In the same year on 9 June William I became also the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and after 1839 he was furthermore the Duke of Limburg. After his abdication in 1840 he styled himself King William Frederick, Count of Nassau.
Prince of Orange [ edit ]
Portrait of William (1775)
Young William and his brother Frederick in 1790
King William I's parents were the last stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange of the Dutch Republic, and his wife Wilhelmina of Prussia. Until 1806, William was formally known as William VI, Prince of Orange-Nassau,[a] and between 1806 and 1813 also as Prince of Orange. In Berlin on 1 October 1791, William married his first cousin (Frederica Louisa) Wilhelmina of Prussia, born in Potsdam. She was the daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia. After Wilhelmina died in 1837, William married Countess Henriette d'Oultremont de Wégimont (Maastricht, 28 February 1792 – Schloss Rahe, 26 October 1864), created Countess of Nassau, on 17 February 1841, also in Berlin.
Youth and early military career [ edit ]
As eldest son of the Prince of Orange (of whom there could only be one at a time) William was informally referred to as Erfprins[b] (Hereditary Prince) by contemporaries (and later historians) in the period between his majority in 1790 and the death of his father in 1806 to distinguish him from William V.
Like his younger brother Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau he was tutored by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler and the Dutch historian Herman Tollius. They were both tutored in the military arts by general Prince Frederick Stamford. After the Patriot revolt had been suppressed in 1787, he in 1788-89 attended the military academy in Brunswick which was considered an excellent military school, together with his brother. In 1790 he visited a number of foreign courts like the one in Nassau and the Prussian capital Berlin, where he first met his future wife.[1]:100
William subsequently studied briefly at the University of Leiden. In 1790 he was appointed a general of infantry in the States Army of which his father was Captain general, and he was made a member of the Council of State of the Netherlands.In November 1791 he took his new bride to The Hague.[1]:101
After the National Convention of the French First Republic had declared war on the stadtholder of the Dutch Republic in February 1793, William was appointed commander-in-chief of the veldleger (mobile army) of the States Army (his father remained the nominal head of the armed forces).[1]:157 As such he commanded the troops that took part in the Flanders Campaign of 1793-95. He took part in the battles of Veurne, Menin, and Wervik (where his brother was wounded) in 1793, the siege of Landrecies (1794), which fortress surrendered to him, and the Battle of Fleurus (1794), to name the most important. In May 179 |
PLAYBOOK
MAGGIE SMITH, QUARTET
MERYL STREEP, HOPE SPRINGS
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
JACK BLACK, BERNIE
BRADLEY COOPER, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
HUGH JACKMAN, LES MISERABLES
EWAN MCGREGOR, SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN
BILL MURRAY, HYDE PARK ON HUDSON
Exit Theatre Mode
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
BRAVE
FRANKENWEENIE
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
RISE OF THE GUARDIANS
WRECK-IT RALPH
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
AMOUR
A ROYAL AFFAIR
THE INTOUCHABLES
KON-TIKI
RUST AND BONE
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
AMY ADAMS, THE MASTER
SALLY FIELD, LINCOLN
ANNE HATHAWAY, LES MISERABLES
HELEN HUNT, THE SESSIONS
NICOLE KIDMAN, THE PAPERBOY
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
ALAN ARKIN, ARGO
LEONARDO DICAPRIO, DJANGO UNCHAINED
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN, THE MASTER
TOMMY LEE JONES, LINCOLN
CHRISTOPH WALTZ, DJANGO UNCHAINED
BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
BEN AFFLECK, ARGO
KATHRYN BIGELOW, ZERO DARK THIRTY
ANG LEE, LIFE OF PI
STEVEN SPIELBERG, LINCOLN
QUENTIN TARANTINO, DJANGO UNCHAINED
Exit Theatre Mode
BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
MARK BOAL, ZERO DARK THIRTY
TONY KUSHNER, LINCOLN
DAVID O. RUSSELL, SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK
QUENTIN TARANTINO, DJANGO UNCHAINED
CHRIS TERRIO, ARGO
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
MYCHAEL DANNA, LIFE OF PI
ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, ARGO
DARIO MARIANELLI, ANNA KARENINA
TOM TYKWER, CLOUD ATLAS
JOHNNY KLIMEK, REINHOLD HEIL
JOHN WILLIAMS, LINCOLN
BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
FOR YOU, ACT OF VALOR. Music by: Monty Powell, Keith Urban Lyrics by: Monty Powell, Keith Urban
NOT RUNNING ANYMORE, STAND UP GUYS. Music by: Jon Bon Jovi Lyrics by: Jon Bon Jovi
SAFE & SOUND, THE HUNGER GAMES. Music by: Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams, T Bone Burnett Lyrics by: Taylor Swift, John Paul White, Joy Williams, T Bone Burnett
SKYFALL, SKYFALL. Music by: Adele, Paul Epworth Lyrics by: Adele, Paul Epworth
SUDDENLY, LES MISERABLES. Music by: Claude-Michel Schonberg Lyrics by: Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel SchonbergStarting today, AT&T will begin restricting more than 16 million broadband users based on the amount of data they use a month. The number-two carrier’s entry into the broadband cap club means that a majority of American broadband users will now be subject to limits on how much they can do online or risk extra charges as ugly as video store late fees.
The new limits—150 GB for DSL subscribers and 250 Gigabytes for UVerse users (a mix of fiber and DSL)—come as users are increasingly turning to online video such as Hulu and Netflix on-demand streaming service instead of paying for cable.
With the change, AT&T joins Comcast and numerous small ISPs in putting a price on a fixed amount of internet usage. It’s a complete abandonment of the unlimited plans which turned the Internet into a global behemoth after the slow-growth dial-up days, when customers were charged by the minute and thus accessed the internet as sparingly as possible.
Comcast’s limit, put into place after it got caught secretly throttling peer-to-peer traffic, is 250GB—which the company says less than 99 percent of users hit. AT&T plans to charge users an extra $10 per month if they cross the cap, a fee that recurs for each 50 GBs a user goes over the cap. And while 150GB and 250GB per month might seem like a lot, if you have a household with kids or roommates, it’s not too difficult to approach those limits using today’s services, even without heavy BitTorrent usage.
And it should noted that US limits are far from the world’s worst: Canada’s recently imposed restrictions prompted Netflix to give customers there a choice of lower quality streams to keep their usage down since users are charged up to $5 per GB they exceed their cap. Caps are also worse in Australia.
But for the nation which has been key to a wildly expanding Internet, the changing tide is both a practical and cultural letdown.
The drive to cap usage is ostensibly a way to reduce costs. But in reality, it’s not about the cost of data—bandwidth costs are extremely low and keep falling. Time Warner Cable brought in $1.13 billion in revenue from broadband customers in the first three months of 2011, while spending only $36 million for bandwidth—a mere three percent of the revenue. Time Warner Cable doesn’t currently impose bandwidth caps or metering on its customers—though they have reserved the right to do so—after the company’s disastrous trial of absurdly low limits in 2009 sparked an immediate backlash from customers and from DC politicians.
The real problem ISPs want to fix is congestion due to limited infrastructure. Cable customers share what are known as local loops, and the more that your neighbors use their connection, the less bandwidth is available to you—-a situation that becomes painfully clear in the evening when cable users see their throughput fall.
The blunt force approach of a bandwidth cap does have the advantage of making users think twice about streaming HD movies from Netflix. That is, perhaps not coincidentally, doubly to the advantage of most big ISPs, because they’d rather have you spending money on their video services than a third party. Bandwidth-intense services threaten to turn the likes of Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner Cable into utilities—a dependable business, but not one that has the huge profit margins these companies have come to enjoy.
Indeed, the question of who gets to write the rules about the Internet’s pipes is the major bone of contention in the net neutrality debate, both for terrestrial and mobile data networks. When the new net neutrality rules go into effect, ISPs won’t be able to block their online video competition, but there’s no rule against doing that via bandwidth caps or tiered usage pricing.
Moreover, as we all move towards more and more cloud services, whether that’s for backups, music or movies, it’s worrisome that ISPs are more concerned about reining in their most dedicated customers in service of meeting Wall Street’s expectations. Instead, they should be taking the opportunity to dig up the streets to create fiber networks that will make us a nation that’s top in the world’s broadband ranking chart, rather than a laggard.
The real solution is adding infrastructure at the local level, though an interim solution could entail metering data only during peak times, much as mobile phone calling minutes plans apply only during peak hours.
But that just goes to show, yet again, that what’s good for the Street often doesn’t translate into what’s good for the country.
Listing image by Photo by Todd BarnardAbout this project
Rasky is a low cost open source (hardware and software) KVM over IP built on top of the well known RaspberryPI model 2B.
The primary goal of the project is to provide a low cost and completely open source alternative to commercially available KVM over IP and other remote consoles like iDRAC, iLO and so on.
A side goal is also to produce Rasky with a complete FLOSS workflow, so, no proprietary software will be used in any development step, all has to be strictly open and free software.
The expansion board for Rpi will be engineered in a way that is suitable for DIY PCB makers, and a 3d printable model of the enclosure will be available too, with an explicit goal to make it feasible to build at home a complete KVM for under 150 euro or to buy one assembled device for less than 200 euro.
Features:
For the first release it will feature:
VGA video capture
USB keyboard and mouse emulation
Web (ajax VNC) and VNC remote access over IP
2 programmable and remote controllable Relays to switch on/off the remote machine and to virtually “press” a button (reset?)
2 digital inputs to attach sensors
Completely open source design for software, hardware and box will be released (early and often). License will be GPL or similar.
Backup battery pack management to assure clean shutdown of the Raspberry PI in case of power loss
The project is in a very early stage and some features may change.
Some other features I’m considering, i don’t know yet if for the first or the second release, is the emulation of an USB remote storage/cd drive and to add a couple of analog inputs.
All those features are implemented without the needs to install anything on the remote controlled machine/OS, so, they can be used even at a BIOS or equivalent level to remote control any machine that have at least one USB port and a VGA or, using an adapter, DVI or HDMI video output.
Block schematics
Rasky features 3 primary circuits, one for video capture, one for keyboard, mouse and eventually cdrom emulation, and one to control relays and digital inputs ( click on the image to enlarge )
Who i am and why I’m doing this
I’m Franco Lanza, also known as “nextime”, dad of two, married with a beautiful and patient woman, and i live in a little city near Milan, north Italy. I’m an “hacker minded” guy who loves building things, and in particular things that involve build electronic circuits and writing code.
I have more than 25 year experience in coding, building circuits, unix and linux systems and hacking in general, and i breathe open source and free software all day long.
In many years i never found a completely open source KVM over IP, and the ones that i used are limited and expensive as well as closed black boxes, so, with this project i hope to give back to the community something i think will be useful for both professionals and amateurs, and a funny project for myself to build as well.
The feedback i received when discussing this project with my colleagues and friends has convinced me to setup this crowd funding to make it real, and after some investigation and tests on the feasibility, here i am with this page.
Rewards for contributors
You can give me a free contribution or select a reward.
If you choose a reward, please take care that taxes and shipment expense where appliable are already included and you will not get charged for anything else except for eventual customs duty if appliable to your country.
I will ship to whole world.
I accept credit cards, bank transfer, paypal, bitcoin. Select your preferred currency using the dropdown menu on the right column
| Quantity 3d printed logo PCB beta PCB final KIT beta KIT final enclosure Assembled beta Assembled final Rpi2 Supporter? - - - - - - - - - Open source entusiast? X - - - - - - - - Maker 50 - X - - - - - - - Maker pro 50 - - X - - X - - - early kit builder 50 - - - X - - - - - final kit builder 50 - - - - X X - - - Super early seed 100 - - - - - - X - - early seed 20 - - - - - X - X - Rasky final? - - - - - X - X - Production kit? - - - - X X - - - Production assembled? - - - - - X - X - Rasky PRO 20 - - - - - X - X X
NOTE: the “KIT” rewards will have all the SMD components with more than 40 pins pre-soldered. If you want to solder them by your own, please specify it when you give your contribution. Thanks.
Risks and challenges
Any project has risks, and an early phase project like this one isn’t an exception.
The first risk is that it’s a one man project, so, if anything bad had to happen to me, the project will stop. Anyway, considering the project is fully open sourced and i will release anything i do early and often, in any case anyone can takeover the project and continue it even without me, assuming he has the right skills.
Other risks are more technical, in particular the video grabber part seems to be a thing many people have tried to build on with slow progressions or failing completely. This is the reason I’m investigating three different ways to build that part, by taking advantages of previously experiences done on similar or relative projects by other hackers, and revisiting them thanks to the features of latest hardware and technologies. What i have found after some months of preliminary studies about this project is that all parts are already available, and they just need someone that will take them and glue them to work together. I’m the one that will do that.
All the components i will use are common parts with no supply issues, and they are cheap and reliable with strong distributors and producers, so, i can rule out supply problems. Though a low component count minimizes supply risk there is still a possibility that the quoted lead times for larger orders of our components could be exceeded or that we could be supplied with faulty parts. If this proves to be the case we will secure returns or replacement parts, however this would incur a delay to our shipping date. It’s a remote possibility, but we have to point it out.
I run a small company with some experience of product fulfilment in the software industry so we think we have accounted for all eventualities when getting your rewards to you. In the happy event that Rasky proves to be hugely more popular than we expected though it will place a strain on our resources and it may take us longer than we anticipated to ship your rewards to you. In that event we will provide regular updates as to our shipping progress and we will work as hard as we can to ship your rewards as soon as possible."We believe in Allah, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth," chant the faithful at Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This, believe it or not, is what caused Malaysian police to recommend prominent Catholic priest Lawrence Andrew be charged with sedition. It was triggered by a court ruling in October 2013 that forbade Andrew's Catholic newspaper from using "Allah" because it was not "an integral part of the faith in Christianity".
Raids followed to confiscate Bibles based on a 1988 state law that restricted the use of over 30 other Arabic words and phrases to Muslims. Supporters of Muslims' exclusive right to the word Allah have justified it by saying that its use by Christians could confuse Muslims and be used to convert them to Christianity.
Christians make up about 9 percent of Malaysia's 29 million people. A federal court will hear an appeal by the Catholic Church in March 2014.
(Source)Copyright by WISH - All rights reserved Two North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University students were shot to death Sunday morning, October 2, 2016 at a large party. (Provided Photo/WNCN)
Copyright by WISH - All rights reserved Two North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University students were shot to death Sunday morning, October 2, 2016 at a large party. (Provided Photo/WNCN)
Amy Cutler - GREENSBORO, N.C. (WNCN) - Two North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University students were shot to death Sunday morning at a large party, Greensboro police and university officials confirmed.
The two students were shot following an altercation at a large party that was being held at 911 Circle Drive, police said. The fight and shooting occurred just after 2 a.m. The incident occurred just a few blocks from campus.
According to police, an unknown person took out a gun and began firing following the altercation. Two students were hit by the gunfire.
A man who asked not to be identified told CBS North Carolina that he heard "gunshots being fired" and that "people were screaming outside the house, telling me that a girl and guy got shot."
The man said he lives in the apartment where the party took place and knew the victims.
The victims have been identified as Alisia Dieudonne, 19, and Ahmad Campbell, 21. They were both shot and transported to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.
According to university officials, Dieudonne was a sophomore computer science major from Homewood Illinois. Campbell was a junior agriculture and environmental systems major from Kitrell.
The man who did not want to be identified said both Dieudonne and Campbell were "real friendly" and called Dieudonne "real good people." He said that "once you get to know her, she's your best friend."
Students at the university woke up Sunday morning to an alert from the school on social media.
Chance Wade, a sophomore at N.C. A&T, called the incident "devastating."
"I really feel like it was a devastating situation, two lives lost and it could have been me. I could have been in that house party," he said.
Greensboro police said the investigation is ongoing and it's unclear if the victims knew the suspect or what happened to start the altercation that led to the shooting.
"We have a number of witnesses and we have nothing to indicate that they were part of the dispute," Greensboro Police Department Capt. Nathaniel Davis said of the two victims.If you work with open source software of any kind — whether at work or as a volunteer — then you understand the importance of license compliance and keeping track of copyright ownership. But as a project grows, those tasks can get tricky, even when everyone is on the same page. That is exactly the problem that led Hewlett Packard (HP) to create FOSSology, an open source tool you can use to analyze a source code tree for this type of metadata and more. This weekend, why not set it up and dig into your source code — you might be surprised at what you find.
FOSSology was originally built as an internal tool at HP, to help engineers follow the large company's IT governance policies when working with open source software written elsewhere. Even if your company or project isn't as big as HP, any time you blend code from different authors or want to borrow a routine from another open source project, it can get tricky to maintain all the rules. Certain licenses are compatible to combine in one executable, while others need to be separate processes. If you customize an open source application for internal use, you may also need to keep track of authorship — even more so if you send patches upstream.
FOSSology is a client-server application with a Web-based front end that takes care of most of the nuts-and-bolts of these tasks for you. Users can upload individual files or package archives, then schedule analysis jobs. The server can unpack and rapidly scan through thousands of files, logging copyright statements, license statements, and other metadata. The canonical uses for FOSSology include locating files within a larger code tree that have missing, incomplete, or incompatible licensing — events that can happen accidentally, but cause huge headaches further down the road.
The latest release is version 1.2.1, from October of 2010, and it can recognize more than 600 different open source licenses, including many distinct versions and variations on common license choices. It does this by matching the wording of the license itself, catching inline references (such as "This software is released under the GPL2"), or even abbreviated license statements (such as a CC-BY-NC). It can also detect code authorship, through inline copyright statements, names and email addresses in comments, and external AUTHORS files. The authorship feature is new in the 1.2.x-series, and shows that FOSSology is growing into a more robust code auditing tool.
Installing FOSSology
FOSSology comes packaged for most popular Linux distributions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Debian, and Ubuntu. The 1.2.1 release might be too new for your distro's package management system, though, in which case you should consider installing it from source. This is particularly important for Ubuntu 10.4 users, because the current Debian FOSSology package is misconfigured for Ubuntu. Specialized instructions for correcting the packaging problem are available on the FOSSology Web site.
To install from source, you will need an Apache Web server, the PostgreSQL database, and a recent PHP build. In addition, there are numerous lower-level dependencies that the server side process uses to unpack and process source code. Most of these will already be installed on a production Linux server, but there is a full list on the project site.
The installation process includes pre-install and post-install scripts that check the dependencies, set up the PostgreSQL database and tables, and install the license templates that form the backbone of the license scanner. This process actually takes longer than the source-compilation step, but it is fun to watch the list of licenses fly by — if you thought the open source ecosystem consisted of just GPL-versus-BSD, you may find it educational.
A brief snippet from FOSSology's cavalcade of open source licenses...
Creating default canonical name: Free Art License v1.2
Creating default canonical name: FreeBSD
Creating default canonical name: Free clause
Creating default canonical name: Free Software License B v1.0
Creating default canonical name: Free Software License B v1.1
Creating default canonical name: FreeType
Creating default canonical name: Free use no change clause
Creating default canonical name: Free with copyright clause
Creating default canonical name: Free with files clause
Creating default canonical name: FSF
Creating default canonical name: GFDL
Creating default canonical name: Giftware
Creating default canonical name: Glide
Creating default canonical name: GNU Free Documentation License v1.1
Creating default canonical name: GNU Free Documentation License v1.2
Creating default canonical name: gnuplot
Creating default canonical name: Government clause
Once the post-install script is finished, you can run a test (as root) with /usr/local/lib/fossology/fossology-scheduler -t. This will check your configuration and report any errors. Last but not least, you will need to configure your Apache server to serve up the FOSSology front-end. The app uses the rather atypical location /usr/local/share/fossology/www/ for its Web content; the INSTALL file has Apache VirtualHost configuration examples to get you started.
Analyze This
FOSSology's default admin username and password are "fossy"/"fossy" — so the first thing you should do once the Web interface is running is change them. It is also a good (though not mandatory) idea to create a separate user account in addition to the admin account.
The Web interface has six main functions listed across the top of the screen: Search, Browse, Upload, Organize, Jobs, and Admin. There is also an "Obsolete" menu item that holds deprecated functions, but you should not get used to seeing them. You can upload a source code package from the Upload page — either uploading a local file, supplying a remote file URL, or specifying a file already on the Web server (though it must be readable by the Apache process for this to work).
When you upload a file, you have the option to schedule any of FOSSology's analytical jobs against the file, so you can add them to the job queue without delay. The current release offers six analysis "agents" — licenses, copyrights, MIME-types, metadata, packaging, and "buckets." Buckets are user-defined pools of licenses that you can use to simplify your analysis (say, "free" and "non-free," or "compatible with MyProject" and "incompatible with MyProject"). You can also schedule jobs after the upload is complete by visiting the Job -> Agents menu item.
Also under the Jobs menu you will find the Queue, where you can track the progress of the analysis jobs scheduled on the server, and MyJobs, which shows you just the tasks that you personally have scheduled. If you have administrator-level privileges, you can reset, delete, or alter the priority of specific jobs.
The Browse, Search, and Organize features are there to offer users access to a persistent library of FOSSology's data analysis. You can group uploaded files into nested folders (which may be very helpful for businesses with different projects residing on the same server), or search for a specific file anywhere in the source repository.
In practice, you may be most concerned at any one moment with finding files that match a certain set of criteria — say, files for which FOSSology detected no license at all. The file browser is designed to help you do that. You can navigate through the uploaded files and get views on the data based on all of FOSSology's analysis jobs: sorting by license, by your user-defined buckets, or by copyright ownership.
Features and limitations
Despite the long list of 600+ known licenses, it is important to remember that FOSSology can not automatically detect every license possible, because any individual can rephrase or fork an existing license and slap it on to his or her source code at any time. A corollary is that FOSSology gives you a good picture of the license and copyright make up of a block of code, but even its advanced heuristics are not a substitute for examining the code yourself when there are problems.
In a large project, you might have C or C++ source, shell scripts, SQL, Python, and user-contributed macros. FOSSology might detect GPLv3 licensing on the main application, no license information on the macros, and a loosely-defined "No commercial usage" statement in the SQL. How those fit together cannot be automatically determined; it may be that because the SQL is not necessary for executing the application, it is not a GPL violation to combine it in one package with the GPL'ed C/C++. On the other hand, if it used as part of the build process, it probably would be considered part of a "derivative work" under the GPL, and you would need to contact the author to ask for relicensing. If the author's email address or URL is located somewhere in the comments, you are in luck; otherwise you may have to excise and rewrite the code.
FOSSology does a good job of working around these areas of uncertainty. First, although its license templates contain the ability to match specific versions of licenses (say the GPLv2 versus the GPLv3), it does not attempt to strictly categorize every file it finds, if the result is ambiguous. Instead, it includes broader categories for the files with indeterminate licensing. Second, the "bucket" system allows you to do your own categorization. Buckets can be defined to match on several parameters, using logical operators, and you can always edit your existing bucket definitions and re-scan the code repository. It might take a few tries to define your own categorization scheme and make it fit perfectly.
The last thing to note about FOSSology is that although the documentation uses the term "repository," the system is not a version control or source code management tool. It is an auxiliary tool, one that your company or project can use in conjunction with a VCS, but it primarily designed to mine data from an existing body of source code. Whatever policy you have in place that FOSSology helps you audit — license compliance, copyright assignment, etc., — FOSSology can help you check-in and check-out a large volume of work. But it won't make your contributors automatically follow all of the rules.
Extra Credit: Agents of the Future
Without a doubt, keeping track of licenses and copyright data for a software project is vitally import to open source — copyright law is the foundation of what makes open source work and keeps free software free. But FOSSology is a flexible enough system that it could do other things in addition to these important tasks.
The application is modular in design; everything from the file-unzip-and-unpacker to the license scanner is just an "agent" that FOSSology's scheduler manages in the job queue. There are intriguing new possibilities on the project's roadmap; other agents that we may see in future releases.
Some extend the existing functionality, such as the ability to attach or modify licenses to selected files directly within the FOSSology application. Others build the app out in new directions, like performing a diff between two source trees, or tagging branches and files. It may be a little far-fetched, but it is possible that future versions of the tool will offer developers tighter integration with VCSes and IDEs. That would certainly be welcome news; any tool that makes license compliance easier is of benefit to entire open source community.The state government’s flagship project “Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan” has brought 15 lakh hectares of land under irrigation in the last 15 months in the drought-hit districts of Marathwada and Vidarbha.
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On January 26, 2015, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had launched the “Jalyukta Shivar Abhiyan”, setting a target of bringing at least 25 lakh hectares of land under irrigation in three phases between 2015 and 2018. Preliminary reports across the drought-hit districts, where the project was undertaken on a mammoth scale, shows that “out of 25 lakh hectares, the work so far has helped bring 15 lakh hectares under irrigation. Thus, showing a 60 per cent achievement in just 15 months”.
The audit report of the total work completed and how much land will get irrigated shows results that surpass the target set by the state government.
A highly placed source told The Indian Express, “Almost all 14 drought-hit districts have shown remarkable progress ahead of the target. Good monsoon will help us bring larger irrigation stretches under agriculture, especially in Marathwada and Vidarbha.”
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Fadnavis has been monitoring its progress almost every week. And every three months, there have been course corrections to expedite work.
When the project was launched, 25,000 villages out of a total of 40,000 villages were shortlisted for the jalyukta shivar in three phases to be completed by 2018. In the first phase (2015-16), 6,200 villages saw 1.20 lakh projects. In the second phase, 5,500 villages with 80,000 works were taken up by the state government along with various non-government organisations. However, gradually, individual village gram panchayats and elected members (MLAs) came forward, suggesting they would prefer to simultaneously take up jalyukta shivar work in their respective villages or districts.
Initially, work related to jalyukta shivar was confined to desilting of rivers and ponds, and reconstruction of small canals, among others.
In March 2016, Fadnavis launched another scheme as part of drought mitigation to supplement the ongoing works called “Magel Tyala Shettal” farm ponds.
A farmer had to apply online for seeking a farm pond for which the government provided Rs 50,000. Online applications received till now has crossed 1.25 lakh. Four months saw completion of almost 75,000 farm ponds.
At successive review meetings on drought-mitigation plans, Fadnavis had emphasised on completion of water conservation projects on priority to avail the rainfall in the next three to four months in the drought-hit region. The emphasis on farm ponds was to facilitate the farmers to cultivate at least one crop even in the worst dry spell.
During his drought tour to Latur, Fadnavis was surprised to see standing crops in the middle of barren land across the village. When asked what was the secret, a farmer said, “I have a farm pond. The pre-monsoon showers helped us store some water. And we used it for cultivating the crops.”
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As part of assured irrigation, 35,000 wells have been completed. The target is to complete one lakh wells in the next three years.Yup. That's right... I hopped on the MLP train.... no not really. I don't watch the show. In fact, I had to rely on A LOT of reference to get the colors right. o__o' To make it clear.. yeah I tried. I really really tried to watch it. Ask family members who had to sit and watch it with me. MLP just isn't my cup 'o tea. I'll stick with Adventure Time. lolIn terms of the piece, in all honestly the lineart is what caught my attention. It was just so flowy!! ^___^The artist is the amazing Corrico. Give them a look. Also, the original lineart can be found here: [link]..::EDIT::..For anyone wondering why I re-submitted, it's because there were things that I'd forgotten... also found some sloppy lines and missed erase marks. I also added in the credits for the image to both myself and the line artist, as well as where I got the background. Starfields by BL1nX Stars by ~jen-ni Background can be found here: [link]. Thank you to wild-hearts for the resource!My Little Pony - Friendship is Magic © Lauren Faust / Hasbro“Mommy’s favourite baby girl.”
Quick Summary: A surprisingly agile, if slow battleship with the worst turret traverse rate in the game. She has very accurate, hard hitting guns for her tier, including an impressive secondary gun battery. Arguably the Battleship with the most special features found in the game at present.
Cost: 6500 Doubloons through the in game tech tree.
Patch & Date Review was Written: Mid-June through to mid-September 2016. This spans between 0.5.7 and 0.5.11
Closet in Game Contemporary: Tier 6 German Battleship Bayern
Degree of Similarity: Clone / Sister-Ship / Related Class/ Similar Role / Unique
The HMS Warspite has so many special features going for it, it truly is one of a kind among battleships. On the surface, she may appear vaguely similar to the Bayern with a similar caliber of guns and gun layout, good secondaries and an armour scheme designed for up close engagements. However, when you look at her perks, she begins to step away from other Super dreadnoughts. Excellent handling, special repair mechanics, special damage control mechanics; it all adds up to a battleship that’s truly one of a kind in World of Warships.
PROs
Largest caliber guns at tier 6, providing individually hard hitting AP and HE shells and able to overmatch enemy BB bow armour.
Good dispersion values for her guns including a 2.0 sigma.
Heavy secondary battery armament, almost all forward facing, with good base range of 5.0km.
Excellent handling, with a tiny 550m turning circle.
Good effective armour for defeating 356mm and smaller caliber AP shells when angled at medium to close range.
Can heal back 20% more damage from penetrating hits than normal battleships.
Repair Party heals back 20% more per charge than normal battleships.
Has a cruiser’s Damage Control Party with 90s reset timer and 5s active period.
Decent surface detection range of 14.2km — well inside her main battery range.
CONs
Absolutely horrid turret traverse at 72s for 180′ turn (2.5′ per second). This is the worst found in the game.
turret traverse at 72s for 180′ turn (2.5′ per second). This is the worst found in the game. Low muzzle velocity for Battleship caliber guns at 732m/s.
Under gunned when compared to most other tier 6 Battleships.
Range is lacking, with a maximum reach of 16.3km without her float plane.
Rather slow with a maximum speed of 23.5 knots.
Overall weak armour scheme against anything larger than 356mm rifles.
Weak anti-torpedo bulges mitigate only 24% of torpedo damage.
Modest to weak AA compliment as of 0.5.3.
I’ve wanted to revisit the Warspite review for a long time but I kept putting it off in favour of covering new ships instead. I first began laying the ground work for this review when the Captain Skills changed in 0.5.3 but I soon had other priorities. Finding time to update older reviews is more difficult. Wriing for ShipComrade does provide me a ready excuse to do it though so that there’s at least one copy of every review I’ve done in her archives.
A lot of changes have occurred in the game since November of 2015 when I last took a look at HMS Warspite. The list is pretty extensive when you get down to it, including (but not limited to) the Captain Skill update, the reworking of modules, never mind two updates to the Warspite herself including additional AA mounts and having her armour model changed. But perhaps the most extensive difference since I last looked at this ship is the inclusion of the German (and French!) Battleships. Their presence has really forced a re-evaluation of what makes a “good” battleship in World of Warships. Let’s see how the Grand Old Lady stacks up to her rivals.
Options
On paper, the Warspite doesn’t have a lot of options. She has four module slots — standard for a tier 6 Battleship. She doesn’t have anything unique, like a special consumable not normally found for her class. She doesn’t get the choice between different types of float plane. What is significant, though, is the nature of her Repair Party and Damage Control Party consumables. See the durability section below for further elaboration on how these change.
Consumables: Three slots
Damage Control Party Repair Party Spotter Aircraft
Module Upgrades: Four slots, standard options. Does not have access to the American Artillery Plotting Room Modification 1 range bonus.
Premium Camouflage: Tier 6+ standard. This provides 50% bonus experience gains, 3% reduction in surface detection and 4% reduction in enemy accuracy.
Artillery
Primary Battery: 381mm main guns in 4×2 turrets (A-B-X-Y arrangement, super-firing)
Secondary Battery: 8×1 152mm casemates, 4×2 102mm dual purpose deck mount turrets |
. And they make a fuss about 20 people re-converting to Hinduism in the Ghar Wapsi program.
And apparently this is no secret. The Hindu covered this so very casually in their Jan 2014 newspaper. And talk about how more than 1200 pastors have arrived from different states for the “harvest“. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/stage-set-for-bible-mission-convention/article5622173.ece. I can only imagine the horror headlines had this been an RSS event.
The article by Bill goes on to say “The fields are ripe and ready for the harvest. Please pray for our wisdom and discernment as we attempt to provide more and opportunities to equip and assist missionary pastors that are willing to join the harvest…. It is impossible to know how many have already accepted Jesus as God’s Son, as a direct or indirect result of the feeding events, but it is in the millions. And because of the ongoing ministry of the Missionary Pastors, the number continues to increase each week.”
WAKE UP HINDUS!
WAKE UP!
We are running out of time…
Share this with everyone so they can see what is happening to India.
From: http://www.theelijahchallenge.org/over-one-million-people-accept-christ-at-single-event-in-india/
January 2015 Feeding Events with Elijah Challenge Co-Worker Simon Haqq
The first event was on January 13 and 14 in a suburb of Delhi named Mahapalpur. There was much opposition from Hindus in this area, even threatening to burn our tent. The pastors knew there was much unrest and opposition and they were very frightened. They wanted to cancel the feeding event, but while Simon Haqq, our coordinator and evangelist, was praying at home the Lord gave him confirmation from Psalm 91 that all would be OK. “They shall not come near the door of your tent.” was what he heard in his spirit, so he told the pastors “Do not to worry, God will protect us.” Not only did the opposition cease, we actually fed 1,000 and 600 prayed to receive Christ.
The missionary training model Jesus used in his ministry was to teach, then demonstrate and then send out his disciples commanding them to do what they had seen him doing. (Mt 28: 18-20, Luke 9 and 10, Jn 14) To the best of our ability, we follow his training model. First, we select pastors who want to be Missionary Pastors to their communities or villages. We then teach them how to effectively preach the gospel with boldness and power from the Holy Spirit (1Co 2:4), and then with The Elijah Challenge Training we equip them to use Christ’s name, in the context of evangelism, to heal the sick and cast out demons. As the Holy Spirit confirms the gospel (Mk 16: 15-20) by healing the sick, almost every person attending the event repents of the worship of idols and turns to Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life. So, we tell the people who Jesus is, the only Son of God, and the Holy Spirit confirms it when our pastors minister to the sick.
We did this first feeding event in January to help eight trained pastors reach out to their community with the gospel. The people who came to eat filled out contact cards, which make it possible for the pastors to continue witnessing and ministering to the families. All eight pastors reported an increase in church attendance and the salvations continued following the feeding event. Sometimes there are too many new believers for one little house church, so pastors often have the opportunity to plant new house churches in their community. This is important because it takes at least 300-400 members to support a local pastor and his family at a minimum level of $100-$200 a month.
Also attending the feeding event were 14 additional pastors from North India, They had heard about the feeding events and came to find out first hand if feeding events really could help them reach the lost and build up church attendance. After seeing the results, all 14 submitted applications to join Simon’s ministry group. In the future, after they have been trained, FEI will schedule feeding events for them too.
As I have reported many times, it is very common to see the Holy Spirit confirm the gospel message by healing the sick and setting the captives free. This feeding event was no exception. A man sitting in the back row of the tent had been afflicted with a stiff neck for 4 years. It was so painful that he could not straighten his head. Before the ministry time, while he was praying to receive Christ, he got nauseated and he started vomiting. After he threw up the pain and stiffness left his neck and he was able to hold his head upright. He immediately came forward to share his testimony of what Jesus had done for him. As a result many placed their trust in Christ. This is “healing in the context of evangelization”, which is what Jesus sent his apostles and disciples to do in Luke 9 and Luke 10. (This is precisely the purpose of The Elijah Challenge Training.)
We did the Second Evangelistic Feeding Event on January 30-31, in a small village located 240 miles from Delhi. In this village we experienced an increase in opposition. Thus, for security reasons, I cannot mention the name of the village or the pastors’ name, but I can tell you that we fed about 200 people and 150 turned from the worship of Hindu idols and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
HUGE TENT CRUSADE MEETING
For the second time our Evangelist and Ministry Coordinator, Simon Haqq, was invited to preach the gospel in perhaps the largest tent crusade in the world. The conservative Bible Mission ministry group sponsored the crusade and has a permanent 50 acre tent along with a couple of smaller tents in Guntur, India. Altogether Simon preached the gospel to approximately 2.5 Million people at one time in the three tents.
When he gave the invitation, huge numbers of people stood and prayed to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. I asked Simon if more people made decisions this year than last and he said yes, many more. You can see a video of these enormous tents and huge crowd at YouTube: Bible Mission Guntur-2014.
Bible Mission Guntur invited Simon to preach because some of their pastors came to one of his Feeding Events and witnessed how a whole village came to believe in and trust Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins and eternal life after the gospel was preached and confirmed by miraculous healings from the Lord. Now, as if that were not enough good news, the president of the Bible Mission group has invited Simon to come to his church in May to teach about the workings of the Holy Spirit and present the gospel. They are expecting many thousands to hear and be saved.
More than a million people turned from their idols to accept Jesus. Below is a picture of the overflow crowd outside the 50 acre tent in Guntur.
The population of just Northern India alone exceeds the population of the United States. There are an estimated 100,000 villages that have never heard about Jesus, the only Son of God.
God has opened a huge door for us, but with the open door comes an enormous responsibility. The fields are ripe and ready for the harvest. Please pray for our wisdom and discernment as we attempt to provide more and opportunities to equip and assist missionary pastors that are willing to join the harvest. Our prayer for India, especially Northern India, where we are headquartered, is that God grant us the incredible privilege of presenting the gospel of Christ to everyone who can and will believe in him. It is impossible to know how many have already accepted Jesus as God’s Son, as a direct or indirect result of the feeding events, but it is in the millions. And because of the ongoing ministry of the Missionary Pastors, the number continues to increase each week.
By Bill Willis, Founder of Feeding Events India (FEI) and Elijah Challenge Board MemberBindi Sue Irwin (born 24 July 1998)[1] is an Australian actress, television personality, conservationist, model, singer and dancer.[2] She is the only daughter of the late conservationist and television personality Steve Irwin and his conservationist and author wife Terri Irwin, owner of the Australia Zoo. Bindi's younger brother is Robert Irwin, a television personality and photographer, and she is the granddaughter of naturalist and herpetologist Bob Irwin. Bindi has been involved in acting, singing, dancing, rapping, game show hosting, and has created two instructional fitness DVDs. She is also known for winning season 21 of Dancing with the Stars (U.S.).
Early life [ edit ]
Bindi Irwin was born in Buderim, Queensland.[1] Her first name comes from the name of her father's favourite female crocodile at the Australia Zoo, and her middle name, Sue, is from the family's late dog Sui, who died in her sleep from cancer on 23 June 2004 at the age of 15. According to her father, Bindi is an Australian Aboriginal word that means "young girl".[3]
She began appearing on television shows as early as age two.[4] She appeared regularly in her father's television shows, including The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and also appeared in the 2002 film The Wiggles: Wiggly Safari in a credited cast role. She is of English and Irish ancestry, with abundance of Irish ancestry on her father's side. She has a brother Robert Irwin. Bindi is a dual citizen of Australia and the United States, as her mother is a citizen of the United States and Australia.[5]
Irwin was homeschooled until 2014, when she enrolled at TAFE Queensland East Coast. She has completed a Certificate III in Business, and is currently studying for a Certificate III in Tourism.[6]
Career [ edit ]
Irwin was the presenter of a 26-part wildlife documentary kids show called Bindi the Jungle Girl, a production of the Discovery Kids television network.[7][8][9] Her father was filmed in many of the early shows before his death in September 2006, when production was temporarily put on hold.[10] The series premiered in June 2007 on Discovery Kids.
When Bindi was just a year old her grandmother Lyn Irwin died in a car accident on 11 February 2000.[11] Bob has since remarried Judy Irwin.[12] Bindi's father, Steve, was killed by a stingray barb on 4 September 2006. He was setting up to shoot ocean reef footage for a show that would include segments with himself, because weather prevented him from filming footage for a different show.[13][14] Irwin and her mother announced that she would continue her late father's conservation and television work.[15][16][14] Steve Irwin had said he supported Bindi's career, claiming "I just want to be co-star to my daughter".[17]
On 20 September 2006, Irwin received a standing ovation after delivering a eulogy for her father in front of a crowd of 5,000 and a worldwide television audience of more than 300 million viewers. In the 2006 TV Week readers' poll, her speech received 43 percent of votes and was voted the television moment of the year. Her mother stated that, apart from some assistance with typing, Irwin had written the speech herself.[18][19][20][21]
In June 2007, Irwin hosted a US television special about her father called My Daddy the Crocodile Hunter.[22] She also released two child fitness DVDs. Bindi and The Crocmen sang "Trouble in the Jungle" on The Today Show in November 2007 and Irwin was learning how to play the piano.[18][23]
In September 2006, at age 8, Irwin appeared on the cover of the Australian magazine New Idea, the youngest person to have done so in the magazine's 104-year history.[24]
In early January 2007, Irwin appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. At that time, she was also scheduled for appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman and an attendance with Russell Crowe at a major dinner. She was promoting her new video, Bindi Kid Fitness, and fulfilling her role as a newly appointed "tourism ambassador" for Australia.[25]
Irwin appeared on Larry King Live on 11 January 2007. She said that creative writing was her favourite subject and maths her least favourite. She also said that she enjoyed being homeschooled because she and her teachers were such good friends.
Alongside George Lopez and Tyler James Williams, Irwin presented the award for "Favorite Male Singer" at the 2007 Kids' Choice Awards, which was won by the show's host Justin Timberlake. With help from Glenn Robbins, Irwin also presented the award for 'Most Outstanding Children's Show' at the Logie Awards of 2007, which was won by The Upside Down Show.[26]
On 22 November 2007, Irwin appeared with her mother Terri in the 81st Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and performed songs from her album Trouble In The Jungle with The Crocmen on a jungle animal float.[27][28]
On 4 May 2008, Irwin won the Most Popular New Female Talent Logie Award. Then on 13 June 2008, at the age of nine, she became the youngest performer ever to win a Daytime Emmy Award when she won the award for "Outstanding Performer in a Children's Series". The previous record was held by Camryn Grimes, who won the "Outstanding Younger Actress in a Drama Series" at age ten for her performance in The Young and the Restless.
In addition to singing and dancing Bindi has tried her hand at rapping.
Irwin commits 10% of her wage to Wildlife Warriors, the charity founded by her family in 2002.[29]
She starred as Kirra in the movie Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove, released on 23 March 2010.[30]
In 2012, Irwin hosted a wildlife-themed game show called Bindi's Bootcamp. Filmed at Australia Zoo, the contestants were put through "adventure challenges" to educate and test their wildlife knowledge.[31] It was produced in association with Sydney-based Sticky Pictures, under commission from ABC, and debuted in July on ABC3.[32]
Irwin starred in the sequel to Nim's Island playing the lead character Nim, originally played by Abigail Breslin.[33]
In 2012, Irwin appeared as Sunday Clovers on the episode "Mirror rorriM" of the Canadian television series, My Babysitter's a Vampire.
In 2013, Irwin made a brief appearance on the Australian TV series Big Brother to surprise housemate Tim, who had mentioned her several times throughout the series, saying "I want to thank you for being an incredible Wildlife Warrior. I hope when you're out of the house you can come visit me".
In March 2014, Irwin appeared on Good Morning America with her family, where she announced a partnership with animal theme park company SeaWorld.[34] This decision was strongly criticized by animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who criticized the Irwin family for supporting a company accused of animal abuse, referencing the documentary Blackfish.[35]
In October 2014, Irwin was awarded Young Conservationist of the Year by the Australian Geographic Society.[36]
In August 2015, Irwin was announced as a competitor on season 21 of the American reality television series Dancing with the Stars,[37] paired with five-time champion Derek Hough.[38] Since Irwin was a minor during the competition, she required special permission by California courts to perform. Irwin and Hough were declared the winners of the season on 24 November 2015.[citation needed]
Personal life [ edit ]
Irwin is in a relationship with Chandler Powell, an American professional wakeboarder from Florida. He moved to Australia to live with the Irwins.[39]
Music career [ edit ]
On 27 November 2006, Bindi released her debut album Bindi Kid Fitness with Steve Irwin and The Crocmen. A year later on 17 November 2007 she released her first single "Trouble In The Jungle". This was the only single to feature Bindi rapping. "Trouble In The Jungle" includes a tribute song to Steve called "My Daddy The Crocodile Hunter". She then released her second album Bindi Kid Fitness 2 Jungle Dance Party on 11 October 2008. Bindi originally had a band called Bindi and The Crocmen.[40] As of 2009 Bindi has a new band called Bindi and The Jungle Girls.[41] Bindi eventually released her third album in 2013 Bindi and The Jungle Girls African Dance Party. Bindi released her fourth album in 2016 Bindi and The Jungle Girls Bindi's Island Dance Party.[citation needed]
Discography [ edit ]
Albums [ edit ]
Bindi Kid Fitness with Steve Irwin and The Crocmen (2006)
(2006) Bindi Kid Fitness 2 Jungle Dance Party (2008)
(2008) Bindi and The Jungle Girls African Dance Party (2013)
(2013) Bindi and The Jungle Girls Bindi's Island Dance Party (2016)
Singles [ edit ]
"Trouble In The Jungle" (2007)
Videography [ edit ]
Exercise DVDs [ edit ]
Bindi Kid Fitness with Steve Irwin and The Crocmen (2006)
(2006) Bindi Kid Fitness 2 Jungle Dance Party (2008)
Filmography [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Internet [ edit ]
Year Title Role Notes 2012 Growing Up Wild Herself With her young brother Robert they show their wildest animals at Australia Zoo on The Pet Collective, a popular animal focused YouTube channel.
Dancing with the Stars performances [ edit ]
Irwin, who was partnered with Derek Hough, won season 21 of Dancing with the Stars (U.S.) on 24 November 2015. Irwin and Hough held the record for the most perfect scores, with eight. This record was broken by Jordan Fisher in season 25.[citation needed]
1 Score by guest judge Alfonso Ribeiro.
2 This week only, for "Partner Switch-Up" week, Irwin performed with Valentin Chmerkovskiy instead of Hough. Hough performed with Alexa PenaVega.
3 Score given by guest judge Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
4 Score given by guest judge Olivia Newton-John.
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
ARIA Music Awards [ edit ]
Logie Awards [ edit ]Android N Feature: Picture-In-Picture
Android N is now available for people to download to their Android phones, tablets, or Android TV.
One huge feature is API support for recording media, which effectively gives Android TV support for a DVR. But what if you want your TV to be slightly more productive? Android N gives phones and tablets multi-window support, but what about on TVs?
Android TV now supports picture-in-picture, which can be enabled per activity through an addition to your manifest.
android:supportsPictureInPicture="true"
The tiny PIP window is displayed in one of the four corners of the screen. By holding down the home button, a PiP menu appears that gives the user some control over the window’s control to expand or close it. It’s not known how NVIDIA plans to integrate that. Holding home on the Shield opens up a screen recording menu.
Your app can enter PiP by calling
getActivity().enterPictureInPicture();
Which you can interpret through the callback
public void onPictureInPictureChanged(boolean inPictureInPicture)
Your media can play indefinitely until another app starts playing media. That will close the PiP window (although it’s hard to say through what means).
This is of course a major feature that can have a variety of benefits. One example is an improved YouTube app. Like on the phone, the video can be put into a corner of the screen while you search for other videos and continue browsing.
Developers can check out the documentation for adding this feature to their apps in the new Android N preview, although it’s definitely subject to change depending on public feedback over the next few months.
Nick Felker Nick Felker is a student Electrical & Computer Engineering student at Rowan University (C/O 2017) and the student IEEE webmaster. When he's not studying, he is a software developer for the web and Android (Felker Tech). He has several open source projects on GitHub (http://github.com/fleker) Devices: Moto G-2013 Moto G-2015, Moto 360, Google ADT-1, Nexus 7-2013 (x2), Lenovo Laptop, Custom Desktop. Although he was an intern at Google, the content of this blog is entirely independent and his own thoughts. More Posts - Website Follow Me:Bottom Line Up Front
The Shout is Amplified Return Top’s first release. If one were to summarize the yoyo in a single word, that word would be “Impressive.”
A.R.T.'s branding is impressive, the professionalism of this brand new company is impressive, the anodizing and colorway choices for the companies first attempt are impressive, how well the yoyo plays is impressive, the attention to detail in packing is impressive. As far as freshman releases go, this should be what people try to live up to.
Specs
Diameter: 57 mm
Width: 43.5 mm
Gap: 4.3 mm
Mass: 66.95 g
Response: 19 OD CBC Pads
Boxing
The shipping option that A.R.T. has chosen is slightly more expensive than the standard shipping choice most companies go with, but the yoyo will arrive completely safe and well packed in a box large enough that there is no chance even the U.S.P.S could crush it. I don’t mind spending 2 dollars more for this option and appreciated that it was what A.R.T. chose. The box is the industry standard, but the packing is tasteful and neat.
Fit & Finish
Once you’ve got it out of the box, you’re greeted by one of the Shout’s various beautiful colorways. I really like this one, Desert Sunset. It looks pretty amazing when its spinning. The first run isn’t blasted, but the existing finish isn’t overly sticky either. In addition to how pretty the yoyo is, you can also tell that the chosen manufacturing is top notch and that the Shout was well tested before being sent. Out of the box, my Shout was very, very smooth.
Play
I found the Shout to play much lighter than its weight may suggest, being nearly 67 grams. This weight doesn’t carry over to the feel on the string at all but it spins as long as you’d expect a 67 gram yoyo to spin anyway. Its a nice balance. It is quick to respond to your movements and runs through tricks very quickly. One would describe it as “zippy”, but with a presence. Despite the lack of a blasted finish, it is capable of most grinds. Fingerspins work, it is capable of palm grinds, and due to the shape, it is also capable of fairly long finger grinds in dry conditions. Outside, good luck. I found the “IGR”, as small and insignificant as it is, to be passable when angled. I found the yoyo to be extremely capable at off axis play, holding the horizontal plane admirably. It is above average at regens in my experience and doesn’t wobble too much even with sloppier attempts. I won’t describe the shape to you, because you have eyes and there are pictures.
One thing, while it is definitely not lacking at all in stability, I wouldn’t classify it as a “very stable yoyo”… so if you like unshakable stability, this may be important. To me, it just checks off the box for stable enough while not approaching the territory of ridiculous stability.
Response & Bearing
The bearing is a grooved centering bearing and I don’t think its of any particular brand name, but it came very smooth and quiet. I am not normally a fan of this type of bearing as in my experience, the available brands tend to be noisy and a little less smooth than others of comparable price, but the bearing that came in my Shout is still in my shout. I normally switch out for a CT… so that’s nice. My Shout came with 19 mm OD CBC Natural pads, which just happen to be a personal favorite of mine. I find them to play well forever so I was pleased with this, but if you aren’t, the chosen pad size is extremely convenient and they’re easily swappable for silicone or the litany of other pads available in this size. As is, the binds are tight and reassuring. There isn’t any bite and the gap is wide enough that snags are not an issue. It handles low speed binds alright but definitely does not excel at them.
Summary
The bottom line was up front. Why are you still reading? The Shout is an excellent yoyo that anyone would be happy to own. It stacks up well with any other yoyo in the same price range, if you pick one up, I have no doubt you’ll be impressed. I am.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Feb. 8, 2017, 8:21 PM GMT / Updated Feb. 9, 2017, 4:34 AM GMT By Tracy Connor and Frank Thorp V
The White House said Wednesday that anyone who questions the success of last week's deadly U.S.-led raid in Yemen "owes an apology" to the Navy SEAL who was killed there.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer's comments came shortly after Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he would not call the raid a success.
"When you lose a $75 million airplane and, more importantly, an American life is lost … I don’t believe you can call it a success," McCain, who was briefed after the raid, told NBC News.
At a press briefing where NBC's Kristen Welker asked him about McCain's assessment, Spicer said that "anyone who undermines the success of that raid owes an apology and [does] a disservice" to the life of Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens, who was killed in a firefight.
"He fought knowing what was at stake in that mission," Spicer said.
Spicer repeated his declaration that the Jan. 28 strike — which also left an 8-year-old girl and an unknown number of other civilians dead — was a "huge success."
After Spicer's chiding, McCain said his appraisal of the mission was not a criticism of the SEALs who took part — and he cited a episode from his own past when he was a POW during the Vietnam War and American soldiers tried to rescue him and others from a prison.
"Unfortunately, the prison had been evacuated. But the brave men who risked their lives in an effort to rescue us prisoners of war were genuine American heroes," he said. "Because the mission failed did not in any way diminish their courage and willingness to help their fellow Americans who were held captive.
"Mr. Spicer should know that story."
Officials in Yemen also did not see the raid as an unmitigated success.
After the operation, Yemen's president expressed "hesitancy" about allowing the U.S. to conduct future ground operations in his country, two U.S. defense officials said.
The officials said that after an "interagency" effort to reassure President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, they have confidence that military action in Yemen targeting al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — which would include air and drone strikes — will continue.
The State Department pushed back against reports that Yemen had requested a suspension of American antiterror missions on the ground, noting that Yemen's foreign minister had denied it.
That minister did tell the Associated Press that a "reassessment" of the Jan. 28 raid is underway and that Yemen is "in talks" with the Trump administration about what happened.
An image of Chief Petty Officer William "Ryan" Owens. Capt. Jason Salata / Naval Special Warfare Command
Yemen’s ambassador to the U.S., Ahmed Awad Bin-Mubarak, also denied the reports in a statement to NBC News late Wednesday Eastern time.
"The Government of Yemen, contrary what has been circulated in some media outlets, stresses that it has not suspended any programs with regards to counterterrorism operations in Yemen with the United States Government," he said.
The operation targeting an al Qaeda encampment in south-central Yemen was the first military strike carried out under President Donald Trump and did not go off as planned.
"Almost everything went wrong," a senior U.S. military official told NBC News last week.
As Navy SEALs and troops from the United Arab Emirates descended, the militants were tipped off by something — possibly a barking dog, a hand landing by a drone or walkie-talkie chatter.
In the firefight that ensued, SEAL Team 6 member Owens was killed, along with the 8-year-old daughter of U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and an unknown number of other non-combatants, military and intelligence officials have said. An MV-22 Osprey was also destroyed.
An image of 8-year-old Nora Anwar Al-Awlaki, who was killed in a raid in Yemen ordered by President Trump. Yemeni media / via Twitter
Computer equipment was seized, and Spicer said that the intelligence gathered from that will prevent future terrorist attacks, though he provided no specifics.
McCain said the seizure of electronic equipment was one objective of the raid, along with killing and capturing "bad guys."
"My understanding of the parameters of the raid were they wanted to capture individuals and obviously they didn’t want to kill children or women and obviously it was not the intention to lose a $75 million airplane as well as the loss of a life," he said.
"So I believe those were the parameters with which they embarked on the mission. Obviously that didn’t happen.”
The White House and the Pentagon have denied that a target of the raid was Qassim al-Rimi, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who is considered the third-most dangerous terrorist in the world.
Related: Al Qaeda Leader Who Was Raid Target Taunts Trump
A senior White House official, however, told NBC News that the possibility of capturing al-Rimi "drove the highest level deliberations" over whether to send in the SEALs. Days later, al-Rimi issued an audio message taunting Trump as a "fool."
Qassim al-Rimi, the head of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula AQAP video via Reutes
The U.S. has been trying to dismantle AQAP, one of al Qaeda's most dangerous arms, since 2002, attacking with done and air strikes and boots on the ground.
The State Department stressed continued cooperation between the two nations.
"Yemen suffers most directly from the threat of AQAP and President Hadi has been a stalwart partner in the fight against AQAP and ISIS," spokesman Mark Toner said on Wednesday.
"We will continue to work with him and his representatives to ensure that this important partnership remains solid in order to ultimately eradicate AQAP/ISIS from Yemen.
"The United States conducts operations consistent with international law and in coordination with the government of Yemen. We will not relent in our mission to degrade, disrupt and destroy al Qaeda and ISIS."MANILA, Philippines—Only four Filipinos have been repatriated from the war-torn Yemen out of the 700 living there since the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) ordered their mandatory repatriation last month.
Philippine Embassy officials in Yemen have, thus, renewed their call on Filipinos to leave the country as political and security situation continues to deteriorate there.
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They said they facilitated the repatriation of four Filipinos on March 1 and paid for all their travel expenses from Yemen to the Philippines.
According to a news bulletin from the DFA, Consul Winston Dean S. Almeda and Attaché Camaloddin P. Manggis met with 93 Filipinos, and a handful of foreign spouses in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, in a gathering arranged by the Filipino community organization there.
“Embassy representatives took the opportunity to reiterate the Embassy’s call for all Filipinos to immediately leave Yemen in view of the Alert Level 4 status (mandatory repatriation) in effect in the country,” the DFA said.
An Alert Level 4 or mandatory repatriation remains in effect in Yemen due to the continued occupation of the capital city Sana’a by Houthi rebels, as well as the recent suspension of operations of several embassies in the capital.
The United Nations-brokered negotiations likewise had broken down after two parties walked out in protest of the Houthis. Niña P. Calleja
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LATEST STORIES
MOST READJeweled Bird Ah, the ante cards. Modern analogue: So, Wizards hasn't been exploring the ante design space lately, per se.... But this isn't hard to compare to modern cards. At its heart, it is a cheap cantripping artifact. I present to you: Magic's first ever egg. What the effect is has changed over the years, but the rest of the design has stayed constant ever since, whether we're looking at Scroll of Avacyn or Conjurer's Bauble. Verdict: Zero power creep (sort of).
City in a Bottle I would love to use this online. Take that, Serendib Efreet. Take this, Unstable Mutation. And the -1/-1 counters stay on! Modern analogue: Uhhhh. Hrrrrmmmmm. Ratchet Bomb, I guess? Verdict: Get out of here you weird card.?
Jandor's Saddlebags No other set had saddlebags in it. Not even Portal Three Kingdoms with all its horsemanship. Modern analogue: Three other artifacts can untap any target creature, and all cost 3 mana. So they're inferior on that front. And yet with their reduced activation costs and/or added versatility, they're all in some way better than the saddlebags. Verdict: Medium power creep.
Ebony Horse I wonder if this and Jandor's Saddlebags were originally submitted as alternate art for the same card? Come to think of it, I wonder the same thing about Army of Allah and Jihad! Modern analogue: Playing with white, we can lower the cc to one and the activation to zero. AND make it repeatable. This card is a super-overcosted Reconnaissance! Keeping colorless, we have nothing. And keeping with recent cards (Exodus was 1998), we still have nothing. There are some creatures who do this to themselves, like Gustcloak Runner, but it's not the same. Verdict: Gone (but not forgotten).
Bottle of Suleiman Circle of Protection: Artifacts and this card. So you can spend 8W to get nothing half the time. #combos Modern analogue: The only other artifact ever to flip coins to get token creatures into play is Wirefly Hive, which is in all other ways very unlike Bottle of Suleiman. Volatile Rig is a new artifact creature that can kill itself from a coin flip. If you want to just cast a guaranteed artifact flier, maybe Manor Gargoyle is a closer comparison? Kind of a tough one. Verdict: Light nerfing.???
Sandals of Abdallah Nice sandals, Abdallah! (No wonder he's not wearing them!) Modern analogue: Once again, equipment saves the day. Whispersilk Cloak does all this and more. For cheaper. And without the destruction clause! Verdict: Severe power creep (and improved fashion sense).
Ring of Ma'rûf That is one creepy-looking ring, Ma'rûf. Modern analogue: What used to be ten mana and a skipped draw for a one-shot effect is now 1BB and half your life (that card being Death Wish). Of course there's a whole cycle of wishes, so if your deck only wants to tutor from among a selection of instants, you have the 2U Cunning Wish instead. If you want to get things from inside your library rather than your sideboard, you could run the triply-repeatable Ring of Three Wishes—or its infinite cousin Planar Portal. Verdict: Medium power creep.
Jandor's Ring See, Ma-Rûf, this is what a normal ring looks like. Modern analogue: Six mana? Six mana?? Jalum Tome is half that to cast, and you can discard any card you want, not only the one you just drew. Of course, that was a while ago. Sifting these days isn't available to colors other than blue or red. (Case in point: the only recent artifact to loot is the UR-activated Izzet Keyrune.) Still, when it does show up in those colors, it's WAY cheaper than this (see Merfolk Looter and Rummaging Goblin). Verdict: Severe power creep.
Pyramids What is that stuff in the background? Trees? Mountains? People? Smoke? Modern analogue: Is there a card to repeatedly regenerate lands or destroy auras on them, no... but... Terra Eternal makes them all indestructible, which is an improvement on half of those abilities.... I'm really not sure how this exact pair of abilities would be cost if it were printed today. I have a hunch it would be cheaper, although we may never find out. Verdict: Severe power creep (presumed).
Aladdin's Ring Magic: the Gathering's shotgun. Modern analogue: Not a lot of artifacts are similar to this one. Fodder Cannon does as much for less mana if creatures are sacrificed. Molten-Tail Masticore does if cards are discarded. There aren't even really any non-artifact permanents that can pull off the feat of 4 damage every turn. Just Chandra Ablaze. Verdict: Light power creep.screen cap
On the Nov. 15 Daily Show, Jon Stewart criticized Mitt Romney, “retired pensioner,” and Bill O’Reilly on assertions each made in recent days.
Stewart hit Romney’s recent argument that Obama won the election by offering “gifts” to young women, minorities and Latinos.
“How on earth did Mitt Romney find out about the extraordinary bag of gifts?” Stewart asked as he pulled out a large bag labeled “gifts,” which contained marijuana, a contraception variety pack, a Quran, a pinata filled with green cards, and a gift certificate, which says, “Lena Dunham chastises you while you masturbate.”
Stewart then moved on to O’Reilly. Immediately after the election, the Fox pundit said that “traditional America” is gone. In more recent days, he said that |
Sanders and Harris are potential 2020 presidential candidates.
The article Marrocco shared from the Hill was initially entitled "DeVos uses private jet for work-related travel," and its misleading nature was criticized on Twitter. DeVos has used her privately owned jet to travel, which she independently pays for, not the taxpayer.
You have to click to find it it’s her own jet, and she, not the taxpayer, picks up the bill. https://t.co/Ji0rGO0Esb — Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 21, 2017
The Hill later changed the headline to "DeVos flies on her own private jet for work-related travel."QUEBEC — A tax accountant’s proposal to build up to 80 houses for Muslim families on 100 hectares of land near Brossard isn’t going over well with provincial politicians.
Nabil Warda, 68, said he will submit Friday to the Islamic Community Centre of South Shore—Brossard a real-estate development plan to build a community for about 100 Muslim families.
“It’s called a ghetto,” Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Éric Caire said Monday. “It’s not acceptable for our society to build a place reserved to religious people. Just think if we built a place reserved for white people, would that be acceptable? The answer is no.”
Added Parti Québécois MNA Agnès Maltais: “It will never be a good idea to select people based on a religion, it’s unlawful. It’s forbidden by the charter of human rights and freedoms.”
The very same message later came from Immigration, Diversity and Inclusiveness Minister Kathleen Weil. “A project whose vision is implicitly discriminatory toward a portion of the population could never be deemed acceptable,” Weil said. “In this sense, neither ethnic origin nor religious belief should ever be considered as criteria for the creation of a housing project. Living well together depends largely on individuals’ ability to interact and develop positive relationships.”
But in an interview with the Montreal Gazette on Monday, Warda explained that Muslim families often struggle to find halal financing. Sharia law prohibits borrowing money where interest is payable. Sharia-compliant banks can own the property as an asset and make money through “rent.”
“Essentially, the idea is to help people who haven’t been able to buy houses,” Warda said, adding he’s looking for financial partners to build low-cost housing for Muslims. “We would share services between us and live with people who believe that life on Earth is not only to eat and sleep but that there is something else, and to try to live as close as possible to the monotheist ideals which started with Abraham.”
“We’re always looking to live with the language we’ve heard when we were kids. By living with people who are closer to us, it makes a better life.”
Article 10 of the Quebec charter of human rights and freedoms states that “every person has a right to full and equal recognition and exercise of his human rights and freedoms, without distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex and religion,” just to name a few.
Warda said it’s normal for Quebecers to feel skittish about things that are new. But he argued his project makes sense, just as unions do.
“There are always people who are going to criticize,” he said. “People were against the idea (of unions), saying it was the worst idea.
“Can we say that unions were bad for Quebec? I don’t think so,” Warda said.
The Islamic community centre’s chairman of the board, Mohammed Yacoub, told Radio-Canada the centre will hear Warda out, but rejects the idea of a ghetto. “We’ve always tried to build bridges with Quebec society,” Yacoub said.
cplante@postmedia.com
twitter.com/cplantegazetteEmilia Clarke plays Daenerys Targaryen on HBO's 'Game of Thrones." (Photo: Macall B. Poley, HBO)
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Eight could be the magic number of seasons for HBO's fantasy-drama hit, Game of Thrones, according to programming president Michael Lombardo.
Lombardo, speaking Thursday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, said he's "open" regarding the ultimate length of the show's run, which finished Season 5 this spring. He dismissed speculation that the duration would be fixed at seven seasons.
"Seven seasons and out has never been the conversation. The question is how much beyond the seventh season we're going to do," he said. Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are "feeling probably like two more years after (Season) 6. I think that's what we're looking at right now."
Discussing the potential for a Thrones prequel, Lombardo said there would be "enormous storytelling to be mined" and that he is open to anything Benioff and Weiss want to do. However, "at this point, all the focus is on figuring out the next few years of the show," which returns for Season 6 in 2016.
Lombardo acknowledged complaints about the level of violence, including sexual violence, in Thrones.
"I certainly have seen some articles, particularly with respect to Sansa," the elder Stark sister, he said, adding that violence has been part of the show since young Bran Stark was pushed from a high window ledge in the series premiere. "The show has had violence as one of many threads from the first episode. … No two showrunners are more careful about not overstepping what they think the line is."
And, regarding the ongoing question of whether Jon Snow is really dead, Lombardo said: "Dead is dead. He is dead.... Yes, everything I've seen, heard and read, Jon Snow is indeed dead."
Lombardo discussed other shows, too.
• He said he expects Larry David will be back for another season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. He just doesn't know when that will be.
"I don't think it's out of his system. I think he'll come back to it. I think he has something to say. I certainly see this as a continuing dialogue, a long one, but a continuing one," he said.
MORE: TV season preview
• HBO announced the Mick Jagger-Martin Scorsese-produced rock-and-roll drama series will be called Vinyl.
The series, set in 1972 and starring Bobby Cannavale as a music executive, focuses on the sex-and-drug-fueled music business as punk and disco are rising. The movie won't be focusing on Jagger's Rolling Stones, who were worldwide stars at that point, but Jagger's son, James, will play a musician in the series.
At the panel, HBO showed clips from Vinyl and another new series, Westworld. Both will premiere in 2016.
•When asked about second-season criticism of True Detective, Lombardo strongly backed the anthology show's sophomore outing, which has two episodes remaining, and writer Nic Pizzolatto.
"I think Nic is one of the best writers working in television and motion pictures today. I think (how) the show ends is as satisfying as any show I've seen," he said, referring to the season's remaining episodes.
He added that he has been surprised by viewing levels. "I didn't believe this season – or last season – was intended for as big an audience as we're getting."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1I5KqZjLOUIS BURKE | Culture | Contact
In breaking news, Betoota East chef Henry Leonards (34) was immediately terminated from Cafe Eats earlier today, following the revelation that he had been preparing food completely sober.
“Unacceptable. How am I meant to trust a chef who turns up to work like that? How do I even know he’s awake?”
Cafe Eats owner Wayne Guthrie (50) said he took a punt on Henry as a chef, even though he has no visible tattoos and only smokes socially.
“I’m not having it here. Showing up to work like that honestly. Probably didn’t even go out drinking last night before smashing some bongs in bed. These new chefs man, no clue.”
While disappointed in his former employer’s decision, Leonards is taking his termination in his stride.
“Wayne is a weird guy anyway. Whenever I sniffed he always touched his nose and winked at me like we were part of a secret club. Anytime I had a coffee he would say ‘Aw, big night you old snake!’”
Leonards admits he was partial to drug use earlier in his career but has relaxed his intake in recent years stating that eight hours of sleep a night and some light exercise is a healthier way to remain energised enough to cook a couple of vege-stacks or smoked salmon omelettes.
“For some reason, he (Guthrie) couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the idea that I can work without being geared up. For fuck’s sake, you don’t need to be smacked off your tits on goey to make a big breakfast out of mostly frozen ingredients.”
More to come.New York City public housing without lights, heat or water after storm
By a WSWS reporting team
1 November 2012
On Sunday, as the storm approached, New York’s billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg threatened to shut off power and electricity to public housing developments in lower Manhattan and northern Brooklyn in an effort to force residents to evacuate.
But residents in some housing developments that lost power and were inundated with water were not told to evacuate by the city, or even warned that they were in a flood-prone area.
At other developments where New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) staff were sent to door-to-door to urge people to evacuate, many residents refused, fearing unsafe conditions in city shelters or looting in their absence.
Some were unable to comply even if they had wanted to because of age or infirmity. NYCHA offered no services to provide for special needs.
Had the mayor made good on his threat, many who remained in their apartments after 7:00 PM on Sunday would have been trapped before the storm even hit the city.
Residents did not have long to wait. On Monday night during the storm, a Consolidated Edison power station exploded, cutting electricity to all of lower Manhattan.
The city authorities have barely mentioned the plight of NYCHA residents and the city media have observed a near total blackout on the worsening threats to their health and safety.
NYCHA’s own media have done as little as possible to inform residents or the public of the situation. Posts on its website, Facebook page and Twitter feed curtly noted that the authority is, “only addressing critical repairs at this time.” No federal or state agency has addressed the needs of the communities in the housing developments.
Much of this housing, home to thousands of working-class families, is badly in need of repair and overrun with vermin. Several of the NYCHA developments in lower Manhattan are less than two miles away from the New York Stock Exchange, which was restored to full power by Wednesday morning. The Goldman Sachs building, also close to some of the affected public housing, was heavily sandbagged before the storm, and never lost power because the investment bank had fitted its headquarters with its own internal generators.
World Socialist Web Site reporters visited the Baruch houses, home to over 5,000 people on Houston Street, to discuss their experiences with the storm and its aftermath. Many were skeptical that even if they had complied with the evacuation order, there would be enough room to hold all of the residents there. During the storm, water rose four feet above the ground, engulfing cars.
The water supply at the buildings has been cut off because pumps have failed due to the lack of electricity. Residents told us that there was no heat in the buildings with temperatures expected to drop into the 40s Fahrenheit at night. No one knew when electricity would be back on.
Residents were filling buckets and containers with water from an opened fireplug in the street and carrying them up in some cases over a dozen flights of stairs. A handful of people tinkered with their cars trying to get them running again.
Baruch residents Hector and Keturah Segui and Eddie Velasguez
“Unlike people in other parts of the city, we have no back up generators,” Miriam Capo a Baruch resident told us, “Bloomberg and his friends are nice and safe while we, the working class, have to suffer. It was really insulting when he said we made a mistake by not evacuating. That's easy for him to say. Where are our generators?
“Now we have nothing, no heat, no electricity, no water. Elderly people have had to walk up several flights of stairs with buckets. Where is the help? The city is doing nothing.
“We have no emergency lights in the building. I have been lighting candles trying to help myself and others get up and down the stairs. It's ridiculous. And no one wants to report on this. I don't see any news people down here.”
Eddie said, “Everything's a mess right now. Water is coming down walls. No one came to help us after Monday, no one from the Red Cross, no one from FEMA, no one. It's like we don't exist.
“The infrastructure was not in place for something like this. The building I live in badly needs maintenance. There are dead rats and a smell of dead rats everywhere. The city won't do any bricklaying work on the building. There's no plumbing or plastering done. All they do is fix two or three potholes and that's about it. Now we won't have electricity for days.
“And we are paying a really high rent here; it's gone up 30 percent in the last few years. Our vote doesn't mean anything. They don't care about the working class. The city keeps telling us there's no money for maintenance in these buildings. But why are the rich getting richer and richer?”
Keturah Segui, an unemployed teacher’s aide, said that there was no way that she could have evacuated her apartment, with her mother-in-law having recently undergone brain surgery.
“Now we don’t have electricity, elevators or water except by climbing down the stairs and filling containers, which we then carry back up—this building has 13 floors.
“There is no light in the hallways or stairs, and there has been at least one assault. The only reason we are standing out here is because we feel so isolated inside–there is no TV or radio, and no way to charge our phones.
“We are glad to see you because no one has been here to talk to us. We just get information from people who have heard bits and pieces from others.”
Shontel Srooks, a transit dispatcher, had worked a 24-hour shift the previous night attempting to run test trains through the subway system. Wednesday she stayed home to care for her son.
“Different classes get taken care of differently,” she said. She recalled that during the last blackout her train had stopped on the more affluent Upper West Side. “After we got everyone evacuated we saw the Red Cross out there taking care of people. Needless to say, when I got back down here after my shift it was different story.”
There were similar scenes at the Elliot public housing complex across town in Chelsea. Sam Velez, a young worker, told the WSWS: “I spoke to management from the housing authority today. They said it would take anywhere from seven to 14 days. People can’t use the bathroom. They can’t cook. They can’t bathe. They are basically telling us to hunker down and eat it. There are senior citizens, young kids, and disabled people here. The building goes up to 21 floors. There are no elevators working. People are stranded in their apartments. Seven to 14 days makes no sense. Bloomberg says he is doing what he can, but this is thousands of people living here. They can get Wall Street back up and running. Battery Park [a more affluent downtown area] has lights and power, and they were worse off than us. Why can’t they do anything here?
“They can take care of the rich, the stockbrokers uptown and the people who have money. Even if they have more flooding, they have been fixed. But for public housing there is nothing.”We already know what happens next
They didn’t win the game.
The ending house they should have opened was the red one (the alpha kids’ newly created universe) but instead the house flipped over and became white.
Sound familiar? Remember what happeneds the last time someone touched a white house? (Insert Obama joke)
That’s right. When John touched the juju, he became partially “unstuck in canon” so the continuity rules do not apply to him. His arm actually got retconned throughout the whole comic after this happened. This was shown with a distinct blue glow.
Right?
Now, we have to remember something. We actually know that this is not the end. Caliborn told us so in his clay animations a while back!
Many things that didn’t happen in the [S]Act 7 flash happened during this handcrafted explanation. To recap:
1) Caliborn has the house juju with him.
2)Caliborn “somehow” gets the Ring of Void, which was in posession of The Condesce. She’s dead now but how did the ring get to him?
3)Look who appears with a familiar blue glow!
My most important point is supported by this specific page. The eight kids actually become unstuck in canon and appear before Caliborn after touching/entering the white juju instead of the red ending house to enter the new universe.
And then this shit happens.
4)The four Beta kids get sucked into the white juju.
5)Dirk creates Lord English after a fight that ends with Jake hopesploding in a cotton cloud.
And that’s the gist of it, right?
Now, we got the four alpha kids alive and well, Lil Cal infused with Lord English Caliborn dudebro realness and the four beta kids trapped inside the white juju.
Flashback. Time shenanigans ensue:
Vriska and her pirate crew found the treasure chest with the white juju inside, right? My thoughts are that when they found the juju the beta kids were already trapped inside of it. Here’s my supporting evidence:
When Vriska used the white juju as a weapon to stop Lord English after he had lost the power of the Green Sun thanks to alt Calliope, the symbols of the aspects of the Beta kids started flashing inside of it. I don’t think this is just symbology, I think that quite literally their powers are trapped inside of it.
So.
There are many plot points that are yet to be discussed. However, I think that as it is we have sufficient clues to infer what the rest of the story is instead of having it chewed for us in a fully explained epilogue. It will be welcome, of course, but I think the “spoilers” that Caliborn gave us with his clay animations should be enough to round the story. What I hope will be explained in the epilogue is how Caliborn got the Ring of Void, and how did the kids end up in the new universe after creating Lord English.
Given the narrative of the webcomic and its symbology, I think this is a magnificent way to end the story before the epilogue. The most important item of the [S]Act 7 animation was the white juju in my opinion. And what was the white juju?
A literal fucking plot hole.
P.S.: Calliope created a black hole and cherubs mate around black holes, don’t know what to take from that.It’s early in the game. I have only been writing about this concept for four years. Okay, nine. Whatever! I keep at it. This is a work of pressthink that I am still trying to render properly for readers. Starts like so:
Alongside the production of news and commentary American journalists working in mainstream newsrooms have to continuously reproduce their own innocence. By “innocence” I mean some kind of public showing that they have no politics themselves, no views of their own, no side, no stake, no ideology and therefore no one can accuse them of unfairly tilting the news this way or that.
It’s not enough to proclaim innocence: we have no party, we take no side. In the style of journalism I’m talking about — still the house style at the AP, CNN, NPR, the BBC — innocence is a production requirement. If the requirement isn’t met, the work fails, and it can be sent back to the shop.
Sometimes innocence is built into the form. On CNN’s Crossfire, circa 2005, the show would open like this:
ANNOUNCER: From the left, Michael Kinsley… From the right, Mary Matalin.
This simple routine is a load-bearing feature of the show’s design, balancing the stresses on CNN’s reputation and restoring innocence nightly.
Any fan of NBA basketball has seen defenders put their hands up in the air ostentatiously, with funny facial expressions to match. It’s meant to show the refs: See? I’m not pushing. In news there are moves like that, and this is what I’m calling the production of innocence.
On July 29, the Associated Press sent out this bulletin:
As much of world watches Gaza war in horror, members of Congress fall over each other to support Israel: http://t.co/DepO2etLQS — The Associated Press (@AP) July 29, 2014
About five hours later the AP caught itself:
Many U.S. lawmakers strongly back Israel in Gaza war (revises wording in this @AP tweet: http://t.co/RZs5dh0m2L ): http://t.co/OvBKx75U6Z — The Associated Press (@AP) July 29, 2014
“Members of Congress fall over each other…” is a characterization of the facts chosen by the AP writer and supported by the information in the story. If there’s any situation in American politics where they “fall all over each other” it’s support for Israel in the United States Congress. So this statement is a little saucy, a little cynical but it is accurate. The AP nonetheless decided it was “too much.”
The original header produced the news well enough but it failed to produce enough innocence for the AP. “Many U.S. lawmakers strongly back Israel…” is not more true than “they fall over themselves.” But it is more innocent. When the switch is made the AP feed suffers a loss of vivid. Its colors wilt. There is less voice, less urgency in the language. And the AP willingly pays this cost. Why? Lots of reasons. I isolate these two:
* In the sociology of newswork one of the first things you learn is that a firm involved in news production is uniquely vulnerable to public criticism and prone to costly mistakes. A news report is a first draft, an improvised understanding. It is frequently wrong or blind. Therefore an established firm in the news business needs regular and reliable ways to protect itself from the criticism it knows will come, including some criticism for which there is no good defense, nothing beyond: I know, but we didn’t have time!
* In the American setting media bias is a driver in politics, and culture war is where some people go to live. A major provider like the AP gets hit hard in the bias wars, so the principle, don’t give them ammunition! has to be built into its routines. That’s the production of innocence. I’ve rendered it this way:
AP SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM: “Members of Congress fall over each other to support Israel.” INNOCENCE METER BOT: Headline script approved on accuracy. Failed on innocence. Please try again and re-submit. AP SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM: “Many U.S. lawmakers strongly back Israel in Gaza war.” INNOCENCE METER BOT: Headline script approved on accuracy. Approved on innocence. You are cleared to post.
William James used to call it the “cash value” of the concept. What can you do with it? Well, you can ask good questions.
Q. 1 The production of innocence has benefits that are obvious. Risk-reduction. Haven from criticism. But it also has costs. Loss of voice, loss of nerve. How do we know when the costs exceed the benefits?
Q. 2 And what if costs are rising in the field of innocence production? Isn’t that the whole point of making culture war on the media, to drive those costs up?
Q. 3 What advantages do born-digital newsrooms gain over legacy newsrooms when they decide they no longer care about the production of innocence– as say, Gawker, has?
Q. 4 When you finally come to the conclusion, there is no haven from criticism, the world doesn’t work that way any more, are the costs of producing innocence alongside the news still justifiable? (“BBC Trust says 200 senior managers trained not to insert ‘false balance’ into stories when issues were non-contentious.” Expensive!)
Q. 5 I know, I know: advertisers like the signs of innocence and advertisers pay the bills. How’s that going?
Q. 6 Let’s say you junk the innocence machinery. What gets put in its place? (My bet: “here’s where we’re coming from” + make a good argument + high standards of verification beats the old system.)
Q. 7 As they mount, reports that get “approved on accuracy” but “fail on innocence” represent colors of truth the news provider feels it cannot provide. Is that a trustworthy system?
Q. 8 Suppose you junk the production of innocence due to mounting costs and diminishing value. Now you have fewer means for avoiding criticism. Which means you have to reply more to criticism. But how do you do that well and still have time to produce the news?
I don’t know. But as I said, it’s early times.Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul heads west next week to campaign in the early voting states of Colorado and Nevada.
Although Nevada has been virtually ignored by his rivals, Paul has opened two offices there and unveiled his centerpiece budget plan in Las Vegas last October.
Paul did well in Nevada four years ago, placing second to Mitt Romney, who successfully leveraged his Mormon faith to draw in a sizable number of Mormon voters.
The campaign is seeking to do better with Mormon voters by explaining Paul's fidelity to the constitution.
"The nation is ready for a Mormon president," said James Barcia, Ron Paul's 2012 deputy press secretary. "But the question is, do you want someone who is constitutionally observant?"
Senior campaign aides also admit they are trying to court Hispanics, who represent a quarter of the state's population, through direct mail in both English and Spanish highlighting the congressman's medical background, faith, and family.
The campaign has been running television ads in the state since last summer and senior aides add that they will continue to run ads in the state through the Feb. 4 caucuses.
As in Iowa and New Hampshire, Paul's message will be delivered by utilizing a small army of mostly college-aged volunteers to help with phone banking and canvassing.
Paul's focus on Nevada is part of a comprehensive plan to pick up delegates in caucus states where TV advertising is cheaper and independents can vote.
If Paul comes up short on winning the nomination, Campaign Manager Jesse Benton says that they could use their allotted delegates as a bargaining chip to force the Republican Party to stick to its limited government platform.
Flush with cash from a $13 million fundraising haul last quarter, Paul said this morning he's in the race through the convention.
"We're going to stay in and see what comes of it," Paul said to CNN.Donald Trump's proposed budget eliminates funding for addressing and combating climate change, and increases funding for initiatives that will make it worse.
Donald Trump’s White House submitted a budget proposal seemingly designed to contribute to the acceleration of climate change and cause as much long-term harm to the Earth as possible.
The Trump budget calls for eliminations of funding for programs related to climate change across various agencies and departments, and for increases in funding for programs that will contribute to global instability.
At the Environmental Protection Agency, Trump’s budget calls for cutting funding by a full third — $2.6 billion — and the elimination of 3,200 jobs. Among the proposed cuts are a complete elimination of funding for all climate change research and international climate change programs.
Climate change is among the greatest existential threats to humanity, and Trump is proposing that we stop researching it altogether. It is also an issue that is only meaningfully addressed through international cooperation — climate recognizes no national boundaries, and you cannot “build a wall” around the climate of the United States.
The budget also proposes eliminating all funding for the enactment of the Clean Power Plan, which is a comprehensive set of regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. If greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated or increase, climate change will worsen in severity and speed.
At the Department of Commerce, funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been targeted for cuts. The proposed budget calls for complete elimination of funding for grants and programs for the NOAA’s coastal and marine management, research, and education programming. Global warming causes melting of polar ice caps, which in turn results in sea level rises. Combined with the more severe and erratic weather events that are a part of climate change, those higher sea levels present life-and-death threats to coastal areas and the people who live near them. The NOAA also performs climate change modeling, forecasting, and education to help people prepare for climate variability.
On the other hand, at the Department of Interior, the Trump proposal increases funding for programs that drill for oil and natural gas on publicly-owned lands, and simultaneously cuts funding for programs to preserve wildlife and National Heritage areas.
Reduced funding for preservation programs means there will be fewer employees to oversee the well-being of the wildlife and the national parklands owned by the American people. At the same time, increased funding for drilling on public lands sets the stage for probable destruction of pristine public lands by the oil and gas industry, with few if any staff available to monitor whether those areas are being violated or not.
Trump also wants to increase funding for the Department of Energy’s management of the nation’s nuclear weapon arsenal, and to reinstate funding for licensing of yet another nuclear waste storage site in the United States. In contrast, he proposes cutting or eliminating funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program.
Those programs were created as a bipartisan effort and authorized by former President George W. Bush to “identify the most urgent challenges the U.S. faces in maintaining leadership in key areas of science and technology” and identify steps to address them. The challenges include using technology to increase energy efficiency and alternative fuel sources in order to help address the pressing danger of climate change.
Trump has previously expressed bizarre sentiments regarding climate change, including complete disbelief in global warming, going so far as to call it a “concept” supposedly “created by and for the Chinese” to make the United States less competitive and labeling it “bullshit”:
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps,and our GW scientists are stuck in ice — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2014
Under Trump’s budget proposal, monies saved by these cuts will be funneled toward the Department of Defense for increases in military spending. While Trump clearly does not care about the evidence and realities regarding global warming and climate change, the Department of Defense does. In 2015, the DoD released a report recognizing climate change as a national security risk, observing:
Global climate change will aggravate problems such as poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership and weak political institutions that threaten stability in a number of countries…
If GOP lawmakers refuse to confront Trump over these ignorant and harmful cuts, Americans might find ourselves dependent on the DoD to do so.Pakistan and India say they have shot down each other's warplanes in a dramatic escalation of their conflict over the disputed region of Kashmir.
The Pakistani military initially said on February 27 that the country's air force had downed two India Air Force jets in its airspace and captured two pilots on the ground in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.
But a spokesman later tweeted that there was "only one pilot under Pakistan Army’s custody."
India confirmed the loss of one of its fighter jets and said a pilot was missing while it foiled an attack by Pakistan jets over the Himalayan region. It also said that it had shot down a Pakistani jet.
Amid the escalation, Pakistan closed its airspace to commercial flights “until further notice," while airports were shut in India and a vast area of airspace north of New Delhi was closed to civilian flights.
The developments come a day after Indian warplanes carried out an air strike in northeastern Pakistan on what New Delhi said was a militant training camp.
The aerial attack was the first launched across the Line of Control (LoC) that serves as a de facto border in Kashmir since a war between the two neighbors in 1971.
Tensions have been high between Islamabad and New Delhi since a February 14 suicide attack that killed at least 41 Indian troops in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is claimed by both countries.
In an address to the nation, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on February 27 called for talks with India and expressed hope that "better sense" will prevail to deescalate the situation.
"History tells us that wars are full of miscalculation. My question is that given the weapons we have, can we afford miscalculation?" Khan said. "We should sit down and talk."
Earlier in the day, Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said that his country "does not wish to see further escalation.”
“India will continue to act with responsibility and restraint," Swaraj said during a visit to China.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two of their three full-fledged wars over the Himalayan territory since their partition during independence from Britain in 1947.
In a separate incident on February 27, a helicopter crashed and exploded into flames outside the main city of Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir, killing three people, local officials said. The cause of the crash was unknown.
The day also saw shelling across the LoC that killed six civilians on the Pakistani side, authorities said.
India said its air strike early on February 26 killed "a very large number" of militants. Pakistan denied there had been casualties but warned that it would respond to what it called Indian “aggression.”
The Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militant group claimed responsibility for the February 14 attack on Indian security forces.
India said its neighbor had a "direct hand" in the attack and accused it of providing sanctuary to the militants. Islamabad denies involvement.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on February 27 that India and Pakistan should show the "utmost restraint."
"This has the potential to lead to serious and dangerous consequences for the two countries and the wider region," Mogherini said.
"We expect both countries to now exercise utmost restraint and avoid any further escalation of the situation," she added, urging the two sides to resume diplomatic contacts to defuse the crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called on India and Pakistan to avoid further military activity.
In a February 26 statement, Pompeo said he had spoken with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts.
"I expressed to both ministers that we encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost. I also encouraged both ministers to prioritize direct communication and avoid further military activity," he said.
Russia and China, a Pakistan ally, have also urged calm.
With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa, and RFE/RL's Radio MashaalPhoto
“Every four years, the summer Olympics get people excited to exercise,” says Glenn Gaesser, a professor and director of the Healthy Lifestyles Research Center at Arizona State University, who oversaw a new study about exercise and high blood pressure that was inspired in part by the coming games in London.
Phys Ed Gretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.
The streets and gyms fill with people who, fueled by stories of Olympic success, “run or work out for an hour or more,” Dr. Gaesser says. But “within a few weeks, most people have quit” and resumed their sedentary lives. “We wanted to see if there were approaches to exercise that would fit more easily into people’s lifestyles, but still be effective” in terms of improving health, he says.
Specifically, he and his colleagues hoped to determine whether breaking up exercise into small, manageable segments performed throughout the day would work as well as one longer, continuous bout.
So he and his colleagues gathered a group of adult volunteers. Each was generally healthy, except for some early symptoms of high blood pressure, a condition called prehypertension.
High blood pressure is, of course, one of the primary risk factors for heart disease and stroke, and prehypertension is one of the primary risk factors for full-blown high blood pressure. Almost 70 million Americans have prehypertension, Dr. Gaesser’s study reports, with symptoms like an average daily blood pressure approaching an unhealthy 140/90 and a tendency for blood pressure to spike to unequivocally dangerous levels throughout the day.
Encouragingly, prehypertension is known to respond well to exercise. But many studies of exercise and blood pressure have employed moderate exercise sessions lasting for an uninterrupted 30 minutes or so per day, which is the commonly recommended standard for improving health.
Dr. Gaesser, however, asked his volunteers to walk briskly at an intensity equaling about 75 percent of each volunteer’s maximum heart rate for 10 minutes three times during the day. The sessions took place at 9:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
On a separate day, the volunteers completed one 30-minute supervised session of brisk walking in midafternoon, while on a final day, they did not exercise at all.
All of them wore cuffs that monitored blood pressure continuously for 24 hours at a time.
As it turned out, exercise was helpful in controlling blood pressure, but breaking up the workout into three short sessions was significantly more effective than the single half-hour session. “The fractionized exercise led to lower average 24-hour blood pressure readings,” Dr. Gaesser says.
It also resulted in lower blood pressure “load,” or the number of incidences during the day when a volunteer’s blood pressure spiked above 140/90. Lowering blood pressure load is important, he points out, because a relatively high load “seems to be an indicator that someone with prehypertension is likely to progress” to full-blown, clinically high blood pressure.
Over all, the results “are really encouraging,” he says. “For people who think that 30 minutes of exercise is too hard or takes up too much time, we can say, just do 10 minutes” three times during the |
andan genocide led to the presence of local and foreign armed militias, all vying for control of mineral-rich land.
But the Kasai Central province where the U.N. experts were abducted represents a new expansion of tensions.
Petesch reported from Dakar, Senegal.A star-studded Hollywood fundraiser to aid hurricane victims unsurprisingly became a political soapbox for the A-list cast.
Hollywood rolled out its top celebrities Tuesday for the live broadcast of “Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Relief,” which was aimed at raising funds for victims of Hurricane Harvey which ravaged Texas and the Houston area, and Hurricane Irma, which slammed into Florida over the weekend.
Hand in Hand telethon raises more than $14 million in the first hour for hurricane survivors: https://t.co/wPCK1BGQ5G #HandInHand pic.twitter.com/mHHPyGHOdS — Good Morning America (@GMA) September 13, 2017
But no gathering of liberal celebrities would be complete without endless political jabs and hot air aimed at President Trump and anyone else who does not agree with their left wing religion.
Video: #HandInHand goes political SECONDS in as Steve Wonder says people who don’t accept climate change are “blind or unintelligent” #TTT pic.twitter.com/z1UmXJjZYe — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) September 13, 2017
Right out of the gate, Stevie Wonder began the show calling for everyone to come together and “to love” those affected by the storms, regardless of “political persuasions. He followed this with a political statement.
“Anyone who believes there is no such thing as global warming must be blind or unintelligent,” he said, using the moment to polarize a nation he just invited to come together.
Way to undermine the objective of the telethon by alienating half the country in the first 30 seconds. — Cousin Jimmy (@JC7U) September 13, 2017
He literally said there is no politics in hurricanes, then called people who don’t believe in global warming blind and unintelligent. Wow. — Peter (@eyebleedblue77) September 13, 2017
Houston native, Beyoncé, wasn’t far behind.
“During a time when it’s impossible to watch the news without seeing violence or racism in this country. Just when you think it couldn’t possibly be worse, natural disasters take precious life, do massive damage, and forever change lives,” she said in a pre-recorded video.
“The effects of climate change are playing out around the world everyday,” she continued, pointing an accusing finger at climate change as the cause behind the hurricanes, the recent earthquake in Mexico and a monsoon in India.
Climate scientists disagree but I’m sure Beyonce knows more than them. Stupid celebrities. @CurtisHouck @newsbusters @Beyonce — Tango Foxtrot (@TFinn82) September 13, 2017
The political posturing may not have reached the level of the 2005 telethon for victims of Hurricane Katrina, but the tone was there. That event was famously hijacked at one point by Kanye West’s infamous rant against former President George W. Bush.
“George Bush doesn’t care about black people,” West said with Mike Meyers, seeming stunned, stood by on stage.
With live feeds in Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, and San Antonio, celebrities like George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Julia Roberts, Drake, Luke Bryan, Dennis Quaid, Adam Sandler, Terry Crews, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwen Stefani, Ray Romano,, Cher and Tom Hanks either spoke, performed or even manned a phone during the hour-long telethon.
🎀Just got the word, over 15 MILLION was raised tonight. You guys are AMAZING!!!! Had such a good time speaking to all of you. #HandinHand pic.twitter.com/BjxwWQaPrs — NICKI MINAJ (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2017
But the underlying political tone was apparent as Trump’s immigration and climate change views seemed to provide the subtext for the charitable do-good message from many of the celebrities.
Many viewers were frustrated, however, that celebrities would pollute the message of compassion, calls for prayer and coming together amidst images of hurricane devastation and shattered lives of victims.
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Can we finally get back to playing musicians and actors? — Sam Ash (@samash_72) September 13, 2017
I won’t be watching #HandInHand – I’m not interested in the political opinions of unqualified ‘Entertainers’ – you are paid to entertain. — Harry Skintags (@ghost96b69) September 13, 2017
I’m glad I didn’t give money to the telethon. I’m sick of these aholes on the left thinking their beliefs are the only valid ones. F* them! — luv2runmh (@luv2runmh) September 13, 2017
Not a time to be political but, … 🎊climate change🎊
blah blah…… lol lol lol — Iamfromthefuture (@jjtallman) September 13, 2017
And making a needy cause into a political event is why I dont watch and why I dont donate. — Deplorable Rodney (@RodTod423) September 13, 2017
Stevie wonder just lost money from me with his elitist political mouth! Shows how ignorant he really is! — pam53 (@pam53) September 13, 2017
Bastardizing this fund raiser for their controversial opinions! Turned it off! #HandInHand — Ginnyabaker (@Ginnyabaker) September 13, 2017
What a waste this is pushing an agenda on the backs of hurricane Victims — Sue Riva (@Riva56Riva) September 13, 2017
Miss the days when most celebrities understood they were there to entertain people & kept their politics to themselves. Now they antagonize — MichaelATX (@MATX78704) September 13, 2017
And thousands of TV sets across the country were turned off. — Cousin Jimmy (@JC7U) September 13, 2017With the start of the summer transfer window, many of our favourite Iraqis abroad will be subject to much speculation as to where they will ply their trade in the upcoming season. Soccer Iraq presents you with five players and their most likely destination this transfer window.
Yaser Kasim
After four years and over 100 appearances with Swindon Town, the player’s journey with The Robins is all but over following the club’s relegation to the fourth tier of English football. Kasim’s contract is finished and he is now a free agent; very strong rumours are linking him to Bristol City, with Charlton Athletic also reportedly interested in the midfielder. A third offer from a Spanish side is also on the table for Kasim, who has not joined the Iraqi setup in what seems to be to finalise his next move.
Verdict: Leaving
Ali Faez
The 22 year-old centre-back joined Dhurgham Ismail at Caykur Rizespor last summer but has been unhappy with his lack of playing time at the Turkish club, which has led to him being left out of the Iraq national team squad. Ali featured 13 times for Rizespor this season, mostly in the cup competitions. It is suggest that a number of Turkish second division sides are interested in taking Ali on loan, while the player is said to want a return to the Iraqi Premier League.
Verdict: Likely Leaving
Osama Rashid
Osama has had a very fruitful spell with Santa Clara. After a disappointing start to the season at Lokomotiv Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Osama moved back to Portugal with Santa Clara, scoring 3 times in 13 games. The Iraqi Midfielder has many offers from South-East Asian clubs, however he wishes to remain in Europe, with many teams eager to attract his signature following his good performances with Santa Clara. However, Soccer Iraq can confirm that Osama wishes to stay with Santa Clara for the upcoming season.
Verdict: Staying
Ahmed Yasin
The AIK winger was one of the only bright sparks in a poor Muaither side last season in the Qatar Stars League. Ahmed scored four goals in 12 appearances and has stated interest in returning to the Qatari League. With playing opportunities becoming a rarity at AIK, Ahmed may find himself back in Qatar following his impressive loan stint with Muaither. Yasin is surely to become one of the league’s best players should he move to a stronger side.
Verdict: Likely Leaving
Dhurgham Ismail
The young left-back has impressed heavily in Turkey and become one of Caykur Rizespor’s main players. Playing 40 games this season, his performances have attracted interest from league champions Besiktas amongst other European outfits. However, following his unfortunate ACL injury in the very last game of the season, any potential transfer could be called off.
Verdict: Staying134 shares
One of my favorite foods that is low carb and totally keto friendly is butter! Now, I know Paula Deen has been having some bad publicity recently for some foul language, but this woman had it right when she would add more butter!
Now, I don’t mean to keep bringing more members of the Food Network into this, but I am a very fond of the Ina Garten, aka the Barefoot Contessa. One episode, she made these delicious looking sandwiches that are apparently popular in France. While I haven’t been to France, the idea of eating a crispy sandwich with the bite of a radish, the creaminess of the butter, and just a tad of salt/herbs just rubbed me the right way.
Want a printable version of ALL recipes from No Bun Please? No ads + Lifetime Updates for just $9.99! I'll even include my Keto Simplified Guide (exactly how I follow Keto) + Sample Meal Plans as well! ⇒ ⇒ Get it here ⇐ ⇐
You can find Ina’s original recipe here:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/radishes-with-butter-and-salt-recipe2/index.html
That’s when it came to me. I can still have this! Radishes are crispy and can still be the perfect vehicle for such a delicious creation.
These radishes spread with herb butter are sure to satisfy the crunch and creaminess of a decadent bistro Panini!
Macro/Nutrition: For 5* radishes and 2* tablespoons of herb butter, these come out to roughly 233 calories, 3 net carbs, 24 grams of fat, 2 grams of fiber and 1 grams of protein per serving!
Print Radishes with Creamy Herb Butter Ingredients radishes
1 stick butter unsalted room temperature
1 tablespoon thyme chopped
1 tablespoon rosemary chopped
1 tablespoon garlic minced
1 pinch sea salt Instructions Combine all ingredients and refrigerate. After the butter has hardened, set it out to become spreadable. Spread on top of sliced radishes. Sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy!
What are your favorite things to eat with radishes? Comment below!
Share This!According to News 1, this is actually happening!
's Kai, and's Taecyeon all in one drama?
The unbelievably amazing cast is for a new web drama titled, 'First Kiss for the Sixth Time '. It's a web drama produced by the 'Lotte Duty Free Shop', and will likely act as a promotional tool for the brand. Actress Lee Cho Hee, whomyou might recognize as Hwang Jung Eum's friend from drama'Lucky Romance ', has been cast as the female lead.
In 'First Kiss for the Sixth Time', Choi Ji Woo (played by Lee Cho Hee) attempts to pick the perfect partner for her first kiss among 6 different men. Her options are Lee Jong Suk, playing a top star, Ji Chang Wook, a sexy secret agent, Lee Jun Ki, a chaebol and church oppa, Park Hae Jin, a romantic coworker, Kai the adorable younger male friend, and Taecyeon, a naive rich kid.
This sounds too good to be true. Can you image this star-studded cast in 'First Kiss for the Sixth Time'?Page Pate is a criminal defense and constitutional lawyer based in Atlanta. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Georgia, a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project, a former board member of the Federal Defender Program in Atlanta, and former chairman of the criminal law section of the Atlanta Bar Association. Follow him on Twitter @pagepate The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
(CNN) James Comey is not primarily responsible for the political mess caused by the recent discovery of more emails that may be relevant to the investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. These newly uncovered emails were not written, sent or received by Comey. He didn't store them on his computer, and it wasn't his fault that they were not reviewed many months ago during the initial investigation. In fact, Comey never even knew these emails existed until now.
That's the problem. Neither Comey nor the FBI had the opportunity to review these emails before making the decision not to charge Hillary Clinton. Discovering them now, so close to the election, has caused a political maelstrom that may pose a problem for Hillary Clinton's apparently smooth ride to victory in the last days of this campaign. But this problem wasn't created by Comey. The FBI found new information that's potentially relevant to the investigation we all thought was over. Now someone has to deal with this information, and that job belongs to James Comey.
Comey's bosses at the Justice Department reportedly disagreed with him that he should send the letter to Congress about the discovery of the emails, and they think his actions may violate department policies. Two former deputy attorney generals have said his actions are "damaging our democracy." CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan wrote that Comey has "forgotten how to conduct a proper investigation" and should resign. While I have great respect for Paul Callan, Jamie Gorelick, Larry Thompson, and the current Justice Department leadership, I don't think James Comey is really the villain in this political drama.
I can't imagine that Comey wanted these emails to pop up now. I am sure he would have preferred that he and his team had access to these emails during the initial investigation many months ago when the FBI was interviewing top-level Clinton staffers. But these emails, for whatever reason, were not provided to the investigators then and were only discovered during a separate, presumably unrelated, investigation. Comey didn't go looking for new information, it came to him.
And what was Comey supposed to do with this new, potentially relevant information? Ignore it? Tell his staff he would look into it later, when it was more politically and personally convenient to do so? No, I think the obvious answer is that he had to deal with this information the minute it was brought to his attention. That's what he did.
With this new information, it appears that Comey and the FBI are moving as quickly as possible to determine whether these emails are material to the earlier investigation. The Justice Department obtained a search warrant over the weekend that will allow a closer inspection and analysis of the emails and the device they were stored on. How long that process will take is still anyone's guess. (CNN reported that FBI officials learned of the emails weeks ago; it remains to be determined why their existence wasn't announced before Friday.)
Once Comey made the decision that he needed to look into these emails, was he supposed to keep it a secret? Perhaps that would have been consistent with department policy in a traditional investigation, but this investigation has been anything but traditional. Having publicly stated in June that the investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server was complete, it makes perfect sense that he would want to let Congress know he was just made aware of previously undiscovered evidence that may be relevant to that investigation. Although this development doesn't make his earlier testimony before Congress untruthful, it is certainly inconsistent with it.
FBI needs to be thorough
We want the FBI to be thorough and diligent. And, especially when the investigation involves someone who is potentially the next president, we want to make sure the process is both fair and transparent. That's what I think Comey is trying to do.
To be clear, I don't think Comey had to send that letter to Congress. There was no need to "supplement" his previous testimony. The testimony he gave to Congress that the investigation was complete was certainly accurate at the time. He was under no legal or ethical obligation to supplement, amend or otherwise change his testimony based on the recent discovery of these emails. What he said in September was accurate when he said it. Looking into these newly discovered emails now doesn't change the truthfulness of his earlier statements to Congress.
Many people have criticized Comney's "reopening" of a "closed investigation." I don't think that's an accurate description of what's happening. There is an important difference between "complete" and "closed" in this context. In my experience, federal criminal investigations are never really closed until the statute of limitations runs out and there is no more time to legally bring criminal charges against someone. While the Clinton investigation may have been "complete" in July, it was always subject to being revisited if new information was discovered. That's exactly what happened last week.
Transparency
While I don't think Comey had to send that letter, I completely understand why he did. He decided, correctly in my opinion, to let the American public know why he had opted not to recommend charges against Clinton. He subjected himself to lengthy, aggressive questioning from both friendly and hostile politicians when he appeared before Congress to defend his decision not to charge her. During his sworn testimony, he made it clear the investigation was over. Now that it appears there may be other information to consider, it is entirely reasonable for him to let Congress know about it.
Ultimately, I don't think these emails will amount to anything significant. Even if there is classified information contained in these emails, I don't expect it will be enough to bring criminal charges against Clinton or her longtime close aide, Huma Abedin. While I am much more troubled by the fact these emails were not voluntarily disclosed earlier, I doubt there is a strong case for obstruction of justice. But that doesn't mean the FBI shouldn't do its job and look into them. If the emails are as voluminous as we have been told, that is going to take some time. The review won't, and shouldn't, be complete before the election.
I think we need to take a step back and acknowledge that, if anyone is to blame for this mess, it is Hillary Clinton and her staff. Had she been as diligent about following the proper procedures as she was about protecting her personal privacy, then none of this would be an issue and she might be on her way to winning the presidency in a landslide.
Not only was her use of that private email server " extremely careless," but her cooperation in the ensuing investigation also seems reluctant at best, obstructive at worst. Once Clinton became aware of the nature of this investigation, she should have done everything humanly possible to get any potentially relevant information produced to Comey and his team for a thorough review. That would include asking Abedin to check for emails at home.
Whatever Clinton's reasons, she and her staff either did a poor job of looking for all their emails or they didn't really look at all. Emails were not disclosed, some were even destroyed. And now, some additional potentially relevant emails were only uncovered due to a separate criminal investigation into Abedin's estranged husband's sexting activities.
Had the FBI had these emails earlier, they would have already been carefully reviewed and likely discarded as not being material to the investigation or not significant enough to change Comey's decision not to recommend prosecution. There would be nothing new to see here, and no political crisis for the Clinton campaign.
Conflicted
I was skeptical when I first heard that the final decision to bring criminal charges would be left to Comey. It's not that I questioned his ability to make that decision, or that I thought he would try to cover anything up to help Hillary Clinton. I knew he would act impartially, guided by the law and the best interests of the country. But I also knew that having him make the final decision would put him in the center of a political controversy that would have been best avoided by the appointment of a special prosecutor.
James Comey is the director of the FBI. As head of the FBI, he is employed by the Justice Department. This is the same Justice Department that is run by Loretta Lynch, who previously decided to step aside and leave the final decision about prosecuting Clinton to Comey, her subordinate. There was no prosecutor tasked with reviewing the FBI's work on this case and making the final decision about bringing criminal charges. Instead, it was all left up to Comey.
Comey works for Lynch, Lynch works for the President, and the President is an outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton, the focus of the investigation. If there was ever a case that cried out for a special prosecutor, this would be it.
Of course, it hardly looks like Comey is favoring Clinton right now. Dredging up the email investigation so close to the election obviously helps Donald Trump's flailing campaign and bolsters other Clinton critics. But this is a consequence of factors outside the control of James Comey.
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For him to have sat on this information to avoid a potential political controversy would have been wrong. Yes, it is against department policy to comment on pending investigations, especially so close to an election. But this has never been an investigation conducted according to policy.
I think Jim Comey is doing his job, and doing it well. From everything I know it appears he is putting the best interests of his country above his own. It must have been obvious to him that his decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton would cause outrage among many Republicans. It must have also been obvious to him that his comments about Clinton being "extremely careless" would cause much heartburn among Democrats. But he did what he thought was right, regardless of the political consequences.
Jim Comey may not have a friend left in Washington after all this is over, but the rest of America owes him our thanks.Because they only have their main engines for propulsion, today's massive modern jet liners can burn hundreds of pounds of fuel just taxiing from the boarding gate to the runway. That translates to multiple tons of wasted fuel every year and more than $1.1 billion in added operating expenses. But with this new electrical wheel drive, airliners will finally only need their engines for flying, not driving.
The WheelTug e-taxi system from Borealis Exploration Limited is a nosewheel-mounted, induction motorized ground propulsion system. Measuring less than five inches in width and weighing about 300 pounds, this system produces enough force to push a 200,000-pound A320 around a tarmac.
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"The idea of putting an on-board electric drive system on aircraft is not new, since there are so many clear advantages," Isaiah Cox, WheelTug President and CEO, said in a press statement. "But until recently there was no electric motor technology with the capability to produce the required high torque for its small size, weight and safety profile to make it possible."
And since it doesn't require the plane's engines to work, powered instead by the aircraft's APU (auxiliary power unit), the flight crew only needs to rev up the main engines upon take-off, thereby saving time, fuel, maintenance, and money. Lots and lots of money. The system is expected to reduce the operating cost of each aircraft by as much as $500,000 per year or about $700 per flight.
"We believe on-board electric motors have a great many advantages," added Bob Carman, Chorus Motors' former WheelTug program manager. "They could reduce the need for ground tugs and their associated costs, allow faster flight turnarounds and increased fuel efficiency per trip, and reduce airplane noise and emissions at airports, to name just a few advantages." What's more, these drives allow the plane to rotate in place so rather than pull in and out of a single gate, the plane could pull up, turn 90 degrees, and unload passengers from both the front and rear doors—halving the time it takes to board or disembark.
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Short-haul flights are expected to see the largest savings since they spend a higher proportion of their time on the ground than longer flights. However airport traffic in general should improve if these become widely used as planes will be able to queue themselves rather than wait for a taxi cart. [Wheel Tug 1, 2 - Wiki - Flight Global - Boeing]
It's one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, so what better time to take a closer look at how we get where we're going—and how we could be doing it better? Check out more of Gizmodo's Air Travel Week posts here.More east Multnomah County communities were ordered to evacuate immediately late Monday as the Eagle Creek Fire continued to spread.
Officials also closed Interstate 84 between Troutdale and Hood River.
The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office said it had issued Level 3 evacuation orders in the communities of Dodson, Warrendale, Larch Mountain and East Corbett (east of Larch Mountain Road), meaning residents should leave immediately.
It also issued Level 2 evacuation orders for Latourell and Bridal Veil, where residents were to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.
All other Corbett residents are under a Level 1 evacuation order, meaning they should pack their belongings in preparation for an evacuation. The Corbett School District will be closed Tuesday.
Earlier Level 1 evacuation notices in Cascade Locks, meanwhile, are now Level 2, Hood River County officials said.
The evacuations were quickly expanded Monday night as the fire grew. Multnomah County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Chad Gaidos said the sudden orders were a testament to the fast-moving nature of the fire.
The National Weather Service said late Monday the fire had moved four miles west in 3 hours, and that the fire's perimeter was now just two miles from Multnomah Falls.
Deputies were going door-to-door alerting residents of the evacuation orders Monday night.
Gaidos said there was also concern that embers carried by the wind could ignite grassfires outside of the fire's perimeter.
"We're asking people, if you find embers around you and you're concerned about the well-being of your property, to evacuate immediately," he said.
The county has opened a shelter for evacuees at the Yoshida Event Center at Mt. Hood Community College, 26000 SE Stark St. in Gresham. Pets are welcome at the shelter.
It's also set up a call center for people with livestock to call for assistance moving them out of the fire area. Those residents can call 503-823-2323.
The Oregon Department of Transportation, meanwhile, has closed I-84 from Troutdale to Hood River. The agency is diverting truck traffic to U.S. 26 as an alternate route. Other vehicles can cross the Columbia River into Washington and take State Route 14 between Hood River and Portland.
Gaidos said evacuees would be allowed to use the interstate to evacuate.
The Bridge of the Gods, which crosses the Columbia River at Cascade Locks, has been closed to southbound traffic on the Washington state side.
The fire has grown to 4,800 acres since it started Saturday, and firefighters have made no progress containing it. Police, meanwhile, believe the fire was caused by illegal fireworks and have identified a teenage suspect but have made no arrest.
Easterly winds sent smoke and ash west into Portland and other metro area communities.
Eagle Creek fire zero percent contained as Red Cross shelters evacuees The Red Cross is preparing for more people seeking shelter as the Eagle Creek fire grows.
-- Elliot Njus and Samantha MatsumotoAS BIRTHDAYS go, it could have been a happier one. Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, celebrated his 52nd on November 23rd with a hand-picked crowd of supporters and public employees in a cramped square in the centre of Caracas. His birthday wish was to live (and presumably to govern) for another 50 years to see “Bolivarian socialism” come to fruition.
In fact, time may be running out for the revolution. The price of Venezuelan oil, source of 96% of Venezuela’s foreign-exchange earnings, has dropped from $99 to $69 a barrel since June. The economy is in a deep recession and inflation is headed for triple-digit rates. Basic goods like flour and cooking oil are in short supply and queues to obtain them are common. More than two-thirds of voters think Mr Maduro should not serve out his six-year term, which began just last year (see chart); more than a quarter of those are supporters of the government. Parliamentary elections, to be held by December next year, cannot unseat Mr Maduro. But they offer a chance to break the monopoly of power exercised by his Bolivarian socialists since his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, became president in 1999. He died in 2013.
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Without Chávez’s charisma and oil-fuelled largesse to hold it together, Mr Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) is fracturing. Fissures are appearing as well in the façade of unity presented by the regime’s civilian-military leadership. Mr Maduro must reform destructive exchange- and price-control mechanisms to have any hope of reviving the economy but has so far balked for fear of alienating the government’s supporters.
After his re-election in 2006 Chávez demanded that all parties supporting the revolution merge to form the PSUV and told those that refused to “go on their way”. Now factions are proliferating, threatening to split the shrunken pro-government vote. Timid though Mr Maduro’s reforms have been, some leftist factions accuse him of betraying Chávez’s socialist legacy. Several unhappy groups are seeking independent registration with the electoral authority.
The PSUV has set up an e-mail address and telephone hot-line for denouncing what a senior party official, Francisco Ameliach, termed “internal enemies” who foment division. The strains became obvious when the PSUV held internal elections on Maduro’s birthday. Its leaders had called on members to celebrate by turning out in force. Embarrassingly few did. No official reports were available, but party dissidents said a tenth or less of the supposed 7.6m militants cast a vote. Three prominent dissidents said their names had mysteriously been removed from the online register of members, depriving them of the right to vote.
A separate confrontation is taking place between armed civilian “collectives” and elements of the military. The collectives act as fixers and enforcers for the government. They channel money into the barrios and push out criminal gangs but also intimidate political opponents. Some reportedly engage in extortion and drug-trafficking themselves. They are aligned with far-left politicians within the regime, many of whom are wary of the armed forces; the generals, in turn, are suspicious of armed groups outside their control.
The conflict broke out on October 7th, when police killed five of the collectives’ leaders, including José Odreman, a former policeman closely linked to leading members of the government. Their outraged supporters demanded, and obtained, the dismissal of the interior minister, Miguel Rodríguez Torres, a general who for many years had headed the intelligence service (Sebin). Mr Maduro then named Freddy Bernal, a leading figure on the civilian left with close ties to the collectives, to “reform” the police.
The regime has survived many such internal clashes and remains a potent political force, especially in rural areas. It also controls all the country’s main institutions, including the armed forces and the oil industry. Its instinct for survival has so far held it together.
The best chance of rattling it will come in next year’s elections. Although the PSUV remains easily the biggest single party, its hold is weakening. The death of Chávez “put an end to the emotional link with the leader” felt by grass-roots chavistas, says Alonso Moleiro, a political pundit. The current crisis “lays bare the erosion of the PSUV as a mass movement”.
But that is no guarantee that the opposition will win. The Democratic Unity (MUD) alliance is almost as divided as the PSUV. It consists of a couple of dozen parties, the most important of which differ over tactics. Many of its supporters are reluctant to vote because they have no faith in the electoral authority, which is controlled by the government. Just a quarter of the electorate trusts it.
If the opposition manages to win a simple majority in the National Assembly it will be able to block the government’s budget measures and summon ministers for questioning. That would impose more accountability on the regime than it has faced in its 16-year history. If it is to seize that chance, the MUD will need discipline, unity and luck.Barkhad Abdi Is An Academy Award Nominee And He Has No Money At All By Mack Rawden Random Article Blend
The latest edition of Captain Phillips, which seems about right since it was his first role and the major players at the top took paycuts to keep the budget around $50 million or so. That’s a nice enough chunk of change to live off of, but considering the movie was filmed two years ago, it’s not a surprise it hasn’t lasted, especially since Abdi quit his job as a mobile phone salesman when the film came out.
Moving forward, Abdi is reportedly planning to move out to Los Angeles to give acting a real go, but in order to make all of his Academy Awards appearances, he needed a little help from Sony. Executives have reportedly put him up at the Beverly Hilton, have given him a small amount of per diem money, some clothing loaners and usage of a car to get to and from events. On the surface, that sounds great, but in practice, he’s a dude in a strange place (he lives in Minneapolis) who doesn’t really know anyone and doesn’t currently possess the resources to do what he wants with his free time.
That being said, there’s no reason to think Abdi’s situation won’t change moving forward. He’s a great actor who has already boarded the marathon running drama The Place That Hits The Sun and is reportedly reading plenty of scripts to find some roles moving forward. He’ll get some opportunites through that, and they will net higher paydays, maybe not Brad Pitt paydays, but he’ll be able to buy his own tuxedos, at least provided he manages his money a little better than
One of the serious downsides of being an actor is the ups and downs. Sometimes you jump from one project to another. Sometimes it takes months or even years to find a new part that really works. Here’s to hoping Abdi’s work life moving forward is filled with a whole lot more ups than downs.
To relive Abdi in Captain Phillips, you can check out the trailer for the film below…
People often think fame and money are directly linked. They’re not. High end actors whose names appear in big letters on movie posters make an outlandish amount of money. Those who play supporting roles can earn nice little paychecks too, but it can be years between these parts. Take Captain Phillips actor and Academy Award nominee Barkhad Abdi. He may have been living the high life at the Oscars on Sunday, but apparently, he’s broke and wearing borrowed clothing.The latest edition of The New Yorker contains a fascinating profile of the actor, and in it, his financial situation is outlined a little bit. Apparently, Abdi was paid $65,000 for, which seems about right since it was his first role and the major players at the top took paycuts to keep the budget around $50 million or so. That’s a nice enough chunk of change to live off of, but considering the movie was filmed two years ago, it’s not a surprise it hasn’t lasted, especially since Abdi quit his job as a mobile phone salesman when the film came out.Moving forward, Abdi is reportedly planning to move out to Los Angeles to give acting a real go, but in order to make all of his Academy Awards appearances, he needed a little help from Sony. Executives have reportedly put him up at the Beverly Hilton, have given him a small amount of per diem money, some clothing loaners and usage of a car to get to and from events. On the surface, that sounds great, but in practice, he’s a dude in a strange place (he lives in Minneapolis) who doesn’t really know anyone and doesn’t currently possess the resources to do what he wants with his free time.That being said, there’s no reason to think Abdi’s situation won’t change moving forward. He’s a great actor who has already boarded the marathon running dramaand is reportedly reading plenty of scripts to find some roles moving forward. He’ll get some opportunites through that, and they will net higher paydays, maybe not Brad Pitt paydays, but he’ll be able to buy his own tuxedos, at least provided he manages his money a little better than some One of the serious downsides of being an actor is the ups and downs. Sometimes you jump from one project to another. Sometimes it takes months or even years to find a new part that really works. Here’s to hoping Abdi’s work life moving forward is filled with a whole lot more ups than downs.To relive Abdi in, you can check out the trailer for the film below… Blended From Around The Web Facebook
Back to topWith WWE Smackdown in town tonight, WWE Superstar Daniel Bryan stopped by the 6abc studios to discuss a plethora of subjects.
Bryan, one half of the new WWE tag team champions, regaled us with stories on grammar and more.
The WWE Superstars gave us an update on hall-of-famer Jerry "The King" Lawler, who suffered a heart attack last week.
Bryan also talked about his viral catchphrases "Yes" and "No," how he maintains his wild beard," anger management, and what you can expect tonight at Smackdown.
Then Daniel Bryan helps us out with a yard sale and gives a 'Yes" or "No" on a variety of items - from a John Cena action figure to a Tickle Me Elmo. It must be seen to believe!!!
You can see Daniel Bryan, Kane, Sheamus, and more Superstars for WWE Smackdown at the Wells Fargo Center tonight.
For tickets, visit ComcastTix.
For more information on WWE, visit WWE.comLampre and Wilier have split, leaving the latter out of the WorldTour in 2013, but with Mantova and Padua looming, the team is under fire
MILAN (VN) — Italy’s Lampre and Wilier families are at odds and splitting after a successful 10-year run. The first division team |
someone to take it off her hands.
The Posts were a little worried about taking on such a long obligation, but they couldn't pass up a monthly payment under $700. Now they're having regrets.
The dealership, near the Posts' home in Victorville, made it easy; it just added the old debt to the price of the new truck and gave the couple a seven-year, $44,276 loan.
When Jennifer and Bobby Post traded in their 2001 Chevy Suburban last year for a shiny new Ford F-350 turbo diesel with an extended cab, it seemed like a great deal. Even though they still owed $9,500 on their SUV after the trade-in value, they didn't have to put a penny down.
"We have no options," she said.
Americans haven't just been taking out risky mortgages for homes in the last few years; they've also been signing larger automobile loans for significantly longer terms than they used to.
As a result, people are slipping into a perpetual cycle of automobile debt that experts think could lead to a new credit crunch extending from dealerships to driveways and all the way to Wall Street.
Gone are the days of the three-year car loan. The length of the average automobile loan hit five years, four months in October, up more than six months from 2002, according to the Federal Reserve. And nearly 45% of loans written today are for longer than six years. Even some staid lenders owned by the carmakers, such as Toyota Financial Services and Ford Credit, are offering seven-year financing. And a few credit unions, particularly in the West, are tinkering with the eight-year note.
At the same time, the amount of money drivers owe on their cars is soaring. In October, the average amount financed hit $30,738, up $3,500 in just a year and nearly 40% in the last decade, according to the Fed. More troubling, today's average car owner owes $4,221 more than the vehicle is worth at the time it's sold -- up from $3,529 in 2002, according to industry analyst Edmunds.
The longer loans are directly related to the higher balances. By extending the length of loans, lenders keep monthly payments down. But because these loans take longer to pay off, a much larger piece of the principal remains unpaid at the time the car is traded in.
The response of the automotive finance industry? Extend loans further and allow the indebted customer to roll what he owes into a new loan with little, if any, effect on his new monthly payment. In effect, the driver is paying a loan on two -- or more -- cars at once.
Richard Apicella, head of Benchmark International's auto finance division, published a report on car loans last month that called the ever-lengthening deals a "dangerous" problem. Combined with Americans' desire to drive new cars every few years, he said, the effect "is like a drug. Once you get hooked on it, it gets harder and harder to break the cycle."
From the point of view of those who sell cars and car loans, long-term loans are good for business and good for buyers.
"The job of a successful dealer is to find a funding package that's acceptable to the customer," said Paul Taylor, chief economist of the National Automobile Dealers Assn. "These loans allow them to get a luxury car rather than a more modestly priced vehicle."The footage belongs in the World Cup hall of infamy. Patrice Evra, hands tucked inside his pockets, is stood on the pitch at France’s training base in Knysna, arguing with Robert Duverne, the fitness coach. Raymond Domenech, the France manger, steps in and holds back Duverne, who is furious. Evra heads in one direction and Duverne in the other, leaving Domenech reduced to the humiliating role of reading out a statement from the players explaining why they are boycotting training.
It was an extraordinary scene, one that was played out in front of the world’s media in South Africa and provoked outrage in France. Nicolas Anelka, the man at the centre of the dispute, received an 18-match ban from the French Football Federation. Evra, the captain and leader of the rebellion, was suspended for five games. The real punishment, though, was the damage to Evra’s reputation.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The row with France's fitness coach at South Africa 2010 which made Patrice Evra a national pariah.
Lilian Thuram, a member of France’s 1998 World Cup winning team, argued that Evra should never be allowed to represent his country again. The French media piled in and the backlash, not surprisingly, was unforgiving. “Evra has confused the function of the captain with the role of the leader of a gang,” wrote L’Equipe. “He has neither the dimension, the charisma or the aura to wear the armband.”
It could easily have been the end of him as an international footballer but Evra never entertained that thought and now he has his reward. Four years on from the South Africa debacle, Evra has lost the armband, as well as a yard or two of pace, but not his place in the France team. As one of only four survivors from the 2010 World Cup, the Manchester United defender will line up against Nigeria at the Estádio Nacional on Monday night with a place in the quarter-finals, and a shot at redemption, the prize.
This is not, however, the Evra of old, as those who watched him at Old Trafford last season (and expect him to lose his place to Luke Shaw next term) will testify. The rampaging wing-back that Sir Alex Ferguson signed from Monaco eight years ago is no longer able to go through the gears, to the point that some in France consider Evra a weak link in Didier Deschamps’ reinvigorated team. Evra, though, has two things in his favour: experience and the total faith that Deschamps has in him.
Deschamps signed Evra for Monaco in 2002, made him vice-captain, worked with him for three seasons and came to admire the person as well as the player. Their relationship is tight; some close to the French camp go as far as to say that it is like father and son. Deschamps sees Evra as a leader, not a troublemaker.
In a crucial qualification game against Belarus last September, Evra delivered at half-time what Franck Ribéry described as “a man’s speech”. Evra was one of the substitutes at the time and France were losing 1-0. They ended up winning 4-2 and Evra was widely praised for his part in the turnaround. Afterwards, Noël Le Graët, the FFF president, went as far as to say that Evra is a “great man”.
Far more important to the 33-year-old is the respect he continues to command from the players. He does not need to be given the job of calling heads or tails before kick-off to speak with authority and make his voice heard. “The captain is Hugo Lloris. I am captain in my club and that’s enough for me, and to be confirmed on the left side for the France national team,” Evra said before the 5-2 win over Switzerland in Salvador. “I did not need the armband to do my work in the dressing room and on the field. It’s beautiful to be captain, it is honourable, but it is not the most important.”
Those comments were made at France’s training camp in Ribeirão Preto, where Evra addressed the media on international duty for the first time in two years. The subject of South Africa is largely considered off limits out here – Deschamps made that clear before the opening game against Honduras – but it is impossible to avoid what happened in 2010 when Evra is the man talking into the microphone.
Evra recognised as much and his responses were well received. There was laughter when he spoke about his failure to find the “traitor” he accused of leaking the story about Anelka’s scathing half-time verbal assault on Domenech – “I was determined to find the mole … and I have still not found it!” – and respect when he acknowledged he had been far too consumed by the responsibility he carried in South Africa. “I took my role a little too much to heart and I was eaten,” Evra said.
Not that it was ever likely to break him. Born in Dakar and raised in a high-rise tower block in the south of Paris as the youngest of eight children, Evra is well-versed in dealing with adversity. Little has been straightforward in his football career, going right back to the start when he travelled to Italy as a teenager and was in tears at a train station in Milan, after being unable to work out the connection he needed to get to Marsala, the Sicilian club he was joining.
Evra had done little travelling at the time, had next to no money and was unable to speak anything other than French. He was totally out of his comfort zone and would have given up and gone home but for his mother insisting he got a grip of the situation. He was preparing to sleep outside the station until a stranger offered him a mattress for the night and put him on the right train the next day.
Several years later, following a career-defining move to Old Trafford, Evra looked lost again, only this time on the pitch. When he made his debut for United in a 3-1 defeat at Manchester City in January 2006, Ferguson dragged his new signing off after 45 minutes. United were losing 2-0 at the time and Evra’s first appearance for the club had turned into a nightmare. “A total disaster,” Ferguson writes in his autobiography. “You could see him thinking: ‘Why am I here?’”
Evra, as Ferguson goes on to note, settled and developed into a “stellar acquisition” for United, with his impressive performances at club level eventually making him a regular for his country. He did not, however, make the 2006 World Cup squad and when the European Championship came around two years later, Evra found himself playing for what was effectively France’s second string against a team of amateurs in a pre-tournament friendly. “I came from winning the Champions League and I find myself playing against bakers!” Evra recalled laughing.
Eventually, though, he took over from Eric Abidal and his hold on the left-back spot at this World Cup was strengthened from the moment that Deschamps decided to leave Manchester City’s Gaël Clichy at home and bring the 20-year-old Lucas Digne, the talented but inexperienced Paris Saint-Germain defender, instead. Evra insists that he feels under pressure – “Didier Deschamps does not do gifts and that’s what I like … I know that with the slightest misstep I can be out of this team” – but his place in the starting XI feels nailed on in Brazil.
A World Cup quarter-final would represent some turnaround for a player who sat on the bench for the last group game in South Africa, when France lost 2-1 against the host nation and returned home in disgrace. Evra immediately apologised for the training ground nonsense and kept his head down before reverting to type. “After my five-match ban, I tried to make myself small but it did not work,” he said. “When you have it in your blood, your nature returns quickly. I went back to being myself.”Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Credit:Andrew Meares "It is hard to see how this would comply with international law," said Adam Molnar, a lecturer in criminology at Deakin University. "It is mass undifferentiated surveillance that can be used regardless of innocence and no participation in a criminal activity." Mr Molnar, a member of the Australian privacy foundation, said the proposal did not allow for consent from people to hand over their biometric information when they were in public. "There is no opt-out for this, so in a criminal justice context, this breaks down the conventional notion of a probable cause for stop and search powers," he said.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian Credit:Dan Himbrechts "There has been a long standing clause for law enforcement that they have to have a probable cause to conduct a search. This runs dangerously close if not over that line." Mr Turnbull said he was "determined to keep Australians safe," after announcing a suite of other new national security proposals on Wednesday, including detaining terrorism suspects for 14 days without charge, and new laws that would make it an offence to possess "instructional terrorist material" and make terrorism hoaxes. Justice Minister Michael Keenan says it is "deeply regrettable" authorities should have to consider detaining suspects as young as 14 for up to 14 days. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen States give backing
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian became the first state premier to back the Prime Minister's national security push before leaving for Canberra on Thursday. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Credit:Jason South "We want to work with other states and the Commonwealth. If technology can support the great work we're doing... of course we'll support those initiatives," she said. "Sometimes it does mean that all of us have to give up a little bit of our civil liberties." Drivers could have their details recorded in a national database under the new laws planned by the Turnbull government.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he was willing to hand over the licence details of millions of Victorians. "In relation to sharing important information from VicRoads so you can get a better more accurate facial recognition system, we are prepared to do that," he said. Up to 50 per cent of Australians are already on the federal government's facial recognition database through their passports, Mr Turnbull told ABC radio. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 90 per cent of NSW and Victorian residents have their driver's licence by their mid-30s, while between 70-80 per cent have them in their 20s. Driver's licence ownership falls off sharply after people hit 70. It is understood real time monitoring of the CCTV in privately owned areas such as shopping centres and football matches would only be undertaken by high-ranking police officers matching the identity database in the event of a credible threat.
If police were looking for suspects after an event, only they would be able to use the identity scanner on the CCTV network. Hacking threat Mr Turnbull dismissed concerns that such a vast identity database would be vulnerable to hacking. "The alternative is to not use data at all," he said. "You can't allow the risk of hacking to prevent you from doing everything you can to keep Australians safe." Justice Minister Michael Keenan said law enforcement was still operating in the 1950s with its facial recognition methods.
"Currently when they need to identify people through their face it can take them over a week," he said. "We should be giving police the tools they need to be doing their job properly". The youngest targets of Mr Turnbull's national security push, terrorism suspects as young as 14, would not be able to be recognised through the technology given they are ineligible for a driver's licence. But they would be able to be interrogated for up to 14 days before being charged for terrorism offences under the government's proposal. "It is deeply regrettable that we would have to deal with people as young as that for terrorism offences," Mr Keenan told the ABC. "But unfortunately this is the situation we have found ourselves in.
"There will be extra safeguards put in place for young people, as [there] always is, but we won't allow those safeguards to prevent people from doing their jobs." The COAG national security meeting will take place three days after 58 people were killed and almost 500 injured in the Las Vegas shooting massacre. Since September 2014, there have been five terrorism attacks in Australia and 13 major operations have disrupted terrorism plots. Loading With James Robertson, Nino BucciCalculator² is the beautifully designed, all-in-one calculator app for students and professionals. The advanced scientific, financial and programmer calculators provide a comprehensive set of mathematical functions and constants to help you perform any type of calculation. The currency converter, with exchange rates updated in real-time, and unit converter offer 150+ World currencies and over 200 units respectively, with customisable favourites to allow you to save conversions for easy reference. Calculator² won't slow you down; the intuitive keyboard support allows you to simply type in functions to enter your calculations. With the incorporation of fluent design, Calculator² feels right at home on your Windows 10 desktop. The app is also available in the App Store and on Google Play, so you can enjoy the same the same great features across you PC and mobile devices. Included: Scientific Calculator Programmer Calculator Financial Calculator* Basic Calculator Currency Converter* Unit Converter * Unlocked with an in-app purchase. All other calculators are completely free! Scientific Calculator An advanced calculator with a comprehensive set of mathematical functions including trigonometric, hyperbolic, logarithmic, exponential, factorial, combination and permutation. Over 125 mathematical and physical constants are accessible in an easy-to-navigate list. Implicit multiplication and operator precedence are supported for faster input, while the unique memory mode also provides a facility for statistical functions. Programmer Calculator A powerful tool for conversions between decimal, hexadecimal, octal and binary number bases, with a unique view for entering ASCII keys. Bitwise operations including AND, OR, XOR and NOT are available, in addition to functions not usually found in a programmer calculator, such as square and factorial. Financial Calculator A calculator with a variety of functions for performing financial calculations, such as determining the monthly payments on a loan or the price of an item after tax has been applied. Individual rates can be set for markup, discount, tax and interest. Perfect for students and professionals who wish to verify the results of time value of money calculations. Basic Calculator A simple, easy-to-use calculator for quick, everyday calculations. Currency Converter A currency calculator providing accurate conversions between 150+ World currencies. The exchange rates are easily updated to real-time values from the Open Exchange Rates API, while favourite currency conversions can be saved for easy comparisons. Unit Converter A comprehensive unit converter with over 200 units across 26 categories, including temperature, fuel consumption, viscosity, radiation and more.The Los Angeles City Council has voted to ban hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries that have cropped up across the city.
The council on Tuesday voted to rid the city of pot clinics that some residents say have been a blight on neighborhoods. City officials estimate there could be more than 900 collectives open currently.
The 14-0 vote drew an angry, profanity-laced response from some medical marijuana advocates who attended the council meeting.
The ban will take effect in about 45 days, pending the mayor's signature. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was prepared to sign the ordinance, according to his spokeswoman Vicki Curry.
The ban will force more than 700 pot shops to close their doors.
The City Council plans to get more guidance from a pending California Supreme Court case on the issue. This ordinance will require a second vote in one week.
The so-called "gentle ban" eliminates storefronts but allow patients and caregivers to grow medical marijuana.
"This is the one that will allow for the least amount of litigation. It will allow for quicker enforcement for the number of rogue dispensaries," said L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar Tuesday.
"Do you honestly think that people who are suffering from debilitating disease can start any sort of growing operation or farming operation?" asked one speaker during public comment Tuesday.
Those in favor of the ban argue that pot shops are popping up everywhere, driving away businesses and bringing in criminal activity.
"What we do have issue with is large for-profit businesses that operate outside what we think is state law and not only cause a nuisance to the community, but cause a public danger," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
People against the proposal say banning dispensaries will cut off access to medicine and force patients to purchase marijuana on the black market.
"This is not a ban on dispensaries, this is a ban on life. If I don't access medicine, I will die," said one opponent of the ban.
There are upwards of 800 dispensaries in Los Angeles.
L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz supports a counter-proposal, granting limited immunity to 182 marijuana dispensaries in the city with strict regulations.
"I have friends that are still alive today because of medical marijuana, and that's why this is so important to me," said Koretz.
Opponents of an outright blanket ban on dispensaries are asking the council to consider limited immunity for some pot shops. The council is scheduled to consider the plan, which would shut down most dispensaries but allow about 100 businesses that were established before September 2007 to stay open with strict regulations.
Many cities have struggled with medical marijuana ordinances but none has had a bigger problem than Los Angeles, where pot shops have proliferated. At one point, the city ordered closure of the shops - a process that failed amid lawsuits and conflicting rulings by appellate courts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Residents
If you like your music adventurous, you’ll probably get a huge kick out of Noise Park, a Tumblr that features South Park versions of many avant-garde, experimental, and generally out-there musicians. Whoever is making these charmingly made the decision to follow his or her own esoteric musical tastes, which is a nice way of saying that a good many of the subjects are a bit obscure (Blevin Blectum, Moth Cock, Rotten Milk, etc.), which has the effect of turning it all into an inside inside joke of sorts.
But a lot of the subjects are quite well-known, covering the more cerebral end of the musical spectrum (Kraftwerk, Beefheart, Residents). I spent a fair amount of time trying to come up with a plausibly minimalist South Park episode plot involving Terry Riley, but I failed. Then I switched to Throbbing Gristle and my brain exploded.
Some of the images on the blog are actually reworking of The Wire magazine covers, which is a good indication of where the tastes run.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Brian Eno
Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine
Aphex Twin
Kraftwerk
Buzz Osborne of the Melvins
Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo
Coil
Sun Ra
La Monte Young
Peter Brötzmann
Terry Riley
Throbbing Gristle (20 Jazz Funk Greats”>20 Jazz Funk Greats cover)
Genesis P-Orridge (circa 1980s)
Genesis P-Orridge (circa 2000s)
Jim O’Rourke
Diamanda Galas
Klaus Schulze
Sunn O)))
Mike Patton
William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin using a Dreamachine
Albert Ayler
John Zorn
Lydia Lunch
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘South Park’s’ Cartman in real life
South Park Throbbing GristleSo, the Japanese are crazy. Not in the kill-everyone-while-in-your-underwear kind of way, but in a "wtf is going on over there" kind of way.
The big export right now is a band called Babymetal, which is their fusion of extreme metal brutality and cuteness. Why? Because that's what pops into their minds. I'm telling you, there's something in the water or something over there.
The Babymetal girls and their band hit Sonisphere this past weekend, and not only played a raging set, but also got the crowd doing a Wall of Death, and took some adorable photos with some of the heaviest people on the planet! Check out their photos with Slayer, Anthrax, Carcass, and more...and then watch some of the show, and their Wall of Death!
People are really getting into the show, and they know the freaking words! This is insane!
Gary Holt and Kerry King of Slayer (Babymetal Facebook)
with Billy Sheehan (Babymetal Facebook)
with Jeff Walker of Carcass (Babymetal Facebook)
Babymetal and Charlie, Frankie and Scott of Anthrax (Babymetal Facebook)
Gimme Chocolate live
More Babymetal faster
Wall of DeathUh-oh, looks like there's a new Pokémon girl in town! Move over, Belle Starenchak, Lisa Courtney's got you beat in the realm of Pokémon related memorabilia (larger shot HERE). Congratulations, Lisa, you could have sent yourself to college.
The 21-year-old, from Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, has spent 13 years building up the collection which she said has swelled to more than 13,400 since it was counted by Guinness record-checkers last year and fills most of the house she shares with mother Sharon.
''To be in the new Gamer's Edition and to hold a world record for something you feel so passionate about is just an indescribable feeling,'' she said. ''My family have been incredibly supportive considering the collection takes up the whole house, including my mother's room! ''I've even named the room where my main collection resides Pokemon Centre Europe.''
We all strive for different things. Some people strive for greatness, but Lisa -- Lisa here strives for fifteen of the same stuffed animal. FOR THE LAST TIME, HAND OVER A SQUIRTLE!
Pokémon fan earns world record with 12,000-item memorabilia collection [telegraph]
Thanks to Age and Ben, who collect phone numbers. From ladies. And,,sometimes, men pretending to be ladies.Russia has begun extensive military exercises near the Ukrainian border following the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine.
“The order to use force against civilians has already been given, and if this military machine is not stopped, the amount of casualties will only grow,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during an official meeting in Moscow.
“War games by NATO in Poland and the Baltic states are also not helping the normalization of the situation. We are forced to react to the situation.”
Shoigu said that the drills involve march and deployment maneuvers by forces in the southern and western military districts, and separate Air Force exercises.
Shoigu said that 11,000 Ukrainian soldiers, 160 tanks, 230 armored carriers and at least 150 artillery pieces are involved in the operation against anti-Kiev activists.
“National guard units and Right Sector extremists are fighting against the peaceful population, as well as a volunteer Donbass ‘anti-terrorist’ unit. Also security and internal forces transferred to Lugansk and Donetsk from other areas of the country are suppressing dissent,” he said.
Shoigu added that Ukrainian sabotage units had been deployed near the Russian border.
In contrast, he said that the pro-Russian self-defense units number about 2,000 and have about 100 guns between them, which have mostly been taken from local police stations.
"It's not an evenly matched confrontation," Shoigu said.
The coup-imposed Ukrainian acting president, Aleksandr Turchinov, has demanded that Russia pull back its troops back from the Ukrainian border, calling the ongoing Russian military exercises“blackmail.”
In a brief address, Turchinov claimed that “terrorists have crossed the border… taking hostages and killing the patriots of Ukraine.” He also called for the Russian government “to stop interfering into the internal affairs of our country.”
The heaviest fighting on Thursday took place in Slavyansk, with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reporting the deaths of at least five "terrorists."
NATO has estimated that Russia has massed at least 40,000 troops near its border with Ukraine. Moscow has not denied that it has moved troops to the region, but said that its internal troop movements are its own prerogative.
NATO began military exercises in Poland on Wednesday, with more scheduled to take place in the Baltic states next week. So far, 150 US paratroopers have arrived in the country from their stationary base in Italy, with 450 more set to join them.
Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, has also asked NATO to deploy 10,000 troops in his country.
On Wednesday, the frigate USS Taylor became the latest US ship to enter the Black Sea on a rotating deployment. NATO has dispatched a separate rapid reaction force to the Baltic.A quick note about something that popped up on my radar…
This website (and just in case – a freezepage ) reveals that the Canadian Society of Homeopaths are planning a response to a forthcoming CBC show, Marketplace, which is running a documentary on Homeopathy. Without seeing the show (it aires on Friday, Jan 14, 2011), it seems that the Canuck homeopaths are assuming that it puts homeopathy in a negative light (I wonder why?) and they want to get the message out so any interested parties can watch it. Fair enough.
However, their list of actions (sent out via e-mail to their members) reveals that they are also planning to bombard the Marketplace show’s blog with pro-homeopathy comments:
4. Be prepared to leave a comment on the CBC and Marketplace website immediately after the programme airs. Go to and check out the comment function right now. Sign up now to create a user’s account so that there will be no delay when you are ready to send your comments. Once the programme has aired, you can leave a comment by clicking on the title, which will take you to a summary page concluding with a link “Share your comment”. This leads to a comment box, which requires that you sign in. CBC monitors and reviews all messages so you may want to read the Submission Guidelines page before planning to send your comments. 5. Know what you are going to say so that you can post a response without delay. Choose to focus on a single point per comment, elaborate on it, and conclude with a strong, affirming statement. Often the most effective messages are short, concise, and to the point. Send as many of these as you can
They want to get their points in quickly (“leave a comment on the CBC and Marketplace website immediately after the programme airs”) but have perhaps failed to spot that unlike the Grauniad in the UK, the comments on the Marketplace blog are listed most recent first – so the early comments will soon be pushed off the bottom. They also request that their followers post as many short, concise comments as they can – essentially spamming up the comments board.
In point 7, the CSoH also warn members about falling into the same trap that UK homeopaths have fallen into regarding homeopathic for malaria vaccines.
In the second point 7, they go into full-bore, “la-la-la-I can’t hear you” mode.
How we all react to this criticism will determine how much traction this story maintains in the coming weeks and months. We urge you to be calm, be polite, be underwhelmed. Take the moral high ground. Convey that this Marketplace programme is no more than a mild irritant for homeopaths who are providing an important service in your community. It is disappointing that the CBC journalists chose to ignore the reality that is the basis of homeopathy, but that doesn’t affect what we know to be true. The strength in homeopathy is that it works. We practitioners know it works because we see it every day in our patients and they obviously know it works because they refer their family and friends to homeopathy and they keep coming back when they get ill. Nay-sayers can say “it aint so” until they are blue in the face, but that doesn’t change the fact that homeopathy does work, even if we still don’t know how it works. Full stop. End of discussion. Let’s say what needs to be said to set the record straight and then get back to doing the important work that we do with homeopathy.
Any Canadian sceptics out there may want to keep an eye on how this astroturfing campaign proceeds 😉
Related ArticlesTreaty Threatens Global Government … Run by Giant Corporations
The normally-reserved Yves Smith asks whether Obama should be impeached over it.
Democratic Senator Wyden – the head of the committee which is supposed to oversee it – is so furious about the lack of access that he has introduced legislation to force disclosure.
Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is so upset by it that he has leaked a document on his website to show what’s going on.
What is everyone so furious about?
An international treaty being negotiated in secret which would not only crack down on Internet privacy much more than SOPA or ACTA, but would actually destroy the sovereignty of the U.S. and all other signatories.
It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Wyden is the chairman of the trade committee in the Senate … the committee which is supposed to have jurisdiction over the TPP. Wyden is also on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and so he and his staff have high security clearances and are normally able to look at classified documents.
And yet Wyden and his staff have been denied access to the TPP’s text.
This is similar to other recent incidences showing that we’ve gone from a nation of laws to a nation of powerful men making laws in secret.
For example, in the summer 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio – who is on the Homeland Security Committee (and so has proper security access to be briefed on so-called “Continuity of Government” issues) – inquired about continuity of government plans, and was refused access. Indeed, DeFazio told Congress that the entire Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress has been denied access to the plans by the White House (video; or here is the transcript). The Homeland Security Committee has full clearance to view all information about COG plans. DeFazio concluded: “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right”.
As University of California Berkeley Professor Emeritus Peter Dale Scott warned:
If members of the Homeland Security Committee cannot enforce their right to read secret plans of the Executive Branch, then the systems of checks and balances established by the U.S. Constitution would seem to be failing. To put it another way, if the White House is successful in frustrating DeFazio, then Continuity of Government planning has arguably already superseded the Constitution as a higher authority.
Watch this interview from today explaining why TPP is so dangerous to America … and the rest of the world:More than a third of the advertising tied to the presidential race has been funded by nonprofit groups that will never have to reveal their donors, suggesting that a significant portion of the 2012 elections will be wrapped in a vast cloak of secrecy.
The bulk of the secret money spent so far has come from conservative groups seeking to propel a Republican into the White House, advertising data show. Millions of dollars in additional spending from both sides has poured into legislative races, such as the Senate contest in Massachusetts, that could help determine which party controls Congress in 2013.
The flow of funds is part of a wave of spending by outside groups — particularly super PACs, which have few limits on their activities — that has quickly come to dominate the 2012 presidential contest.
But unlike super PACs, politically minded nonprofit groups are under no obligation to disclose the corporations, unions or wealthy tycoons bankrolling their advertising, much of which is almost indistinguishable from regular political ads run by campaigns.
The result is a race heavily influenced by such organizations and their funders, who will remain largely in the shadows.
“I don’t think we’ve seen these kind of groups acting so aggressively in election-related activity as we see now,” said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine. “This is pure secret money.... The goal is to avoid disclosure.”
Nonprofit “social welfare” organizations and other tax-exempt groups with confidential donors have spent more than $24 million in the 2012 cycle on political ads naming President Obama or, less frequently, his Republican rivals, according to a Washington Post analysis of data supplied by Kantar Media-CMAG, which tracks ad spending. That accounts for about 40 percent of the money estimated to have been spent on advertising related to the presidential candidates.
Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit group backed by GOP political guru Karl Rove, has spent more than $10 million on ads targeting Obama over the federal deficit, energy policies and other issues in the 2012 cycle. American Crossroads, a sister group registered as a super PAC, has spent just $133,000 on such ads, the data show.
The disparity means that nearly all of the broadcast messages that voters have encountered from the Crossroads groups were paid for by persons unknown. The super PAC side of the operation reported taking in $18.2 million in 2011, including $7 million from Texas billionaire Harold Simmons and his company; the nonprofit side raised almost twice as much from unidentified donors.
For donors, ‘a choice’
Spokesman Jonathan Collegio said Crossroads GPS is no different than tens of thousands of other nonprofits, from ideological groups to charities, that are entitled to keep their contributors confidential.
“Private organizations don’t have to disclose their donor lists to the government at their beck and call,” Collegio said. “Those who want to support the Crossroads groups have a choice of whether they want to give to a more political- or issue-oriented effort, and they make their decisions according to their tastes and preferences.”
Another top spender is Americans for Prosperity, a Washington-based group that has ties to two conservative brothers who run the Koch Industries oil-and-gas conglomerate; David Koch is chairman of the group’s foundation.
Americans for Prosperity has spent nearly $7 million on ads targeting Obama, including a spot criticizing his administration’s handling of a government loan guarantee to failed solar firm Solyndra; the spot prompted a response ad from the Obama campaign. Tim Phillips, Americans for Prosperity’s president, said he expects that the organization will exceed $50 million in total spending, including ads and grass-roots organizing, in 2012.
Phillips defended the ability to keep donors under wraps, saying that the group “works in the public policy arena more than the political arena.” He also cited concerns that donors could be targeted for harassment by the Obama administration and liberal groups.
“This administration, and politicians in general, want to seek retribution with people who disagree with them,” Phillips said.
Obama has complained loudly about the influence of “secret billionaires” on the political system, and Senate Democrats are reviving efforts to force disclosure by nonprofit groups that run political ads.
But Democrats also enjoy support from many groups that rely on undisclosed contributors, including unions and environmental groups. Two super PACs helping Democrats in 2012, American Bridge 21st Century and Priorities USA Action, have each accepted transfers of more than $200,000 from their nonprofit arms — meaning that a portion of their budgets were effectively paid for by secret donors.
Officials with both super PACs said the transfers were made to cover administrative expenses as part of cost-sharing agreements with their affiliated nonprofit groups.
Unlimited dollars
A general surge in spending by outside groups, first seen during the 2010 elections, is due in part to a series of court rulings, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, that have made it easier for corporations and wealthy individuals to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections.
That environment led to the rise of super PACs — more than 300 are now |
be just one ship making the journey. When the ITS is really up and running, 1,000 or more of the ships will zoom off to Mars every 26 months.
"The Mars colonial fleet would depart en masse," Musk said.
This fleet would land on Mars using "supersonic retropropulsion," slowing down enough to touch down softly by firing onboard thrusters rather than relying on parachutes. SpaceX said it plans to test this landing technique during the company's upcoming "Red Dragon" mission, which aims to launch SpaceX's uncrewed Dragon capsule toward Mars in May 2018.
Not a one-way trip
SpaceX also plans to build a solar-powered factory on Mars that will use the carbon dioxide and water ice in the planet's air and soil, respectively, to generate methane and oxygen — the propellant used by the Raptor engine. (Musk didn't discuss other aspects of the Mars colony; SpaceX is concentrating on the transportation architecture, reasoning that the colonists themselves will build most of the city they live in.) [SpaceX's Interplanetary Ship Could Go Beyond Mars | Video]
The ITS spaceships will be refueled on Mars and will launch back to Earth from there, meaning prospective colonists don't have to stay on the Red Planet forever if they don't want to. (Getting off Mars doesn't require a big rocket, because the planet is much smaller than Earth and therefore has a weaker gravitational pull.)
This SpaceX graphic depicts the mission profile for the company's Interplanetary Transport System, a colony ship to fly 100 people to Mars at a time. (Image: © SpaceX)
"We need the spaceship back, so it's coming," Musk said. "You can jump on board or not."
Each ITS spaceship will probably be able to fly at least a dozen times, and each booster should see even more action, Musk said. This reusability is the key component of SpaceX's plan, and should be the chief driver in bringing the price of a Mars trip — which Musk said would cost about $10 billion per person using today's technology — down to reasonable levels.
"The architecture allows for a cost per ticket of less than $200,000," Musk said. "We think that the cost of moving to Mars ultimately could drop below $100,000."
Coming soon?
Fewer than 5 percent of SpaceX's personnel are working on the ITS at the moment, Musk said. And the company is currently spending just a few tens of millions of dollars on the project every year, which Musk estimated would ultimately require a company investment of about $10 billion.
But that should change as SpaceX wraps up work on the final version of the Falcon 9 and its crewed Dragon capsule, which will carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA (and perhaps ferry folks to other destinations close to Earth), Musk said.
Within two years, Musk aims to be devoting most of SpaceX's engineers to ITS, and to be spending perhaps $300 million annually on the project. He envisions other organizations eventually aiding SpaceX in Mars colonization as well, saying the effort will be a "huge public-private partnership."
He said he hopes to complete the first development of the spaceship within four years, then start suborbital testing shortly thereafter. If everything goes really well, Musk said, the ITS could be launching on its first Mars mission "within the 10-year time frame."
In the meantime, SpaceX plans to keep launching Dragons toward the Red Planet every 26 months using the company's Falcon Heavy rocket, to test technology and to establish a "steady cadence" of robotic missions that scientists could take advantage of to send experiments to Mars, Musk said.
The ITS could also be used for many other things, possibly enabling human exploration of Jupiter's ocean-harboring moon Europa or allowing cargo to get from New York to Tokyo in just 25 minutes, Musk said. But for now, the main goal is colonizing Mars, which Musk has long said is the reason he started SpaceX back in 2002.
"The objective is to become a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanet species," the billionaire entrepreneur said, adding that doing so will make humanity far less susceptible to extinction. "The main reason I'm personally accumulating assets is to fund this."
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.LONDON (Reuters) - Gold could once again surge above $1,000 an ounce as the dollar plummets and investors seek alternatives to stocks, bonds and bank deposits as well as protection from inflation.
Gold could once again surge above $1,000 an ounce as the dollar plummets and investors seek alternatives to stocks, bonds and bank deposits as well as protection from inflation. REUTERS/file
The buzzword at the moment is deflation. But fund managers are convinced this will be short-lived and followed by a period of inflation that will erode the value of paper assets.
Spot gold hit a record $1,030.80 an ounce on March 17. It fell below $700 in late October, partly because investors sold their holdings to cover losses in equity and bond markets hit by the credit crisis. It is now around $830 an ounce.
The trigger for a break higher is likely to come from a much weaker dollar, making gold cheaper for holders of other currencies, as markets price in vast amounts of U.S. government borrowing to shore up the economy.
“The U.S. will have a debt crisis next year alongside a currency crisis. The dollar is on the verge of taking a complete dive,” said David Murrin, chief investment officer at Emergent Asset Management.
Murrin added the repatriation trade, in which U.S. investors bring their money home and which has lifted the dollar in recent months, was mostly done.
“Gold will rally because it’s a surrogate currency, I can see it reaching its highs within 16 months,” he said.
Since October the precious metal has been sustained by institutional and retail purchases of gold coins and bullion either physically or through exchange traded commodity funds.
The world’s largest gold-backed exchange traded fund, the SPDR Gold Trust now holds more than 765 tonnes of gold, not far from the record high above 770 tonnes hit in the middle of October.
“Gold is the ultimate security blanket,” said Frances Hudson, global thematic strategist at Standard Life Investments. “If you are expecting a raft of debt issuance then you are probably expecting a fall in their value.”
‘ABSOLUTELY UNPRECEDENTED’
Opinion is divided about timing and the levels gold prices could reach. Much depends on how much more money governments and central banks pump into the economy to ease the credit crunch.
“The monetary expansion that took place in October and November was absolutely unprecedented,” said Markus Bachmann, fund manager at Craton Capital.
“You can’t go wrong by holding physical gold. You don’t need to be a gold bug or a grave dancer. If you don’t know what the world is going to look like in the future then buy gold.”
The U.S. budget deficit hit a record $455 billion (295 billion pounds) in the year ending September 30. That number, according to some fund managers, could more than double this fiscal year, given the $700 billion financial rescue bailout plan.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected later on Tuesday to cut benchmark interest rates by at least half a percentage point to 0.5 percent, its lowest in more than half a century.
“It would be prudent to have some exposure to gold given the fiscal and monetary stimuli taking place,” said Edward Hands, a portfolio manager at Commerzbank Corporates & Markets.
“The purpose of the stimulus is to reduce the debt burden. The easiest way to reduce debt is through inflation, achieved primarily through currency depreciation.”
Fund managers believe gold’s role as a store of value will be highlighted when the velocity of money circulating in the economy picks up, as that is often a precursor to significant inflationary pressures.
“Certainly over the course of three, four, five years, you could see the gold price double quite easily,” Hands said.
High-profile bank failures in the United States and Britain have also eroded confidence.
“Many are afraid of leaving their money in banks,” said Sandra Conway, managing director at ATS Bullion, which sells bullion and gold coins to institutions and the retail market.
“It’s difficult to quantify, but I would say our turnover over the last three months has certainly doubled compared to the previous three months,” she said.
“There are people buying gold from us, who have never bought gold before. It’s tangible, something they can tuck away.”Change of pace. In the last week I’ve had an idea clawing at the back of my head, and it’s clear the thing isn’t going to leave me alone until I do something with it. I don’t usually blog about my little programming projects (with the exception of the Terrain Project) because I like to imagine this site has some sort of focus, but the choice here is for me to blog about this or leave the site fallow for a week. So I’m blogging it. Perhaps you’ll find it entertaining anyway.
There are several reasons for wanting to do this.
It’s comical now, but this was a real eye-grabber in 1996.
Way back in my early days of 3D development a lot of my work was focused on creating effects or finding tricks to make it look like there is more to the scene than what is really being rendered. A lot of work was being done by game companies to simply push the technology as far as it would go, but I enjoyed getting halfway there with technology and then going the rest of the way with a good facade and some lighting tricks. The techniques I used in the mid 90’s would seem laughably simplistic and trivial today, but at the time I remember getting a lot of “How did you do this?!?” type reactions to my work.
For example: I wanted to make a city, but the scene just couldn’t render things at a great enough distance to give you a “big city” feel. It just felt like a handful of big boxes next to each other in the middle of a featureless plain. So I set the city at night, scaled the buildings down so that they weren’t really much bigger than houses, and slightly pinched the tops of them so that the top of the (apparent) cube was smaller than the base. The reduced scale let me get a lot of buildings close together, the night lighting let me suggest more detail than was really present, and the skewed shape created a false impression of height. (The eye wanted to believe that these building-ish objects were cubes, and so when you looked up it made them seem taller than they were.) The scene was pretty astounding in 1996, although I doubt it would impress anyone today.
This sort of thing was an unusual blend of technical and artistic work, and I enjoyed it immensely.
In a section of the Left 4 Dead commentary (near the very end of the initial No Mercy level) one of the developers draws attention to an apartment building in the distance. He explains that it’s a very simple building with little detail, but because it’s mostly a silhouette against a detailed sky, the eye accepts it and your mind fills in details that aren’t really there. This reminded me a great deal of my old work, and got me itching to do some of that sort of thing again.
My new graphics card is ridiculously powerful. While I’m working less and less with graphics these days, on the rare occasions where that sort of work crops up it’s still focused on getting more out of widely adopted low-end technology. So I haven’t worked with much new technology. (“New” being very relative. For me, anything younger than a kindergartner is new.) This makes me some sort of cutting-edge Luddite, pushing the limits of stale technology.
CPU’s have stagnated a bit over the last few years while GPU’s have continued to accelerate. (No pun intended.) This has moved a lot of the old bottlenecks around. I think it would be good for me to get to know one of these recent GPU’s and see what it’s like to work with them.
And finally, I love procedural content, but I never get a chance to work with it.
1. The goal is to make a nighttime cityscape that is mostly made of lights and suggestions rather than real detail.
2. The city will be entirely procedurally generated. That is, the program will contain no art assets. No textures. No models. Everything must be built from scratch at startup.
3. I’m budgeting a week of nights and weekends for the project. So, probably about 30 hours of time total.
4. I’m going to use only conventional rendering. While I’d love to muck about with pixel shaders and see what the new ones can do, I haven’t messed with that sort of thing since 2006. Just getting up to speed on the subject would blow my entire time budget. (Pixel shaders are special programs that run on your graphics card instead of on your “computer” with all of your other software. They are strange, amazingly powerful, and difficult to master.)
5. I’m aiming for something that will run on a broad range of machines. This will be a little tricky, since my current machine is pretty beefy compared to the average. (I’m talking about the average windows-based PC, not the average gaming computer.) It’s much easier to develop on an old machine than to develop on a new one and try to guess where the bottlenecks will appear when run on old hardware. All of our older machines around the house have been converted to Ubuntu, and running under WINE wouldn’t make for a very useful benchmark. So this goal will be difficult to judge. The best I can do is aim for the program running at at least 100 frames per second on my PC and hope that it can still manage 25 or so on an older machine. Even this is pretty dicey, but it’s the best I can do for now.
I don’t know what I’ll do with the program beyond the goals above. Give away the source? Turn it into a screensaver? Add more features? We’ll see where the project takes me and how interesting this is to people.
The first step in a project like this is to make a simple program to open a window, start up OpenGL, and provide some basic camera interface so that I’ll be able to examine my work. This involves gathering up a lot of boring boilerplate code, creating the project files, and adding a bunch of not-very-interesting low-level systems. The result is not very compelling:
Sorry for dragging you all this way only to show you an empty window, but this is how it often goes. I’ll make sure to have something more compelling to show you next time around. This series will run all week, assuming everything goes to plan.Palmira graces Bo Kaap, Cape Town. "What inspires me to dance is..."
This Kickstarter campaign is to raise the funds needed to create a photobook, titled Because Dance. The book features dancers from South Africa, and a part of the proceeds will be going to an outreach program that helps underprivileged children in townships learn to dance.
The reason for this project:
Have you ever wanted to do something special for someone you care about? Something that makes them smile, or reminds them how much you appreciate their impact in the world?
When I first travelled to Cape Town, South Africa, I joined a dance class (I love dance, you might have noticed...) and got to know the owners of the studio. In addition to the studio, they run a community outreach program through iKapa Dance that enables kids in disadvantaged areas (townships) to learn to dance. Programmes and training like this allow kids to get scholarships to better schools, provide a safe environment and a fun activity to pursue after school, and even the knowledge and training to develop into professional performers.
All smiles in Gugulethu. This boy absolutely lit up whenever...
Throughout the dance community in Cape Town I kept meeting extremely talented dancers, each with their own unique story of how dance has impacted and continues to shape their lives. I wanted to capture this incredible mix of culture, beauty, challenges, opportunity, passion and dedication through my camera lens. This book features dance professionals, teachers, semi-pros and regular people who have filled their lives with dance.
Percephone & Angelo glide along the promenade. Passers by stop and stare as...
I decided to use my skills as a professional photographer to help make a difference and showcase the stories of these phenomenal dancers and this inspiring organization. A part of the proceeds from this book will go to iKapa Dance to enable more young dancers to benefit from dance.
Children learn to dance through iKapa Dance's program at Bonga Elementary. A curious student waits for her chance to dance...
Throughout the book you’ll find 74 photographs, each printed in large format on its own page. The photos were taken in some of the most beautiful, interesting, and at times, extreme locations.
A jovial skateboarder suddenly joins in with dancers Belinda and Sune...
The dance community in South Africa is filled with so much passion, talent and dedication. I owe an enormous amount of gratitude to all the dancers (and their teams, families, academies, teachers and anyone else who has supported them in their development) who contributed their time and effort to this project!
Nicole and James soar at Glen Beach. "I feel like I can express anything through dance, meet the most fabulous people..."
I was so moved by their individual stories that I decided to accompany their photographs with their stories, their training, their motivation and much more…This project is for anyone who loves dance, is a young aspiring dancer, or wants to be reminded how much we have to be grateful for.
A curious shop owner comes out to see Sam dance. "Through dance I have been able to explore my own vulnerability, strength..."
This book is for anyone in the world who enjoys dance, supports dancers, youth development, the arts, loves dancing or wants to showcase their support to a talented group of dancers of the future.
Reflections show the potential of dancers in Gugulethu...
Please buy the book or postcards! This is your chance to do something special and have an impact on the world, while also getting to own a visually beautiful and inspiring work of art(ists).
Yamkela soars. "Dance was the light in my path and helped me..."
Like all Kickstarter projects, we will only be able to create these books with if we reach our goal within the 21 day time frame. If we do not reach this goal, pledges will not be charged and our book will not go to print. It's all or nothing.
So please support this project!
The young children in Woodstock were so fascinated with Sam, and were eager to dance...
If we reach our goal, that's amazing! But things don't have to stop there, the more this project gets funded by your generous support, the more these amazing children will be able to benefit.
Aphiwe dances amongst the shacks. Young children playing in the streets take notice and join in...
Click on the rewards button to the right, and once you’ve completed your order please share this project with your friends and family. Help spread the word on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and email!
Thank you so much, happy dancing!
Amanda
A Taare bollywood dancer twirls with ease...
Cost Breakdown:
A part of the proceeds will go to iKapa Dance which has an outreach program for young dancers in townships in Cape Town, South Africa.
The funds raised will also cover the cost of:
printing the books and postcards
shipping the books and postcards
packaging materials
the 8-10% processing fees collected by Kickstarter
I've worked really hard to send this book out at an affordable rate, and have managed to secure beneficial shipping rates for multiple countries around the world. Therefore, everyone benefits because shipping is included in the cost of the book.
Chester pauses in the moment. "Dance got me started on a road of personal development and evolution..."
Book Specs:
8.5” x 8.5” (22.6cm x 22.6cm)
74 Premium silk pages
74 Photographs (each high quality image is featured on its own page in large format; in colour and black and white)
Descriptions of the talented dancers, their stories, and the unique locations.
Soft cover, perfect bound, easy to share
Printed by East Van Graphics, in Vancouver, Canada
Publication date: December 2016Recently on The Ric Flair Show, 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair talked about having his two worst matches ever against The Ultimate Warrior, and dropping the WWE World Championship to Bret 'Hitman' Hart at an untelevised event in 1992. According to Flair, his two worst matches ever were against The Ultimate Warrior.
"I'm wrestling the Warrior in Winnipeg [Canada], right? I'm the champion. And the match, Mike, probably, the second worst match I ever had in my life. The first being when I wrestled The Warrior in Phoenix [Arizona] and he dropped me on my head. Okay? So I come back from the ring. I knew the match just was absolutely brutal. And Pat Patterson goes to me, 'that was the worst f--king match I've ever seen in my life'. And I said, 'you're telling me, motherf--ker? I was in it!'"
Flair continued, "it was absolutely terrible. I just couldn't have a match with him. It was like wrestling Jimmy Valiant. When the music stopped, the match was over."
With respect to losing the WWE World Championship to Hart in 1992, 'The Dirtiest Player In The Game' suggested that The Ultimate Warrior injured him two days before, and this may have caused him to need to drop the title.
"Well, going back to what I had said before, I was wresting The Warrior two nights before that and he dropped me on my head in Phoenix. And I got that inner ear problem where I lost balance. And I never was capable of giving Bret nearly the match he deserved that night. I literally lost my balance and I just hobbled through the match. And he actually carried me because every time I went down, my equilibrium was gone and I couldn't get back up fast enough to feed him. Do you know what I mean because I fell down and it took me awhile to get used to it."
See Also Ric Flair On Why Goldberg Returning To Wrestle Brock Lesnar Is Not A Good Idea
The two-time WWE Hall Of Famer went on to say that the inner ear problem would persist for about six months and he stressed that he would have liked to have given Hart a better match.
"I did the best I could. It wasn't nearly the match that it should have been. I wish I could have given him a better match because he won the world title and he deserved to get it, so that's how it started. And I had that darn inner ear thing and it didn't go away for six months." Flair reflected, "I wish I could have given Bret a better match. We certainly had some good ones after I got well and he was champion and I was chasing him. It was fun. It did real well."
Check out the podcast here. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit The Ric Flair Show with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: The Ric Flair ShowPolice investigators plan to recommend that prosecutors file a charge of manslaughter against Caitlyn Jenner for her role in a fatal car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway in California.
Investigators found Ms Jenner was driving "unsafe for the prevailing road conditions" because her SUV hit a Lexus, pushing it into oncoming traffic, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida.
Ms Jenner was pulling an off-road vehicle on a trailer behind her Cadillac Escalade in February of this year when she steered to avoid cars slowing for a traffic light in front of her. Her SUV hit two cars and pushed the Lexus into oncoming traffic, the Associated Press said.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The Lexus driver, 69-year-old Kim Howe, was killed when her car was struck head-on by a Hummer. Ms Jenner has rejected claims for damages from Ms Howe's family.
The case will be presented to prosecutors for final review next week, Ms Nishida said. The district attorney's office will determine what charges Ms Jenner ultimately faces.
If convicted of such a charge, Jenner could face up to one year in county jail. The celebrity's lawyer, Blair Berk, declined to comment.
The fatal crash occurred months before Caitlyn Jenner's transition. She was formerly known as Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Olympic decathlon champion and Kim Kardashian's stepfather
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads.
Subscribe nowThe Republican National Committee has now booted both of its media partners for the February 26 Republican presidential debate in Houston, Texas. The reason for the drastic punishment: Daring to offend Donald Trump.
After the editors of the conservative National Review published their "Against Trump Symposium" Thursday night, the party swiftly moved to sanction the magazine, stripping it of it's media partnership for the pre-Super Tuesday debate on CNN. A debate they were to share co-hosting duties with Telemundo and Salem Radio Network.
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But then National Review editor Rich Lowry corralled "22 prominent conservative thinkers," including The Weekly Standard's William Kristol, RedState's Erick Erickson and The Blaze's Glenn Beck, for a collection of essays assailing the dominant Republican frontrunner.
"Donald Trump is a menace to American conservatism who would take the work of generations and trample it underfoot in behalf of a populism as heedless and crude as the Donald himself,” the cover story out Friday reads.
National Review publisher Jack Fowler wrote shortly after the cover story's release that the publication had been stripped of its hosting duties for the GOP debate with CNN in Houston.
"Tonight, a top official with the RNC called me to say that National Review was being disinvited. The reason: Our 'Against Trump' editorial and symposium. We expected this was coming. Small price to pay for speaking the truth about The Donald," Fowler wrote on National Review Online's The Corner.
RNC spokesperson Sean Spicer confirmed the move to ABC News. While not an endorsement of any other candidate, National Review's open disavowal of Trump's campaign does remove any veil of impartiality as a debate host. Spicer told Buzzfeed that National Review was removed because the moderators "can’t have a predisposition."
Per usual, Trump was quick to counterpunch, not only taking to Twitter to express his disapproval but also mocking the magazine during a speech Thursday night at the Outdoor Channel awards show:
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National Review is a dying paper, it’s got -- its circulation is way down. Not very many people read it anymore. I mean, people don’t even think about the National Review, so I guess they want to get a little publicity, but that’s a dying paper
Of course, this isn't the first time the RNC has booted a media partner after Trump's thrown a tantrum. Recall last fall’s mini-uproar following the CNBC debate where Trump openly attacked the debate moderators and mocked their questions in an attempt to milk the right-wing librul media bias shtick? The RNC was forced to cancel the party’s partnership with the NBC after Donald Trump and Ben Carson threatened to boycott all party-sanctioned debates. In fact, NBC's next scheduled debate was to be the February 28 debate in Houston with the National Review. The RNC announced earlier this week that CNN will host the debate instead.
https://twitter.com/JebBush/status/690362365280423936/photo/1Learn what qualities a voice-over agency looks for in its artists, and what skills to work on if you want to start a career in voice-over.
As is true of so many crafts, outsiders often look at voice actors and say, “Well, that’s easy; anyone can do that!” They fail to understand that even simple voice-over is an art, and doing is not the same as doing well. It is also important to remember, voice-over is a business. For both the talent and the client, it is vital to work with a voice-over agency that understands the industry. If this is a new area for you, we’re here to hopefully make things easier for you. For today’s lesson, pay close attention to these three skills needed to succeed in voice-over work, beyond just having “the voice for it.”
Reading Fluency
This should go without saying, but you must be able to read aloud fluently in order to be a successful voice artist. What do we mean by reading “fluently”?
Understand the intent behind what you are reading, and be able to give the right emphasis and feel to the reading
Try to read it with appropriate accentuation and tone from the first take
Read with proper sense stress, volume, and pitch
Here’s a really good example of really bad reading. It only takes a few seconds of watching this to see why reading fluency is so important for a voice actor!
According to the Reading Agency, a literacy group in the UK, some 5.8 million adults in England and Northern Ireland score at the lowest level of proficiency in literacy. The hourly wage for workers with this low proficiency is 94% lower than adults with the highest proficiency in reading. Clearly, voice acting is not the only field where reading well is essential, but it is one of the fields where fluency is most closely linked with success.
Timing
As a voice-over agency that not only hires, but produces, we love an artist with a good sense of timing. The rhythm of the reading is important, but equally vital is the ability to read within necessary time frames. This is especially vital when recording STC (strict time constraints) voice-over. In STC, the artist must match specific cues or scenes on-screen, so being able to time the words right is the number one priority.
Public speaking and leadership experience could provide a wonderful basis for a voice acting career. Many successful voice artists had never acted before starting in voice over, but they had developed the ability to read aloud with fluency via public speaking.
Passion
Yes, passion! Actors and artists who love what they do are the ones who are able to really stick it out and make this a career. Voice-over is a challenging, constantly shifting field, and if you don’t love what you do, you will not be motivated to stay on top of trends or work on perfecting your craft.
We would never want to discourage anyone from pursuing voice-over as a career; on the contrary, we hope to see more wonderful artists joining our talent pool in the years to come! But we hope this overview has provided a more detailed look into the reality of the voice-over industry.
Learn more by taking one of our Saturday voice over workshops.Veronica Olivier and Manley Paul relaxed during a rally on Boston Common in support of the marijuana ballot initiative.
As Massachusetts voters prepare to decide in November whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, thousands of people who support use of the drug filled Boston Common on Saturday for an annual gathering featuring music, food, and plenty of smoking.
Volunteers who support the ballot initiative fanned out across the park to register voters while others held signs promoting Yes on 4, the campaign promoting the measure.
“The ballot initiative does accomplish our final goal,” said Bill Downing, member liaison for Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, also known as MassCann. “Our expectation is that it will pass handily.”
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MassCann organized the annual, two-day event known as the Freedom Rally, which dates back to 1989. The rally came after organizers went to court Friday to force the city of Boston to allow MassCann’s food vendors to participate.
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The group said the city had withheld a permit for the rally until the last minute because it objected to MassCann using its own vendors.
Downing kept a copy of the court order with him at MassCann’s tent.
“We knew from the start that the city’s demands were unconstitutional,” Downing said. “I can’t say that it was unexpected.”
No arrests were made at the event, according to a Boston police spokesman.
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Representatives from the organization Yes on 4, which is separate from MassCann, were on hand to register voters and speak with people at the rally’s “Education Village,” but did not have a designated spot at the event, said Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the group.
The campaign is set to begin television advertising next month and also plans to promote the ballot initiative during debates, seminars, and meetings with editorial boards and opinion writers, he said.
Borghesani described the rally as an opportunity to meet with the cause’s most ardent supporters.
“It’s not like every person who uses marijuana is here,” he said. “There are very committed activists here. We just want to make sure that commitment translates into votes.”
The ballot question seeks to legalize the possession, use, and giving away of an ounce or less of marijuana for recreational use by adults aged 21 and older as of Dec. 15.
Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Dameion Hollis of Queens, New York, who attended the Saturday rally in Boston, said he travels the country offering support for campaigns to legalize the use of marijuana.
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Retail sales could begin in January 2018. Marijuana for some medical purposes is already legal in Massachusetts.
The measure is opposed by the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts and a host of the state’s top political leaders, including Governor Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, and Attorney General Maura Healey.
State Senator Jason Lewis, a member of the steering committee for the opposition group, said voters should reject the measure, saying it would introduce a billion-dollar industry that “places its own profits ahead of public health and public safety.”
“This ballot question is the wrong approach at the wrong time in Massachusetts,” Lewis said.
Downing said MassCann has published special editions of its newsletter, Mass Grass, to rebut the findings of a Senate report issued in March that warned of legalization’s dangers. The newsletter covers topics such as the economic benefits of legalized marijuana and cites a study that found a link between the legalization of medical marijuana and a drop in traffic fatalities.
“Our whole point really is to make sure adults are allowed to use cannabis in a responsible manner,” Downing said.
Loida Torres of Fitchburg said she has used medical marijuana for three years to treat chronic pain and wants the ballot measure to pass.
“I just want this to be a little more legalized,” she said. “Drinking, I think, is worse than smoking.”
Some at the rally said they support the measure, but are unsure whether it will get them to the polls.
“I definitely would think about it,” said Miranda Barone, who lives in Randolph. “I just support everything that marijuana has to offer us.”
Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Eddie Curley, right, used a water pipe while smoking with friends during the Boston Freedom Rally on Boston Common.
Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Lilith Astaroth and Bill Downing of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition talked about their event during the Boston Freedom Rally.
Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Jon Napoli, owner of The Hempest, showed his support for the Vote Yes on 4 campaign at his booth during the Boston Freedom Rally.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi-@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @lauracrimaldiSYDNEY – Australia’s defense minister Wednesday said he was hoping to wrap up military operations in Afghanistan as soon as possible, despite US and NATO moves for more troops to shore up the campaign.
Defense Minister John Faulkner said Australia was studying how to complete the mission in the “shortest time-frame”. Australia has about 1,500 troops in Afghanistan with no date set for their withdrawal.
“I’ve certainly asked the Australian Defense Force for any recommendations they have about ensuring we do complete that important role and responsibility both effectively, but in the shortest time-frame possible,” he told ABC radio.
Faulkner admitted Australia’s move would affect the push by General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, for an Iraq-style troop “surge” against the increasingly powerful Taliban militia.
“I’ve been discussing these issues with the chief of the Defense Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, and obviously it’s a critically important matter for me,” he said.
“I’m not going to talk specifically about the approaches we’ll take but I do acknowledge that there will be impacts on the approach that NATO and ISAF partners will be taking as a result of General McChrystal’s 60-day assessment.”
McChrystal warned last month that the war could be lost within a year without extra resources to fight the resurgent Islamists, who were driven from power by the 2001 US-led invasion.
President Barack Obama is considering boosting US troops by 40,000 to more than 100,000. Political uncertainty also continues with President Hamid Karzai facing a run-off with rival Abdullah Abdullah after August’s flawed polls.
Australia has lost 11 soldiers in Afghanistan with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd insisting the country’s commitment was “rock-solid” following the latest death in July. However, Rudd also admitted the war was “unpopular”.
Armed forces chief Angus Houston has expressed hope that international troops could hand over to Afghan forces in three to four years, although he warned against the dangers of an early withdrawal.
Rudd sent an extra 450 troops in April, acknowledging the “current civilian and military strategy is not working”. However last week he said Australia would not follow Britain’s move to send another 500 armed forces.
“We are in the business of raising an Afghan national army brigade, we are training Afghan police and we are also engaged in capacity building with the Uruzgan provincial authority,” Rudd said.
“Once that mission is completed and we hand over our responsibility to that provincial authority, then of course Australia’s mission will be concluded and our troops would come home.”
About 100,000 international troops are currently based in Afghanistan, including a US contingent which will hit 68,000 by year-end and another 9,500 from Britain.
Germany has 4,200 troops while France is the fourth-largest contributor with 2,900, although President Nicolas Sarkozy is refusing to send any more.Pull out your calendar and cross out May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22, and Aug. 30.
Those are the 5 days that the IRS will close its offices, hotlines |
In 1963, First Baptist relocated from downtown Huntsville to its current site on Governors Drive, in what was then a turnip pasture on the outskirts of town.
The mosaic was commissioned during the heyday of the Apollo program. Huntsville was a city growing by leaps and bounds, and its residents were proud to be connected to the program sending Americans to the moon.
The mosaic's design reflected that optimism and passion for progress.
"They were trying to meld the idea of a community that was both scientific and faith-based," said Westbrook. "They saw it as a way to pay homage to the created and the creator at the same time."
A church newsletter from 1971 described the mosaic's theme this way: "Members of the church and their pastor, Dr. Alvin H. Hopson, feel that the work reflects the forward-looking atmosphere of Huntsville and its Marshall Space Flight Center where the Saturn moon rocket is built.
"According to the artist, the design of the mosaic is based on the first chapter of the book of Revelation in which Christ is described as galactic and universal - the Christ of earth, of space, of eternity.'"
But the brightly-colored "Cosmic Christ" has not aged well. Hundreds - probably thousands - of tiles are missing, leaving white or gray empty patches scattered across the cosmos. Broken tiles can often be found on the sidewalk beneath.
The church has tried various methods of repair over the years, with little success.
Since 2003, said Westbook, the church commissioned two different studies to determine the best way to fix it.
"The conclusion of both," he said, "was that it's unrepairable."
The studies found multiple points of failure, including in the tiles themselves, which are machine-made pressed glass, about the size of a thumbnail. They don't have enough surface area for proper bonding to the surface of the building. The tiles were bonded to some sort of netting with an epoxy that didn't work well with the smooth substrate wall - another point of failure, as the wall was too smooth to bond well with the cement.
"The church has been almost unanimous in the fact that we have to do something," said Westbrook.
High-def update
Earlier this month, the church voted overwhelmingly in favor of replacing the mosaic entirely - and making the new mosaic as close to the original work as possible.
"We wanted to respect those who created it," said Westbrook.
"There was a lot of discussion" around whether to faithfully recreate the current mosaic or design something different, said Westbrook.
"Some view the mosaic one way and some another. But we think the common foundation for everyone here is what we started with."
It will be the same, and yet not the same. The trustees have spent the better part of a year meeting with experts and potential contractors before coming up with a plan.
The new Cosmic Christ will be constructed from 4.3 million blown glass tiles, hand-cut in Italy by the Barsanti Marble Bronze Mosaic company. The original mosaic had just 1.4 million tiles.
"The fabricators said it's like going from analog to HD," said Westbrook. "We have about 60 colors in the mosaic now; we'll get close to 1,000 colors when it's replaced."
The new tiles will be reflective, giving the design a more brilliant appearance than the current tiles, which are matte.
The mosaic will be replaced over the next five years, one section - there are seven bays in all - at a time. Italian artists from Barsanti will arrive to lay the tiles in each bay as they are completed.
But first, a Florida company will use drones to photograph the existing mosaic in order to measure it for reproduction. That company, J. Piercey Studios, will also remove the mosaic, one bay at a time, as the new tiles arrive.
The church is still considering what to do with the old tiles. Leaders hope the process of removing and recreating the Cosmic Christ can provide educational opportunities for the community.
"We hope the arts community will embrace this as a celebration and a way to learn," said Collins. "We'd love to host classes and gatherings."
Worship and a gift
The project will cost approximately $1.4 million to complete. The church has already allocated some building money for the project, and has received a commitment of up to $500,000 in matching gifts from donors.
"Because of the generosity of a few individuals, and the entire church, we're not going to divert any of our missions money to this," said Collins. "We will still be able to invest in the community financially as we always have. That was important to us."
Westbrook said the timing was ideal, particularly after individual donors came forward, willing to give funding for a large portion of the project. Since the project was approved by church vote, he said, there's been a sense of excitement about it.
Reasons put it this way: "Can you imagine not doing it?"
Collins, only half-joking, compared it with Michaelangelo's ceiling at the Sistine Chapel.
"When the trustees of the Sistine Chapel decided to ask Michaelangelo to paint the ceiling, there were probably questions about the wisdom of such a project," he said.
"But my sense is they did it as an act of worship and as a gift to the world. Those are lofty goals. I don't intend to compare us to the Sistine Chapel, except that this too is an act of worship and a gift to the community."Show full PR text
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT AMERICA UNVEILS PLAYSTATION®4 SYSTEM, SHOWCASES BLOCKBUSTER CONTENT FOR PLAYSTATION® PLATFORMS AT THE 2013 E3 MEDIA & BUSINESS SUMMIT
LOS ANGELES, June 10, 2013 – Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) today unveiled the PlayStation®4 (PS4™) hardware design at its annual E3 Media & Business Summit press conference, where the company also announced its next-generation platform will launch in the United States for $399 (MSRP) this holiday season. In addition, SCEA showcased an extensive line-up of exclusive first and third party content for PS4, PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) and PlayStation®3 (PS3™) systems, and a next-generation PlayStation®Plus (PS Plus) membership program.
"We are proud to unveil today the most advanced gaming system ever created, PlayStation 4, which demonstrates everything PlayStation stands for - a relentless focus on the gamer, an inspired community of developers equipped with the most powerful technology, and the long-standing legacy to building worlds without boundaries through one-of-a-kind gaming experiences," said Jack Tretton, President and CEO of SCEA. "What's equally exciting for us, however, is transforming the PlayStation ecosystem into a stronger, more vibrant destination that enables gamers to engage, share, play, and connect on their terms."
PlayStation®4
With a sleek, modern, and elegant look, the overall design of the PS4 system reflects the powerful yet accessible architecture of the system, which will inspire developers to unleash their imaginations and create the next generation of gaming experiences that were never before possible.
SCE World Wide Studios (SCE WWS) is currently developing more than 30 PS4 exclusive titles, 20 of them, including 12 new IPs, are planned to release within a year of the launch of the PS4 system. This demonstrates PlayStation's focus on delivering original, creative content to gamers that will define next-generation gaming experiences. SCE WWS President Shuhei Yoshida provided an update on PS4 exclusive titles, #DRIVECLUB™, Killzone™ Shadow Fall, KNACK™, which will be available at launch, and inFAMOUS Second Son™, available first quarter 2014. He also unveiled SCEA's next blockbuster title, The Order: 1886™, from acclaimed studio Ready at Dawn.
Furthering PlayStation's commitment to finding unique games for its fans by working with independent and small developers, SCEA Vice President of Developer and Publisher Relations Adam Boyes introduced a stellar lineup of titles that will be making their console debut on the PS4 system, including: Transistor by Super Giant, Don't Starve by Klei Entertainment, Mercenary Kings by Tribute Games, Octodad: Deadliest Catch by Young Horses, Secret Ponchos by SwitchBlade Monkeys, Outlast by Red Barrels, Oddworld: New N Tasty by Oddworld Inhabitants and Galak-Z by 17-bit. Boyes also unveiled blockbuster content from key publishing partners, including KINGDOM HEARTS III and FINAL FANTASY® XV from SQUARE ENIX, Ubisoft Entertainment, Assassin's Creed® IV Black Flag™ and Watch_Dogs™, 2K Sports's NBA® 2K14, Bethesda Game Studios' The Elder Scrolls® Online, and the world exclusive unveil of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's Mad Max™. Bungie, one of the most celebrated developers in the industry, was also on stage to introduce the world gameplay premiere of Destiny™. SCEA announced a long-term exclusive partnership with Bungie and Activision that will ensure that the PS4 ecosystem evolves and grows with the incredible Destiny world.
PlayStation®Plus
SCEA also unveiled new details for PS Plus, built to bring games and gamers together and fuel the next generation of gaming on the PS4 system. With a single PS Plus membership, gamers will enjoy all of the program benefits across the PS4, PS3, and PS Vita systems.
PS Plus benefits include exclusive game discounts, cloud game saves, early access to beta programs and content, and access to the Instant Game Collection.
The Instant Game Collection, which provides PS Plus members immediate access to a library of games - including blockbuster hits, innovative indie games, and classic titles - will extend to gamers on the PS4 system along with online gameplay, ensuring that gamers always have a selection of games to discover and enjoy with other members of the PS Plus community.
To celebrate the support of PS Plus on the PS4 system, SCEA will offer the #DRIVECLUB PS Plus Edition to PS Plus members which delivers all the authenticity and immersion users would expect from the full #DRIVECLUB experience, in the Instant Game Collection. In addition, one digital title will be rotated each month, including three of the new digital games introduced during the PlayStation E3 press conference, Don't Starve, Outlast, and Secret Ponchos. These three titles will be available at no extra cost via the Instant Game Collection during the first year following the launch of the PS4 system. PS Plus members will be able to enjoy a variety of other amazing PS4 titles, while enjoying new ways to share their experiences with friends via online multiplayer, broadcasting and spectating games, cross-game voice chat, and the ability to seamlessly join a friend's online game.
PS Plus membership can be purchased through PlayStation®Store and is available as a one-year membership for $49.99, a three-month membership for $17.99, and a new a one-month membership option for $9.99*.
Cloud Gaming
SCEA also announced that PlayStation's cloud gaming services will be available in 2014 beginning in the United States. The cloud gaming services will provide gamers on the PS4 and PS3 systems, followed by gamers on the PS Vita system, with immediate access to a catalog of critically acclaimed PS3 titles. These games will be streamed using Gaikai's proprietary network technology to deliver amazing gameplay that is fast and responsive.
PlayStation®Vita
Since its North American launch last February, the PS Vita system has delivered the best and most immersive digital games that truly engage players wherever they are. With a vibrant 5-inch touchscreen, dual analog sticks and all new ways to play, the PS Vita system is the most powerful portable entertainment system ever created. More than 85 additional titles are slated to launch for the PS Vita system by the end of 2013, expanding the current library of more than 125 PS Vita-dedicated games and more than 400 classic titles from the PSP and PS one Classics catalogs.
Featured titles mentioned at the press conference include Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, CounterSpy™, Destiny of Spirits™, Doki Doki Universe™, Killzone™: Mercenary and Tearaway™. In addition, SCEA announced that God of War HD 1 and 2, Flower™, and Dead Nation™ from SCE WWS, as well as Square Enix's FINAL FANTASY X and X-2 and Telltale Game's The Walking Dead are coming soon to the platform.
The Walking Dead on PS Vita will feature a new control scheme that gives players the option to use the dual analog sticks and buttons or touch controls unique to the platform. To celebrate the title's debut on PS Vita, SCEA will offer a limited-edition bundle that includes a 3G/Wi-Fi PS Vita, the complete first season of The Walking Dead game series (including the newly announced Season One episode, 400 Days) and great bonus content.
PlayStation®3
Now in its seventh year, the PS3 system continues to experience tremendous momentum, while delivering more entertainment value to consumers than ever before. The PS3 system will offer the industry's deepest lineup of blockbuster titles, unique indie games, and exclusive "only on" PlayStation content this year, including Puppeteer™, Rain™, Gran Turismo® 6, BEYOND: Two Souls™, The Last of Us™, Batman: Arkham Origins and Grand Theft Auto V.
* Not available as of June 10th, 2013.
About Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC
Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) has revolutionized home entertainment since the first PlayStation® system launched in 1995 in the United States, followed by the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system launch in 2000. SCEA continues to redefine the entertainment lifestyle with the PlayStation®Portable (PSP™) handheld entertainment system, the PlayStation®3 (PS3™) computer entertainment system, which established PlayStation® as a core home entertainment brand, PlayStation®Network (PSNSM), an online gaming platform that includes PlayStation®Store, the PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) portable entertainment system and the soon to be launched PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system. SCEA also recently launched PlayStation®Mobile, a cross device mobile platform using Android based PlayStation™Certified devices. Recognized as an undisputed industry leader, SCEA markets the PlayStation® family of products and develops, publishes, markets and distributes software for PSP, PS3 and PS Vita systems in North and South America. Based in San Mateo, California, SCEA serves as headquarters for all North and South American operations.
# # #K-Swiss Introduces The Icon Knit Featuring Woven Upper And Premium Leather
4.08 / 5 26 VOTES This post contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products. The opinions and information provided on this site are original editorial content of Sneaker News.
K-Swiss continues their stylish and modern “Generation K” footwear collection with the all-new Icon Knit, the brand’s latest genre-defying design that blends classic court style with modern materials and a premium touch. The lifestyle silhouette features a woven knit upper in a clean, minimal design with the the iconic five stripes of K-Swiss on the medial sides in premium burnished leather. An all-foam sole with a supple heel provides comfort all day long.
Able to be dressed up or down, the versatile Icon Knit is an exemplary model of the Gen K collection, designed with the new class or up-and-comers and entrepreneurs in mind. The Icon Knit is available now in multiple colorways on K-Swiss.com.WE MADE IT! The Cozy Bee Project is now funded, and I'm overwhelmed with joy that so many people out there think this is a worthwhile project. But we can't rest yet! We have a fantastic opportunity to help this project reach its full potential. To that end, I'm expanding the work to include a third apiary. This will give us more hives, more data, and if I get enough funding, more roof options- making the information even more useful to beekeeper everywhere.
Taking notes on bee health
So, here's how the Stretch Goals will work. I will add up to 8 additional hives to the project, one for every $300 I raise. That will give us a larger data set, and I'm looking into the possibility of testing a fifth type of roof (a quilted garden top, much like is used on Warré hives). But before I can do that, I need to build a bear exclosure in my third apiary… you know, the one I mentioned before that was utterly destroyed last fall by Winnie/ Fozzy/ Yogi. With advice from the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Vermont Bearhound Association, I've figured out what I need to keep bears out of my bees. It's about $750 in materials, including exciting things like high-tension barbed wire and 10,000 volts of electricity, and I have several bee-friends in the area who are willing to donate labor to help me install it. To that end, I've added a new $75 Reward to the list: beeswax candles. My wife and I don't make many of these, so it's a special deal to help fund the bear exclosure. Once we've raised the $750 beyond the original $3500, then I will start applying further funds to buying the additional hive equipment and sensors to fill it.
A bear exclosure to keep bees safe
Thanks SO MUCH for your support this far, and keep telling your friends about the Cozy Bee Project. You can still read about all the project details below, they aren't changing and I am looking forward to getting started next month.
ORIGINAL PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In over a century since its introduction, the Langstroth hive has become the de-facto standard for keeping bees in North America. For years, different configurations of roofs, bottoms, and vents have been tried with the intent of making the hive more hospitable for bees. The effectiveness of these measures has been judged mostly by intuition, and passed down to generations of beekeepers by word-of-mouth and common practice. My study aims to evaluate the performance of several hive roof styles by using computerized data loggers to track the humidity and temperature inside the hive through the critical overwinter months. Then, with the help of scientists at Oregon State University's Honey Bee Lab, I'll compare that data to external climate data and draw objective conclusions so beekeepers can make informed choices that will help increase the chances of their bees surviving the winter. A final report will be made public to beekeepers on the internet and offered for presentation at the Oregon State Beekeepers Association annual conference.
About me
My name is Jim Fanjoy, and I'm a beekeeper. I started with bees after serving with the Peace Corps in Guatemala, and now I keep about 20 hives at my farm in Oregon, where we produce raw unfiltered honey as well as apiary products like lip balm and beeswax. I love spreading the word about bees: I lecture on beekeeping at community events, mentor apprentices in the Oregon Master Beekeeper program, and I teach bee classes here in the US as well as Latin America.
I'm also a meticulous, technically-oriented guy. In my professional life, I'm an architect who spends a lot of time engineering structural systems and designing building infrastructure. This got me to thinking- why don't we use the same analytical tools we use to monitor human structures to measure and improve living conditions for bees?
About the project
So I mentioned this idea to some of my friends who are bee scientists and researchers at Oregon State University. Turns out, they think it's a great idea that would benefit beekeepers (and bees) everywhere, but they don't have the time or grant funding to take on the project… but they would be happy to lend me technical advice and guidance if I wanted to lead the effort myself.
Working bees in Panama
Much like the citizen-scientists of the nineteenth century, this is a chance for enthusiastic beekeepers and bee lovers to join their resources together in a grassroots effort to solve a problem for the betterment of everyone.
Duration
1 year (May 2015- May 2016)
Location
Northern Tillamook County, Oregon
Scope
I'll test four roof configurations (garden, migratory, telescoping, and Vivaldi), with a minimum of four hives each for a total of sixteen hives. An outdoor data logger will track ambient air temperature and humidity at each apiary for a year. Oregon State University's bee lab has volunteered equipment and staff time to perform regular disease testing and parasite evaluations during the experiment. At the end of the year, we'll collate the data and draw conclusions about best practices for bee health.
Methodology
OK, if you've read this far, you're serious, so here's a rough outline of how the study will be performed. My research plan has been developed with the help of two world-renowned bee scientists, Dr. Dewey Caron (professor emeritus, University of Delaware) and Dr. Ramesh Sigili (apiculture professor, Oregon State University). Warning: some beekeeper nerdiness to follow.
Hives will be set up in matching configurations: screened bottom board, two Langstroth 10-frame deep hive bodies, and sensor-equipped inner cover. Roof type will vary, to be either a migratory top, a telescoping top, a ventilated garden top, or a telescoping top over a Vivaldi board.
Each hive will be numbered for identification.
A supplemental data logger in a weatherproof enclosure will be maintained at each apiary to record ambient temperature and humidity for comparison.
Data collection will officially begin in May of 2015. Data loggers will be set to record hourly temperature and humidity for one year.
I'll work the hives every two weeks per traditional beekeeping practices for standard, non-migratory honey production. I'll record hive activity, brood quantity, queen state, temperament, and so forth. Bees will be sampled monthly for varroa infestation and tested by the lab for Nosema levels.
Varroa treatment (Apiguard, a naturally occurring thyme essence) will be applied to any colony showing greater than 3% infestation rate when sampled with a standard powdered sugar roll.
In late fall, entrance reducers will be applied.
During the overwinter months, to maintain the propolis seal the hive will not be disturbed below the inner cover, and the outer cover will only be removed for emergency dry sugar feeding if indicated by a low hive weight.
In May of 2016, electronic data will be downloaded from the hives for analysis. By October I will present my findings in article form, as well as a presentation to select beekeeping audiences such as the Oregon State Beekeepers' conference.
Stretch goals
If I receive more funding than required, I'd like to expand the project to include more hives. The more data I get, the more reliable the results. Ideally, I'd like to have six total hives of each type. I already have much of the equipment, but will need additional sensors, hive covers… and since a bear destroyed one of my apiaries last fall, I will also need to buy some extra packages of bees to establish new colonies. For every additional $250 raised, I can add another hive to the study, up to a maximum of 24 total.
Me and 6 million bees waiting for new homesSouth African centre Juan de Jongh in action for the Springboks.
First Test: South Africa v Wales
Venue: Growthpoint Kings Park, Durban Date: Saturday, 14 June Kick-off: 16:00 BST Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru and the BBC Sport website
South Africa centre Juan de Jongh has been ruled out of the Springboks' Tests against Wales and Scotland.
His versatility in the midfield will be missed Meyer on De Jongh
The 26-year-old Stormers back has been discharged from hospital with a severe chest infection after receiving treatment for pneumonia.
Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer said: "We wanted to give him a run during this series, as he's been in great form for the Stormers.
"At this stage he needs to focus on getting better."
Springbok team doctor Craig Roberts said: "Unfortunately this infection really takes a severe toll on the body.
"And although he has recovered sufficiently, he has been advised not to participate in vigorous physical activity for the next three to four weeks."
South Africa warmed up for the first Test against Wales in Durban on Saturday, 14 June, with a
Wales' tour of South Africa 10 June: 34-12 v Eastern Province Kings 14 June: First Test, Durban 21 June: Second Test, Nelspruit
Centre Jan Serfontein starts in place of Frans Steyn, who withdrew from the Springbok squad on Tuesday.
JP Pietersen has moved from the wing to partner the 21-year-old in the South African midfield.
South Africa coach Meyer said De Jongh "is the fifth centre we've lost in the last month".
Meyer added: "His versatility in the midfield will be missed. I'm sure he will bounce back strongly."
Uncapped Sharks back Paul Jordaan and 37-capped centre Wynand Olivier have been called up to the Springbok squad to replace Steyn and De Jongh.
South Africa face Wales on 14 and 21 June before hosting Scotland on 28 June in Port Elizabeth.Speaking machines don’t exist despite being put on the wish list at the 1956 A.I. conference at Dartmouth College. That was nearly 60 years ago and we seem no closer to accurate speaking machines. What went wrong?
Today we will look at how speaking machines remain out of reach waiting on a scientific breakthrough. Systems created with massive investment from organizations like DARPA and IBM just aren't accurate. Subsequent systems improved, but remained inaccurate compared with the goal.
The power of science in problem solving is awesome because we see repeatedly that science powers progress where engineering alone cannot.
Scientists set language requirements
Yehoshua Bar-Hillel, a pioneer in machine translation and formal linguistics, identified in 1958 that a Universal Encyclopedia (UE) is needed before accurate machine translation is possible. The UE provides the mechanism to understand what was said and, once you know what is said, you can translate it accurately. At the time, a UE was considered beyond our capabilities.
A decade later, in 1969, John Pierce from Bell Labs proposed a higher-level solution. Roughly speaking, get the science right and then do the engineering. The science should explain how language works, implement it to the level of a human speaker, and then implement speech recognition.
If we follow the 1969 plan and include the 1958 requirement, we should be able to create accurate, speaking artificial intelligence.
Given the answer, what did we do to get here?
A.I. has suffered ongoing funding winters as, in Pierce’s 1960s words about machine translation and speech recognition, many supporters behaved “like mad inventors or untrustworthy engineers.”
DARPA re-initiated their funding of language technology in 1985 which has resulted in many improvements in the engineering for speech technology. To avoid the risks from “glamour and deceit” objective evaluation metrics were set.
The trouble is, they did not heed the recommendations for putting science first. How can you create a speech recognition system without understanding the language like a native speaker? Similarly, how can you translate to a target language without understanding the source? The bar was set too low.
Fixating on statistics, not pure science
Human vision illustrates the scale of combinations involved in a brain. Start with the number of eye sensors -- roughly 6 million for color and 120 million for grays. If you put the number of on/off states on a page of A4 paper, you would receive roughly 5 reams of paper 10 times a second from each eye. And the combinations from each sensor needs to be dealt with many times per second.
Does this sound like something a human computer, as Turing modeled, would do? Is there a better design? If computers compress and duplicate, perhaps brains centralize and expand. We will follow that thought next time.
To deal with the volume of data and its combinations involved in speech (and translation and understanding), statistics can be used. Transistors apparently use the statistics of quantum theory, so it may be a good plan.
Statistics aren't magic, but they get (inaccurate) results
Let’s take 1971 as the time investment in statistical systems really escalated with DARPA's funding of speech recognition for a 5-year period. Today’s speech recognition systems are all based on work originated back then.
Computational linguistics specializes in the application of statistical models. Often the results are right, and often they are wrong. There are theoretical categories that just aren't dealt with properly. When it doesn't work in theory, it won't in practice.
Today’s speech recognition and translation systems are built around statistical models and, as predicted more than 45 years ago by Pierce, are inaccurate, not even approaching human level.
That said, the systems have improved and get results in limited cases, like command-based voice-controlled systems as used by Facebook’s Wit.ai. But there is no obvious path from that system to one with natural speech interaction because compromise, and complexity, is baked in.
DARPA's focus on incremental improvement was necessary to avoid an unfocused project, but without a goal of natural interaction with people, the end result is disappointing.
Users just think the speech from A.I. doesn't work.
Where next
Today we looked at the work by legendary scientists to set out a plan for speaking machines, and the push from engineers like Frederick Jelinek while at IBM, to come up with alternative, compromise solutions.
Some leading engineers today claim that the statistical models won, but a battle for technology isn't won when the technology doesn't work. With the benefit of hindsight, if the goal was to create human-like accuracy in speech, statistical analysis by computational linguistics has failed.
Leaders like John Pierce predicted that without improvements to the science, the engineering would fail. Now that the engineering has demonstrably failed, how do we produce human-like accuracy in language understanding, translation, and conversation?
The science restarts by looking at brains -- the only machines that work today. Often, brain researchers think of a brain cell, a neuron, as being like a little processor. So they argue a brain is like 100 billion computers.
Next time I’ll explain a better brain model based on pattern matching, not processing. This change is important, because the world of A.I. has looked to force computation into almost everything.
This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network. Want to Join?Hitbox has announced its latest European tournament, featuring eight teams and a $2,500 prize pool.
After a two-month hiatus, Hitbox has announced another iteration of its Showdown Invitational, this time with twice as many teams (eight instead of four) and a prize pool of $2,500.
The tournament, which will run from August 17-19, will see eight teams from all over Europe compete in a single-elimination bracket. The winner will take home $1,750, while the runner-up will get $750.
Dobry Gaming will compete in Hitbox Showdown Invitational
All quarter-final matches will be played on just one map, while the semi-finals will use a best-of-three format. The title decider will be a best-of-five clash.
Below you can find the list of participants for the Hitbox Showdown Invitational:
dignitas dignitas Dobry Gaming Dobry Gaming Publiclir Publiclir ex-Orbit ex-Orbit London Conspiracy London Conspiracy OverGaming OverGaming Infused Infused Aposis Gaming Aposis Gaming
The full tournament schedule looks as follows:Twitter users roundly mocked Donald Trump with the hashtag #MuslimsReportStuff, after he answered a question at the presidential debate about Islamophobia by saying Muslims need to report terrorism.
Trump was responding to a question from a Muslim audience member about how he would address rising Islamophobia. Trump, who has previously proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., called the rising Islamophobia “a shame” before saying that Muslims had to “come in and report” if “they see hatred going on.”
To illustrate it, Trump referred to the debunked notion that “many people saw the bombs all over the apartment” of the couple who fatally shot 14 in San Bernardino, Calif., last year. “Muslims have to report the problems when they see them,” he said. “And, you know, there’s always a reason for everything. If they don’t do that, it’s a very difficult situation for our country.”
A Muslim took his suggestion, jokingly reporting “a crazy man threatening a woman on stage” :
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The tweet went viral and the hashtag #MuslimsReportStuff took a life of its own:
Zainab Chaudry “reported” a bit-too-sunkissed killer clown:
And others made reference to Friday night’s bombshell video, of Trump making insulting comments about women:
While others, like Zealot author Reza Aslan, reported on the hilariously mundane.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Clifford Lester is a professor of photography and a student of the Jewish experience. This month, he embarked on his latest journey—a three-week tour to Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Krakow and Budapest to document contemporary Jewish life there. “I think what we’re trying to show here is that the Jews survived, and that their lives are beginning to thrive again in these countries where Judaism was almost wiped out,” he explains. “So I want to show the full circle—the cemeteries and new life and kids and older people, all again celebrating their faith in these countries where Judaism almost became extinct.” A photo gallery of his tour will appear on Chabad.org, and some of the images, he expects, will wind up in a book he’s working on with Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie, director of the North County Chabad in Yorba Linda, Calif., who has encouraged him to get more involved with his heritage and to use his art in a more Jewish way. RELATED Lester, 57, says he wants to reveal—from a photographic perspective and trained eye—how the Jewish faith gets practiced, especially the celebration of life and beauty he sees in it.
Art Brought Him Closer to Faith His photography has, he says, been part of what has brought him closer to Judaism: “I just found this was my avenue toward learning about my faith—through these situations I found myself in.” Drawn to cameras at a young age, he joined the Downey High School yearbook staff, in Modesto, Calif., snapping pictures for school. Later, in 1973, he went to Israel, where he bought his first camera. “And somewhere in the process very early on,” he says, “I realized that I was noticing things through my camera that other people would just walk by.” Lester on the first day of his European tour putting on tefillin with the help of Rabbi Yehuda Tiechtel. (Photo: Clifford Lester) He went on to switch accounting classes for photography classes, and then to work full time in his new craft. Eventually, one of Lester’s clients invited him to study with a Chabad rabbi. Always passionate about his faith, he says he was glad to have the chance to learn more about Judaism. He pursued the opportunity through different channels, which led him to Eliezrie, whose Chabad center in Yorba Linda is just a few short miles from where Lester lives. “Essentially, I heard that Chabad’s mission was to help bring Jews back to Judaism, and that’s sort of what happened with me,” he says. Involved for about a dozen years now with Chabad, he takes pictures of Jewish rituals and has visited Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., to capture meaningful Jewish images. “My career in photography is really connected with my faith, just in helping me to appreciate what we have,” he says. Lester teaches at Cypress College in southern California. Before that, he used his skills to help raise money for hungry children, including doing work for an organization called Para Los Ninos—“For the Children.” “I worked for them for over 10 years when I accepted my full-time teaching position and so couldn’t continue,” he says. “But I discovered that involving my students with the group was a wonderful way for them to do some good through their photography, and also to be grateful for what they have.” Lester says his students have created thousands of images for the charitable organization. Moreover, he adds, “a wonderful reward that I received for my efforts was the ‘Teacher of the Year’ honor in 2011 for helping students become involved in meaningful photographic work beyond the classroom.”Given the rapid advance of gay rights over the last decade, it’s tough to remember just how different the stage was in 2006, when Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” had had plenty of critics since it was enacted in 1994—President Bill Clinton himself would have preferred simply opening the military to gay servicemembers—but it was still firmly in place. The Bush administration was not interested in lifting the ban, and Gates took a cautious approach. He repeatedly told reporters that he was not reviewing or reconsidering the policy.
When, several months into his tenure, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, said that “homosexual acts between individuals are immoral,” Gates tried to avoid discussing the comments, and said of DADT, “As long as the law is what it is, that's what we'll do.” (Pace, who retired in September 2007, reiterated his personal opposition to homosexuality during an exit hearing with Congress, but also endorsed gay service in the military.) When, two months later, the military ejected 58 desperately needed Arabic linguists because they were gay, Gates still said the policy wasn’t under review.
Even after President Obama was elected and Gates accepted an offer to stay on as secretary, he remained cautious. Though the president pledged to repeal DADT during his first State of the Union, Gates expressed a preference in March 2009 to “push that one down the road a little bit,” infuriating gay activists. Yet in June, he was clearly expecting the policy to end and was exploring whether “there’s a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed.” A similar pattern held in 2010, as Gates warned Congress not to repeal DADT before he had a policy in place for the aftermath and insisted courts not make the decision. He also issued a survey on gays to servicemembers, a step that LGBT activists, who saw it as putting civil rights to a vote, disagreed with. Yet there Gates was in the fall, saying DADT’s demise was “inevitable” and testifying to Congress in favor of repeal—before |
recent months, with 57 percent calling him a whistle-blower, as opposed to 34 percent—barely one third—agreeing with Obama and the leadership of both major parties, who portray him as a traitor. Among younger people—18 to 29 years old—this sentiment has been even more overwhelming, with 77 percent indicating support for Snowden’s actions. Support is also substantially higher among Americans with incomes of $50,000 or less than among those taking in $100,000 or more.
That this popular support for Snowden finds no expression within the political establishment or mass media only underscores the vast gulf separating working people, the vast majority of the population of the United States and the entire planet, from the moneyed oligarchy that controls both political parties, as well as the major newspapers and television networks.
The support for Snowden goes hand-in-hand with growing popular anger over record levels of social inequality and the US government’s policy of transferring social wealth to the rich while attacking the social and democratic rights of the working class and preparing new wars.
This support and this anger must be channeled into the development of a politically independent movement of the working class to defend Edward Snowden and defeat the drive by the ruling class toward a police state. This requires a struggle against the Obama administration, both major parties and the capitalist system they defend.
The author also recommends:
Obama defends police state spying
[18 January 2014]
Bill Van Auken
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Kim McKeand, Cari Searcy and their son Khaya Searcy (Facebook)
Taxpayers in Alabama may be on the hook for $200,000 in legal fees after state officials insisted on fighting a battle against same-sex marriage that they were nearly certain to lose.
Attorneys David Kennedy and Christine Hernandez told AL.com that they filed a motion in U.S. District Court this week demanding that the state reimburse them for $99,175 and $98,535.
In July, the two attorneys won the right for Cari Searcy to legally adopt the biological son of her wife, Kim McKeand. In granting the adoption, Baldwin County Circuit Court Judge James Reid forced the state to fully recognize the couple’s marriage.
According to Kennedy, there was “precedent all over the country” for a state to reimburse legal fees after losing a major court battle.
“Near about any time someone makes a constitutional challenge in terms of challenging whether the law itself is constitutional or not, the federal law allows for recovery of attorney fees if you’re successful,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy’s affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Mobile asked that the state reimburse the attorneys at a rate of $275 an hour. He pointed out that lawyers in Mobile area often charged up to $400 an hour for complex cases.
“Litigating this case has come at a very high cost to each of us with little compensation other than the satisfaction with achieving our desired results, including, most importantly, the adoption and full recognition of the dignity of the Plaintiffs’ marriage,” the affidavit said.
Costs incurred by Kennedy and Hernandez were in addition to $200,000 already spent by Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis to defend his decision not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Davis’ office argued at the time that it was following Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore’s order against recognizing same-sex marriage rights.
(h/t: Joe My God)ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A problem with Maryland’s defective health care exchange could cost the state $30.5 million, because the state is unable to determine whether people remain eligible for Medicaid, according to a report by state budget analysts released Thursday.
The exchange can’t convert income data from the existing Medicaid enrollment system into a calculation needed to review whether enrollees are qualified “because of a variety of system architectural flaws,” the report by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services said.
As a result, the state has agreed with the federal government to a six-month delay in determining eligibility, meaning that payments will continue to be made to people who are not eligible until the system is fixed. The report estimated the delay will cost the state $17.8 million in fiscal year 2014 and $12.7 million in fiscal year 2015.
The 31-page report also said “there is significant uncertainty about the way forward” with future information technology spending that will be needed.
Maryland’s health exchange has been plagued by computer problems that have made it difficult for people to enroll in private health care plans since its debut Oct. 1. Although improvements have been made, computer problems remain. As of Feb. 14, 31,112 people have enrolled in qualified health plans.
State officials have decided to stick with the exchange through the open enrollment period that ends March 31. The state is evaluating alternatives with an eye toward the next enrollment period that begins in November. It is considering adopting technology developed by another state, joining a consortium of other states, partnering with the federal exchange or making major fixes to overhaul Maryland’s existing system.
The report said the state may need to develop an interim solution while a long-term solution is being developed. The report said one of the solutions being discussed for qualified health plans is to adapt the Connecticut system for Maryland. However, that process would likely take at least nine to 12 months, pushing up against the next open-enrollment period.
“Not having a solid backup plan could lead to a similar situation faced by the state in October 2013,” the report said.
The report also noted that from the outset, the development of the exchange was “a high risk undertaking.” That’s because the project was developed under tight deadlines and requirements for the project were constantly evolving. The report also said the level of system complexity was high, based on the need for interoperability with to-be-developed federal databases and existing state systems.
“Maryland chose to increase the risk by developing a single system for (qualified health plans) and Medicaid eligibility determination,” the report said.
The report also noted that issues concerning the broken relationship between the contractor, Noridian, and its subcontractor, and coordination with other state agencies and project governance within the health care exchange all added to project risk. The state announced it fired Noridian as the prime contractor earlier this week.
“While the decision to go-live even with limited functionality was generally supported by the independent consultants employed by (Maryland Health Benefit Exchange), the risks identified by those consultants was high, including that few activities in the months leading up to the go-live date had gone smoothly …” the report said, adding that there was a lack of clarity concerning whether security features had been adequately tested or configured and that there was a concern about whether the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services testing activities had been rigorous enough.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta Weekend Gets Massive Four Digit Queues
Giuseppe Nelva November 26, 2011 2:00:41 PM EST
Some may be wondering just how anticipated Star Wars: The Old Republic is, and while getting hard numbers is impossible, just trying to log into the beta today can give a rather clear idea of how many people want to try the upcoming MMORPG by Bioware.
Yesterday what has been labeled as the “Final beta weekend” of the game has started, slated to continue through today until tomorrow, and Bioware invited to the beta basically everyone that asked for it, in order to stress-test the servers and see how they fared against the onslaught of Jedi and Sith wannabes.
For such an event, queues as normal, especially when the number of servers is limited, but past a certain size, those queues fly stright out of the “normal” status and into the realm of legend.
At the moment of this writing almost all the servers have queues, and quite a few of them have over 1000 gamers willing to wait in like to get a chance to test the game. The server I’m on, The Leviathan, had 1081 (you read it well: one thousand and eighty-one) in queue before I alt-tabbed to write this piece. You can see it with your own eyes in the screenshot above, other beta testers on twitter and on forums are reporting even higher numbers.
if you think this is due to the small number of servers, you may want to think again. At the moment of this writing (I have to specify because Bioware is continuously adding new servers) there are 51 North American servers and 37 European ones, for a grand total of 88, and this is just the beta.
It’s worth mentioning, also, that the beta didn’t come with a small admission “fee”, as the beta client is larger than 20 gigabytes, which is definitely a turnoff for many, especially for those that have limited bandwidth available.
One thing is for sure: if the numbers of this beta weekend are any indication Star Wars: The Old Republic seems to be destined to be a real smash hit. If you’re waiting in queue like me, and need a nice pastime, you can read my preview, focused on the Empire faction, or the one by Chad, that went the Republic way. What side will you fight for?The nasty lawsuits between Call of Duty publisher Activision and the ousted lead creators of that hit series got nastier today with accusations that the president of rival EA was instrumental in trying to "hijack" the Call of Duty developers.
And there's more mud being slung. Activision also says the makers of Modern Warfare gleefully sabotaged the sister studio behind this year's Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Activision spelled this out in a legal filing today through which they intend to add Medal of Honor and Battlefield publisher EA — their Coke-vs-Pepsi rival — to their lawsuit against Jason West and Vince Zampella, the founders of original CoD studio Infinity Ward. West and Zampella were fired by Activision in March for alleged acts of insubordination, just months after the studio the men founded finished and released the huge hit Modern Warfare 2.
West and Zampella sued Activison last spring. Activision had sued them back. (Read a summary of the Call of Duty Legal Warfare that has ensued up until now.)
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Activision now wants at least $400 million from EA and has described a series of clandestine efforts by EA to woo West and Zampella away.
In its filing today, Activision also has spelled out what it says were acts by West and Zampella to hurt Treyarch, the Activision-owned studio that just released the mammoth Call of Duty: Black Ops.
(After this story was originally filed, Kotaku heard back from both West and Zampella's attorney and a spokesperson for EA. Both shot down the claims, the attorney calling them "a pathetic mash-up of false and reckless assertions." EA called them "deliberate misdirection" but declined to specifically address the actions the company is accused of having taken.)
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Who knows how any of this will affect gamers, but it makes for sensational reading, suggesting just how bitter the rivalries among some of gaming's most powerful companies may be.
"Cooking Up Chaos"
West and Zampella, as founders of Infinity Ward, were deep into making Modern Warfare 2 in the summer of 2009 and and had two years left on their contract with the company when, Activision claims, EA came calling.
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Activision's legal filing today sets this up:
Unable to compete with Activision and Infinity Ward, and, upon information and belief, enraged by the recent defection of two Electronic Arts executives to Activision (unlike West and Zampella, the executives who left Electronic Arts were not under employment contracts), Electronic Arts was determined to retaliate. Electronic Arts set out to destabilize, disrupt and to attempt to destroy Infinity Ward. Although the precise dates the scheme was conceived and initiated remain somewhat unknown to Activision it was clearly underway no later than July 30, 2009.
At that point, the Call of Duty publisher claims that EA's number two executive, John Schappert, started communicating in secret with West and Zampella, bringing Hollywood agents into the mix and trying to woo the Infinity Ward chiefs away.
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The Activision filing includes copies of e-mails allegedly sent by CAA agent Seamus Blackley saying ""I'll wager a kidney that you'll be astonished" about the opportunity he wanted to set up for the Infinity Ward guys. Another e-mail featured Blackley inviting the IW guys to visit with EA boss John Riccitiello: "JR cooks a mean BBQ. I think we could accomplish some interesting chaos." According to Activision, EA dispatched a private jet to bring West and Zampella to the get-together.
In time, and with EA's knowledge that West and Zampella were under contract to Activision for another two years, Activision claims EA and the two Infinity Ward founders hatched a plan — one rife with private e-mails, attempts to surreptitiously scan company documents and maybe even a good deal of cackling — to start a spin-off company that would make games to compete with Call of Duty. EA, CAA and the Infinity Ward founders were assisted in their plot Activision says, by Harold Brown an attorney who was formerly a member of Activision's board of directors. He is not being sued by Activision.
Activision is informed and believes that the negotiations between Electronic Arts and West and Zampella were structured with the design and the expectation that West and Zampella would "spin out" from Activision and would take significant numbers of key Infinity Ward employees with them to set up their own independent company so that Electronic Arts could make another run at competing with Activision. Electronic Arts would finance the illicitly-created start-up in exchange for an ownership interest or exclusive distribution rights to the content created by their new company, which would produce video games for Electronic Arts instead of Activision.
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Since the spring, Activision has claimed that it knew West and Zampella had talked to EA, but until now it hadn't squarely accused those parties of scheming to hurt the Call of Duty series. Last spring, West and Zampella formed their new company Respawn Entertainment, which signed a deal to put out its first game through EA.
"Crush And Destroy"
The new legal filing we saw today also goes into richer detail before in alleging how the founders of Infinity Ward supposedly tried to interfere with Treyarch, the Activision studio that had traded making Call of Duty games with them in recent years, taking the odd years, and with whom IW was already known to have a frosty relationship.
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This is an example of what Activision claims was going on:
Although West and Zampella preferred to portray themselves – both to the public and within Activision – as game developers often forced to battle with corporate "suits," the reality was and is much different. They were small-minded executives almost obsessed by jealousy of other developers and the thought that another Activision game or studio might share their spotlight. Motivated by envy and personal greed, West and Zampella went so far as to deliberately undermine the efforts of other developers within the Activision family and then lied about their conduct. On the same day that Treyarch released a video trailer promoting a follow-on product – a "map" pack or "downloadable content" – designed for players of Treyarch's game Call of Duty: World at War, West and Zampella released a marketing video for Modern Warfare 2 with the purpose of hurting Treyarch's and Activision's marketing efforts. Far from being remorseful, West attempted to justify his actions on the ground that Treyarch had insufficiently coordinated with Infinity Ward by stating: "We released on the same day as you because we had no clue you were releasing anything. We are not happy about it." The real truth, however, was revealed by a series of text messages between West and an Infinity Ward employee contemporaneous with the video trailers' release. The employee texted West that "treyarch released their mp dlc video." West responded: "Super nice? We release our video? Crush and destroy with our video." The employee answered: "We already did. And... we already did." West's following comment: "Nice." Thus, West's own words reveal his intentional strategy to "crush and destroy" his fellow developers at Treyarch.
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Activision has an interest in painting West and Zampella in the worst light possible, of course. They are counter-suing these two fired employees who sued them. In the past Activision has intimated that the Infnity Ward founders withheld money their subordinates at IW deserved. In this new filing, Activision is more explicit and provides a lurid example of alleged unfairness.
The following are examples in which West and Zampella's self-interest in executing their secret plan to leave Activision corrupted their judgment so fully that they actually attempted to damage the very Infinity Ward employees they purported to lead. In July 2009, West and Zampella were asked by Activision management to provide the names of the Infinity Ward employees that should receive millions of dollars of Activision stock grants in connection with the development of a Wii version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. West and Zampella adamantly refused. Again, in October 2009, when Activision planned to include Infinity Ward in its annual equity grants, West and Zampella refused to provide Activision with a list of the names it needed of the Infinity Ward employees that deserved awards of valuable stock and options. In responding to the President and CEO of Activision Publishing concerning the equity grant, West wrote, "You can give all the options to Vince and I....," thereby depriving their own Infinity Ward employees of additional compensation.
It's not clear if the current and former employees of Infinity Ward are familiar with this version of events, but several dozen Infinity Ward employees did leave the company after West and Zampella's dismissal, many of them joining the two men's new start-up Respawn Entertainment, which is making a game for EA.
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Activision hopes to get EA added to its counter-suit in January. The case is expected to proceed in mid 2011.
What's it wind up meaning for gamers? These kinds of suits can produce juicy stories — true, false, spun — about the people who make the blockbuster games we play. Elements of the suits do call into question who has the rights to make a Modern Warfare 3 and now whether EA can profit from making a game with Respawn. It's certain, though, that Activision will keep on making Call of Duty games and EA will keep trying to unseat them by making rival first-person shooters, at the very least.
Update: The attorney representing Jason West and Vince Zampella has responded to Activision's updated complaint: "Activision's filing is a pathetic mash-up of false and reckless assertions, designed only to delay the march to justice for Jason West and Vince Zampella. But what else would you expect from a company that doesn't let the truth get in its way."
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Update 2: EA responds, calling Activision's accusations "petty."
Read the full legal complaint in the gallery below.
For a recap of the latest events in the imbroglio involving Activision, Infinity Ward, West, Zampella and now EA, check out Kotaku's ongoing Call of Duty Legal Warfare coverage.Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
Fine Art [Fine Art](https://kotaku.com/c/fine-art) is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you’re in the business and have some art you’d like to share, [get in touch!](mailto:plunkett@kotaku.com)
I quite liked Offworld Trading Company, and part of that was down to how good the game looked. For what could have been a very dry game (it’s basically a stock market simulator), it looks great, almost cute, with a wonderful, toy-like quality to the units and landscape.
So it’s a pleasure to be able to highlight a bunch of the game’s art (and artists) with this Fine Art feature.
While most people know OTC was designed by Civ IV’s Soren Johnson, its art team also has experience with Sid Meier’s series: art director Dorian Newcomb held the same role on Civ V, environment artist Erik Ehoff did Civ V’s wonder concepts and paintings and Jason Pastrana—who did OTC’s posters—designed all the buttons for Civ V.
The final member of OTC’s art team, Bryce Homick, also used to work at Firaxis; designing a lot of this game’s buildings, he had previously done similar stuff on XCOM, where he worked on the game’s base.
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Below you’ll find a wide range of art done for OTC’s development, ranging from environmental pieces to character art to unit design.
To see the larger pics in all their glory (or, if they’re big enough, so you can save them as wallpaper), click on the “expand” button in the top-left corner.
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Fine Art is a celebration of the work of video game artists, showcasing the best of both their professional and personal portfolios. If you’re in the business and have some concept, environment, promotional or character art you’d like to share, drop us a line!
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AdvertisementConservatives have reached the firm conclusion that Hillary Clinton is to blame for those Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram, 14 months after she left office.
All they have to do now is fill in the details.
On Fox News last week, Elisabeth Hasselbeck attributed the attack to Clinton’s failure to put the group on a list of foreign terrorist organizations when she was secretary of state. That “perhaps could have saved these girls earlier,” Hasselbeck declared.
Rush Limbaugh, on his radio show, suggested that Clinton didn’t designate the group as terrorist because its members are black.
Fox’s Megyn Kelly floated the idea that Clinton didn’t put the group on the list because doing so would have “angered them,” and a guest on her show said Clinton gave Boko Haram a “green light.”
House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and others argued that the Twitter campaign raising awareness of the kidnappings, #BringBackOurGirls, was evidence of the toothless foreign policy favored by Clinton and President Obama. Clinton, who along with first lady Michelle Obama participated in the campaign, was derided for trying “to fight Boko Haram with hashtags.”
Former congressman Allen West, always a step ahead, asserted that focus on the kidnapping is a “wag the dog” conspiracy by the Obama administration to distract attention from the Benghazi, Libya, investigation (of which Clinton is also a target).
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich called for congressional hearings — which would also provide the opportunity to explore whether Clinton suffered a brain injury, as Karl Rove has alleged, and whether she orchestrated the Monica Lewinsky article in Vanity Fair, as Lynne Cheney suggested.
The nascent effort to pin blame for Boko Haram on Clinton is still far from a full-blown Benghazi conspiracy theory. But it’s worth examining, because it shows how a scandal is born.
The abduction of hundreds of Nigerian girls by Boko Haram, the latest atrocity by the militant group claiming to be acting on Islamic principles, has little to do with the United States. But while the rest of humanity reacts with revulsion, American conservatives have searched for ways to blame the kidnappings on the favorite for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
They found their opening in a decision by the State Department not to put the group on its list of foreign terrorist organizations after Boko Haram bombed U.N. headquarters in Abuja in 2011. The FBI, the CIA and various lawmakers argued for its inclusion, but Nigeria’s government, which Boko Haram is trying to topple, argued against it, as did academic experts on Nigeria. John Campbell, U.S. ambassador to Nigeria during the George W. Bush administration, told Fox’s Chris Wallace on Sunday that, “along with a good many other Nigerian experts at the time, we all opposed designation.”
Opponents figured the designation would elevate the prestige of Boko Haram, which was essentially a domestic Nigerian organization. Instead, Clinton in 2012 put three of the group’s leaders on a list of foreign terrorists. After Boko Haram killed more than 160 civilians in Benisheik, Nigeria, in September 2013, Clinton’s successor, John Kerry, finally put the group on the terror list — and Boko Haram’s brazen attacks continued unimpeded.
The blame-Hillary effort began, as these things often do, with a report by a mainstream journalist. After Clinton tweeted about the “unconscionable” abductions and said “we must stand up to terrorism,” Josh Rogin posted an article May 7 in the Daily Beast quoting an anonymous “former senior U.S. official” accusing Clinton of “gross hypocrisy” because she hadn’t put Boko Haram on the list.
From there, conservatives were off to the races. Glenn Beck’s the Blaze picked up Rogin’s report, highlighting the anonymous quote. The Daily Caller went with the headline “Secretary Hillary — Now Decrying ‘Terrorism’ — Refused to Call Boko Haram a Terror Group.” National Review and others joined in.
“Now word is because we did not place them on the terror list,” said Fox News’s Steve Doocy the morning after Rogin’s report appeared, “it’s going to be harder to go after them. And who exactly made sure that they were not placed on the terror list? Hillary Clinton.”
Inevitably, the accusations landed on the House floor, where Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) gave a long speech the next day, quoting Rogin’s article, citing Fox News and asserting that Clinton “protected” the terrorists.
“What happened here is obvious, although the commentariat is loath to connect the dots,” the lawmaker said. “Ms. Clinton, like the Obama administration more broadly, believes that appeasing Islamists... promotes peace and stability.”
It was a textbook example of the anatomy of a smear.
Twitter: @Milbank
Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.Former Bridgeport Bluefish catcher John Nathans’ life has not been the same after he was struck on the back of the head by the bat of former major leaguer Jose Offerman in 2007.
A week after being awarded $940,000 for damages stemming from the incident, Nathans spoke out against Offerman.
“I didn’t get to leave the game on my own terms,” Nathans told the jury in US District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., via The Boston Globe. “He took a bat to my head and ended my career.”
Nathans tried to stop Offerman from charging the mound during an Aug. 2007 game against the Long Island Ducks but instead was hit by Offerman’s bat on the right side of the head. Nathans said he still has symptoms of post-concussion syndrome.
“I do therapy two days a week, and there’s no foreseeable end to that seven years out,” Nathans said.
Despite the symptoms that Nathans said he suffers each day, Offerman claims he never swung the bat at Nathans during the incident.
“He was just in a state of denial, and it was clear to everyone, including the jury,” Nathans said. “He never once acknowledged swinging the bat. Nobody believes that.”
Any chance that Nathans had at reaching the big leagues was shattered after the attack. Nathans instead went to the University of Maine School of Law before taking the bar in both Maine and Massachusetts in 2012.
“I’m lucky,” Nathans said of his new career. “I understand that. I’m lucky I didn’t get killed that night. I’m lucky I had another option of going to law school. I’m lucky I had people that believed in me and gave me support and jobs, a great support system in my wife, family, and great friends.”
Offerman played 15 seasons in the majors, including three-plus with the Boston Red Sox from 1999 to 2002. A two-time All-Star, he now manages the Rojos del Águila de Veracruz of the Mexican League.
Photo via Twitter/@jtuohey21“Building that wall and having it funded remains an important priority to him. But we also know that that can happen later this year and into next year,” Kellyanne Conway says. | AP Photo Conway: Border wall remains a'very important priority' for Trump
Funding and constructing his long-promised wall along the U.S. border with Mexico “remains a very important priority” for President Donald Trump, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Tuesday morning, even though he has signaled that he will not insist on money for it in a must-pass bill due by the end of the week to keep the government open.
Speaking to Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” Conway said funding for the wall can be secured in the future and that in the meantime, additional resources have been directed and will continue to be directed to border security measures. Trump has insisted from day one of his presidential campaign that Mexico will pay for the wall, but since taking office has backtracked away from that position somewhat, suggesting that it be funded with taxpayer dollars for the sake of expediency while maintaining that the U.S. will be reimbursed by the Mexican government in one form or another at some point in the future.
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“Building that wall and having it funded remains an important priority to him. But we also know that that can happen later this year and into next year. And in the interim you see other smart technology and other resources and tools being used toward border security,” she said. “We’ll have those enhancements for border security and then moving on to funding and building the wall later on.”
Conway highlighted the executive order on immigration and border security signed by Trump on his sixth day in office and noted that illegal border crossings have hit a 17-year low. That dip, the counselor to the president said, is the result of Trump’s “resolve, plus the tools and resources” handed to immigration and border officials.
Money for the border wall would likely have been a major sticking point for Democrats should the president have insisted upon it in legislation that must pass this week in order to keep the government open. By deferring explicit funding for the wall into the future, Trump has removed one of the major obstacles to avoiding a government shutdown, one that would embarrassingly begin on his 100th day in office.
Conway also chided Democrats for being unwilling to support the wall when prominent members of the party, including former President Barack Obama and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, both former senators, as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer all voted in favor of a 2006 bill that authorized roughly 700 miles of fencing along some portions of the U.S.-Mexico border.
That legislation was far less ambitious than the border wall that Trump has proposed and Politifact rated a similar assertion made over the weekend – that Obama, Clinton and Schumer had all once voted in favor of a border wall in 2006 – half true.
“I suppose because they don't want this president to have a victory on this, and that's really petty and peevish and partisan,” Conway said when asked by the Fox News panel of hosts why Democrats oppose Trump’s wall when they supported the 2006 fence legislation. “They started to enhance border security and build the wall. It's a matter of finishing it… The president is making the very reasonable request to continue it, continue the construction and continue the funding. And I appreciate you mentioning that because very few people, I think, are aware of it.”The Ubuntu GNOME makers have been encouraged by an important Ubuntu developer to implement the latest build of the GNOME desktop environment in the future versions of their distro.
Ubuntu GNOME developers posted a message a few days ago explaining once again why their OS would not be incorporating the latest GNOME packages. Apparently, this is a problem for this project and the devs wanted to say something about it before the actual launch took place.
Now, it looks like an Ubuntu developer has weighed in on the entire situation and what he said is not exactly on the same lines as the Ubuntu GNOME devs. In fact, it's quite the opposite, although the tone used was a constructive one.
Latest GNOME packages should be a part of Ubuntu GNOME
The Ubuntu GNOME devs say that they couldn't get the GNOME 3.14 into the 14.10 iteration in time, mostly because of the gap between the launch of the latest version for the desktop environment and the feature freeze for Ubuntu 14.10 cycle. That is true and no one is disputing that getting something as important as GNOME 3.14 past the feature freeze point wouldn't be very hard.
"In your mail to ubuntu-gnome, you write: If you take a look at it, and know the fact that within one month, we can't test Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 with the latest GNOME (3.14) and then release it, etc etc... This seems to be a decision of the Ubuntu GNOME Team, not something that would involve a statement from the Ubuntu Release Team. In the past, when the Ubuntu desktop was more closely based on GNOME and there was greater alignment between the two projects, there was careful synchronization between the release schedules to ensure that the latest GNOME would be included in each Ubuntu release," says Steve Langasek, Ubuntu and Debian developer.
"I think it's too late to revisit such a decision for 14.10 without significant downside for the quality of Ubuntu GNOME; but for 15.04, I recommend that you explicitly consider at the beginning of the release cycle whether you would like to release with the latest version of GNOME," also notes the Ubuntu developer.
The biggest complaint about Ubuntu GNOME is the fact that it doesn't integrate new GNOME packages, but that might change in the future if the developers of this flavor work more closely with the community. For example, they might try, for Ubuntu 15.04, to add right from the start the development packages for GNOME 3.16 and work their way up from there.
This is still an issue under debate and it will take a while to get things sorted out. In the meantime, Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 is expected to arrive on October 23, so make the best of it.TheLADbible http://www.theladbible.com/ http://www.theladbible.com/assets/images/theme/logo.svg
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In a world of 'good things' being bad for you (beer, chocolate, carbs, Celebrity Big Brother) it's nice to know that almost everybody agrees that sex is both 'good' and healthy.
Physically, it acts as a cardio equivalent that burns as many calories as a 30-minute jog would. Mentally, it stops you from feeling like a loser.
It's never really been given a limit or goal, unlike alcohol and the 14-units-a-week rule advised by all doctors. For instance, if you had sex 14 times a week - safely - it wouldn't cause any long-term harm. Nor would a 14-week dry spell.
According to a Social Psychological and Personality Science study, there is no perfect or superior number. That couples should do it when and as they please in conducive to a happy relationship.
Amy Muise, a sex and romance researcher with the University of Toronto, conducted rigorous research that included the examination of three surveys over the decades.
She told the Huffington Post : "In general, it is important to maintain a sexual connection with a romantic partner, but it is also important to have realistic expectations for one's sex life, given that many couples are busy with work and responsibilities.
Credit: NBC
"Our research suggests that engaging in regular sex is associated with happiness, but it is not necessary, on average, for couples to aim to engage in sex as frequently as possible."
So don't sweat the small stuff, guys. Don't laugh at your mate who hasn't seen as much as you have because it doesn't really matter. Do it behind their back instead. Then everybody's a winner!
Featured Image Credit: PAThey have so much in common beyond an addiction to hair product. Both enjoy stirring the pot and shifting political loyalties. (Both had high praise for Hillary.) They savor counterpunching, especially in donnybrooks with CNN. Trump was taken with Scaramucci’s win in getting CNN to retract a story linking him to a Russian investment fund supposedly under Senate investigation, a debacle that ended in three reporters losing their jobs.
The Mogul and the Mooch have the same fluid relationship with the truth and the same definition of loyalty.
Donald Trump made it clear in an interview with Michael Schmidt, Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker in The Times on Wednesday that he was hurt that Jeff Sessions essentially put the Constitution over him, calling his attorney general’s decision to recuse himself on the Russia investigation “very unfair to the president.”
And Politico reported about Scaramucci: “A few years ago, while interviewing PR firms, he was blunt about what he was looking for, according to one person present for the meeting. During the 90-minute meeting, Scaramucci told this person: ‘I need someone who’s prepared to go to the mat and lie for me.’”
Sean Spicer had the impossible task of defending a president who didn’t believe in telling the truth to a press fixated on the president’s lying. He was impersonated by a woman on “Saturday Night Live” and put up with Steve Bannon calling him fat. He made up a bunch of nonsense about crowd sizes to please a boss who tallies his own personal value by crowd sizes.The great financial crisis of 2008-2009 that brought Wall Street down and humbled the United States along with other major industrial nations and the continuing struggles of the Eurozone have raised serious questions about the sustainability of global capitalism, at least in the form that we have experienced it in the last quarter century. It will be quite some time before any policy maker can be persuaded that financial innovation is an overwhelming force for good, that financial markets are best policed through self-regulation, or that governments can expect to let large financial institutions pay for their own mistakes. We need a new narrative to shape the next stage of globalization. The more thoughtful that new narrative, the healthier our economies will be. Global finance is not the only area that has run out of convincing storylines. Negotiations aimed at reducing barriers to international trade are stalled amid much acrimony and finger-pointing. These talks, organized under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and dubbed the "Doha Round," had been ongoing since 2001. For many anti-globalization groups, they had come to symbolize exploitation by multinational corporations of labor, poor farmers, and the environment. Even though efforts to revive the talks continue, the WTO seems to have run out of ideas to boost its legitimacy and make itself relevant once again. Today the self-assured attitude of globalization's cheerleaders has all but disappeared, replaced by doubts, questions, and skepticism. The world has seen globalization collapse once already |
ed the weapon. A bullet flew from the chamber, making way for a fresh new one. I watched as it caught the light of the nearby street lamps and thought that this was my gunpowder-filled harbinger of doom. You might think that’s a bit dramatic, but remember that I was 17 and LOOKING DOWN THE BARREL OF A FREAKING GUN!
My friend’s car door opened. I could hear the sounds of him moving objects around as he casually reached to find either his shotgun or his nunchuks — as if he had the Bruce Lee-like skills to deflect bullets with them. But before he could secure either of his weapons the kid smiled big and laughed, slapping me on the shoulder and saying something like, “You’re alright! I like you!” Then he walked off into the night, as if his approval with me were enough to add a little zest to the rest of my life.
It was random. Terrifying. A defining moment.
I missed the lesson.
After an event like the one I just recounted for your entertainment there should be … something. A shift. An assessment. A revelation.
I picked up that discarded bullet, the one that had been ejected, or rejected, and I kept it for a couple years. I’d carry it in my pocket and try oh so hard to glean some sort of [I don’t know] from it. I think I might’ve been looking for the question that would reveal the answer I’m only now, a couple decades later, starting to understand.
I failed to realize that life is precious, fragile, short, and should be spent living rather than waiting. I missed that life shouldn’t be wasted watching badly written television shows, or filling the coffers of fast food chains. Or waiting. As if waiting would somehow deliver to me the body, lifestyle, sense of joy that's possible in the living of the life I was given... and spared.
Looking around, it’s easy to find faces — reflections — that fail to realize, and may never (given they never look down the barrel of a gun themselves), that they deserve to live their lives fully, on their terms, authentically, happily, inspired, fulfilled and engaged in an act of giving. Behind desperate eyes that look over that half-devoured but unsavored, GMO-laden, assembly line burger, there lies a soul left wanting and deserving a life filled with passion and love.
Give yourself permission to make the changes you want, to move your body, eat great meals, tell bad jokes, have amazing sex, meditate, make new friends, create works of art, take that yoga teacher training, start that business, laugh out loud, fall, scrape a knee, get back up, and to be authentic, vulnerable, loved and loving. After all, as Ferris Bueller brilliantly offered, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and awhile you could miss it.”
Don’t miss it. Dodge the bullet. Live it. Fully.Seventy percent of the 57,000 American Indians living in New York City are of Hispanic origin, according to census figures. That is 40,000 American Indians from Latin America — up 70 percent from a decade ago.
The trend is part of a demographic growth taking place nationwide of Hispanics using “American Indian” to identify their race. The number of Amerindians — a blanket term for indigenous people of the Americas, North and South — who also identify themselves as Hispanic has tripled since 2000, to 1.2 million from 400,000.
“There has been an actual and dramatic increase of Amerindian immigration from Latin America,” said José C. Moya, a professor of Latin American history at Barnard College.
Dr. Moya attributes the increase to shifting patterns of immigration to the United States over the last two decades, from regions with larger indigenous populations, like southern Mexico and Central America, instead of northern Mexico.
Half of all Hispanics who moved to New York over the last 10 years were Mexican, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Most of them come from southern Mexico.
Photo
The pattern started in 1994 with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened the American-Mexican border to more economic activity. To encourage foreign investment in Mexico, its government started to strip Indian landowners of a long-held legal protection from privatization. The resulting conflict awakened ethnic tensions that dated back centuries, and spurred a populist support of indigenous heritage.
That movement was on vivid display at Carnaval in Sunset Park, home to the city’s largest Mexican community.
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The Tlaxcala were costumed, carried whips and wore pink-hued masks that had flush cheeks, blue eyes and thin mustaches — obvious stereotypes of the European conquerors. Tlaxcala costumes are also worn in parades in other months in New York, and in other boroughs.
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The Indians’ version of Carnaval, a Christian holiday of revelry that falls just before Lent, is satirical in nature, the Tlaxcala marchers explained. When Spanish conquistadors celebrated Carnaval in the 16th century, the Tlaxcala observed the custom from afar. The Spaniards wore flamboyant dress, drank too much wine and danced late into the night.
“We are descendants from the original people of Tlaxcala,” said Gabriel Aguilar, a Ditmas Park resident. “Five hundred years ago, there is not territory known as Mexico. It’s just tribes.”
The American Indian totals are still a small fraction of the overall Hispanic population of the United States, which eclipsed 50 million this year. But the blip in the census data represents raised awareness among native Latinos who believe their heritage stretches farther back than the nationalities available on the census form.
The trend is not occurring solely among newcomers to the United States. Nancy Perez, who shares her household in Ditmas Park with her sister and parents, held a family meeting to decide how they should identify themselves in the census. Her parents moved to the United States from Puebla, Mexico, in the 1970s, and although her family was mixed, “if you go back far enough, we are indigenous,” Ms. Perez said. American Indian, they decided, made the most sense.
“We felt that there were very limited options to identify with,” Ms. Perez, 32, said. “So out of the options available, that was the best one.”
The Amerindian numbers do not account for those who take a more activist approach toward filling out the census form. Carlos A. Quiroz, an activist and blogger born in Peru, checked off that he was a “Non-Hispanic” American Indian, a category normally associated with North American Indians. Mr. Quiroz said he selected it because he opposed use of the word “Hispanic” as an ethnic category.
“Hispanic is not a race, ” said Mr. Quiroz, whose ancestors were the Quechua people, of the Central Andes. “Hispanic is not a culture. Hispanic is an invention by some people who wanted to erase the identity of indigenous communities in America.”
“We don’t believe we have to accept this identity just because we speak Spanish,” Mr. Quiroz added.Animator Kazumi Nakatsu reported on her Twitter account on Wednesday that the Gundam Reconguista in G anime will play in theaters throughout Japan next year. A theatrical film version of the Gundam Reconguista in G television anime had not been announced before.
Right Stuf released the Gundam Reconguista in G television anime series on Blu-ray Disc in North America, and it describes the story:
The new era begins! The turbulent era known as the Universal Century has ended. Now, mankind looks towards prosperity and peace in the new era known as the Regild Century (R.C.). One of the most important resources in this era is the Capital Tower - a space elevator which towers over the land connecting Earth to space. Its purpose, to transport the Photon Batteries the Earth relies on for power. It is worshiped as a holy place. Tasked with protecting the tower, one day on a practice mission, young Capital Guard cadet, Bellri Zenam is attacked by a high-performance G-Self Mobile Suit. Despite having never before encountered the G-Self, he feels a strange connection to it and its pilot, a space pirate called Aida Surugan. Little does Bellri know that he is about to uncover truths which will shake the entire Regild Century.
Gundam Reconguista in G celebrated the Gundam franchise's 35th anniversary, and marked the first return of franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino as chief director of an original Gundam series since Turn A Gundam. After a theatrical premiere of the first three episodes in August 2014, the anime premiered on Japanese television in October 2014.
[Via Hachima Kikō]Artificial Intelligence to advance machine vision
By : Jobin Wilson, Muhammad Arif
Flytxt Data Science R&D Team
Posted on : November 30, 2017
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Human brain is capable of some amazing tasks like understanding the world in a single visual frame. It takes only a few tens of milliseconds for the brain to recognize the category of an object or environment. Further, humans are capable of learning and remembering a diverse set of places and patterns, and solving complex problems such as planning and navigation, involving vision, perception and cognition. The neural architecture of human beings have inspired researchers to simulate such abilities on machines to solve challenging problems using artificial intelligence. Consequently, deep learning has emerged as a powerful tool to solve problems involving machine vision and perception. Through artificial intelligence, machines have come closer to human ability in several cognitive tasks such as identifying and recognising objects and environment.
Image classification is one of the hallmark tasks of computer vision. It allows defining a context for object recognition which will have diverse applications. The classical problem in computer vision, is that of determining whether or not image data contains some specific object, feature, or an activity of interest.
Data Science R&D team at Flytxt has released an end-to-end scene recognition pipeline consisting of feature extraction, encoding, pooling and classification. The primary objective of this work is to clearly outline the practical implementation of a basic scene-recognition pipeline having a reasonable accuracy, using conventional computer vision techniques (without applying deep learning techniques), in python, using open-source libraries.
Scene recognition approach with local and global descriptors
The approach used by Flytxt R&D team utilizes global feature descriptors as well as local feature descriptors from images simultaneously, to form a hybrid feature descriptor corresponding to each image. It comprises of using DAISY features associated with key points within images as the local feature descriptor (similar to SIFT features) and histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) corresponding to an entire image as a global descriptor.
As images vary in view point, scale, orientation, illumination and occlusion level of objects, extracting robust features (such as DAISY, SIFT, HOG etc.) to represent images is critical for building an effective image classification model. As the number of key points vary across images, multiple DAISY descriptors would exist for each image. We use a bag-of-visual-words concept to encode each image as a histogram of dimensionality ‘K’ (where K is the vocabulary size or the number of possible “visual words”). Clustering is used to group DAISY features to form the "visual words" for encoding. Since training data could have several images, total number of DAISY descriptors could be very large (in millions). We use Mini-Batch K-Means algorithm to reduce the complexity of clustering, for fast encoding. The histogram corresponding to each image is augmented with its HOG descriptor using a pooling procedure, to generate the final feature vector corresponding to each image. The associated class label (e.g. living room, store etc.) would be already available since the training dataset is pre-labelled.
A multi-class SVM (each class corresponds to a scene category such as living room, store etc.) is trained and cross validated to assess the model quality on the fifteen scene categories dataset. The average accuracy of the model was 76.4% in the case of a 40%–60% random split of images into training and testing datasets respectively.
A detailed description of the approach is available in here. Also, a full implementation of the proposed model is available here.AP Islamic countries must close ranks and respond to Israel's deadly attacks on the Gaza Strip, Iran's Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday.
"Putting an end to the Zionist (Israeli) regime's crimes is only possible through a united, revolutionary retaliation by the Muslim world," Vahidi said in remarks carried by the official IRNA news agency.
Israel is "massacring the oppressed Palestinian people, including women and children" and its strikes amount to a "clear example of war crimes," the defence minister charged.
The Jewish state launched a major air offensive on Gaza on Wednesday with a strike that killed the top military commander of the Islamist movement Hamas which rules the territory.
Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, whose country is a key backer of Hamas, on Thursday urged the United Nations and European Union to pressure Israel to halt its offensive, saying the security of the Middle East was at stake.
Salehi has also announced his readiness to visit Gaza.
And speaking to exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on the telephone, Salehi said Iran was ready to send "medical and medicinal aids" to Gaza, the official IRNA news agency reported.
On Saturday, media reports said Iran was preparing to dispatch a parliamentary delegation to the Palestinian territory.
The foreign ministry is "talking with Egyptian officials to facilitate the visit through Rafah," a terminal at Gaza's southwestern border with Egypt, according to MP Mansour Haqiqatpour.
Previous attempts by Iran's hardline parliament to dispatch a team into Gaza failed during the rule of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Palestinian medics said on Saturday that 38 Gazans have been killed since Israel launched the aerial campaign, while Israel's army says Palestinian militants have fired more than 580 rockets over the border.
Three Israelis have been killed and 13 injured by the rocket fire.Boian Mitov from Mitov Software has recently released a new component suite called AnimationLab for Delphi XE5 and XE6 Firemonkey. AnimationLab makes use of an open source component suite and Delphi IDE add on called OpenWire which is also from Mitov Software. AnimationLab runs on Windows, Android, and IOS (in beta). AnimationLab comes with three different components which are ALTimeline which allows you to manipulate components and their properties based on a timeline, ALMass which allows you to apply mass effects to Firemonkey 3D components, and ALDrag which allows you to apply drag effects. The timeline itself is a Delphi IDE add on which you can use to visualize the timeline. AnimationLab reminds me of TFloatAnimation somewhat as it can change values over time. As an example it looks like in the screen shot that you can visually see the color range that Alphacolor fades between along the timeline. The best way to figure out if AnimationLab can help you is to download the free trial and see what it can do for yourself.
Head over and download the full AnimationLab component and start animating your Delphi projects using a timeline.In this undated NASA photo, a Hubble Space Telescope close-up view of Saturn’s disk captures the transit of several moons across the planet. The tiny dot at the far left close to the ring plane is the moon Enceladus, which has drawn attention since the 2005 discovery that it has ice geysers erupting from what is likely a liquid source beneath its icy crust.
In this undated NASA photo, a Hubble Space Telescope close-up view of Saturn’s disk captures the transit of several moons across the planet. The tiny dot at the far left close to the ring plane is the moon Enceladus, which has drawn attention since the 2005 discovery that it has ice geysers erupting from what is likely a liquid source beneath its icy crust. NASA/via AP
Martian life is awfully cryptic. That’s a scientific term: It means life that is out of sight, below the surface, burrowed into ecological niches not easily scrutinized by robotic sentinels from the planet Earth.
Or perhaps it’s not anywhere. Mars may be dead as dead can be.
Going back to the 19th century, a persistent feature of hypothetical Martian life has been the way it has bewitched and teased earthlings but then refused to materialize. Time and again, scientists have detected signatures of Martian life, only to discover that they were written in vanishing ink. Most notorious were the canals on Mars, promulgated in the 1890s by the great astronomer Percival Lowell, who saw them as evidence of an ancient civilization struggling to survive on a desert world. They were purely an optical illusion.
Extraterrestrial life is one of the greatest unknowns in all of science, and many scientists are sure it has to be out there, somewhere, with Mars an obvious place to look. But it’s proving to be elusive. The latest buzz kill came Thursday when scientists announced that NASA’s Curiosity rover had not detected methane in the atmosphere. Atmospheric methane is often a byproduct of living organisms.
The new finding wasn’t a total showstopper, but scientists would have been thrilled by a different result.
“Naturally, I was disappointed,” said Michael Mumma, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “It would have been nice if they had detected an abundant signal for methane.”
Mumma had high hopes for a positive result because he and his colleagues believe they have detected methane on Mars remotely, from telescopes on Earth that can discern the chemical nature of Mars’s atmosphere. A European orbiter around Mars also spotted methane. But the gas has proved ephemeral — now you see it, now you don’t.
Mumma said he and his colleagues are reviewing their work to see if there is some error in the mix. Perhaps the methane simply disappears quickly on Mars, through some unknown chemical process.
“It’s possible that we don’t understand something that’s going on in the Martian atmosphere,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.
Jim Green, director of the planetary sciences division at NASA headquarters, said the goal of Curiosity is to understand the full history of Mars, not simply to take a momentary snapshot.
“Today is a small microcosm of time, and Curiosity is going for the geological record of the planet, which includes maybe millions or hundreds of millions of years when life existed,” Green said.
Investigations by Curiosity, other landers and orbiters have led to a consensus that, billions of years ago, Mars was warmer and wetter, with the conditions necessary for life. Although the planet dried out and lost most of its atmosphere, life could have adapted and migrated to subsurface environments. On Earth, organisms thrive in exotic realms deep below the surface, even beneath ice caps. The astrobiological truism is that life finds a way.
Curiosity’s suite of instruments is not designed to detect life itself. NASA learned a lesson in the 1970s when it plunked two Viking spacecraft on Mars and performed much-ballyhooed tests that might have detected life. The results were ambiguous at best; most scientists interpreted the findings as negative. NASA learned that it is hard to get funding for future robotic missions when the first wave of probes saw only a cold, dry, dead-looking place.
In the past two decades, NASA has chosen to study Mars in a more incremental fashion, looking at the geology and chemistry and trying to understand the broader narrative of the planet.
One intriguing possibility is that life originated on Mars and came to Earth via a meteorite — or vice versa. Chunks of Mars, blasted off the surface in impacts from asteroids or comets, have wound up on Earth, and the same process has presumably happened in reverse. Scientists believe organisms can potentially survive inside ejected rocks even during long transits in space.
Robert Zubrin, head of the Mars Society, which advocates for human missions to the planet, says that this is a mystery worth drilling into, literally.
“If we can bring up groundwater, find life, and analyze it, we will be able to determine if it contains more primitive examples of Earthlike (RNA/DNA based) biology,” Zubrin said by e-mail. “If so, that would show we came from Mars.” Or perhaps, he said, the results would show that Mars life evolved from Earth life. If the two types of life were different, that would mean independent origins and would suggest that life is a cosmic imperative.
Although our solar system abounds with seemingly uninhabitable worlds, there are several places other than Mars that pique the interest of astrobiologists. Europa, a moon of Jupiter, apparently has a deep subsurface ocean and is a likely site of future robotic exploration. Saturn’s small moon Enceladus has drawn attention since the 2005 discovery that it has ice geysers erupting from what is likely a liquid source beneath the icy crust.
“The interior of Enceladus would be dark and cold and not very pleasant for us humans,” Chris McKay, a NASA planetary scientist, said in an e-mail. “But we find microbes [on Earth] living under ice in remarkably similar conditions.”
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, has an atmosphere thick with hydrocarbons and could conceivably have life forms with biochemistry that is different from what we see on Earth, Green said.
“We call that ‘weird life’ because it doesn’t conform to anything we know,” Green said. “Weird life has no bounds. There might be weird life in a variety of places in our solar system. There may even be life under the ground in Venus.”
The very definition of life is tricky, since scientists have only one example from which to draw conclusions, and that’s Earth life. The origin of life remains another enduring mystery. At one level, life is astonishing, for even the simplest organisms on Earth require a complicated genetic code. And yet life is also fashioned from common elements, the stuff that is lying around everywhere in the universe. Life appeared quite early in Earth’s history, as if it couldn’t wait to get in the game.
Astrobiologists have come up with a working definition of life: “Life is a self-sustained chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.”
It’s a subject fraught with conjecture — and perhaps, in some cases, wishful thinking. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, related one of the many false-start Martian-life stories: In 1928, when Mars and the Earth came unusually close to one another, some people in the United States got the notion that anyone with a radio transmitter should turn it off. The radio silence would presumably make it easier to detect any radio signals coming from a civilization on Mars.
In fact, some people did detect radio signals coming from somewhere out there. Explained Shostak: “They weren’t actually Martians. They were merely Canadians.”"Let me make it clear: There will be no government shutdowns."
That definitive statement was made by none other than Mitch McConnell the day after he cruised to re-election and succeeded in attaining his life-long dream: Majority Leader of the United States Senate. It was a bold comment to make, given that only a year prior to those remarks, House and Senate Republicans contributed to a shutdown of the federal government in a politically-damaging attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. That shutdown lasted for over two weeks, with federal government employees and congressional staffers out of work through no fault of their own.
So, when McConnell pledged that there wouldn't be anymore shutdowns as long as he was the Senate Majority Leader, you couldn't help but come to the conclusion that Congress -- or at least the responsible members in the congressional leadership -- learned their lesson: shutting the fed down for a principle is not worth the cost or embarrassment that such a legislative maneuver would entail.
Fast-forward 16 months later, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill are again wrestling with a potential cataclysmic event that would close the Department of Homeland Security -- all at a time when Islamic State affiliates are popping up around the Middle East and North Africa, Congress is preparing to debate a use of force resolution, and lone-wolf terrorist attacks are reverberating across Western Europe. Shuttering DHS is a terrible thing to do at any time and during any circumstances, but it's an especially terrible time at the moment, when thousands of Europeans who have flocked to Syria and Iraq to fight with the Islamic State are only a plane-ride away from entering the United States.
We all know the story here. The Republican-led House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would fund DHS until September 2015, but that same legislation would block any funding from being used to implement President Obama's executive orders on immigration. The Senate Democratic caucus has filibustered the House bill three times already, defending their president while at the same time sticking up for what many of them would categorize as partial immigration reform. With the House bill dead in the Senate, Speaker John Boehner has shown absolutely no willingness to revisit the issue and pass a "clean" DHS funding bill as President Obama and the Democrats have called for.
Larry Downing -- Reuters
With Congress off this week for the Presidents' Day holiday, lawmakers will have only five legislative days to find some kind of compromise before DHS shuts down and its workers are left without paychecks.
I could take the easy way out and act like the registered Republican that I am, reflectively blaming Senate Democrats for refusing to even debate the DHS bill that the House passed last month. And, I would have a point: after all, if Democrats are so firmly opposed to the House DHS bill, why not allow the Senate to debate it before casting a "nay" vote? Dropping the filibustering would be a low-risk strategy for the Democrats, because Mitch McConnell & Company would not be able to override a presidential veto.
But I'm not going to take that line, because the fact of the manner is that both parties -- Republicans and Democrats -- are playing politics with U.S. national security. Senate Democrats may be blocking debate right now, but it was the House Republican caucus that passed an appropriations bill for the Homeland Security Department knowing full well that Democrats would refuse to support it. That isn't exactly a bipartisan solution to a bipartisan problem.
What to do? Well, since both parties are not blameless victims, the Republican and Democratic leaderships in both houses of Congress need to act like pragmatic adults instead of stubborn children. Congress may be off for the entire week, but this shouldn't prevent lawmakers and their staffs from using some their vacation time to make phone calls and testing trial balloons before they come back into town.
Here are the only two conceivable options:
1) Strip the Immigration Language and Pass a Clean DHS: Republicans aren't going to like it, but sometimes it takes the better man (or woman) to walk away first. Although Democrats are now a minority in the Senate, they are a loud minority that cannot be ignored or pushed aside in favor of strictly partisan Republican legislation. No Republican-sponsored bill in the Senate can pass the cloture test without six Democratic senators. This obviously includes immigration and appropriations, the same two subjects that are making Washington look the polarized, divisive, and uncompromising town it was last year. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but no American voted last November for the partisanship and bickering to continue.
Republicans, as the governing majority in both Houses, have a right to set the agenda. But that they also have a duty to ensure that Congress makes decisions that do no harm to the country and to the American people. One of the highest priorities that Mitch McConnell should have is demonstrating to Americans (particularly before the 2016 presidential campaign heats up) that the Republican Party, when given the privilege of leading Congress, can put governing before ideology. What better way to accomplish that then by stripping the immigration riders from the DHS bill, passing a clean DHS funding mechanism, and later presenting stand-alone legislation that would address President Obama's immigration orders (Sen. Susan Collins is trying a similar approach that would repeal Obama's 2014 executive action, while keeping the 2012 DACA order in place).
2) Pass a Stop-Gap Continuing Resolution, Again: Without some kind of funding, DHS will shut down by February 27 and the tens of thousands of employees that call DHS home will be forced to work without pay for an undetermined period of time. Pushing through a three-month continuing resolution is certainly not the smartest way to govern and it does the Office of Management and Budget no favors when they are negotiating terms for next year's budget, but it's certainly a better alternative than doing nothing and letting the money run out. Granted, this approach would only postpone the immigration fight for later in the year, and Capitol Hill will have to go through the motions again sometime in May or June. But at least DHS employees will get paid.Watching Interstellar, it’s easy to get caught up in Christopher Nolan’s gorgeous, data-rich visualizations of black holes and tidal waves. But as I wrote last week, the film’s score—composed by longtime Nolan collaborator Hans Zimmer—is equally (if not more) impressive, both in terms of its emotional heft and its success at finding musical analogs for many of the scientific concepts explored on screen.
In a rare move, Zimmer decided to delay release of the soundtrack for a few weeks after the film’s opening, an effort to encourage audiences to experience it in context and on large theater speakers before revisiting it on their earbuds. That opportunity has finally come with the release of the album on Nov. 18, and in honor of the occasion, Slate is debuting a featurette about the making of the score.
The minidoc offers further details about Nolan and Zimmer’s collaborative process, including the desire to avoid sci-fi genre clichés and to allow Zimmer the freedom to create a largely independent work of art that functions in concert with the film instead of just supporting it. We also get a peek inside London’s Temple Church, home of the massive pipe organ that figures prominently in the music. Nolan explains that he wanted a “feeling of religiosity” in the mix, and, as it turned out, virtuosic organist Roger Sayer was the man to deliver it.
When you’re ready to revisit those profound bass notes and ethereal arpeggios, you’ll have three options to choose from, some of which come with special commemorative packaging: a Star Wheel Constellation Chart Digipak (16 tracks), a deluxe digital-only version (22 tracks), and an Illuminated Star Projection Edition, which includes 30 minutes of otherwise unreleased music (28 tracks).
Read more about Interstellar in Slate.T-shirts are common sites for anti proverbs
Anti-proverb used in advertising used in advertising Chick-Fil-A
An anti-proverb, formed by adding an unexpected cynical phrase to the end, with an apropos cartoon
Anti-proverb used in relation to fishing. used in relation to fishing.
T-shirt using a twisted Spanish calque of an English proverb to advertise a taqueria in Dallas, TX: "When life gives you lemons/limes, put it on a taco."
Coffee cup spoofing serious proverb.
An anti-proverb or a perverb is the transformation of a standard proverb for humorous effect. Paremiologist Wolfgang Mieder defines them as "parodied, twisted, or fractured proverbs that reveal humorous or satirical speech play with traditional proverbial wisdom".[1] Anti-proverbs are ancient, Aristophanes having used one in his play Peace, substituting κώẟων 'bell' (in the unique compound "bellfinch") for κύων 'bitch, female dog', twisting the standard and familiar "The hasty bitch gives birth to blind" to "The hasty bellfinch gives birth to blind".[2]
Anti-proverbs have also been defined as "an allusive distortion, parody, misapplication, or unexpected contextualization of a recognized proverb, usually for comic or satiric effect".[3] To have full effect, an anti-proverb must be based on a known proverb. For example, "If at first you don't succeed, quit" is only funny if the hearer knows the standard proverb "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again". Anti-proverbs are used commonly in advertising, such as "Put your burger where your mouth is" from Red Robin.[4] Anti-proverbs are also common on T-shirts, such as "Taste makes waist" and "If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you".
Standard proverbs are essentially defined phrases, well known to many people, as e. g. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. When this sequence is deliberately slightly changed ("Don't bite the hand that looks dirty") it becomes an anti-proverb. The relationship between anti-proverbs and proverbs, and a study of how much a proverb can be changed before the resulting anti-proverb is no longer seen as proverbial, are still open topics for research.[5]
Classification [ edit ]
There have been various attempts at classifying different types of anti-proverbs, based on structure and semantics, including by Mieder, Litovkina,[6] and Valdeva.[7] What follows is somewhat synthetic of these.
Classification on formal criteria [ edit ]
Association: The similarity to the original sequence is strong enough to identify it, but there is no further connection: The early worm gets picked first.
The similarity to the original sequence is strong enough to identify it, but there is no further connection:. Change of homonyms: A word which has several meanings is interpreted in a new way: Where there's a will, there's a lawsuit
A word which has several meanings is interpreted in a new way: Combination: Two sequences are combined: One brain washes the other.
Two sequences are combined:. Permutation: While keeping the syntactic structure, the words are jumbled: A waist is a terrible thing to mind.
While keeping the syntactic structure, the words are jumbled:. Abridgement: The sequence is cut and thus changed completely: All's well that ends.
The sequence is cut and thus changed completely: Substitution: Parts of the sequence are replaced: Absence makes the heart go wander.
Parts of the sequence are replaced:. Supplementation: A sentence with a contrasting meaning is added to the original sequence: A man's home is his castle – let him clean it.
A sentence with a contrasting meaning is added to the original sequence:. Syntactic change: The semantic structure of the sentence changes while the sequence of words stays the same: Men think: "God governs." – A good man will think of himself: after, all the others.
Classification on content criteria [ edit ]
Mitigation: The meaning seems kept, but is qualified by the supplement: Everything has an end, but a sausage has two [8].
The meaning seems kept, but is qualified by the supplement:. Apology: The original sequence is defended against attacks: German example, translated: Art (Kunst) comes from 'able' (können), not from 'will' (wollen), or we'd better call it wirt (Wulst or Wunst, fantasy word ).
The original sequence is defended against attacks: German example, translated: fantasy word Conservation: The meaning is similar, with and without the supplement: There is no such thing as a free lunch, but there is always free cheese in a mousetrap.
The meaning is similar, with and without the supplement:. Break of metaphor: Metaphors are interpreted literally: Duty is calling? We call back.
Metaphors are interpreted literally:. Neogenesis: The meaning of the new sentence is completely independent of the original one: An onion a day keeps everybody away.
Types of humorous effects [ edit ]
Bisociation: This is a technical term coined by Arthur Koestler. He says that a funny text is situated in two different semantic levels. In the beginning, the hearer or reader is aware of only one of them. In the punch line, the second level comes up so suddenly that they start laughing. The sudden coming up of the second level is the point. For example: I only want your best – your money.
This is a technical term coined by Arthur Koestler. He says that a funny text is situated in two different semantic levels. In the beginning, the hearer or reader is aware of only one of them. In the punch line, the second level comes up so suddenly that they start laughing. The sudden coming up of the second level is the point. For example: Destruction: If the sublime is pulled down to banality, some of us feel validated. Generally, this is funnier than the contrary. Therefore, many humorous transformations are made up this way: Jesus may love you – but will he respect you in the morning?
If the sublime is pulled down to banality, some of us feel validated. Generally, this is funnier than the contrary. Therefore, many humorous transformations are made up this way: Fictional catastrophe: Unlike real disasters, catastrophes which are only made up or solved in one's mind might be humorous, as can be seen in the quotation: The light at the end of the tunnel is only muzzle flash.
History [ edit ]
Anti-proverbs have been used and recognized for a long time, though the term "anti-proverb" was not coined until 1982 by Wolfgang Mieder.[3] The term became more established with the publication of Twisted Wisdom: Modern Anti-Proverbs by Wolfgang Mieder and Anna T. Litovkina,[9]
They were one of the many experimental styles explored by the French literary movement Oulipo. The term perverb is attributed to Maxine Groffsky.[10][11] The concept was popularised by Oulipo collaborator Harry Mathews in his Selected Declarations of Dependence (1977).[11]
Anti-proverbs in literature [ edit ]
Some authors have bent and twisted proverbs, creating anti-proverbs, for a variety of literary effects. For example, in the Harry Potter novels, J. K. Rowling reshapes a standard English proverb into "It's no good crying over spilt potion" and Dumbledore advises Harry not to "count your owls before they are delivered".[12]
From Nigeria, Adeyemi shows the use of both proverbs and anti-proverbs in Rérẹ́ Rún by Okediji. [13] Adeyemi believes that they add humor, color and beauty to his writing. But on a political plane, he believes "Anti-proverbs were also used to stimulate critical consciousness in the readers to fight for their |
Bloom called "the first modern novel". In 2014, the Spanish Royal Academy, the official authority on the language, published its own version for schools by the historical novelist and scholar Arturo Perez-Reverte.
Archaeologists work on the remains of a coffin in a crypt in Madrid as they search for the remains of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote Credit: AP
English author Martin Amis once said of the novel: “While clearly an impregnable masterpiece, Don Quixote suffers from one fairly serious flaw: that of outright unreadability.”
Trapiello has no qualms about updating Cervantes and making it more readable. "What a paradox," he said. "A French, German or English-speaking reader can read it without any problems in translation but Spanish-speaking readers can't understand half of it unless they read it with notes."
Francisco Rico, head of the Spanish Royal Academy's series of classic titles said: "Any attempt to make Quixote more readable is positive. Shakespeare got forgotten for a time. For centuries no one remembered Dante. Voltaire has had his ups and downs. But Quixote has been a bestseller ever since it was published."
As Don Quixote says himself in the novel: "Can we ever have too much of a good thing?"
Best books for summer 2015The Hollywood Reporter notes that California has seen over 8,000 cases of whooping cough so far this year, of which 267 required hospitalization, including 58 in intensive care. Three infants under two months of age of died of the disease. Why? Because rich, clueless idiots are refusing to get their kids vaccinated.
The Hollywood Reporter checked filings for personal belief exemptions in tony school districts and found:
The region stretching from Malibu south to Marina del Rey and inland as far as La Cienega Boulevard (and including Santa Monica, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills) averaged a 9.1 percent PBE level among preschoolers for the 2013-14 school year — a 26 percent jump from two years earlier. By comparison, L.A. County at large measured 2.2 percent in that period. Many preschools in this area spiked far higher, including Kabbalah Children’s Academy in Beverly Hills (57 percent) and the Waldorf Early Childhood Center in Santa Monica (68 percent). According to World Health Organization data, such numbers are in line with immunization rates in developing countries like Chad and South Sudan.
Earlier this month the Los Angeles Times investigated the falling vaccination rates among children in various Southern California school districts. The reporters found:
California parents are deciding against vaccinating their kindergarten-age children at twice the rate they did seven years ago, a fact public health experts said is contributing to the reemergence of measles across the state and may lead to outbreaks of other serious diseases. The percentage of kindergartens in which at least 8% of students are not fully vaccinated because of personal beliefs has more than doubled as well, according to data on file with the state. That threshold is significant because communities must be immunized at a high rate to avoid widespread disease outbreaks. It is a concept known as herd immunity, and for measles and whooping cough at least 92% of kids need to be immune, experts say.... Exemption rates vary greatly by area and school. Los Angeles Unified kindergartens, for example, had an overall exemption rate of just 1.6%, although there are several in the district where more than 8% of students have belief exemptions. At Santa Monica-Malibu Unified, the overall exemption rate was 14.8% and at Capistrano Unified in south Orange County, it was 9.5%. At nearby Santa Ana Unified only 0.2% of kindergartners had exemptions on file. In Los Angeles County, the rise in personal belief exemptions is most prominent in wealthy coastal and mountain communities, The Times analysis shows. The more than 150 schools with exemption rates of 8% or higher for at least one vaccine were located in census tracts where the incomes averaged $94,500 — nearly 60% higher than the county median. The article also reports in the Montecito District in Santa Barbara that the exemption rate is 27.5 percent; Santa Cruz Montessori it's 22.6 percent.
While some might write off vaccine refusniks as voluntarily engaging in Darwinian selection, the problem is that they are putting others involuntarily at risk. As I explained elsewhere:
Vaccines do not always produce immunity, so a percentage of those who took the responsibility to be vaccinated remain vulnerable. Other defenseless people include infants who are too young to be vaccinated and individuals whose immune systems are compromised. In America today, it is estimated that about 10 million people are immuno-compromised through no fault of their own. This brings us to the important issue of "herd immunity." Herd immunity works when most people in a community are immunized against an illness, greatly reducing the chances that an infected person can pass his microbes along to other susceptible people. People who refuse vaccination for themselves and their children are free riding off of herd immunity. Even while receiving this benefit, the unvaccinated inflict the negative externality of being possible vectors of disease, threatening those 10 million most vulnerable to contagion. Vaccines are like fences. Fences keep your neighbor's livestock out of your pastures and yours out of his. Similarly, vaccines separate people's microbes. Anti-vaccination folks are taking advantage of the fact that most people around them have chosen differently, thus acting as a firewall protecting them from disease. But if enough people refuse, that firewall comes down, and innocent people get hurt. Oliver Wendell Holmes articulated a good libertarian principle when he said, "The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins." Holmes' observation is particularly salient in the case of whooping cough shots. Infants cannot be vaccinated against whooping cough (pertussis), so their protection against this dangerous disease depends upon the fact that most of the rest of us are immunized. Unfortunately, as immunization refusals have increased in recent years, so have whooping cough infections. The annual number of pertussis cases fell from 200,000 pre-vaccine to a low of 1,010 in 1976. Last year, the number of reported cases rose to 48,277, the highest since 1955. Eighteen infants died of the disease in 2012, up from just four in 1976.
For alternative opinions about vaccine refusal see Reason's debate, "Should Vaccines Be Mandatory?"Image caption Legislation banning homophobic material was introduced in March 2010
Two men from Derby have been charged with stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
It is the first such prosecution since laws outlawing homophobia came into force in March 2010.
Razwan Javed, 30, and Kabir Ahmed, 27, will appear before magistrates on Friday.
The charges relate to a leaflet, The Death Penalty?, which was distributed outside the Jamia Mosque in Derby in July last year.
The leaflets were also posted through letterboxes in the city.
Mr Javed and Mr Ahmed have both been charged with distributing threatening written material intending to stir up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Crown Prosecution Service lawyer Sue Hemming said: "This is the first ever prosecution for this offence and it is the result of close working between the Crown Prosecution Service and Derbyshire Police.
"Following complaints from the public, Derbyshire Police mounted a thorough investigation.
"We have carefully reviewed the evidence provided by the police and are satisfied that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to charge these men."Wild bees provide environmental services worth $3,250 (€2,880) per hectare per year – accounting for billions, globally. Writing in Nature Communications, study authors quantify how much bees are doing for us, and stress that despite all their immense value, we still don’t have a concrete plan to stop their numbers from dwindling.
We’ve written extensively on the situation of bees – their numbers are dropping fast, and we still don’t know exactly why (it’s probably a combination of pesticide use, destruction of habitats, climate change and parasitic infections). Scientists have raised alarm signals about this since 2006, when beekeeper Dave Hackenberg inspected 2,400 hives wintering in Florida and found 400 of them abandoned — totally empty. Today, most bee species are in decline, with annual regional losses as high as 60 percent. When you consider that it’s not just about saving bees, it’s also about the services bees do for us, one can only ask: “Are we doing enough?”.
[Also Read: Bees make blue honey after eating M&Ms]
In this study, researchers followed the activities of nearly 74,000 bees from more than 780 wild species. They found that on average, wild bees contribute $3,251 per hectare ($1,315 per acre) to crop production, even more than “domestic” bees, which were worth $2,913 per hectare. The study helps put a “dollar figure” over an environmental service which is usually hard to estimate.
But not all bees are as useful – researchers were surprised to learn that 2% of wild bee species, the most common types, fertilise about 80% of bee-pollinated crops worldwide. In this way, bees are like football players.
“There are a few who really make a lot of money, like (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi, then another large group who can make a living from football. And then there’s 99.9 percent who just play for fun,” said lead author David Kleijn, of Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands.
The rest, while still crucial for their local ecosystem, were not as involved in agricultural crops, but authors stress that their protection is just as important.
“Rare and threatened species may play a less significant role economically than common species, but this does not mean their protection is less important,” said David Kleijn, a professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who led the study.
The research also focused on bee populations in the UK, and reports that 85 per cent of the UK’s apple crop and 45 per cent of the strawberry crop relies on bees to grow. Alone those two crops brought in £200 million to Britain in 2012. The UK is considering drastically reducing or eliminating pesticides to protect bee populations.
“Hundreds of thousands of us are asking why the government is even considering allowing harmful pesticides back on British fields. We’re calling for Environment Minister Liz Truss and the government to keep the ban on bee-killing pesticides, with no exceptions. “If we want future generations to be able to eat home-grown strawberries and Bramley apples, we have to keep bee-killing pesticides off our land.”
All in all, the science is consistent on this one – we need to find a way to protect bees; for their sake, and for ours.
“Crucially, the commonest wild bees are the most important, which gives us the ‘win-win’ situation where relatively cheap and easy conservation measures can support these and give maximum benefit for the crops,” said Pat Willmer, a professor of biology at Scotland’s University of St Andrews. “For example, planting wild flowers with wider grassy margins around crops, as well as less intensive or more organic farming, all enhance abundance of the key crop-visiting bees,” he told Britain’s Science Media Centre (SMC).
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2016 Republican Presidential candidate, and frontrunner (by a lot, as he would say), Donald Trump had a great night last night. He held a huge rally at Iowa's Drake University, as he comfortably awaits the next ten days where he has every chance to win the first two states that are voting: Iowa and New Hampshire. Oh, that's right. There was also a GOP Debate going on at the same time, accordingly without Mr. Trump. Everyone was calling Trump out for being scared of Megyn Kelly. Not True. For risking his future as he is neck-and-neck with Ted Cruz. Not True. Trump simply had a problem with the moderators, so he decided to stay away. Rand Paul did the same thing for the last debate, when he had a problem with the criteria. And it looked like Paul made a good choice then, but Trump seems to have made an even better one this time around.
People should really be used to this by now. If you disagree with Trump, it means that he is doing the right thing, while also riding in the polls. It's just the way it is nowadays.
Now the debate. Well it was Ted Cruz vs. everyone. And he failed. By a lot (as Trump would say). Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie had a great night. They gave senseful answers and the crowd loved them. And their jokes too. Although Christie needs to work on answering the question being asked. Not attacking Hillary Clinton straight away. Everyone does it, but they also answer the question too. The so called "establishment" candidates knocked it out of the park, and Ted Cruz just looked confused. Sorry. Hopefully it will be enough for a late surge, at least in New Hampshire? Rand Paul also had a decent night by the way. Sorry Ben Carson and John Kasich.
Iowa already seems lost to Trump. Cruz didn't do enough to gain back his momentum. He will still come in second place though probably.
As we are used to it now, there was also a second tier debate. As usual, Carly Fiorina, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee attended it. And as usual, Carly Fiorina once again came out in first. Now that woman can debate! Although it is unlikely that any of these candidates will have a big say in Iowa, and at most just a little say in New Hampshire. That is if they will still be around for it. Carly should be though!
Oh, and Jim Gilmore was there too last night for only the second time! Who? That's right. Don't even bother to learn his face or name.
There were two very important policy results of the debate though. The candidates acknowledged the fact that they won't be able to jus repeal laws on the first day or tear up International agreements. That is just not the way real life works. Especially Obamacare and the Iran deal. Which is also our second point about last night. It is clearly not a perfect deal. We know it, Obama knows it, everyone knows it. But we still support it, and we would be very disappointed if someone actually pulls out of it. We disagree with even Marco Rubio on this one. That agreement is instrumental in creating a safer environment not just for now, but for a sustainable future too.
Although Obama really shouldn't allow John Kerry going around and saying that some of the money will go to terrorists. Even if it is true, which sadly but probably is, you just can't say that. Kerry just jeopardized the whole thing with the American people. The one thing that Hillary was actually proud of. Poor Hillary, her bad week (months) just continue.
Portland Press Herald
While the debate went down in Des Moines, Donald Trump held a fundraiser for Veterans at Drake University. He claimed to have raised 5 million dollars. And probably some new votes too. He is a smart man. Although if we were Fox News, we wouldn't have paid to charities either, just to have him on the debate stage. The debate was still circled around him, as he got dozens of mentions and the most new twitter followers too. As usual. He probably did well in the polls too. But putting all things aside, it was very nice of Mr. Trump to raise all this money for the Veterans, who have clearly been neglected in the past years. Unfortunately we might add. And even the Democrats would agree with this. But in overall Trump had a great rally. The crowd cheered like never before, and even some of the media agreed that he pulled it off. And they hate him like no one.
Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum joined in on the fun as well, after their debate ended. Although they just looked like puppets who pretty much all but endorsed Trump with this move. They certainly have become laughing stocks now, if they weren't already. You decide. They tried to cash in on Trump's popularity and gain some free media, which they desperately need. It's not a bad idea if you think about it, but you should also have the right intentions, and not use the Veterans for it. That part is shameful. But of course anything for those optics and photo ops with the frontrunner.
Although we would be surprised if they are still in the race, next week this time. So what is it even for anymore?
This is an original material of Finchley 1959.Airbnb renters keep finding hidden Wi-Fi cameras watching them without them knowing. If you want to ensure your privacy in a rental, this shell script will find any Wi-Fi cameras on the network and disable them.
The rise in popularity of cheap cameras like Google’s Nest DropCam make it easier than ever for homeowners to install basic surveillance systems. And while Airbnb suggests that hosts respect their guests’ privacy, they don’t explicitly say that hosts can’t have video or audio surveillance equipment installed and monitoring guests. This understandably bothers a lot of people who expect privacy in a rental they’re paying for. Fortunately, engineer and software developer Julian Oliver came up with a simple script to knock those types of cameras offline. Once you connect to the Airbnb’s Wi-Fi, a quick run of Oliver’s dropkick.sh script will find and disconnect the Wi-Fi enabled cameras on the network and give you some privacy.
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Before you make the decision to use the script, however, Oliver explains that it may be illegal to run due to changes made by the FCC last year. So use the script at your own risk. You can find the complete instructions and more information at the link below.
Detect and disconnect WiFi cameras in that AirBnB you’re staying in | Julian Oliver via Motherboard
AdvertisementBy the time the Buffalo Sabres 2011-2012 season ended, fans would be hard pressed to find anyone who thought Ryan Miller had a good season. He played better at the end of the season going 15-4-4 after February 16th with a 2.12 GAA and a.923 save percentage, helping the Sabres climb back into playoff contention, but it wasn’t good enough and many “critics” claimed this to be one of Miller’s worst seasons. But was he actually worse than previous seasons?
Looking at Miller’s numbers from 2010-2011 he went 34-22-8 in 66 games with 5 shutouts, a GAA of 2.59 and a.916 save percentage. Not great numbers, buts solid numbers. Now, compare those numbers to this season’s: 31-21-7 in 61 games with 6 shutouts, a GAA of 2.54 and a.916 save percentage, the numbers are nearly identical. His goals against average and shutout numbers were better than last seasons, so why does everyone say he had such a bad season?
After Terry Pegula bought the Sabres and vowed to spend as much money as needed to get the Sabres to the Stanley Cup and they added players like Ville Leino and Christian Ehrhoff, the bar was set high for the Sabres. The media was giving the Sabres some positive attention and they pegged them to go deep in the playoffs. Some had given the Vezina to Miller. But all that was said before the Sabres had a chance to step on the ice.
When the season started, the Sabres went 6-4 in their first 10 games but Miller had shaky start (letting in 3 or more goals in all 4 losses). Then everything hit the fan, Miller became a victim of a Milan Lucic questionable hit and other Sabres players started dropping like flies.
Before fans knew it the Sabres found themselves tied for 15th in the Eastern Conference and Miller was struggling with a.899 save percentage. That must be the reason everyone believed Miller had a poor season. It seemed as though since the team was playing poorly and not winning, the media who picked the Sabres were all turning against them and specifically against Miller. The media’s attention to Miller’s struggles outweighed the attention to his strong play at the end of the year.
In Miller’s “off-season” he was still able to break two major milestones. He joined Henrik Lundqvist as one of only two goalies in the NHL to have 7 straight 30+ win seasons. That’s a milestone that can not be ignored, Miller has been consistent throughout his NHL career and his team can count on him to win them at least 30 games annually. He also passed legendary Sabres goalie Dominik Hasek to become the winningest Buffalo Sabres goaltender with 252 career wins. On top of that he also broke his career high shutouts in a season with 6 shutouts, not bad for a guy who had an “off-season.”
Comparing his stats from 2010-2011 again, he actually let in less goals this season than in 2010-2011. In 2010-2011 he let in 165 goals while he let in just 150 this season. With 150 goals against he matches his goals against from 2009-2010 his best season in the NHL. Let’s also compare his stats to his 2008-2009 season the year before he started to make headlines with the Olympics. In 59 games he went 34-18-6 with 5 shutouts, a GAA of 2.53 and a save percentage of.918.
Since Ryan Miller entered the NHL full-time in 2006 his numbers (apart from 2009-2010) have been very consistent, he’s averaging 30 wins a season, 5 shutouts and a.9.16 save percentage. He’s been steady between the pipes for the Sabres, a goalie that they can rely on night in and night out. Who knows how well he’d do, with a full effort from the guys in front of him.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
The fact Wales no longer has any Liberal MPs has been told in the context of the party's long, distinguished history here dating back more than 200 years.
And yet there is a far shorter, more dramatic story to tell.
Just 12 years ago, the Liberal Democrats were a very serious force in Welsh politics and appeared to be in the midst of a revival.
The party had six AMs, four MPs and won significant shares of the vote in nearly every Welsh constituency.
This map is of Liberal Democrat support in the 2005 General Election:
The constituency boundaries aren't all correct as there have been boundary changes since 2005 and three constituencies have changed and been renamed.
But the figures for the 40 Welsh constituencies are accurate and the picture they paint is inescapable.
That year there was only one constituency where the party lost its deposit; only three constituencies where it had less than 10% of the vote and in ten areas, a quarter of Wales, it won more than 20% of the vote. In two areas, more than half of voters were Lib Dems.
The party was very much a powerful force in politics in Wales.
Last week, the party was decimated
Last week, the party was reduced to a shadow of its former self.
It lost votes in every seat except one. It won less than 5% of the vote (and lost its deposit) in 36 of Wales' 40 constituencies.
In two seats, Rhondda and Blaenau Gwent, it won less than 1% of the vote.
In cities like Swansea, Wrexham, Newport and Cardiff where the party once controlled (or partly controlled) the city council, its support barely registered.
The only urban exception was the seat of Cardiff Central, once held by the party's MP Jenny Willott, where its support merely halved from 26% to 13%. Back in 2005, the equivalent figure was higher than 50%.
If you consider that areas like Cardiff and Ceredigion voted heavily for Remain in last year's referendum, the failure of the only party actively campaigning for a second referendum is breathtaking.
In many seats, the party performed worse than Ukip - which, considering Ukip had a disastrous election, tells its own story.
How the Lib Dem vote has fallen
This map shows the seats where Ukip had more votes than the Lib Dems last week
This election was catastrophic for Ukip.
The party's vote share across Wales fell from 13.6% in 2015 to just 2.23%. It lost its deposit in every single seat in Wales that it contested.
And yet in 18 seats, the Lib Dems did worse.
Even in somewhere like Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, a Ukip candidate like Neil Hamilton who admitted he had not been to the constituency during the campaign won more votes than the longstanding resident, teacher and community organiser standing for the Lib Dems, Lesley Prosser.
It was only the three mid Wales seats that prevented the Lib Dems from slipping below Ukip in terms of overall votes in Wales.
The huge question it poses for the Liberal Democrats here in Wales is, how do they recover?AAA, which is the official new name of the American Automobile Association, has recently thrust itself into the cannabis legalization fight as an outspoken critic of cannabis legalization, which has raised eyebrows among some in the legalization movement. The travel map and roadside-help company? Why are they even getting involved?
One AAA official voiced fears that legalization would mean'more babies will be born high.'
Most of the pro-prohibition advocacy is coming from the AAA’s Mid-Atlantic office in Wilmington, Delaware. Earlier this year Ragina Cooper Averella, that office’s spokesperson, argued against legalization in Maryland based on what she characterized as “the increasing plague of drugged driving.” Another Mid-Atlantic AAA official raised the bizarre fear that “more babies will be born high” during a forum to discuss legalization in Delaware.
Legalization advocates contacted by Leafly said they agree with the need for vehicle safety and unimpaired driving, but they think AAA is misusing its public credibility. In fact, the data on cannabis legalization and impaired driving has not yet yielded any definitive conclusions.
Two studies published in the just the past week came to conflicting conclusions about the effect of legalization on driving habits. One study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, found that collision claim frequencies in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon were about 3 percent higher than in neighboring non-legal states. A second study, published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), researchers at the University of Texas concluded that changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates for Washington and Colorado between 2009 and 2015 were no different than rates in similar states that did not legalize adult-use cannabis.
Meanwhile, traffic fatalities fell 11% in states that legalized medical marijuana.
Meanwhile, in states where medical marijuana has been legalized, traffic fatalities have actually decreased. A 2013 study found that traffic fatalities dropped 8% to 11%, on average, in the year after states legalized medical marijuana. A similar study released in 2016 found that traffic deaths fell 11%, on average, in states that legalized medical marijuana. And yet there has been no call from any AAA officials to expand the legalization of medical marijuana, based on that correlation (which, remember, is not the same as causation) between medical marijuana legalization and a drop in fatalities.
“AAA could be the group to come in and separate the facts from the myths so that politicians and others actually do pursue some evidence-based policies,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “Instead they’re largely fearmongering and further politicizing the issue.”
Apart from its iconic roadside assistance, AAA offers insurance, travel planning, and various automotive services to 56 million members in the U.S and Canada. Officials with the nonprofit organization declined to comment for this story.
Pivoting Away From Neutrality
The organization’s newly embraced anti-legalization stance is a hard turn from AAA’s previous position—which is to say, no position at all.
When advocates in Western states like Washington and Colorado began campaigning for adult-use legalization, AAA said little. Now that the legalization movement has reached the East Coast, it’s a different story. Responding to concerns shown in a Pennsylvania poll on drugged driving, AAA officials have advised lawmakers in Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, to resist legal adult use cannabis.
Jake Nelson, AAA director of traffic safety advocacy 'If you’re impaired by marijuana, you’re less likely to be able to evade a crash.'
AAA’s Ragina Cooper Averella aired the organization’s pro-prohibition policy in a Baltimore Sun editorial on February 1. “AAA opposes the legalization of marijuana for recreational use because of its negative traffic safety implications and the current challenges in discerning and addressing marijuana-impaired driving,” she wrote.
In a June 20 article, BuzzFeed reporter Alyson Martin quoted Jake Nelson, director of Traffic Safety Advocacy and Research at AAA.
“If you’re impaired by marijuana, you’re less likely to be able to evade a crash,” he said. “You are slower to respond to get out of the way of a driver coming down the way towards you. It will contribute to a crash, whether you are responsible for a crash.”
AAA’s concerns grew out of statistics from a May 2016 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety analysis of Washington State Patrol data that concluded: “Fatal crashes involving drivers who recently used marijuana more than doubled — from 8 percent to 17 percent. One in six drivers involved in fatal crashes tested positive for active-THC.”
Last week’s American Journal of Public Health article seemed to contradict that conclusion—kind of. The two studies didn’t look at the same exact data. The AJPH study compared overall vehicle crash rates in legal states to non-legal states. The AAA/Washington State Patrol study looked at the blood THC levels of drivers involved in fatal crashes. The data in the latter study can be affected by a number of significant factors, including the State Patrol’s greater propensity to test for THC, and the agency’s greater ability to conduct those tests, in the legalization era.
Which Study Is Valid?
Further, the authors of the AJPH argued that measuring cannabis levels in crashes—as in the AAA/Washington State Patrol study, is an inaccurate method. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, or FARS, doesn’t check for cannabis in drivers in every state, and lab testing for cannabis levels is still an imperfect science.
Most cannabis-related traffic studies contain a common theme: Law enforcement agencies may be testing more for THC in states where it is legal than they did prior to legalization, or consumers may be consuming more cannabis, but there is no definitive causal link between an increase in crash fatalities and any given state’s rate of cannabis consumption.
“This study of crash risk found a statistically significant increase in unadjusted crash risk for drivers who tested positive for use of illegal drugs (1.21 times), and THC specifically (1.25 times),” reads a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report. “However, analyses incorporating adjustments for age, gender, ethnicity, and alcohol concentration level did not show a significant increase in levels of crash risk associated with the presence of drugs. This finding indicates that these other variables (age, gender ethnicity and alcohol use) were highly correlated with drug use and account for much of the increased risk associated with the use of illegal drugs and with THC.”
AAA Really Dislikes Cannabis
Besides safety concerns, AAA has some reasons to dislike legalization, some of which relate to its lobbying activities and some of which seem to come from an entrenched Drug War attitude.
There are obvious financial reasons. If cannabis indeed has a safety impact, DUI-stricken drivers are more expensive to insure – which is one of the reasons AAA has always lobbied in favor of more and stricter DUI laws.
But AAA seems to step beyond its realm of expertise in several cases, making broad statements about cannabis and society that sound more like rhetoric than data-based policy suggestions.
During an April meeting in Delaware, Cathy Rossi, vice president of public and governmental affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said legalization would be a bad idea for reasons that had nothing to do with vehicle safety.
“It also creates an entirely new, costly public infrastructure,” she said. “It means a lot of young people will begin to munch on the edibles that has a much higher potency and more babies will be born high.”
AAA’s Mid-Atlantic office lobbied hard against a pro-cannabis bill in Delaware, even going as far as to offer the state’s lawmakers the chance to wear “marijuana goggles” so they could imagine the changes in perception THC creates.
Official statements from other spokespeople ask Political Science 101-type questions that veer far off the interstate highway system.
In a March 7 testimony submitted to the CT Public Health Committee, Amy Parmenter, public and governmental affairs manager for AAA Allied Group, listed three key reasons the organization opposes legalization, among them the “complexities and challenges legalization would present to law enforcement, our courts, state agencies, and public health.”
Meanwhile, in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska, officials tasked with integrating legalization laws into courts, state agencies, and police departments typically only seem to have problems implementing cannabis legalization changes when they run into federal laws–which still declare cannabis illegal.Background
Erection of the inner German border
Construction begins, 1961
Structure and adjacent areas
Official crossings and usage
Concerts by Western artists and growing anti-Wall sentiment
Every stone bears witness to the moral bankruptcy of the society it encloses — Margaret Thatcher commenting about the wall, West Berlin, 1982[99] David Bowie, 1987 On 6 June 1987, David Bowie, who earlier for several years lived and recorded in West Berlin, played a concert close to the Wall. This was attended by thousands of Eastern concertgoers across the Wall,[100] followed by violent rioting in East Berlin. According to Tobias Ruther, these protests in East Berlin were the first in the sequence of riots that led to those of November 1989.[101][102] Although other factors were probably more influential in the fall of the Wall,[100] on his death, the German Foreign Office tweeted "Good-bye, David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the #wall."[103] Bruce Springsteen, 1988 On 19 July 1988, 16 months before the Wall came down, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, played Rocking the Wall, a live concert in East Berlin, which was attended by 300,000 in person and broadcast delayed on television. Springsteen spoke to the crowd in German, saying: "I'm not here for or against any government. I've come to play rock 'n' roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down".[104] East Germany and its FDJ youth organization were worried they were losing an entire generation. They hoped that by letting Springsteen in, they could improve their sentiment among East Germans. However, this strategy of "one step backwards, two steps forwards" backfired and the concert only made East Germans hungrier for more of the freedoms that Springsteen epitomized. While John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan delivered their famous speeches from the safety of West Berlin, Springsteen's speaking out against the Wall in the middle of East Berlin added to the euphoria.[104] David Hasselhoff, 1989 On 31 December 1989, American TV actor and pop music singer David Hasselhoff was the headlining performer for the Freedom Tour Live concert, which was attended by over 500,000 people on both sides of the Wall. The live concert footage was directed by music video director Thomas Mignone and aired on broadcast television station Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen ZDF throughout Europe. During shooting film crew personnel pulled people up from both sides to stand and celebrate on top of the wall. Hasselhoff sang his number one hit song "Looking For Freedom" on a platform at the end of a twenty-meter steel crane that swung above and over the Wall adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate.[105]
"Ich bin ein Berliner" and "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall."
Fall of the Berlin Wall
Legacy
Related media
See alsoSpaceX is developing the “Grasshopper” reusable vertical takeoff, vertical landing rocket. Back in September, the 32-meter- (106-ft-) tall Grasshopper made a tiny hop – barely lifting off the pad just to test-fire its engines. But now the Grasshopper has made a second, bigger hop. Over the weekend, Elon Musk quietly tweeted a link to a video, saying, “First flight of 10 story tall Grasshopper rocket using closed loop thrust vector & throttle control.” Update: SpaceX later confirmed that the Grasshopper rose “17.7 feet (5.4 meters), hovered, and touched back down safely on the pad at SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.”
SpaceX hasn’t talked much about this rocket, but reportedly the goal with Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket, which would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again.
Artist’s rendering of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket landing itself. Credit: SpaceX
Here’s some info about the Grasshopper from a draft environmental impact assessment put out by the FAA in 2011:
The Grasshopper RLV consists of a Falcon 9 Stage 1 tank, a Merlin-1D engine, four steel landing legs, and a steel support structure. Carbon overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), which are filled with either nitrogen or helium, are attached to the support structure. The Merlin-1D engine has a maximum thrust of 122,000 pounds. The overall height of the Grasshopper RLV is 106 feet, and the tank height is 85 feet. The propellants used in the Grasshopper RLV include a highly refined kerosene fuel, called RP-1, and liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer.
The reports goes on to say that the Grasshopper test program is to have three phases of test launches, at SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas. Phases 1 and 2 would consist of very low test fires with the rocket rising to not more than 73 meters (240 feet) during Phase 1 and 204 meters (670 feet), which is below controlled-airspace. Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.
Phase 3 tests have the goal of increasingly higher altitudes with higher ascent speeds and descent |
as depth.
44. Cross-pollinate your interests. Neurons that connect to existing neurons give you new perspectives and abilities to use additional knowledge in new ways.
45. Learn another language. New perspectives give you the ability to cross-pollinate cultural concepts and come up with new ideas. As well, sometimes reading a book in its original language will provide you with insights lost in translation.
46. Learn how to learn. Management Help has a resource page, as does SIAST (Virtual Campus), which links to articles about learning methods. They are geared towards online learning, but no doubt you gain something from them for any type of learning. If you are serious about optimum learning, read Headrush's Crash course in learning theory.
47. Learn what you know and what you don't. Many people might say, "I'm dumb," or "I don't know anything about that." The fact is, many people are wholly unaware of what they already know about a topic. If you want to learn about a topic, you need to determine what you already know, figure out what you don't know, and then learn the latter.
48. Multi-task through background processes. Effective multi-tasking allows you to bootstrap limited time to accomplish several tasks. Learning can be bootstrapped through multi-tasking, too. By effective multitasking, I don't mean doing two or more things at exactly the same time. It's not possible. However, you can achieve the semblance of effective multitasking with the right approach, and by prepping your mind for it. For example, a successful freelance writer learns to manage several articles at the same time. Research the first essay, and then let the background processes of your mind takeover. Move on consciously to the second essay. While researching the second essay, the first one will often "write itself." Be prepared to record it when it "appears" to you.
49. Think holistically. Holistic thinking might be the single most "advanced" learning technique that would help students. But it's a mindset rather than a single technique.
50. Use the right type of repetition. Complex concepts often require revisting in order to be fully absorbed. Sometimes, for some people, it may actually take months or years. Repetition of concepts and theory with various concrete examples improves absorption and speeds up learning.
51. Apply the Quantum Learning (QL) model. The Quantum Learning model is being applied in some US schools and goes beyond typical education methods to engage students.
52. Get necessary tools. There are obviously all kinds of tools for learning. If you are learning online like a growing number of people these days, then consider your online tools. One of the best tools for online research is the Firefox web browser, which has loads of extensions (add-ons) with all manner of useful features. One is Googlepedia, which simultaneously displays Google search engine listings, when you search for a term, with related entries from Wikipedia.
53. Get necessary tools, part 2. This is a very niche tip, but if you want to learn fast-track methods for building software, read Getting Real from 37 Signals. The Web page version is free. The techniques in the book have been used to create Basecamp, Campfire, and Backpack web applications in a short time frame. Each of these applications support collaboration and organization.
54. Learn critical thinking. As Keegan-Michael Key's character on MadTV might say, critical thinking takes analysis to "a whole notha level". Read Wikipedia's discourse on critical thinking as a starting point. It involves good analytical skills to aid the ability to learn selectively.
55. Learn complex problem solving. For most people, life is a series of problems to be solved. Learning is part of the process. If you have a complex problem, you need to learn the art of complex problem solving. For Teachers, Tutors, and Parents 56. Be engaging. Lectures are one-sided and often counter-productive. Information merely heard or witnessed (from a chalkboard for instance) is often forgotten. Teaching is not simply talking. Talking isn't enough. Ask students questions, present scenarios, engage them.
57. Use information pyramids. Learning happens in layers. Build base knowledge upon which you can add advanced concepts.
58. Use video games. Video games get a bad rap because of certain violent games. But video games in general can often be an effective aid to learning.
59. Role play. Younger people often learn better by being part of a learning experience. For example, history is easier to absorb through reenactments.
60. Apply the 80/20 rule. This rule is often interpreted in dfferent ways. In this case, the 80/20 rule means that some concepts, say about 20% of a curriculum, require more effort and time, say about 80%, than others. So be prepared to expand on complex topics.
61. Tell stories. Venus Flytrap, a character from the sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati, once taught a student gang member about atoms, electrons, and protons by saying that an atom was one big neighborhood, and the protons and neutrons had their own smaller neighborhoods and never mixed. Just like rival gangs. The story worked, and understanding sparked in the students eyes.
62. Go beyond the public school curriculum. The public school system is woefully lacking in teaching advanced learning and brainstorming methods. It's not that the methods cannot be taught; they just aren't. To learn more, you have to pay a premium in additional time and effort, and sometimes money for commercially available learning tools. There's nothing wrong with that in itself, but what is taught in schools needs to be expanded. This article's author has proven that a nine-year old can learn (some) university level math, if the learning is approached correctly.
63. Use applied learning. If a high school student were having trouble in math, say with fractions, one example of applied learning might be photography, lenses, f-stops, etc. Another example is cooking and measurement of ingredients. Tailor the applied learning to the interest of the student. For Students and Self-Studiers 64. Be engaged. Surprise. Sometimes students are bored because they know more than is being taught, maybe even more than a teacher. (Hopefully teachers will assess what each student already knows.) Students should discuss with a teacher if they feel that the material being covered is not challenging. Also consider asking for additional materials.
65. Teach yourself. Teachers cannot always change their curricula. If you're not being challenged, challenge yourself. Some countries still apply country-wide exams for all students. If your lecturer didn't cover a topic, you should learn it on your own. Don't wait for someone to teach you. Lectures are most effective when you've pre-introduced yourself to concepts.
66. Collaborate. If studying by yourself isn't working, maybe a study group will help.
67. Do unto others: teach something. The best way to learn something better is to teach it to someone else. It forces you to learn, if you are motivated enough to share your knowledge.
68. Write about it. An effective way to "teach" something is to create an FAQ or a wiki containing everything you know about a topic. Or blog about the topic. Doing so helps you to realize what you know and more importantly what you don't. You don't even have to spend money if you grab a freebie account with Typepad, Wordpress, or Blogger.
69. Learn by experience. Pretty obvious, right? It means put in the necessary time. An expert is often defined as someone who has put in 10,000 hours into some experience or endeavor. That's approximately 5 years of 40 hours per week, every week. Are you an expert without realizing it? If you're not, do you have the dedication to be an expert?
70. Quiz yourself. Testing what you've learned will reinforce the information. Flash cards are one of the best ways, and are not just for kids.
71. Learn the right things first. Learn the basics. Case in point: a frustrating way to learn a new language is to learn grammar and spelling and sentence constructs first. This is not the way a baby learns a language, and there's no reason why an adult or young adult has to start differently, despite "expert" opinion. Try for yourself and see the difference.
72. Plan your learning. If you have a long-term plan to learn something, then to quote Led Zeppelin, "There are two paths you can go by." You can take a haphazard approach to learning, or you can put in a bit of planning and find an optimum path. Plan your time and balance your learning and living. Parting Advice 73. Persist. Don't give up learning in the face of intimdating tasks. Anything one human being can learn, most others can as well. Wasn't it Einstein that said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"? Thomas Edison said it, too.
74. Defy the experts. Dyslexia, in a nutshell, is the affliction of mentally jumbling letters and digits, causing difficulties in reading, writing and thus learning. Sometimes spoken words or numbers get mixed up as well. In the past, "experts" declared dyslexic children stupid. Later, they said they were incapable of learning. This author has interacted with and taught dyslexic teens. It's possible. Helen Keller had no experience of sight, sound, or speech, and yet she learned. Conclusion: There is more than one way to learn; never believe you cannot.
75. Challenge yourself. People are often more intelligent than they realize. In a world that compartmentalizes and categorizes everything, not everyone is sure where they fit in. And genius can be found in many walks of life. If you honestly suspect that there's more to you than has been "allowed" to be let out, try an IQ test such as the one offered by MENSA. It's unlike the standardized IQ tests given in many schools. You know the kind the ones which traumatize many young students into thinking they are stupid, simply because the tests don't really assess all student's knowledge and learning ability. And the ability to learn is far, far more important than what you already know.
76. Party before an exam. Well, don't go that far. The key is to relax. The worse thing to do is cram the night before an exam. If you don't already know a subject by then, cramming isn't going to help. If you have studied, simply review the topic, then go do something pleasant (no more studying). Doing so tells your brain that you are prepared and that you will be able to recall anything that you have already learned. On the other hand, if you didn't spend the semester learning the ideas you need, you might as well go party anyways because cramming at the last minute isn't going to help much at that point.
77. Don't worry; learn happy. Have a real passion for learning and want to share that? Join a group such as the Joyful Jubilant Learning community [via LifeHack]. This article was originally published at the Online Education Database RELATED ARTICLE: 70 Ways to Increase Your Brain Power
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Click here to discover why...Evgeni Malkin tried to leave the Olympics behind a week ago.
Instead of staying for the closing ceremony in Sochi, Russia, Malkin caught a flight to Moscow, where he owns an apartment, the morning after Team Russia was eliminated from the Olympic men’s hockey tournament.
He returned to Pittsburgh on Monday and practiced with the Penguins at Consol Energy Center on Tuesday. His demeanor was unmistakable to longtime teammates.
“Angry,” James Neal said of his regular center with the Penguins.
“He hasn’t said much,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. “He’s just mad, I think.”
For Malkin, an expected professional high point — the Winter Olympics staged in his hockey-mad homeland — provided one of the more bitter experiences.
It lingered Tuesday.
Malkin declined comment, though he planned to speak publicly Wednesday. Teammates and close friends said they doubted Malkin would reveal many of the details that contributed to ruining his Olympics experience.
Dismayed, still, by Russia’s flameout at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Malkin had looked upon the Sochi Games as a shot at redemption and an opportunity to make history by helping his country to its first gold medal.
Instead of playing a pivotal role on a gold medal squad, Malkin felt marginalized by his Olympic coaches, lacking an opportunity to truly spark a medal run. He produced only a goal and two assists, and he didn’t score a point in the final four games.
Uncustomary poor offensive production — he is a two-time NHL scoring champion and had scored five goals and 12 points in 11 previous Olympic games — did not sour Malkin in Sochi. Rather, his frustrations stemmed from factors that evoked memories of his near decade-long distrust of Russian hockey authority:
• Malkin, second among NHL players at 1.23 points per game, did not play regularly on the top power-play unit.
• Malkin believed coaches catered to players who were members of his country’s Kontinental Hockey League. He sensed a point was being made at the expense of star Russians — specifically, he and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin — who have chosen to remain in the NHL.
• Malkin felt the system was geared toward protecting the defense, which consisted mostly of KHL players, instead of playing to what he perceived the squad’s strength: skilled forwards.
• Malkin sensed coaches were dismissive of players’ feedback. He and Ovechkin, a winger on his line, repeatedly pushed to be split because of their limited experience playing together and their respective preferences to carry the puck. Malkin and Ovechkin felt playing on the same lines made the team an easier matchup for opponents.
Until a few weeks before the Olympics, Malkin thought he was set to play on a line with Toronto’s Nikolai Kulemin, a fellow native of Magnitogorsk, Russia. They had played together for their hometown KHL club during the NHL lockout in 2012, with Malkin producing 65 points in 37 games.
(Kulemin produced 38 points in 36 games with Metallurg Magnitogorsk during the lockout. He did not score at the Olympics.)
In late December, Malkin learned he would play on a line with Ovechkin. Neither player favored that decision by Russian coaches, though not because of their on-again/off-again rivalry.
Ovechkin and Malkin, who have combined for three scoring titles and four MVPs since they were the first Russians to go 1-2 in the NHL Entry Draft (2004), privately feared their styles would not mesh fast enough in a short tournament such as the Olympics.
Malkin and Ovechkin also confided to associates’ fears that Russia’s NHL and KHL Olympians would not always be on the same page. Both players had hoped defenseman Sergei Gonchar, a respected veteran of four previous Olympics with NHL players, would make the squad to help captain Pavel Datsyuk bring players from hockey’s two most prominent leagues together.
Gonchar, now playing for Dallas, was not chosen by the Russian Federation — a decision that equally frustrated and confounded Ovechkin and Malkin.
Tired of public relations demands that dated to last summer, Malkin struck Penguins teammates as more resigned than joyous in the final weeks leading up to Sochi. Once at the Games, Malkin was scarcely heard from or seen by Penguins Olympians.
He tried early to soak up his third Olympics, but after the preliminary round Malkin told family and friends that a combination of pressure and dissatisfaction were weighing on him.
Though he played in Russia during the lockout and spends offseasons in Moscow, Malkin’s history with his country is complicated when it comes to hockey.
He prefers the smaller rinks of North America and competition provided by the NHL. Also, his messy split with Metallurg prior to joining the Penguins eight years ago left scars that have not completely healed.
Malkin has said he can deeply love his country without being one of its faces of hockey for the Russian Federation.
“He was in a tough spot,” Neal said Tuesday. “He wanted to do so well for the people of his country, be the best he could. He wasn’t really given that chance.
“It’s a different situation for Geno here in Pittsburgh. For one, he’s comfortable.”
Rob Rossi is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at rrossi@tribweb.com or via Twitter @RobRossi_Trib.With tech companies abandoning the proprietary Flash and Silverlight media players for HTML5, it was inevitable somebody would try to inject DRM into the virgin spec.
Microsoft, Google and Netflix are that “somebody”, having submitted a proposed modification to HTML5 to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for “encrypted media extensions”.
Their proposed addition, detailed here and picked apart here, has drawn a flat rejection from HTML5 editor and Google employee Ian Hickson, who’s called the encrypted media extensions unethical.
Hickson wrote in response to Microsoft’s Adrian Bateman who floated the proposal on Monday: “I believe this proposal is unethical and that we should not pursue it.”
Bateman drew fire by revealing Microsoft, Google and Netflix had been working on an API to enable encrypted media in HTML “that we think can be implemented in all browsers and support any container/codec and content encryption without making major changes to the HTML Media element specification”.
Batemen said “many” content and application providers reckon they can’t use the <audio> and <video> elements in HTML5 because they “lack robust content protection”.
Hickson responded that the companies’ proposal doesn't provide robust content protection either, so it would not address this issue “even if it wasn't unethical”. Hickson didn’t elaborate on what he meant by unethical.
The video and audio tags in HTML5 offered the prospect of delivering media online in a vendor-neutral format. Traditionally, video and music were added to a web page via a plug-in, such as the proprietary Flash, QuickTime and Silverlight from Adobe. Apple and Microsoft use compression and decompression codecs such as the equally proprietary and patent encumbered H.264, co-authored by the two firms among others. Open sourcers fell back on the patent-free Ogg Theora.
The benefit of players such as Flash, QuickTime and Silverlight – to media companies, at least – has been it's possible to control who sees your stuff based on factors including region and payment. When it was developing Silverlight, Microsoft made a big deal about adding DRM and when shunting Silverlight aside for HTML5 a lack of similar controls was raised as a source of concern.
The attempt to claw back the safety of DRM - digital rights management aka copy protection - should come as little surprise.
But what about the presence of Google and Netflix? Google is no friend to Microsoft or H.264, and in 2010 open sourced the VP8 video codec to free the web from H.264. Netflix, meanwhile, is a tech vendor and is what’s known in “the biz” as a customer and is also far smaller than Microsoft or Google.
Google’s problem is YouTube and Google TV. Google might like VP8 philosophically, but - to our best knowledge - hardly anybody is using it.
Instead, the majority of content on YouTube is built for Flash and this will be played via Google TV. If Steve Jobs was right, HTML5 will supplant Flash. Google can’t afford to upset the corporate makers of film, TV and music on YouTube by making it impossible to let them control the distribution of their content.
Netflix, meanwhile, is trying to grow an online streaming business out of its original DVD rental service. Netflix was an early Silverlight adopter and must now recognise the future is HTML5 thanks to Microsoft’s acceptance of the Jobsian vision. It, like Google, will want to stay on the right side of media producers.
As an interesting footnote, Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings also sits on the Microsoft board.
Microsoft’s Bateman has tried to bulletproof the encrypted media extensions proposal by saying: “No ‘DRM’ is added to the HTML5 specification, and only simple clear key decryption is required as a common baseline.”
It’s typical for IT vendors to adopt standards and then extend them in their own software. However, the extensions Microsoft, Google and Netflix are proposing, though, could become enshrined as an official W3C standard that’s supposed to be vendor neutral. ®Mini Garden Turkey Loaves
For the past year or so I’ve been working on the side making step by step photo tutorials for Food.com. Ever since I made this basic meatloaf tutorial, I’ve wanted to make it again and again. I always feel bad for meatloaf because I don’t think its reputation lives up to just how comforting, filling, and delicious it is. Meatloaf may not be pretty, but it’s pretty damn good. And that’s just basic meatloaf. When you go and add all sorts of goodies, like in these Mini Garden Turkey Loaves, it gets even better.
Because even ground meat is super expensive these days, I decided to use my favorite “meat extending” trick for this meatloaf. I like to add equal parts shredded vegetables, beans, or lentils to double the volume of ground meat without doubling the price (see Sloppy Joes Plus). Vegetables, beans, and lentils are not only less expensive than meat, but they also add a considerable amount of flavor, fiber, and other nutrients to the mix. For these Mini Garden Turkey Loaves, I went the vegetable route, and added a medley of sautéed onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, and mushrooms. SO much flavor!
I also opted to make this loaf into single serving sized muffins instead of a whole loaf. Why? A) Automatic portion control and B) they bake faster. One of the only things I dislike about normal meatloaf is that it takes so long to bake. Breaking it up into smaller pieces helps it bake in about half the time. The only down side is that unlike baking it open on a sheet pan, the little muffin tins hold in the juices and that can make them extra moist and delicate. Extra moisture is great for flavor, but bad for keeping them in one piece. So, we just have to be extra careful and cook out most of the vegetable moisture beforehand. As long as you make sure to do that, you’ll have tasty little garden turkey loaves that you can keep in the freezer for a quick re-heatable dinner later. Win!
See this recipe used in my weekly meal prep.
Print Recipe 4.87 from 58 votes Mini Garden Turkey Loaves These Mini Garden Turkey Loaves are packed with flavorful and nutritious shredded vegetables for a colorful and vibrant spin on the traditional meatloaf. Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 45 mins Total Time: 1 hr Servings: 6 (2 mini loaves each) Author: Beth M Ingredients LOAVES 1 Tbsp olive oil ($0.16)
1 small onion ($0.36)
1 clove garlic ($0.16)
2 medium carrots ($0.27)
1 small zucchini ($0.73)
8 oz button mushrooms ($1.79)
3/4 tsp salt ($0.05)
Freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.06)
1/4 cup ketchup ($0.20)
1 large egg ($0.18)
3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs ($0.36)
19 oz package ground turkey 93% lean* ($4.59) GLAZE 1/2 cup ketchup ($0.41)
2 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.03)
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar ($0.12) Instructions Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Sauté both in a large skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat until soft and transparent. Peel the carrots, then use a large holed cheese grater to shred them into the skillet. Cut the ends off the zucchini and shred it into the skillet as well. Continue to sauté over medium heat.
While the onion, garlic, carrots, and zucchini are sautéing, roughly chop the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms to the skillet and season with 3/4 tsp salt and a generous dose of freshly cracked pepper. Continue to sauté the vegetables over medium heat until they release all of their moisture and it has evaporated from the bottom of the skillet (there should be no juices pooling on the bottom of the skillet).
After the vegetables have sautéed and are mostly dry, transfer them to a bowl and let them cool for 5-10 minutes. Begin to preheat the oven to 375 degrees and coat the wells of a muffin tin with non-stick spray.
Once the vegetables have cooled some, add the Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, egg, and breadcrumbs to the bowl. Mix these ingredients well until they are evenly combined. Add the ground turkey and use your hands to gently mix it into the vegetable mixture. Try to avoid over mixing.
Evenly divide the meat mixture between the 12 cups of a muffin tin. Bake the mini loaves in the preheated 375 degree oven for 30 minutes.
While the loaves are baking, mix the tomato glaze. Combine the ketchup, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Once the loaves have baked for 15 minutes, spoon the glaze over the muffins and let them bake with the glaze for the remaining 15 minutes.
Allow the loaves to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before carefully running a knife around their outer edges and lifting out of the tin with a fork. The rest time will help solidify the loaves and keep them in one piece. Notes *If you use a higher fat content ground meat, this will effect the final texture of the loaf and how well they stay together in one piece. Tried this recipe? Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!
Mini Garden Turkey Loaves
Step by Step Photos
Start with this mix of vegetables: one small onion, one clove of garlic, two carrots, one small zucchini, and an 8 oz. package of mushrooms. I bought these baby portobellos because they were on sale for $1.79, but white button mushrooms, which are generally less expensive than portobellos, would do just as well.
Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Begin to sauté them in a large skillet with 1 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Sauté them until the onion are soft and transparent.
Peel the two carrots, then use a large holed cheese grater to grate them right into the skillet. Cut the ends from the zucchini, then grate it into the skillet as well. Continue to sauté the vegetables over medium heat.
Roughly chop the mushrooms into small-ish pieces. Smaller pieces will also help the meat loaves hold together.
Add the chopped mushrooms to the skillet, then season with 3/4 tsp salt and some freshly cracked pepper. The salt will help draw the moisture out of the vegetables and you’ll begin to see it pooling on the bottom of the skillet. Keep sautéing until that moisture evaporates away and the skillet becomes dry. This is very important to keep the meat loaves holding together in one piece.
Transfer the sautéed vegetables to a large bowl and let them cool off slightly. It’s okay for them to be warm, just not so hot that they cook the egg. Once they’ve cooled a bit and stopped steaming, add 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup ketchup, 1 large egg, and 3/4 cup plain breadcrumbs.
Also begin to preheat the oven to 375 degrees and coat the wells of a muffin tin with non-stick spray.
Mix all the ingredients together very, very well. This is your opportunity to get the egg and seasoning evenly distributed before adding the meat (because you don’t want to over mix the ground meat).
Finally, add a 19oz. package of 93% lean ground turkey to the bowl. If you use a higher fat content ground meat it may affect how well the loaves hold together because that fat will be trapped in the muffin tins instead of draining away like meatloaves that are cooked on a baking sheet.
Use your hands to gently mix the ground meat into the vegetable mixture until everything is even and no large chunks of ground meat remain. Divide the mixture between the 12 cups of a muffin tin. Pop the filled muffin tin in the preheated 375 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes (glaze will be added at the 15 minute mark).
While the loaves are baking, mix together the tomato glaze. Combine 1/2 cup ketchup, 2 Tbsp brown sugar, and 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar in a small bowl until smooth.
When the loaves are 15 minutes into their 30 minute baking time, pull them out and spoon the glaze over each one.
Like this. Just a little on top of each one. Then pop them back in the oven for the remaining 15 minutes of the cook time.
And after about 30 minutes of total baking, the mini garden turkey loaves will be cooked through, juicy, and delicious! Let them rest for 5-10 minutes before trying to remove them from the tin. Run a knife around the outside of each one to loosen it, then use a fork to carefully lift it out of the tin.
And then enjoy your healthier and delicious “comfort” food! (recipe for the mashed potatoes coming SOON!)Interesting Talks from PyData Amsterdam 2017
I’ve always been fascinated by the openness and collaborative spirit that exist in the wider Python community. This is particularly embodied in the fact that most Python conferences record all of their talks, and even tutorials, and make them available on YouTube.
This year, the PyData Amsterdam conference was held from the 7th to the 9th of April in Booking.com’s offices. The recordings of the talks were posted several days ago, and I decided to make the time to watch all of the talks, and do a short write-up with links to the talks I found the most interesting.
To begin, Lucas Bernardi, a Senior Data Scientist with Booking.com gave a fantastic talk on diagnosing and rectifying certain “pathologies” that arise in statistical and Machine Learning models:
Rafael Schultze-Kraft from WattX gave an interesting talk about a project he’s working on related to smart offices, giving a good overview of IoT, sensor data, and how they use Spark and AWS for analysis and modelling. With sensors being pretty much everywhere around us, learning how to wrangle, analyze and model time series data is quickly becoming a must.
Holden Karau from IBM’s Spark Technology Center is a regular at PyData conferences, and gave a very engaging and fun expose on understanding the often very cryptic error messages that PySpark can produce. She’s also almost done writing a book on best practices for using and tuning Spark for high performance, which should be published in May.
Katharine Jarmul’s keynote was about a topic that IMHO is not discussed often enough (and I’m guilty of not giving enough thought to this as well) in the Data Science community — the ethics of modelling and the social and human impact of the various Machine Learning models that are being used. She gives a good overview of several pieces of research, as well as giving suggestions on how to combat “injustices” caused by models.
Her talk reminded me of a very interesting website, Algorithm Tips, that catalogues the various algorithms and models used by the U.S. Government that impact people’s daily lives.
Giovanni Lanzani, Chief Scientist of GoDataDriven (who hosted the Tutorial Day) talked about the disconnect that exists between Data Science as it is taught in books and MOOCs, and Data Science as it is done in a real startup environment, where the prototyped models need to be put into production. He spoke about the growing demand (yet lack of supply) for Type B Data Scientists, and the need for supplementing the typical Machine Learning skillset with software engineering skills — something that Trey Causey has blogged about some time ago.
Giovanni’s colleague, Niels Zeilemaker, presented the infrastructure that GoDataDriven have built to make it easier for their Data Scientists to productionize models, while observing engineering best practices. They make use of a very interesting workflow, with their ML production pipeline consisting of GitLab, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, and the ELK stack.
In a very informative and application-oriented talk, Tristan Boudreault from Shopify educated the audience as to how to use survival methods to analyze and model conversion rates:
In another talk at the intersection of Data Science and Data Engineering, Stephen Helms from Optiver gave a very good introduction to Bayesian statistics, its application to finding outliers in financial time series, and presented the analytics infrastructure they’ve built.
About a quarter of the talks at the conference were about Deep Learning, and a very interesting one that presented business applications was given by Emrah Tasli and Stas Girkin, Data Scientists from conference host, Booking.com:
Finally, there were 5 tutorials given at Tutorial Day, but unfortunately they weren’t recorded. I really wanted to see Stephen Simmons’ tutorial titled Pandas from the Inside / “Big Pandas”, and thankfully a recording of a similar tutorial from PyData DC 2016 is available:
That’s it for PyData Amsterdam 2017. We have PyData London coming up on May 5th, and hopefully I’ll be able to make time to do something similar after that conference again. Enjoy!TOPEKA, KS—Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday the grand opening of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex, a sprawling abortion facility that will allow the organization to terminate unborn lives with an efficiency never before thought possible.
During a press conference, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards told reporters that the new state-of-the-art fetus-killing facility located in the nation's heartland offers quick, easy, in-and-out abortions to all women, and represents a bold reinvention of the group's long-standing mission and values.
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"Although we've traditionally dedicated 97 percent of our resources to other important services such as contraception distribution, cancer screening, and STD testing, this new complex allows us to devote our full attention to what has always been our true passion: abortion," said Richards, standing under a banner emblazoned with Planned Parenthood's new slogan, "No Life Is Sacred." "And since Congress voted to retain our federal funding, it's going to be that much easier for us to maximize the number of tiny, beating hearts we stop every day."
"The Abortionplex's high-tech machinery is capable of terminating one pregnancy every three seconds," Richards added. "That's almost a million abortions every month. We're so thrilled!"
The 900,000-square-foot facility has more than 2,000 rooms dedicated to the abortion procedure. The abundance of surgical space, Richards said, will ensure that women visiting the facility can be quickly fitted into stirrups without pausing to second-guess their decision or consider alternatives such as adoption. Hundreds of on-site counselors are also available to meet with clients free of charge and go over the many ways that carrying a child to term will burden them and very likely ruin their lives.
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The remaining space is dedicated to amenities such as coffee shops, bars, dozens of restaurants and retail outlets, a three-story nightclub, and a 10-screen multiplex theater—features intended not only to help clients relax, but to foster a sense of community and make abortion more of a social event.
"We really want abortion to become a regular part of women's lives, especially younger women who have enough fertile years ahead of them to potentially have dozens of abortions," said Richards, adding that the Abortionplex would provide shuttle service to and from most residences, schools, and shopping malls in the region. "Our hope is for this facility to become a regular destination where a woman in her second trimester can whoop it up at karaoke and then kick back while we vacuum out the contents of her uterus."
"All women should feel like they have a home at the Abortionplex," Richards continued. "Whether she's a high school junior who doesn't want to go to prom pregnant, a go-getter professional who can't be bothered with the time commitment of raising a child, or a prostitute who knows getting an abortion is the easiest form of birth control—all are welcome."
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Nineteen-year-old Marcy Kolrath, one of the Abortionplex's first clients, told reporters that despite her initial hesitancy, she was quickly put at ease by staff members who reassured her that she could have abortions over and over for the next decade before finally committing to motherhood. Kolrath also said she was "wowed" by the facility's many attractions.
"I was kind of on the fence in the beginning," she said. "But after a couple of margaritas and a ride down the lazy river they've got circling the place, I got caught up in the vibe. By the time it was over, I almost wished I could've aborted twins and gotten to stay a little longer."
"I told my boyfriend we had to have sex again that very night," Kolrath added. "I really want to come back over Labor Day."What do you consider perverted? Catcalls? Train gropings? Watching porn? If watching porn is considered perverted, Pakistan is the country with the most google searches for porn.
As a female living in Japan for four years, the majority of the men there were extremely shy and polite towards me. In fact, oddly, Japanese men sometimes seem extremely disinterested in women. Seem like they prefer hanging with their bros rather than have anything to do with women. Depends though. I met a lot of married men too, and as far as I could tell, and from the men I knew, they were very good husbands and great family men.
Of course there were some oddballs. One time walking home in the dark, a van pulled over, and basically a Japanese man tried to kidnap me by pulling the "I'm lost, could you come over here and show me where I am on this map?" trick. But, being that I grew up in the streets of ghetto America, of course I could smell a trap and just kept on walking speedily by.
Occasionally Japanese men will try to solicit sex from me too because I look like a Japanese high school student. The funny thing is, the way they do it. They have to'save face' in public right? So these businessmen will pass by me, in a barely audible voice & speaking faster than an auctioneer, offer a proposal to me. They purposefully don't even look at me, just looking straight ahead. It |
listen to people who have no knowledge of the technology industry restate the misguided ramblings of lawmakers before we vote for change?
These questions have yet to be answered. Sure, some of us have ensured that we continue to inform tech lovers from all across the globe about what's really going on in the industry, but none of us -- journalists and readers -- have stood together to confront the beast that continues to grow each day.
Everyday when I wake up, I'm constantly reminded by how limited we are in our rights with technology. Why are women forced to pay ridiculous sums of cash for stealing 20 songs? Why are ten-year old children forced into a deposition that the plaintiff hopes will yield even more cash for a misguided cause? Why are college students blamed for piracy when huge cartels overseas are allowed to run amok? Why can companies charge too much for too little and get away with it? Why am I paying for 10mbps service when I only get 2mbps?
According to GamePolitics.com, an Arizona bill that was passed in the state's House of Representatives last month "would make content producers, publishers and distributors liable for monetary damages if any written, audio, visual or digital material from which they profited was judged to have been "dangerous" or obscene and motivated someone to commit a felony or an act of terrorism."
The ambiguity of that bill is indicative of many of the laws enacted by lawmakers all over the country. Instead of forcing people to be responsible for their own actions, lawmakers have seen it fit to embrace a policy that makes those who provide technology to individuals the lawbreakers. Ironically (or maybe not), that doesn't happen in any other industry. In other, more political, industries, the companies win out, but in the technology business, we're expected to suffer.
Of course, the plight of the technology industry goes far beyond video games. Each day, we're told that what we really want to do is wrong. You want to download music? Nope, you should be paying a ridiculous premium on CDs. You plan on ripping a DVD you own onto your computer? Don't even think about it. You're paying for faster speeds than you really get? Oh well. You're forced to pay $175 to get out a cell phone contract? Tough luck.
Some have said that it'll eventually get better when the younger generation assumes positions of power and I agree with that. But who really wants to wait that long? Why has the entire technology industry rolled over in the face of lawmakers and misguided organizations for no good reason?
Enough is enough.
I think it's time that every person who truly cares about the future of the technology industry and their own well-being stands up and rights the injustices being forced upon each and every one of us. We shouldn't be forced into specific arrangements that promise more than they provide and we surely shouldn't wait in anxious anticipation of what could be.
For what it's worth, I call on all journalists, readers and companies to forego their apathy and do what they can to stand together and fight the ridiculous notion that technology should be throttled back for fear of its inability to adapt to the expectations of the Old Guard.
If nothing else, technology is the beacon of hope in these times of economic and socio-political tumult and we should do what we can to ensure that misguided individuals and lawmakers alike understand and fully appreciate the value and importance of technology.British special forces will resume training moderate Syrian rebels through the US-led program which collapsed last year having utterly failed to reach the stated objective. The announcement is expected to be made by the Defense Secretary on Tuesday.
“Daesh are on the back foot. The RAF is already playing a leading role in the air, hitting them hard in Iraq and Syria,” Sir Michael Fallon said ahead of a Paris meeting of defense ministers from the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
“Now we’re stepping up our support to moderate opposition forces in Syria, through training them in the skills they need to defeat Daesh,” he added, The Telegraph reports.
Read more
The official announcement is expected to be made on Tuesday. The UK plans to deploy around 20 British personnel to instruct “vetted members” of the so-called moderate Syrian opposition in infantry battle tactics, battlefield medicine and explosive hazard awareness skills needed to fight the Islamic State.
To be clear on who exactly the UK will be training, Fallon specified that a moderate fighter is someone “prepared to live within a plural political settlement that can, in the end, be democratic and take Syria towards elections”.
Those willing to be trained by UK forces will be subject to “strict vetting procedures,” promising for recruits to be “security and medically screened” prior to the start of training.
The UK decision to deploy special forces came in response to a request from the Pentagon, UK media reported. Training of the Syrian rebels will be conducted under the Pentagon run Train and Equip Program which was briefly shut down last year.
The $500 million-a-year program meant to train a moderate force to defeat the terrorists was effectively canceled in October after fielding only about 100 trained fighters. The first batch of trained “moderates” was promptly attacked by hardline rebels upon crossing the border, and others disbanded or were killed in combat.
The new British team of less than two dozen men, according to defense sources who spoke with the Independent, will be based in al-Quweira in southwest Jordan and will be assisting units of the New Syrian Army (NSA), comprised of defectors from the Syrian armed forces.I’d been looking forward to Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets for months, ever since the first trailer dropped. That trailer really got me pumped up; the trippy Beatles song, the adorable little protagonists, and a colorful alien world from the creator of The Fifth Element. I honestly thought it was going to be Star Wars without all the annoying fan service.
Well, I was wrong. If there’s one thing Valerian gave me, it’s a newfound appreciation for Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and even Avatar. Valerian may be bursting with imagination, but it has no soul. The dreadful banter between Valerian and Laureline starts out corny, and becomes downright excruciating as the story progresses.
But story is a generous word. The events of Valerian begin on the surface of a familiar-looking world of peaceful, blue, indigenous aliens. They appear heavily, heavily inspired by the Na'vi of Avatar, except with a lot more glitter and sequins. It reminded me of those fake, rip-off Disney DVD’s that grandmothers around the world innocently purchase for their grandchildren.
The Na’vi-lite live in a sparkly paradise inhabited by lizards that poop out diamonds. These poop-diamonds are a powerful energy source, and the evil industrious humans destroy their planet so that they can …. You know this story already. In a nutshell, Valerian and Laureline must deliver the last diamond-pooping lizard left in the universe to the Na’vi-lite, because corporations are bad, and stuff.
The story takes a long time to get started, and when it does, there’s no flow. Valerian and Laureline move from one frantic scenario to the other, seemingly without purpose. But to be fair, the action sequences are visually stunning, all of them. Valerian is not afraid to experiment; reality-bending technology adds new layers to the chase sequences, and every single scene is packed with wonderfully surreal visuals. Like the two humorless protagonists, the film is gloriously pretty, but devoid of personality.
Cara Delevingne is cute as a button, but she doesn’t seem to possess more than one facial expression. Dane DeHaan just comes across as bored. His character is a Han Solo archetype, a devilishly charming risk-taker, and hothead. Or at least, he’s supposed to be. DeHaan is a peculiar choice for this kind of role; he should be playing an oddball, an outsider with a dark edge. But no, he’s the sucker-punching womanizer who uses his fists to triumph over astronomical odds. But no amount of butt-kicking or one-liners can distract from the fact that he looks like a fourteen-year old boy, and acts like one too.
Both leads don’t appear to be enjoying themselves; they look like they’re surrounded by green screen, rather than the luscious, psychedelic environment we see. The pair are apparently madly in love, but the relationship feels forced. The two don’t have anything to say to each other, apart from dad-jokes, and cringy monologues about the nature of love.
But never mind, the galaxy is bursting with colors and pop songs, and the alien creatures are skillfully designed. The whole movie looks like an extension of the Cantina scene from Star Wars. But all of a sudden, Rihanna shows up, and proceeds to dance. She dances while Valerian watches, silently. She dances and morphs into different outfits. Suddenly, we’re in a music video, and it feels at least fifteen minutes long. Then it ends, and the story continues. There was no point, other than to say “Look kids, we hired Rihanna!” I think it might be worse than Ed Sheeran’s Thrones cameo.
As I watched, waiting desperately for the closing credits, or the sweet release of death, a thought struck me; there was something strangely familiar about this beautiful alien universe, so devoid of life. Then it hit me - this was the cinematic equivalent of No Man’s Sky. This is exactly how I felt flying around that randomly generated universe of beautiful vistas and mundane tasks.
I desperately wanted to enjoy myself, and I just couldn’t. I like Luc Besson, I love the wonderfully deranged world; I just hate the characters.
Unless you’re genuinely passionate about creature design and exotic alien worlds, don’t bother seeing this one. Just go back to that initial trailer, and imagine what could have been.A new Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Independent Task Force report, A Sharper Choice on North Korea: Engaging China for a Stable Northeast Asia, finds that the United States’ policy of “strategic patience” with North Korea will neither halt that country’s recurring and dangerous cycle of provocation nor ensure the stability of Northeast Asia in the future. To the contrary, the Task Force warns, “If allowed to continue, current trends will predictably, progressively, and gravely threaten U.S. national security interests and those of its allies.”
Mike Mullen President, MGM Consulting, LLC Sam Nunn Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nuclear Threat Initiative Adam Mount Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress Anya Schmemann Director Independent Task Force Program, Washington Director, Global Communications and Outreach
Chaired by Mike Mullen, retired admiral and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Sam Nunn, former U.S. senator and co-chairman and chief executive officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the Task Force finds that “North Korea’s accelerating nuclear and missile programs pose a grave and expanding threat to the territory of U.S. allies, to U.S. personnel stationed in the region, and to the continental United States.” Without a shift in strategy, the group concludes, the next U.S. president may be confronted by a North Korea that has the ability to strike the U.S. homeland.
Asserting that “China’s policy toward the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] will critically affect the fate of the region,” the Task Force urges U.S. officials to encourage China to work with the United States, Japan and South Korea to establish a nonnuclear and unified Korean Peninsula. “Encouraging a transformation of China’s policy toward North Korea should be the next administration’s top priority in its relations with China,” says the report.
“If China, the United States, and U.S. allies can work together to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and mitigate its threatening military posture,” the Task Force contends, “a stable, prosperous Northeast Asia led by China and U.S. allies can emerge.”
To the extent that China declines to cooperate and North Korea continues to refuse to negotiate, however, the report finds that United States will have no choice but to work with Japan and Korea to “consider more assertive military and political actions, including those that directly threaten the existence of the [North Korean] regime and its nuclear and missile capabilities.”
The Task Force proposes that the United States take steps to sharpen the consequences for North Korea, by imposing escalating costs on continued defiance and offering incentives for cooperation. The report offers the following recommendations for U.S. policymakers:
Promote a stable and prosperous Northeast Asia. Enlist China’s help and work with regional partners to jointly plan for the future of the Korean Peninsula, including planning for militarized crises, collapse scenarios, and the role of a unified Korea in Northeast Asian security.
Restructure negotiations. Propose restructured negotiations that would increase incentives for North Korea’s cooperation by covering a wider range of issues, starting with a freeze on North Korea’s nuclear program and working toward denuclearization and a comprehensive peace agreement.
Protect human rights. Continually exert pressure on North Korea to respect UN human rights resolutions and support the suspension of North Korea’s credentials at the United Nations if it does not comply.
Enforce sanctions and escalate financial pressure. Expand sanctions to “restrict the full range of North Korea’s criminal activities” and create a standing multilateral mechanism to strictly and actively enforce UN sanctions, including the inspection and interdiction of North Korean shipping.
Strengthen deterrence and defense. Strengthen the U.S. alliance with South Korea and Japan by issuing a “collective security commitment declaring that a North Korean attack against any one of these states is an attack against all” and building capacity “to intercept all missile launches with a range-payload capability greater than existing Scud missiles.”
The bipartisan Task Force is composed of seventeen distinguished experts from diverse backgrounds. The project is directed by Adam Mount, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a former CFR Stanton nuclear security fellow.
Professors: To request an exam copy, contact publications@cfr.org. Please include your university and course name.
Bookstores: To order bulk copies, please contact Ingram. Visit https://ipage.ingrambook.com, call 800.234.6737, or email orders@ingrambook.com. ISBN: 978-0-87609-678-9IRVING, Texas (AP) -- Mario Edwards chased Chris Chambers down
the sideline, never looking up for the ball. Edwards banged into
the receiver, drawing a pass interference penalty on the first play
of the game.
Cowboys QB Quincy Carter (17) is sacked by Dolphin Adewale Ogunleye.
The tone was set. And it wasn't a good one for the Dallas Cowboys.
The Dolphins went on to score on the opening drive, something no
team had done against Dallas in 22 games. Miami kept scoring, too,
all the way to a 40-21 victory Thursday that left coach Bill
Parcells "a little embarrassed."
"That we would go out here on Thanksgiving in a national game
and play like that, I told the players that and they should be
embarrassed too," Parcells said. "It was pretty bad."
Other than Richie Anderson, who had the first two-touchdown game of his 11-year career, pretty much everyone wearing the throwback, double-star jerseys could be criticized.
The offense had just 10 yards in the first quarter, recovered
to get within nine points at halftime, then quarterback Quincy Carter blew it with four second-half turnovers. His fumble on the
opening drive of the third quarter was returned 34 yards for a
touchdown and the rout was on.
Carter was 24-of-40 for 288 yards, but he had 141 in the fourth
quarter when the game was pretty much decided.
The running game was practically nonexistent: 91 yards, 42
coming on scrambles by Carter, and just 2 yards on three carries by
starter Troy Hambrick. Parcells said not to read much into all that
because the score made running a poor option.
The defense looked nothing like a unit that came in rated as
the NFL's best, allowing the fewest points (15.3) and just 82.4
yards per game rushing.
Jay Fiedler, making his first start since Oct. 19, was 16-of-20
for 239 yards and three touchdowns, all to Chris Chambers, and ran
for another score. Once he stopped throwing, Ricky Williams started
running, gaining 104 yards.
In his first pro game in Texas, the former Longhorns star went
over 100 for the third straight week and over 1,000 for the fourth
straight season.
"We've had a lot of ups and downs since I left here, but when I
come back, they're always my No. 1 fans," Williams said. "It
really builds my confidence."
The special teams weren't very good, either.
Derek Ross fumbled two kickoffs, losing one -- the one right
after Fiedler scored on the opening drive. Luckily for Dallas,
Williams fumbled on the next snap, so it didn't hurt. Also, punter
Toby Gowin did little to help his iffy status, booting a 26-yarder
on his first attempt and finishing with 36.6 yards on five tries.
Dallas (8-4) has now lost three times in six games. The
Cowboys have fallen out of a first-place tie with the Eagles in the
NFC East, and out of a four-way tie for the best record in the
conference.
"We had no chance at a win," Parcells said. "This team does
not have the maturity for this kind of situation. We have young
players who do not understand what's going on.... We were just
awful."
The lopsided loss erases the joy of a 24-20 victory over
Carolina that brought tears to Parcells' eyes, and the
disappointment will linger for 10 days, until the Cowboys play at
Philadelphia.
"It just didn't seem like we were ready to play. That surprised
me," said Anderson, who had his first rushing touchdown since 1996
and a 25-yard TD catch. "They played better than we did, more
focused than we did and made more plays than we did."
Miami (8-4) had its highest-scoring game since getting 49 in the
2002 opener. The Dolphins moved 1½ games behind New England in the
AFC East and 1½ games ahead of Denver and Cincinnati for the
conference's final wild-card spot.
This was their third straight win and they've improved to 5-1 on
the road. That's the kind of momentum they need considering their
history of disastrous Decembers and a schedule that could set them
up for another: at New England a week from Sunday, then home
against Philadelphia.
"We talked all week about how we needed this win, and they came
out and made it happen," said Dolphins coach Dave Wannstedt,
making his second appearance as a head coach in Texas Stadium since
he was defensive coordinator on the Cowboys' 1992 Super Bowl
championship team.
Miami led 10-0, then Anderson got his first score, a 4-yard run
that was his first on the ground since 1996. The Cowboys would
never get any closer.
Fiedler and Chambers answered with their first touchdown, a
well-thrown 39-yarder. Anderson scored again on a 25-yard
reception. Chambers, though, followed with a 6-yard touchdown,
reaching out to snag the ball and tapping the tips of his toes
while falling out of the back of the end zone with 10 seconds left
in the half.
Their third connection was a 35-yarder in the third quarter.
Chambers finished with five catches for 96 yards.
Williams' third straight 100-yard game gives him 15 since
joining Miami, tying Larry Csonka for the most in team history.
It's his fourth straight 1,000-yard season and second in a row in
Miami, letting him join Csonka as the only Dolphins players to do
it more than once.
Game Notes: The Cowboys are 22-13-1 on Thanksgiving, 1-3 against the
Dolphins on the holiday.... The 23 points Miami scored by halftime
were the most Dallas has allowed in the first half this season, and
the most in any half since the Giants scored 25 in the third and
fourth quarters of the second game.... Flozell Adams blocked his
team-record third extra point this season. It was his fourth career
PAT stuff and his seventh career kick block.... Fiedler went to
Dartmouth, making him the second Ivy League quarterback to be a
Thanksgiving star in the last decade. Jason Garrett of Princeton
did it for the Cowboys in 1994, leading them past Green Bay when
Troy Aikman and Rodney Peete were hurt.Relations between the two countries worsened after the attacks
India has sent its first sports team to Pakistan since the November 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) bombings which killed 174 people.
A seven-member junior boxing team flew to Karachi to compete in an international tournament.
The 2008 attacks were blamed by India on militants based in Pakistan.
India did not allow its cricket team to tour Pakistan in 2008, citing security fears, while Pakistan sent tennis, squash and snooker players to India.
Following the decision to allow the boxing team to travel to Pakistan, Indian coach Shiv Singh told the Press Trust of India: "We have no security concerns, the focus is on boxing and the rest is in the hands of our hosts."
India is emerging as a world boxing force
Indian boxers Sanjay Singh, Naresh Singh and Parnoj Singh will compete in the event, attended by about 20 teams and which opens on Friday.
Pakistan Boxing Federation chief Doda Khan Bhutto said more than 5,000 security personnel would be deployed around the venue and the hotel where the teams are staying.
"The government is aware that after a long time we are hosting such a big international sporting event and we want to ensure it is held smoothly and successfully as this would pave the way for more teams to come to Pakistan in other sporting events," Sindh Sports Minister Muhammad Ali Shah said.
Talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours collapsed after the Mumbai attacks.
In March eight people died in an attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in the eastern city of Lahore - seven Sri Lankan players and a coach were wounded.
Correspondents say that attack all but destroyed Pakistan's hopes of hosting top-level international sport.Visits to this site since 1 September 2001.
Last Updated on: 2 February 2019
RailWA is a webpage of Railway Photographs taken over the last 40+ years, with an emphasis on our own state of Western Australia.
The Railscene in W.A. has changed considerably in the last three decades. The days of the Metropolitan- Vickers X class diesels hauling rake's of 4 wheeled wagons, have been replaced with diesels with touch screen technology hauling wagons, which singularly can hold the capacity of 5 or 6, 4 wheeled wagons. Western Australia's rail system is a number of systems. In the North-west Hammersley Iron, Cliffs Robe River, Mount Newman Mining and Goldsworthy Mining are now part of either the BHP Billiton rail network or that of Rio Tinto. FMG (Fortescue Mining Group) have also built their own line as have Roy Hill. Whilst in the South the network used to be dominated by the State owned Westrail. Today operating over the former Westrail system are the following companies: Aurizon who were QR National (QRN) which was formerly the Australian Railroad Group (ARG) Pacific National (PN) SCT Rail (Specialised Container Transport) Watco Rail operating trains on behalf of CBH and also Infrastructure trains. All this makes a fairly diverse rail scene. With Company names and colour schemes changing over the time since we first started this website we will update the pages to reflect those changes as time permits. These pages have been put together by the father and son's combination of Phil, David, Daniel, Christopher & Joshua Melling using mainly our own photos (with some from our late friend Joe Moir). We hope you like it.
A special thanks to the various people in the railway industry who over the years have provided information, access etc. to allow us to pursue our hobby.
We always remember Safety First near rail lines.
The bulk of our photos are on our Flickr site. Click On This Link To Our Flickr RailWA Webpages
ACN4168/ P2508 haul a loaded Mount Gibson iron ore train through Bringo heading for Geraldton Port on 22 September 2012.Mount Gibson trains ran in the Geraldton area from 19 January 2004 right through to the 1st February 2019
V1213 is seen hauling a freight train to Avon Yard on its mainline trial on 27 May 1992 through Windmill Cutting near Toodyay. Today the V class is out of service and is stored in Pemberton in south west W.A.
CBH/ Watco CBH003/ CBH005 haul a loaded grain train into Geraldton Port on 16 September 2012. The CBH locos were built by Motive Power Industries in Boise, Idaho in the U.S.
A vastly changed scene exists today (including an electrified rail service) but back in 1979 we see B1609 hauling a short shunt train onto the Victoria quay at Fremantle Port on 31 May 1979.2013 brought many exciting, promising advancements in many areas of engineering. Here are the moments, concepts, and products that caught our eye this year.
Hello from the future! There’s a lot of really sweet stuff on this list — Made in Space took the first step towards the future of orbital manufacturing, Volvo started an autonomous car field testing project — but 2013 was a several Internet lifetimes ago. You can either come check out the greatest engineering feats of 2014, or continue reading this post out of historical curiosity. -JFS
10. Google Glass
Like many things Google, Glass got a somewhat polarized reception when it hit the market (to a limited crop of early adopters) in February. Similar to Google’s robot project, Glass represents a bold attempt to push sci-fi-like concepts into the world and make them commonly accessible. The ubiquitous computer idea is ambitious, and in a few iterations it could be very interesting and useful. For now it’s on the radar as a great engineering feat in seedling stage.
9. One World Trade Center
When it comes to notable works of engineering, records are almost a gimme. But 1 WTC isn’t only notable for its symbolic 1,776-foot height and acquisition of the title of Tallest Building in the Western Hemisphere. It’s also notable for its example of sustainability, including construction from recycled materials and sustainably sourced wood, fuel cell-powered electrical infrastructure, interior lights that dim on sunny days, rain water-based cooling, steam-powered heating, and even facilities for bike-riding tenants. The building is expected to open in 2014.
8. Atlas Human-Powered Helicopter
The Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition has been on the table since 1980 and had never been claimed. Then in June, Canadian team AeroVelo took the prize with Atlas, a human-powered copter that sustained flight for 64 seconds, reaching an altitude of around 10 feet and meeting other challenging criteria. More than winning a competition, it’s a feat of engineering perseverance, as four other teams over 33 years had attempted the extremely difficult challenge of balancing rotor efficiency and power-to-weight ratio. It’s not necessarily going to change the world, but it does fly in the face of impossibility.
7. First Carbon Nanotube Computer
In the world of electronics, carbon nanotubes have been explored as a hopeful replacement for silicon, which is nearing its limits with regard to Moore’s law and how well it can accommodate smaller and smaller circuits. The benefit of carbon nanotubes is their inherent size and semiconducting efficiency, which could lead to hugely faster and more efficient computers, if their production and use was mastered. That has proven to be a challenge – but a group of engineers at Stanford University recently created a central processor based on them entirely, demonstrating that stepping off the silicon path may be viable. Their processor isn’t polished – it’s comparable to a 1971 Intel 4004 – but give it time and the processors of the future could make the Core look like a jalopy.
6. Space-Based Manufacturing
3D printing has been a big news item this year. But Mountain View-based company Made in Space is doing us one better: 3D printing in space. The way things are manufactured for space today, everything that goes up has to be manufactured here on Earth under many limitations, then expensively and painstakingly launched into space and assembled. The critical milestone MIS passed this year means all of that may eventually be foregone for space-based 3D printing, which can be used to create parts on site for the International Space Station – or to create parts for spacecraft and other future space hardware. Made in Space, set us a course for the future. Engage.
5. High Voltage Direct Current Super Grids
Transporting electricity from renewable sources to remote consumption centers has been a challenge in the past – but near the beginning of 2013, developments in component technologies of HVDC super grids reached a point that it will soon be feasible to carry electricity efficiently over incredible distances. Super grids could link distant cities, national grids, and potentially continents, becoming the framework for a global energy market that could bring energy from where it’s abundant to where it’s needed.
4. Thought-Controlled Medical Devices
It sounds like science fiction, but advances in brain-computer interfaces have led to several ground-breaking medical devices controlled by thought. One example is this thought-controlled wheelchair, which provides off-the-shelf mobility to quadriplegic patients at a reasonable price. Another is this moveable, thought-controlled prosthetic arm. The devices, which are programmed to recognize specific brain wave patterns and react accordingly, are opening exciting doors for the field of medical technology, and of course for the patients themselves.
3. The Volvo “Drive Me” Autonomous Driving Project
Driverless cars are making progress in US, but not fast enough for Volvo. Their goal is to eliminate all driver fatalities in Volvo vehicles, period. (Eliminating traffic fatalities in the US, for example, would prevent 9.9 9/11s worth of fatalities per year, based on 2011 numbers.) The Drive Me project is kicking off this year to place 100 autonomous 2014 Volvo XC90s on the roads of Gothenburg, Sweden by 2017.
2. Graphene
This two-dimensional, ultra-strong, ultra-efficient material has been discussed as a potential replacement for silicon in the realm of circuit design, as well as being targeted for a myriad of other applications. But in September, Stanford University reported creating ribbons of graphene the size of DNA strands, complete with transistors, making that possibility a very near reality. If large-scale production can be achieved, we may soon have some very fast, very efficient electronics on our hands.
1. The SpaceX Grasshopper
SpaceX is the brainchild of Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, and its mission is simple: They want to enable people to live on other planets. In October SpaceX made a record test-launch of Grasshopper, a reusable rocket that launches, maneuvers, hovers and lands again. The rocket reached nearly half a mile into the atmosphere before returning safely to its launch pad, further breaking ground for rockets that can deliver satellites – or humans – to orbit and return to be reused. More than a test launch, it represents a very real step in the ambitious mission to get humans off of the planet and onto other worlds.
Think anything else should be on this list? Tell us in the comments below.
This story was co-written by JF Stackhouse.Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that causes inflammation and damage in the lining of your intestine when you eat gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, and barley. Perhaps not surprisingly in light of the fact that they both have an autoimmune component, an obvious relationship has been found between autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) and celiac disease.
The Risk Relationship
Research has found that your risk of celiac disease is substantially higher when you already have AITD (Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Graves' disease). Conversely, when you have celiac disease, you're more than four times more likely to have AITD. Given these risks, some experts recommend that patients with AITD should be routinely screened for celiac disease and vice versa.
AITD and celiac disease have a few commonalities, including sharing some of the same genes, the presence of antibodies in both conditions, a higher risk for other autoimmune conditions, and even some of the same symptoms.
Shared Genes
While it's still unclear exactly why celiac disease and AITD often occur together, at least some of the explanation seems to be that they share specific genes. The gene variants that make you more susceptible to developing autoimmune endocrine diseases like AITD, DR3–DQ2 and/or DR4–DQ8 are the same ones that predispose you to celiac disease. Other specific genes, including CTLA-4, the HLA genes, and PTPN22, are all found in celiac disease and AITD as well.
Many people have the DR3–DQ2 and/or DR4–DQ8 gene variants and never go on to have either celiac disease or AITD, indicating that other factors are involved in developing these conditions as well.
Higher Risk of Other Autoimmune Diseases
As is typical with autoimmune disorders, people with celiac disease and/or AITD are also more likely to develop other autoimmune conditions, like type 1 diabetes, Addison's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Sjögren's syndrome, and autoimmune hepatitis. The older you get, the more this risk increases.
Shared Symptoms
Celiac disease also shares some symptoms with both forms of AITD, Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD).
Celiac Disease Symptoms Weight loss
Fatigue
Constipation and diarrhea
Joint pain
Depression and/or anxiety
Hair loss
Infertility
Miscarriage HT and GD Symptoms Weight loss (GD)
Fatigue (both)
Constipation (HT); diarrhea (GD)
Joint pain (HT)
Depression (HT); anxiety (GD)
Hair loss (both)
Infertility (both)
Miscarriage (both)
Antibodies
Another similarity between the two is the presence of antibodies. In celiac disease, about 98 percent of patients have tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA antibodies in their blood and an estimated one-fifth have thyroid and/or type 1 diabetes antibodies.
Various studies on the prevalence of tTG IgA antibodies in people with AITD have found that the rate is around 2 percent to 5 percent in general. This translates to roughly 4 percent in adults and nearly 8 percent in children.
Interactions Between Thyroid and Gluten
Studies show that celiac disease and/or gluten may affect how your thyroid functions. For instance:
The tTG antibodies found in celiac disease may contribute to thyroid dysfunction by binding to thyroid cells.
Leaky gut, a condition in which there are holes and/or cracks in the walls of your intestines and that's associated with celiac disease, AITD, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), may make thyroid dysfunction worse.
If you have celiac disease along with a mild form of hypothyroidism called subclinical hypothyroidism, following a strict gluten-free diet for a year may bring your thyroid hormone levels back to normal.
The Role of a Gluten-Free Diet
Research is unclear as to whether or not implementing a gluten-free diet is helpful when you have AITD but not celiac disease. Experts do note that eliminating gluten can help reduce inflammation in your gut, a problem for many AITD patients.
However, some studies have shown that thyroid antibodies, which are common in AITD, decrease after implementing a gluten-free diet. For instance, in a 2018 study, 34 women with AITD were divided into two groups; one was put on a gluten-free diet and the other was not. After six months, the women on the gluten-free diet had reduced levels of thyroid antibodies while the other group had no noticeable change.
In some cases, even though you have many of the symptoms of celiac disease, your tests for it may not turn out positive. If your symptoms resolve by going on a gluten-free diet, this condition is called non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), non-celiac wheat sensitivity (NCWS), or more broadly, gluten intolerance or sensitivity.
Gluten sensitivity has similar symptoms to celiac disease, but the antibodies found in celiac aren't present. As with celiac disease, it's unclear what causes this sensitivity, but it also appears to cause an autoimmune reaction and possibly intestinal damage.
Gluten-Free Diet Benefits
If you're diagnosed with celiac disease, your doctor will treat it by putting you on a lifelong gluten-free diet. In the case of non-celiac gluten sensitivity, a gluten-free diet will also benefit you; however, unlike with celiac disease, it's possible that you'll be able to retest your sensitivity after a year or two and reintroduce gluten into your diet.
Going on a gluten-free diet can have these benefits:
It helps your intestines heal, allowing better absorption of your thyroid hormone replacement medication.
You may eventually need less of your medication due to better absorption.
There's the potential for weight loss.
Your celiac disease symptoms like fatigue, weight loss, constipation, diarrhea, joint pain, depression, and anxiety will likely decrease.
You may feel healthier overall.
Your thyroid inflammation may be reduced.
Talk to Your Doctor Don't ever start a gluten-free diet without your doctor's approval since there could be risks for your individual health status.
Gluten-Free Diet Drawbacks
Though some people eliminate gluten for weight loss and other purposes, little research has been conducted on whether or not a gluten-free diet is a good choice for those who don't have celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity.
Disadvantages of a gluten-free diet include:
Gluten-free foods tend to be more expensive.
You're no longer getting many of the vitamins and nutrients found in gluten like calcium, iron, folate, thiamin, and fiber, so you'll have to get them in other foods and/or by taking supplements.
It can be difficult to follow.
You need to read labels carefully, both to avoid gluten and to make sure you're not getting too much sugar or fat, which tend to replace gluten in some products.
A Word From VerywellSan Diego typically gets painted with a broad brush stroke. Despite |
the policies and teachings of the prophets were totally wrong on the profoundly important issue of race for over 100 years, is there a probability that the leaders are wrong about LGBT people now? The answer is, yes, there is definitely a probability that in the future there will be an essay disavowing what present-day leaders taught about LGBT people. I’ll put down five bucks and bet that the Church disavows its stance on LGBT people sometime before 2050.
I struggled with this issue for multiple years. I was willing to do hard things for the Church, but I wasn’t willing to do things that were against my conscience. I prayed, I fasted, I talked with my wife, with my parents, and with my siblings. It was brutal. I had to know if this teaching came from God.
I found the CES Letter and learned about some true historical facts. I verified that they were true by looking at the sources and learned that even active LDS scholars admit that these things are true. And in thirty minutes, my faith disappeared. Bam. It was terrifyingly amusing. I couldn’t believe that I had been deceived my whole life. The whole thing was made up. Wow. In that moment, I knew that telling my friends and family would lead to all kinds of pain and agony for them and for me. But I knew that I had to live according to the truth I’d found. I showed my wife, and she was blown away too. We resolved that day not to attend church anymore on Sundays.
Plato:
Well, you can let go of the Church, but don’t let go of God. How can you possibly let go of God?
Socrates:
That was a big bummer. When I realized how much I believed in the Book of Mormon despite the fact that it was totally made up, I realized that I couldn’t trust any of my spiritual feelings to tell me what was true. I really believed Joseph Smith’s story. I had profound experiences singing hymns about that guy. I found out that the villains of my childhood, like Emma Smith and William Law, were the good guys, and that the heroes, Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, were pretty terrible people. If I could be so wrong about Joseph Smith, am I wrong about God?
Plato:
Well, then where do these spiritual experiences come from if not from God?
Socrates:
I wish they came from God. I love the idea of a Heavenly Father who loves us. It is awesome, and I wish it were real. However, like I said before, the universe is what it is, and I can’t change it. I think that there is a very high probability that the spiritual experiences we’re talking about are generated by the brain and nervous system.
Plato:
Where did everything come from if not from God?
Socrates:
There is a lot of evidence that our universe began 15 billion years ago, but no one knows exactly why it happened or how.
Plato:
You know why. It was God who created the universe.
Socrates:
I believe you have two pieces of evidence for that: 1. A series of scriptural writings written by a desert dwelling tribe that has been passed down for the past few thousand years. 2. The feelings you have when you read these writings.
I don’t think that those two pieces of evidence are sufficient. If we put that kind of weight in scriptural writings that are a few thousand years old, then how can you say that it wasn’t Brahma of Hinduism who created the universe, or Zeus from Olympus? Why is your religion’s text more relevant than the others?
My guess is that it’s because your religion is not simply a list of claims to be analyzed objectively. Your religion is your tribe, your language, and your identity. Sometimes I wish I could still be part of the Mormon tribe the same way secular Jews are part of Judaism. But that’s ok. I’m happy to join the beautiful human family and to feel a connection to the cosmos that I never felt before.
I absolutely love knowing that we emerged from microbes and muck. I love recognizing that chimpanzees and gorillas are our cousins. We primates all descended from a tree shrew, sort of like a squirrel, that survived the asteroid impact 65 million years ago. To the absolute best of our ability to determine, this strange story about evolution and chemistry is the absolute truth about how we got here. I love knowing that our ancestors, the original human beings, came from Africa. I love realizing that single-celled life started on this planet 4 billion years ago according to the evidence we have. What an absolute miracle life is! Somehow, a chemical reaction copied itself, and the copies made copies, and so on. Each copy was slightly different than the last. Some of the kinds of copies stopped copying. Some continued. We’re simply the last in a long chain of copies that kept on copying. And in this way I feel this beautiful connection with all living things. I am not more important than a tree. We are both microscopic and insignificant to the rest of the universe. That tree and I exist as part of the thin film of life that covers a tiny speck of dust in the cosmos. And the carbon in my body and the carbon in the tree, where did it come from? It came from a supernova. From the evidence we’ve gathered about matter, it appears that everything heavier than the two lightest atoms, hydrogen and helium, was forged in the cores of stars. And the only way those atoms enter the rest of the universe is for those stars to explode and share the beautiful gems of matter that they’ve created. I love that I don’t have to do any sort of apologetic somersaults to explain these things like I used to have to do with my religion. These things are what the evidence shows, and even if we want nature to be different, nature does not care, she is what she is. And I love it.
Plato:
Then what is the purpose of your life if there is no God, and we’re not much better than a tree?
Socrates:
If it is true that the world’s religions were generated by human beings, whether intentionally or not, then the purposes of life that religions have given us were also generated by human beings. So, rather than accept the ideas created by a tribe of desert dwellers a few thousand years ago, I’m going to create my own purpose. As Carl Sagan once said, we long for our parents to take care of us, to save us from our childish mistakes, and give us a purpose. But, despite much self-deception, no such purpose is evident. The purpose of our lives and of our fragile planet is determined then only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the stewards of life’s meaning.
I think that the purpose I want for my life is to reduce the suffering of other people and animals as much as I can.
I wish I could reduce your suffering caused by my faith transition. I want you to be happy. I’ll try to reduce your suffering as much as I can by letting you know that I love you. I really do.
Plato:
Well, good talk. I’m glad to see that you’ve found purpose. I’m still really worried about you, and even though we don’t see things the same way, I’m glad you’re happy. Know that you’re always welcome back at Church.Share This Story Tweet Share Share Pin Email
Jaime Nuño-Sanchez joked with the crew as they waited to pick lemons at a citrus grove in Southern California's sunshine-draped Coachella Valley.
It was his first day back from a summer break — his first after 30 years of picking fruits and vegetables in the valley. In fields stretching for 200 miles to the Mexican border, thousands of farmworkers gather to pick or plant half a billion dollars worth of crops — lemons, table grapes, peppers, dates, oranges, onions.
The owners of the Thermal lemon grove where Nuño-Sanchez was headed sell crops to Wonderful Citrus, one of the largest citrus distributors in the United States.
Around 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 21, a crew that included Nuño-Sanchez and his wife began picking from a row of trees at the back of the grove, not far from where a supervisor had set up shade and water to comply with California's heat illness prevention standards.
Temperatures hovered around 90 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 105.
Forty-five minutes into the shift, Nuño-Sanchez, 48, sat down in a shaded area, saying he didn't feel well. Supervisors asked if he wanted to go to Centro Medico Oasis, a nearby clinic, but he declined and said he was fine. He asked for water.
Minutes later, he collapsed.
One picker, who could speak English, called 911. A supervisor jumped into a pickup and sped to Highway 86 to wait for a fire truck and paramedics. When they arrived, he led them to the last lemon tree in the grove, tucked away off a dirt road near Avenue 78 and Fillmore Street.
Paramedics tried to revive Nuño-Sanchez, but it was too late.
The father of three died on the field at 12:35 p.m.
CLOSE Farmworker death and illnesses in California eclipse all outdoor worker fatalities and sicknesses. Mauricio Peña and Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun
On some of the richest farmland in America, the hardest labor is performed in searing heat.
Most every year, farmworkers die in 90 or 100 degree heat but are never counted as heat-related fatalities by California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).
While the agency investigated 55 agriculture deaths between 2008 and 2014, it categorized six as heat related, according to data obtained by The Desert Sun. Of the 209 farmworker illnesses investigated in the same period, Cal/OSHA confirmed 97 as heat related.
Farmworker fatalities peaked at 15 in 2014. However, Cal/OSHA found that none of those fatalities were heat related. At least 13 of those farmworkers did not belong to a union, including a man who died in 109-degree heat after picking lemons Sept. 2 in a Mecca field.
In the same year, 31 of the 45 agricultural illnesses investigated were deemed not heat related, including a worker in Tulare who got sick and was hospitalized for several hours in June after complaining of body pain, nausea and weakness. A doctor for Cal/OSHA noted: "I am not able to conclude from the available records that the episode of illness suffered by this employee was caused or likely exacerbated by a heat-related illness, or other work-related condition."
Similar medical explanations abound for both dead and ill farmworkers.
Although California passed the groundbreaking Heat Illness Prevention act in 2005, Cal/OSHA confirms only 13 farmworkers have died in the decade since then from heat-related deaths. The confirmed deaths represent just a fraction of the total, according to the United Farm Workers union's recently settled lawsuit, which pegs the number of deaths due to heat in just the six years from 2005-2011 at more than double the 10-year number claimed by Cal/OSHA.
Farmworkers use ladders to pick mangos in Imperial County.
(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun)
Riverside County's coroner attributed Nuño-Sanchez's death to cardiovascular disease, but co-workers said he vomited and had a headache — signs of heat exhaustion — before collapsing. His death underscores persistent safety hazards for farmworkers laboring in high heat. But his death likely won't be recorded as heat-related by Cal/OSHA, which relies on county coroners and its own doctors to decide whether heat is a contributing factor.
This gap in reporting has led to questions about whether Cal/OSHA's statistics provide a complete picture of the dangers of working under the California sun.
To understand the risks to farmworkers — and to evaluate the effectiveness of California's worker safety laws — The Desert Sun spent three months analyzing data and documents obtained through the state's public records act. The reporting team interviewed dozens of farm laborers, advocates, experts and state officials, in Spanish and English.
The team's investigation yielded little or no evidence that rates of illness have changed significantly, despite a decade of intervention. Farmworkers topped the list for heat illnesses among outdoor workers since 2007, state records show.
Even the 13 deaths Cal/OSHA counts as heat-related since 2005 surpasses the number of such fatalities in all other industries with outdoor workers, according to state numbers reviewed by The Desert Sun.
Under 2005's Heat Illness Prevention regulation, the first of its kind in the nation, growers and contractors were required to provide water, shade and rest breaks to workers feeling the onset of heat stress. In addition, supervisors were required to receive training and then instruct workers on how to recognize signs of heat illness.
But, a decade later, illnesses among field laborers have not significantly declined.
Cal/OSHA says new regulations enacted in May should reduce the number of heat-related incidents. Advocates for farmworkers' health and safety rights are hopeful these changes will be effective, but say it's too early to evaluate outcomes.
"Heat illness can develop quickly and requires constant vigilance to prevent," said Peter Melton, a Department of Industrial Relation spokesman. "The new requirements serve to further protect workers from heat illness."
So far in 2015, the agency is investigating four deaths and 18 illnesses among farmworkers, according to state data, which it suspects could be heat related.
Anne Katten, director of the Pesticide and Worker Safety Project at California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, said the state's classification of heat deaths is "too narrow."
In two lawsuits filed against Cal/OSHA in 2009 and 2012, the agency is accused of systematically failing to enforce the heat standards. The United Farm Workers put the number of possible heat-related deaths from 2005 to 2011 among farmworkers at 28.
"If you look at (heat) fatalities they have gone down since 2005," Katten said. "But I don't think that total is capturing everything because it's not capturing cases where heat is a contributing factor to someone's death."
The final confirmed heat deaths "only include fatalities when heat was the main reason; they should also include when a person has a heart attack while working in the field in extreme heat. It's an issue we've raised several times (with the agency)," Katten said.
Marc Schenker is the principal investigator for the California Heat Illness Prevention Study, which examines the physiological responses to heat and physical labor among farmworkers.
"You have to recognize that this a very vulnerable population," said Schenker, a public health professor at University of California, Davis. But "one needs to be aware that the solutions are not simple."
The sun sets over an agricultural field in the Coachella Valley.
(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun)
Back-breaking work
News of Nuño-Sanchez's death rippled through the farmworker communities of Mecca, Thermal, Oasis and Coachella.
Emilio, a 57-year-old laborer from Oaxaca, Mexico, heard about it from a roommate who worked at the lemon grove where Nuño-Sanchez's crew was working that day.
Supervisors "stopped them early because they didn't want anything else to happen," he said in Spanish.
(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun)
Since the age of 13, Emilio has harvested California grapes, lemons, grapefruit and lettuce. He isn't as resilient as he once was. Work from "5 a.m. until 7 or 8 p.m. wears on the body."
“My body can’t do the things like before," he said. "I can’t hunch over for eight to 10 hours anymore.”
Emilio's four children are grown and working in Kansas.
These days, Emilio opts for upright picking, which is easier on his back. But even then, working in lemon groves isn't without thorns.
In California, farmworkers are entitled to overtime after working 10 hours in a day. Most other workers in the state qualify for overtime after 8 hours.
After 44 years of picking in Hemet, Santa Barbara, Ventura and the Coachella Valley, mostly for minimum wage and often six days a week, Emilio is slowing down.
Nuño-Sanchez's death is a cause for concern.
"It’s difficult work with little pay," said Emilio, who earns $9 an hour these days. Rule changes now require employers to provide free water and plentiful shade, but some foremen pressure workers to pick through breaks in high heat in order to meet quotas, he said.
While a contractor was supervising Nuño-Sanchez before he died, Wonderful Citrus spokesman Steven Clark said the company offers programs to make sure all its farm partners are complying with the state's heat illness prevention standards.
Calls made by The Desert Sun to 10 other farms in Riverside County were either not returned or supervisors declined to discuss on the record efforts by farm owners to protect workers.
California Farm Bureau Federation officials said agricultural employers have made strides to ensure worker safety.
"One death is one too many," said Bryan Little, the federation's employment policy director. "I know a lot of people are working really hard to make sure we don't have any (deaths) going forward, and we minimize the number of illnesses going forward.
"We've had no (confirmed) heat-related fatalities in the last couple of years," Little said. "To me that's an indication that agricultural employers have stepped up to the plate to make sure workers have water and shade."
But that doesn't mean farmworker deaths have declined. Fifteen farmworkers died in the fields in 2014, according to state data obtained by The Desert Sun. None of those deaths, after review by Cal/OSHA, were classified as heat related.
At least three of those 15 deaths occurred in temperatures between 80 and 95 degrees, when the state's heat regulations require employers to provide shade, in addition to other safety measures always in effect. Three of these deaths were when the mercury soared above 95, requiring farm owners to follow extreme heat procedures, including observing employees for signs of heat illness.
Amy Martin, chief counsel for Cal/OSHA, said ambient temperatures are not the sole consideration when conducting investigations and making determinations for heat illnesses or heat fatalities.
“Our medical units look at temperature, conditions, type of work as well as medical reports,” she said. The agency, which employs medical professionals, also takes into account core body temperature at the time of death.
Cal/OSHA has at times disagreed with coroner rulings and has ultimately ruled those cases to be heat related, she said. But she could not provide examples or the exact number of times that has occurred.
The agency says cases ruled heat related must meet high standards of proof so Cal/OSHA is able to defend, with medical evidence, citations issued to employers that the death, was in fact, heat related, Martin said.
“Over the last year, we’ve made changes by strengthening the regulation and strengthening enforcement,” Martin said. “We’ve been working with laborers and employers to educate them on the more stringent standards.”
Emilio still worries that when it comes to farmworkers like him, protections lag far behind.
On a recent afternoon, he bent over and hammered the bottom of his boots. The tread had loosened. He was standing in the driveway of a home in Mecca he shares with other workers. He put his hammer down and walked to a wooden gate to talk.
"Sometimes farmworkers are scared to say anything," he said. "Or don't have the courage to say anything because they're afraid of not having a job the next morning."
Heat illnesses largely unchanged
Since 2007, 102 heat illnesses have been reported among agricultural workers, averaging about 12 laborers sickened a year. Construction workers are the second most at risk, with 62 confirmed heat-caused illnesses, an average of roughly seven per year, according to state data.
Department of Industrial Relations spokeswoman Erica Monterroza said efforts by Cal/OSHA to work with advocacy groups is having a positive impact. Monterroza said the agency has conducted more inspections and has seen an increase in the number of cases reported to the agency.
“We do take this seriously," Monterroza said. "This will continue to be of importance to Cal/OSHA and we will continue to remind employers of their responsibility and we continue to educate workers on their rights.”
In May, an amendment to the 2005 Heat Illness Prevention Regulation standards took effect. The changes came following discussions and lawsuits prompted by a spate of heat deaths in 2008 and 2009. The updates included:
• Acclimatization periods, where employers are required to closely observe new employees during their first two weeks working in a high heat area
• Shade for all workers on a rest or meal break at 80 degrees, lowered from 85, with at least enough shade to accommodate all workers who remain onsite during meal periods
• Water that is “fresh, pure, suitably cool, and provided to employees free of charge”
• Provide water and shade “as close as practicable” to the workers, and encourage people to take preventative cool-down rest breaks in the shade and to drink water.
Even with new protections, farmworkers fear speaking up about violations, said Suguet Lopez, executive director of Lideres Campesinas, a grassroots farmworkers' rights group headquartered in Oxnard.
"They don't want to cause any trouble for the grower. They appreciate their job," Lopez said. "They want to make sure they have this source of income, but they also want to make sure they have the (amenities) they need to do the work."
A lack of access to proper healthcare adds to the undercount, Lopez said.
"Those who do experience heat illness while they're in the workplace are sometimes sent home by supervisors, who tell them to come back the next day," she said.
External factors, such as poverty, substandard housing, poor nutrition and high rates of diabetes, also place farmworkers at a higher risk of injury.
“There is no silver bullet,” said Schenker of UC-Davis. “There’s not one thing that will solve this whole problem."
Giev Kashkooli, the UFW's political legislative director, puts the onus on the farms.
"The issue has been negligence among employers," he said. "There are some things inherent in agriculture that are dangerous, but we should not be seeing these number of (heat) fatalities and illnesses, not when we are able to figure out how to keep a grape cool from the Coachella Valley... to Topeka, Kansas."
Farmers pick okra in temperatures reaching the high 90s near Mecca, California, in early September.
(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun)
The tipping point
The incident that forced California to confront the danger of heat in the fields occurred on July 28, 2004.
As temperatures crept above 100 degrees, Asuncion Valdivia, 54, collapsed while picking grapes at a vineyard in Kern County. When supervisors called 911, they were unable to provide directions to emergency crews. Valdivia's son Luis, who was working in the same crew, was told by supervisors to take his father to the hospital.
"It was a terribly traumatic incident," said Kashkooli. "Asuncion had got into the car, and as they were driving, he collapsed again and died before he even made it to the hospital."
Days later, Valdivia's son and wife met with UFW officials and called for rules that would mitigate the hazards of working in conditions exposed to the California sun. Efforts to reach the family for this report were unsuccessful.
"They knew nothing could bring their father and husband back but they wanted to help make sure this didn't happen to anyone else again," Kashkooli said.
Following the meeting with Valdivia's family, the UFW led an effort that gained the support of U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, then a California assemblywoman representing Monterey Park. Chu introduced legislation that became 2005's Heat Illness Prevention act.
"Valdivia's death was the tipping point," Chu said. "There had been others who had died of heat-related illnesses but Mr. Valdivia's situation was so poignant, that's why I had to carry the bill."
In July 2005, Chu joined elected officials, UFW members and farmworkers for a rally in the middle of a field in Delano in the Central Valley. With temperatures edging above 100 degrees, they called on then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to act.
Within a week, Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law.
Increased complaints, inspections
Jesus Garcia Gudino, 66, said he's seen a change for the better. While he followed the grape harvest up from Mecca to Bakersfield this year, Gudino said workers were sent home if temperatures passed 100 degrees.
“As soon as it hits 101, you would hear the supervisors telling the foreman on the walkie-talkies ‘No more work for the day; it’s too hot,’" said Gudino, who has been tilling farms in the Coachella Valley and Bakersfield for more than three decades. “And they’re behind you reminding you to drink water.”
But, even with the new amendments to the groundbreaking 2005 worker safety law, advocates contend Cal/OSHA lacks the needed number of inspectors.
“The regulations have improved, and are improving with every amendment,” said Nicole Marquez, an attorney at Worksafe, a legal service and watchdog organization based in San Francisco that supports immigrant workers. “But Cal/OSHA lacks resources to effectively enforce the regulations."
There are 264 inspectors assigned to conduct enforcement duties across all industries, according to numbers Cal/OSHA provided to The Desert Sun. The agency shows an increasing number of inspections and complaints filed to the state.
In 2010 and 2011, 75 percent of all outdoor work sites, including farms, were in compliance with the 2005 law. After peaking in those two years, compliance fell to 70 percent in 2013, the last year for which complete data is available.
"There are definitely some bad actors” who fail to comply, said Monterroza of the Department of Industrial Relations. But her office, she said, has put extensive effort into educating workers of their rights and employers of their responsibilities.
"There's going to be cases where there will be confirmed heat-related illnesses and it turns out there's no heat-related violations at the work site," Monterroza said. "There will also be cases where there are multiple violations of heat illness prevention standards at a work site and there's no heat-related illnesses or fatalities.
"The important thing is that we will continue to enforce in the ways we've had before. We will continue to respond to complaints of heat illness very quickly, we take those very seriously."
CLOSE Farmworkers share their struggles of working under extreme conditions in the fields. Mauricio Peña and Omar Ornelas/The Desert Sun
Leaving the fields
At 20 years of age, Roberto Mendez swapped Michoacán, Mexico's comfortable climate for the blistering desert of the Coachella Valley. His first job in the U.S. was picking table grapes. Mendez arrived in Mecca in the late 1980s.
“It was a drastic change,” said Mendez, now 47. “You’re used to moderate weather and you come to a place where it reaches 122 degrees. At first, it’s hard and it feels like you can’t adjust.”
Mendez worked up to 10 hours a day, six days a week to earn enough money for clothes, food and rent.
“You come to try to finish ahead with the opportunities that the country offers you," he said. "But the reality is when you’re hungry, you sometimes have to work 10 hours in the fields."
Farmers pick okra in temperatures reaching in the high 90s near Mecca, California, in early September.
(Photo: J. Omar Ornelas/ The Desert Sun)
One day in July 2007, while picking grapes in triple digits, Mendez started to feel dizzy and nauseous. He told his foreman and supervisor he wasn’t feeling well.
“The supervisor said I was being a fool and that it wasn’t true. I went to sit in the shade but it wasn’t helping, I felt bad,” Mendez said. “I didn’t get the help that I needed from the supervisor…the forewoman didn’t even get near me to check how I was doing."
He left before the end of his shift. On his way home, he vomited.
“In those seconds, you think it’s the end, you don’t think the same as a normal person; it’s not you, you’re suffering a heat stroke. At that point you need the help.”
After a short time at home, Mendez went to a clinic in Coachella and then to a doctor across the border in Mexicali. The doctor told him that tests showed his liver was inflamed and cautioned him to cut back on his hours working outside.
When Mendez told his boss, a farm labor contractor, he was rebuffed.
“He said I didn’t get sick on the field that day," he said, "and that it was not from the heat."
Mendez was fired and never returned to farming.
“In my opinion it's inhuman to be working in these conditions, because you're risking your life to put food on the table,” said Mendez. Today, he is a maintenance worker at St. Anthony Mobile Home Park in Mecca.
Although the laws are better, Mendez said more enforcement is needed to target growers and contractors who fail to comply with the standards.
“People are scared to say anything,” Mendez said. “They come and tell me: ‘You speak, you can talk for us.’ I say I can talk but I need other people to support what I’m saying. It’s 2015, and we are still in the same place.”
Mauricio Peña is the Immigration and Equality reporter at the Desert Sun. Mauricio can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4643, email mauricio.pena@desertsun.com, or twitter @mauriciopena.In Portugal the numbers are all bad:
The deficit is 9.1 percent of GDP. The economy is expected to contract by anywhere between 3.1 and 5 percent this year. It took a bailout from the EU, ECB, IMF "troika" of 78 billion euros ($102.6 billion) and will have a hard time paying it back because its credit rating is now "junk." Five year bond yields yesterday broke a record: 18.9 percent. Three year bond yields hit 21 percent.
Oh, and unemployment stands at a record 13.2 percent.
While all attention is focused on Greece's negotiations with its creditors, Portugal's problems have been out of the limelight.
But not for much longer. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of Britain's Daily Telegraph, shines a large spotlight today on the nation's problems. Simone Foxman weighs in at Business insider here.
Both point out that the markets are waiting to see what the final deal is between Greece and its creditors is before making price adjustments on Portuguese debts.
Both make interesting points but come from a position of euro-skepticism. My impression is that in the debt crisis at the euro-zone periphery, Greece is sui generis. Its people resent austerity and are acting out on their anger. The other countries in deep trouble: Portugal, Ireland and Spain (by virtue of its 22 percent unemployment rate) are all making deep cuts now in the hopes reducing government debt. So far their societies are not in revolt.
My guess is Portugal will suffer, but it won't have the catastrophic effect on the euro zone that the Greek crisis has.
A question to ponder: what do Ireland, Spain and Portugal have in common that Greece does not?
I am working on an answer.Elon Musk, the PayPal co-founder who used his fortune to start a trio of “visionary” companies—Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX—recently went beyond pitching the supposed virtues of his own technology and called for a broader social revolt aimed at taking down his rivals. Complaining that a “carbon tax” intended to fight global warming was being blocked by the machinations of the industrial-industrial complex, he declared “we need to appeal to the people and educate them to sort of revolt against this and to fight the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry.”
It’s worth pointing out that, depending on where you charge your Tesla, it may very well be powered by fossil fuels, just at a distance. This is the “long tailpipe,” which starts at your electric car, goes through the transmission wires, and ends with the smokestack of a coal-burning power plant. But Musk has also started Solar City, which has ambitions of charging electric cars using solar panels. That may well work—in sunny, southern locales.
But notice his big rationale for vilifying fossil fuels: “The fundamental issue with fossil fuels is that every use comes with a subsidy. Every gasoline car on the road has a subsidy, and the right way to address that is with a carbon tax.”
That’s pretty rich for a guy whose own businesses have been supported by $4.9 billion in government subsidies. That’s according to a tally by the Los Angeles Times. It’s worth reading the whole rundown, because it’s an extraordinary list of government loans and tax breaks, along with Musk’s personal role in demanding and negotiating them. It includes this real gem:
The Palo Alto company [Tesla] has also collected more than $517 million from competing automakers by selling environmental credits. In a regulatory system pioneered by California and adopted by nine other states, automakers must buy the credits if they fail to sell enough zero-emissions cars to meet mandates. The tally also includes some federal environmental credits.
It’s nice when you can get the government to force your competitors to subsidize you.
Meanwhile, let’s take a look at those vaunted oil and gas subsidies. According to a report compiled by environmentalists, they amount to about $20 billion in the United States, only four times what Musk’s three relatively small companies have raked in. Moreover, “almost all of those [are] received in the form of tax or royalty breaks.” There’s a big difference between the government paying your company cash—something Musk knows all about—and the government taking away less of your money because it allows a tax write-off that Musk doesn’t approve of.
Even the L.A. Times tally understates Musk’s subsidies. A recent overview of how the “Muskonomy” works indicates that his high-tech firms are just as much a triumph of “financial engineering.” Here’s the upshot. Musk collects giant up-front cash payments from NASA and the Air Force for future launches of SpaceX rockets, then uses that cash to provide loans to Solar City, which stores the energy gathered by its solar panels in batteries purchased from—no points for guessing—Tesla. It’s all nice and cozy.
For the upper middle class, a Tesla in the driveway is a marker for one’s conspicuous dedication to the right social causes.
But it also means the triad of Musk companies is dangerously interdependent. “If Tesla were to have a serious problem with battery production, that could lead to dire consequences for SolarCity, which would in turn have difficultly making the payments on the bonds that SpaceX holds.” And do you think Tesla might have problems? Well, to hit its stated targets and justify its astronomical stock price, Tesla needs to engage in an unprecedented tenfold expansion of its manufacturing capacity, without really knowing how to do that.
But the biggest Musk subsidy is the global warming crusade itself, which he uses to push people into over-paying for his cars. Even with government subsidies up to $10,000 per car (or more), the current Tesla Model S is extremely expensive, starting at $70,000 and going up to $108,000 depending on the features you want. This is justified by comparing the Model S to six-figure super-luxury cars, but the comparison doesn’t quite hold up. “It’s well-built and comely, even inside, and it does have a desktop-sized screen in its dash, but against the Mercedes-Benz S Class and BMW 7-Series, the Model S comes off as more of an up-market mainstream sedan in materials and design. Think premium Accord rather than Audi A8.”
This means you would come out way ahead by buying a very nice $45,000 car—and ten years’ worth of gasoline. Anything you pay beyond that is just an investment in a fashion statement: for the upper middle class, a Tesla in the driveway is a marker for one’s conspicuous dedication to the right social causes.
In short, Musk really needs global warming to be true, so it’s no wonder he’s so eager to promote it and use it as an excuse to tax his fossil fuel competitors.
The world needs its visionary billionaires, and I don’t fault Musk for trying to do big and new things, even if some of them (a million people on Mars!) are obvious flim-flam. What I object to is having him lecture us about other people’s subsidies while we’re paying for his experiments.
That’s because if the public ever rejects the global warming hype and figures out how much they’ve been paying to subsidize Musk’s “visionary billionaire” lifestyle, they might start revolting at that.
Follow Robert on Twitter.Sen. John McCain will become the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Ukraine since government violence against street protestors engulfed its capital last week. He will express support and solidarity with the protests.
“Senator McCain is traveling to Ukraine to meet with government officials, opposition leaders and civil society at this critical time as Ukrainians work to determine their future,” McCain spokesman Brian Rogers confirmed to The Daily Beast.
McCain leaves for Kiev tonight and will be there Saturday and Sunday. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, is joining the trip Sunday. He is coordinating the trip with the State Department.
“It is appalling that Ukrainian authorities have chosen to use violence and oppression against peaceful demonstrators in Maidan Square in Kiev. Such despicable conduct violates the most basic universal rights—especially the freedom to speak and associate—that are owed to all people,” McCain said in a statement Dec. 11. “If Ukraine's government thinks that brute force and the politics of fear can see it through the current crisis, it is woefully mistaken. More and more Ukrainians are showing that they are no longer afraid. Those brave men and women should know that they are not alone. Their friends across the world stand in solidarity with them.”
Previously, McCain criticized the Ukrainian government’s decision to turn away from negotiations over greater ties with the European Union and urged the government to respect the will of the people while treating the protesters with respect.
“Ukrainians should not be forced to choose between a future in the west or the east. They should be free to chart their nation's future as they choose, in the best interest of Ukraine's citizens,” he said. “As Ukrainians continue to press their government to take the necessary steps to sign |
than 10%
Hotbar:
CTRL + DRAG on any hotbar slot allows you to drag the hotbar (even if it’s locked)
SHIFT + DRAG on any hotbar slot or on the handle, allows to move the hotbar and all the other hotbars anchored to the one you clicked. NOTE: the snap utility doesn’t work when you drag a group of hotbars
It is now possible to customize the borders for each hotbar slot
Current target spell distance check: disable the button if the current target is out of range
Mana check: if the player doesn’t have enough mana, the spell/ability gets disabled (with blue shade instead of gray)
Skill check: if the player doesn’t have reach the skill level to cast a spell or use a special ability, the slot will be disabled (gray color). Known Issue: if user is in Wraith Form they will not be able to recall through hotbar action
Added a cooldown to the following items: Bandages Healing Potions Enchanted Apple Grapes of Wrath Talismans
Added a cooldown to the following spells: Evasion Attunement Ethereal Voyage Magic Reflection
Added a cooldown for usable skills
Removed the target type selection from the spells/abilities that doesn’t require a target
If a spell/special is disabled, the tooltip will tell you why
Added the quantity alert on hotbar’s slots: Available only for items If enabled will provide a red highlight that gets always more visible if the item amount get lower than 20 units
Changed the hotkey color indicator based on the secondary button (ctrl/shift/alt/none) instead of trying to fit the whole text in a slot: None: white Control: red Shift: blue Alt: green Control + Alt: yellow Control + Shift: fuchsia Shift + Alt: aqua Control + Shift + Alt: dark purple
Added new options to the hotbars (accessible by right clicking the arrow on the handle): The arrow on the handle allows the player to open/close the hotbar You can set the color of the handle You can set a text for the horbar (the text will uses the handle color) you can change the text location you can choose if the hotbar must close on the left or on the right you can lock the hotbar with the handle
Added a new option: Auto-Hide. This options keep the hotbar hidden unless you put the mouse over it.
Hotbars cannot go outside the game window offset (so it can’t get lost by mistake)
Hotbars can now be collapsed with the little arrow button on the handle
SHIFT + CLICK on the arrow to collapse the hotbar, will collapse all the hotbars anchored to the one you clicked
If a hotbar has 1 or more hotbars anchored, there will be an option to “Destroy Hotbars Group”
If you do CTRL + DRAG on an item(inside the backpack/paperdoll)/macro/action/spell/skill/special ability, it will create a “Block Bar” that is an equivalent of the single icons of the CC client. The block bar cannot be locked/unlocked The block bar can have just 1 slot and cannot be resized The block bar can be moved in the same way it has been created (CTRL + DRAG) The block bar has the same features of a hotbar including the border customization, cooldown, etc… You can use SHIFT + DRAG to move it in group like the other hotbars.
Created a new menu bar using the hotbars
The menu hotbar can be customized like all the hotbars, but can’t be destroyed
Actions:
Added the main menu actions
Added the equipment category that will provide more versions (with a different icon) of the default “equip items” action The equip items action now has the button “Clear Items List”
Added the following category for item equipment: Super slayers Lesser Slayers Talisman Slayers Worker’s Talismans
Cursor Targeting: Added “cancel cursor target” action
The Delay action now needs the time value to be written manually from the player instead of using the slider, this way the delay could be of any amount of seconds
Targeting: Added smart previous target: this action cycle back through the current target taken (only if still available) Added smart next target: this action cycle forward through the current target taken (only if still available). This cycle only through mobiles that can be seen on the mobiles on screen list Added smart nearest target: this action take the current target of the nearest mobile using the mobiles on screen list Added target severely injured follower Added target severely injured mobile Added target severely injured party member Added target first item: target the first item inside a specified container Added target by type: target an item of a specified type inside the backpack (or sub containers)
Pet Targeting Provides 5 store default pet and 5 target default pet actions. Those actions can be used for a pet healing macros so if you change the default pet N all the macros that uses the target default pet N will be changed at once
Object Targeting Provides 5 store default object and 5 target default object actions. Those actions works exactly like the pet targeting
Petballs: Provides several petball targeting actions that can be used inside a macro followed by “Use Targeted Object” to use a specific crystal ball of pet summoning
Mounts: Provides several mount targeting actions that can be used inside a macro followed by “Use Targeted Object” to ride a specific pet
Bard’s Slayers and Super Slayers: Provides several instrument targeting actions that can be used inside a macro followed by “Use Targeted Object” to use a specific instrument
Pet Commands: Added the stable commands
Boat commands: Added target boat wheel (it works like the mount actions) Added several missing commands: slow back/forward, forward/back one and start/stop tracking
Cannons: Added 9 target stored actions with a cannon icon with the number label for easy working with cannons without having a lot of macros
Communication: Added all the missing commands for home management, and other commands like “recsu”, “recdu”, “ord” and “an ord”. Added the button for quickly asking for bods and bribe
Player Context Menu: All the actions that can be done through the player context menu
Items/Abilities: Added an action to load shrunkens into a ninja belt
Crafting Utilities: Unravel Item Imbue Last Alter Item Enhance Item Repair Item Smelt Item Make Last
Added the following actions to the “Other” category: Toggle Foliage Ignore player Toggle legacy containers Ignore Mouse Actions On self Toggle Sound Toggle Sound Effects Toggle Music Toggle Footsteps Use English Item Names Export Items to file Close all containers Close all corpses Vacuum (mass organizer action) Undress agent Close all healthbars Drop into container Dress what you are currently holding Drop what you are currently holding Toggle Trap Box Toggle loot bag Toggle alpha mode Toggle scale mode Switch object handle Healthbar from current target Get type id Get hue id Ignore item Clear ignored item list Toggle block other paperdolls
Status Window:
Updated the style of the default version: Added 3 quick spells buttons (like for party healthbars) Added the guards button which allows the player to call the guards. Only available within a Justice region Added the lock button Added the menu button which allows the player to open his context menu. Added the latency bar: Putting the mouse over will show the numeric value of the latency and the packet loss The bar has 3 stages: low latency (less than 250): green bar, full bar medium latency (less than 650): yellow bar, half bar high latency (more than 650): red bar, 1/3 of the bar Added the notoriety aura that shows the current player notoriety color Added the advanced status: Hit points, mana and stamina blocks can be moved and locked separately. The labels for numeric hit points, mana and stamina can be seen by moving the mouse over the character face, or by activating the option “Always show hp, mana, stamina” (like for the default status) The advanced status also have the 3 spells buttons, the character menu and the guards buttons The advanced status uses the latency bar like the default status. The advanced status uses the notoriety aura like the default status.
Added a new shopkeeper gump:
The gump provides a search line (to help the player find what they are seeking)
Double clicking an item icon, allows to type the amount manually.
Provide the Buy agent trigger (while buying)
Provide the Sell agent trigger (while selling)
Settings:
Now the checkboxes can be selected also by clicking the label
Added more settings to the “Options” category: Atlas settings Center Screen Text settings Block war on pets/party/guild
Added new options categories: Overhead text: all the options related to overhead text Healthbars: all the options related to healthbars and the player status Containers: all the options related to containers Mobiles bar: the settings for the mobiles bar
Added the center screen text alert for the following events: Initial server going down message Artifact received (“for your valor …”, “A special gift…”, “You notice the crest of Minax…”, “You recover an artifact bearing …”) Gorgon lenses destroyed (“your lenses crumble…”) Bone machete destroyed (“your bone handled machete snaps…”) Void pool battle begins Void pool battle lost Beacon vulnerable (“*A sound roars in the distance…Minax’s Beacon is vulnerable to attack!!*”) You are free (“You can move again!”) Disarmed (debuff based) Webbed (debuff based) Stoned (debuff based) Slowed Down (debuff based) Panic (debuff based) Blood Oath (debuff based) Low HP (<= percentage player life) Low HP Pet (<= percentage pet life) NOTE: Low HP Pet and Low HP overrides every other center screen text. Low HP overrides Low HP Pet
Added the War/Peace Shield:
The player can move it around with the handle that appears by moving the mouse on the top of the shield
It can be disabled from user settings
Added the sound to the following emotes:
Sounds only audible to local client
*yawn*
*sigh*
*shh* / *shush*
*scream*
*puke*
*oops*
*oooh*
*oh*
*no*
*laugh*
*kiss*
*huh*
*hic*
*hey*
*growl*
*groan*
*giggle*
*gasp*
*yeah*
*whistle*
*spit*
*snore*
*sniff*
*sneeze*
*yell*
*fart*
*cry*
*cough laugh*
*cough*
*clear throat*
*cheer*
*burp*
*blownose*
*applaud*
*ahha*
*ah*
MiscellaneousThe crackdown on opioid prescriptions to rein in the raging epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses is picking up steam. Ten states have passed legislation that limits new opioid prescriptions to 10 days or less (in line with 2016 Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention guidelines), and more states are likely to follow suit. This week, President Trump signed an executive order that would create a commission to review various strategies to prevent addiction.
But as prescriptions for oxycodone and morphine get more restrictive, opioids sold on the black market are eclipsing them as a bigger threat, at least when it comes to overdoses.
More than 33,000 people died from opioid drug overdose in 2015 — the highest number of opioid-related deaths since at least the late 1990s. But for the first time, in 2015 more people died from heroin than prescription painkillers such as hydrocodone and oxycodone.
Incredibly potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl are also responsible for more drug overdose deaths. Deaths from fentanyl more than doubled in 2014, from 1,905 deaths in 2013 to 4,200 deaths.
“What’s happening now is the number of prescription opioid overdoses are stabilizing,” said Chinazo Cunningham, a professor of internal medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who helped review the 2016 CDC guidelines on opioid prescriptions. “But opioid overdose rates have not plateaued, because heroin use is dramatically increasing.”
Data from states and cities also indicate that since 2010, drug overdoses from prescription opioids have more or less stabilized while deaths from heroin and fentanyl have skyrocketed.
For instance, a 2016 paper analyzing data from Jefferson County, the most populous county in Alabama, found that drug overdose deaths more than doubled from 2010 to 2015, but starting in 2013, more drug overdose deaths were coming from heroin and fentanyl. By 2015, prescription opioids accounted for only about 15 percent of all drug overdose deaths in the county.
Other states are seeing a similar trend. A review of drug overdose deaths in Massachusetts from 2013 to 2014 found that heroin or fentanyl was involved in 85 percent of all opioid-related deaths, with prescription opioids involved in only 22 percent.
In Cleveland, fentanyl’s toll has been even more dramatic, causing 86 percent of Cleveland’s reported drug overdose deaths as of August 2016. Commonly prescribed opioids were only found in 17 percent of overdose deaths.
CDC data reflects the trend at the national level. In 2010 and 2011, oxycodone (a commonly prescribed opioid) was the leading cause of drug overdose deaths nationally, but in 2012 heroin was responsible for more overdoses than oxycodone.
By 2014, deaths linked to heroin had more than tripled from 2010 levels, making heroin responsible for almost a quarter of all drug overdose deaths. And drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl more than doubled in just one year.
Health officials worry that drug overdose deaths from heroin could continue to climb as heroin use becomes more widespread. A 2017 JAMA study found that heroin use is not always linked to prescription opioid use, and part of its increased prevalence may be driven by commonly prescribed drugs like oxycodone obtained on the black market.
"Heroin use appears to have become more socially acceptable among suburban and rural white individuals, perhaps because its effects seem so similar to those of widely available prescription opioids," wrote Silvia Martins and Columbia University researchers.In September I wrote up a gameplan for John Dodson to beat Demetrious Johnson. It wasn't easy and, as expected, the champion held onto his belt--even more easily. Now I'm supposed to do the same thing for Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm and... well, it feels just about as hard. So to make things easy, here's what I said back in September, with Rousey's name inserted for DJ's.
I'll say up-front that this is one of the hardest articles I've ever had to write. [Ronda Rousey] is not only one of the most dominant champions in all of MMA, but one of the most well-rounded fighters, period. Since mounting the UFC's [women's bantamweight] throne, [Rousey] has held the newborn division in an iron grip, and it's getting harder and harder to envision anyone knocking [her] off any time soon--but today I will attempt to find the strategy to do just that.
Rousey may not be as fully well-rounded as Demetrious Johnson, but the gap between her ability and that of her competition is far wider; to wit, Rousey is no Mighty Mouse, but neither is Holly Holm John Dodson. That being said, no fighter is invincible, however they may seem. Unless she retires early, Rousey too will face that Mike Tyson vs Buster Douglas moment, when the utter impossibility of her defeat doesn't stop it from happening.
If Holly Holm is to be that woman, then there a few key things she'll have to do.
1. Angle after punches
2. Create space and kick
3. Reactive takedowns
Let's run through these points in reverse order, starting with...
3 - REACTIVE TAKEDOWNS
This is almost certainly the most surprising part of the gameplan. After all, every one of Rousey's 12 career wins (as well as the three amateur bouts before those) demonstrate how suicidally dangerous it is to grapple with her. Whether on the ground or on the feet, nobody has gotten tangled up with the Olympic judoka and escaped unscathed.
The problem for an out-fighter is that it's virtually impossible to evade an aggressive opponent without grappling at some point. This is true not only for MMA, but for boxing as well. In fact, Holm regularly made use of the clinch during her boxing career. The goal of an out-fighter is not necessarily to stay constantly out of range, but frequently out of danger; not "all the way out all the time," but "all the way out or all the way in." For Holm, mid-range has always been the most dangerous distance, a place where her frequently more powerful opponents could withstand her punches and poke holes in her already porous defense.
Stepping into an opponent solves this problem just as well as backing away. In fact, without one the other becomes less effective as the fight wears on, and the opponent becomes more and more determined to close the distance. By quickly changing direction and closing the gap, Holm can break her adversary's rhythm, and quickly get back to her preferred range.
Of course, this tactic is a little more complicated in MMA than it is in boxing. The referee isn't likely to break a clinch in the Octagon unless both fighters have completely neutralized one another for at least a minute. Most of Rousey's opponents have been overpowered and outmaneuvered in the clinch long before a minute has elapsed, and the last thing Holm wants is to tie up with Rousey for any extended period of time. Then again, the second-to-last thing Holm wants is to spend the entire fight jogging backward, inviting Rousey to simply run through her punches and drag her to the floor.
The solution? Quick, well-timed takedowns, followed by immediate separation. Judging by the first minute of Holm's open workout, this is something she plans to use against Rousey.
Without the ability to grapple with Rousey, Holm will be doomed to a night of ineffectual backpedaling--and most likely a short one, at that. By choosing her battles and shooting occasional takedowns of her own, Holm can break Rousey's rhythm, slowing her seemingly relentless forward momentum and giving her something to think about.
The most important thing for Holm is to keep these takedowns purely reactive. That means using them as counter attacks only when Rousey becomes so determined to close the distance that she sacrifices her balance for the sake of forward movement. In other words, Holm must resist falling into the trap that Miesha Tate fell into over and over when she rematched Rousey two years ago.
1. After fighting her way back to her feet, Tate has just landed a solid left hook on Rousey.
2. The moment Rousey attacks with a jab, Tate vaults into a double leg takedown.
3. Despite a decent amount of penetration, Tate fails to blast Rousey off her feet.
4. As she continues to drive, Rousey pulls her right leg back, limiting Tate to a single leg...
5.... while at the same time turning on an angle to sweep Tate's own legs out from under her.
6. Rousey throws Tate emphatically to the ground.
Against Ronda Rousey, failures tend to be catastrophic in nature. Rather than having her takedowns stuffed, Tate consistently flung herself into counter takedowns. The moment Tate lost drive on her leg attacks, Rousey would adjust her angle and grip, and use Tate's momentum against her. To avoid the same fate, Holm must avoid shooting until there is no other choice. As soon as there is no way to get all the way out of range, she must get all the way in, and quickly, hitting Rousey's hips before she can adjust her feet and twist the exchange to her advantage. And then Holm should disengage, standing back up and reclaiming the distance. Rinse and repeat.
Of course, grappling with Rousey at all is a risk. No fighter in the UFC dominates opponents on the ground as consistently as Ronda. As a calculated risk, however, a gameplan that includes short bursts of offensive grappling makes a lot of sense.
2 - CREATE SPACE AND KICK
Since moving to MMA, Holm's kicks have been her most effective weapon. Defying the expectations of every opponent that came into the cage expecting a knockout puncher, Holm's hands have served as distractions first and foremost, while her kicks do the heavy lifting.
For Rousey, who has proven quite adept at leg attack takedowns as well as the more conventional throws, Holm will want to dial down the number and frequency of kicks. Completely abandoning her most effective weapons, however, would be a huge mistake. Instead, the former professional boxer should weather Rousey's assaults with straight punches and footwork (more on that in the final part of our gameplan), and wait for Rousey to take a backward step. The instant Rousey responds to one of Holm's flurries by retreating, the challenger will have her opening.
Holm used this approach to great effect in her last fight against Marion Reneau.
1. Holm stands with plenty of distance between herself and Reneau.
2. Lunging across that space, she leads with a straight left that falls short of the mark.
3. Shifting into a squared stance, she follows with a straight right.
4. Finally, Holm steps off line to deliver a kick, letting her left hand linger on Reneau's guard as she winds up.
5. Reneau's hands are in no position to block a kick that, thanks to Holm's busy hands, she never saw coming.
Holm's punches are more nuisance than knockout threat, but annoying is all they need to be. In this example, Holm uses her fists simply to obstruct Reneau's vision and bring her arms away from her ribs. Rousey can certainly take a shot, and has taken them from harder hitters than Holm; but she certainly can't see through a solid object. And if Holm's kicks are hidden from view, Rousey will be far less likely to counter them with takedowns.
If Holm is patient and waits to apply her kicks until it's relatively safe to do so, then she will be able to swing the momentum of the fight in her favor. No matter how far Rousey's striking skills have come, she has never demonstrated an ability to fight off the back foot. If she is punished every time she takes a step back and rebuffed every time she comes forward, all while Holm finds openings for her most dangerous strikes, then Rousey's pace will slow, and her confidence will weaken. All Holm needs is one small crack in Rousey's grim-faced exterior to begin pouring on the volume.
Then again, that amount of striking will only leave her open for the takedown, unless...
1 - ANGLE AFTER PUNCHES
Well-timed lateral movement is the single most important aspect of any gameplan to beat Rousey. Until a fighter comes along who can compete in a prolonged clinch sequence, Ronda's challengers must evade her bullrushes as often as possible, or else give her a reason to back off.
Now in some cases it behooves a fighter to brawl with an aggressive opponent, if only briefly. Fabricio Werdum did this with Cain Velasquez, and it helped quickly establish him as a threat, not a man to be run over. In Rousey's case, however, the risks are just too great. To this day Miesha Tate is the only fighter to survive an initial brawl with Rousey--and even Holly Holm would have to acknowledge that Tate is a fighter of unusual toughness. Slugging it out with the champion would seem to be, at the very least, a risky endeavor. What Tate's last fight with Rousey does show, however, is that Ronda is extremely hittable. Lucia Rijker she is not.
This is something that Holm, who has often struggled to connect with great accuracy, can benefit from. Ronda's lackluster defense will afford Holm the opportunity to make her punches count more than they usually do, and Ronda's forward momentum will put her constantly in harm's way. But instead of standing her ground and trading blow for blow with the more powerful striker (and yes, Ronda is a harder hitter than Holm, boxing background be damned), Holm should opt to throw no more than two or three punches at a time before moving to one side or the other.
This tactic has been a staple of Holm's game for years. As a professional boxer, she was consistently disadvantaged in terms of punching power, but her constant movement and activity allowed her to even the score.
Much like the clinch attempts/takedowns discussed in the first section of this article, Holm's pot shots serve to break the rhythm of her opponent. Here, she twice manages to slow the advance of Ann Sophie Mathis. Even though neither of Holm's crosses lands, they force a reaction from Mathis, a moment of hesitation that allows Holm to skirt out to her left along the ring ropes, away from the corner in which Mathis was trying to trap her.
Rousey is aggressive, and she is dangerous in every phase. Nonetheless, she is not an expert ring-cutter. The champion lets her toughness and aggression make up for a decided lack of boxing ability (not unsurprising given her relatively limited experience with striking). Bethe Correia attempted to use a stick-and-move strategy against Rousey, but couldn't manage more than a few seconds before she was sucked into a brawl. But Bethe Correia is a novice herself. Holly Holm has been playing the part of an out-fighter for over a decade. She is beyond comfortable with this style of fighting, and though the rules are a little different in MMA, she seems to have adapted well.
Obviously, the odds are in Rousey's favor. Ronda has more MMA experience. She is stronger and almost certainly hits harder. Whereas Holm has to focus on keeping the fight in a very specific range and phase, Rousey has never seemed to worry about where and how she gets the finish, so long as she gets it. That being said, Holly is the first dedicated out-fighter that Ronda has ever faced, and the most experienced combat athlete as well. To recall the Tyson-Douglas comparison, the first man to defeat Iron Mike was longer, taller, and not known as a power puncher. In the end, he fought the perfect fight against an acclaimed (and distracted) champion, and shocked the world.
It bears keeping in mind.
For more in-depth analysis of Rousey-Holm, and the superb co-main event fight between strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Valerie Letourneau, check out the latest episode of Heavy Hands.Minister of Foreign Affairs, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman (right), meets with the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Malaysia, His Excellency Md. Shahidul Islam, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on February 3, 2017. — Picture courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 3 — Malaysia’s Foreign Ministry expressed regret today over the Bangladeshi government’s decision not to allow a food flotilla to provide aid for Rohingya refugees.
The Foreign Ministry said its minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, met with the High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Malaysia, Md Shahidul Islam, at the Foreign Affairs Ministry today to seek clarification on Bangladesh’s decision on the “Humanitarian Mission — Food Flotilla for Myanmar” that was originally planned to dock at Yangon, Myanmar, before heading to Teknaf, Bangladesh, the port closest to 65,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
“YB Foreign Minister reiterated that Malaysia’s main concern is the plight of the Rohingyas in Myanmar as well as the Rohingya refugees,” said the Foreign Ministry in a statement.
“The High Commissioner acknowledged YB Foreign Minister’s concern and would revert after getting further clarifications from the Bangladesh government.
“The Food Flotilla aims to provide some 2,200 tonnes of goods for the Rohingyas. This initiative is consistent with the resolution adopted by the Extraordinary Session of the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) Council of Foreign Ministers which called upon OIC member states to urgently render humanitarian assistance to alleviate the suffering and hardship of the Rohingyas,” it added.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak launched earlier today the food flotilla organised by Umno, PAS, and some non-governmental organisations, that carried 2,200 tonnes of food and medicine meant for affected communities in Sittwe, Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
The mission, organised by 1Malaysia Putera Club (KP1M), the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organisations (MAPIM) and Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi (TDV), is expected to arrive at Yangon, Myanmar, on February 9.By Graham Wood
ATHENS, (Reuters) - Olympiakos Piraeus won the Greek Super League title without kicking a ball on Sunday after Panathinaikos suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at Panthrakikos. Panathinaikos dropped to third spot and Vitor Pereira’s Olympiakos, who play Levadiakos at 1930 local time, are 10 points ahead of second-placed PAOK Salonika with three matches to play.
It was the 42nd domestic crown for the Piraeus club, who have now won the league five years in a row.
Olympiakos came into the weekend needing a point to secure the title, but that was not necessary after Panathinaikos were undone by goals from Igor de Souza just before halftime and Christos Tzanis.
The Greens’ task was made difficult when midfielder Christos Bourbos was sent off for a second bookable offence with a half an hour left.
“I think there’s an issue with mentality from our part,” Panathinaikos coach Giannis Anastasiou told reporters.
“A confident psychological state is only made through results and when we attempt to try and make the effort to change things, some unknown factors seem to prevent us
"We did not seize the opportunities presented to us and when you don’t dothat in football, you lose."
There was bitter reaction from outspoken Panathinaikos president Giannis Alafouzos, who vented his anger at sports minister Stavros Kontonis, questioning refereeing decisions and criticising the state.
“Mr Kontonis, are fans of Panathinaikos to blame again? Is the state not ashamed to tolerate all this rottenness (in Greek football)?,” Alafouzos said on Twitter.
“They (the state) gave them (Olympiakos) stadiums, loans and titles. They offend the fans and us and again Panathinaikos gets punished."
Alafouzasis is likely to face disciplinary action by the Super League and Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) following the recent introduction of stricter penalties for public statements which are deemed to be inflammatory.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)Aggressive panhandlers are frustrating some business owners in downtown Vernon and the shop owners want the city to take action.
Businesses on 30th Avenue say the panhandlers are scaring away customers.
Shop owners in Vernon say aggressive panhandling is driving away business. (Jackie Bellerive)
"Our clientele is an older, female clientele and an older generation, you know? They don't even feel safe and they let us know that," said Rachelle Dixon, owner of Square One Apparel.
"They don't want to go outside and wait for a cab after they get their hair done in our salon. We have to call a cab for them, walk them to their vehicles. It's a problem and it's hurting our business more than I ever thought it would," Dixon said.
Jackie Bellerive of Faith and Company Fashions and Rachelle Dixon, owner of Square One Apparel say panhandling outside of their stores is the worst it has ever been. (Brady Strachan/CBC)
Jackie Bellerive echoes the same sentiment.
"Outside my store I see daily people sitting on my benches, harassing customers for money," Bellerive said, adding that in some instances panhandlers have stolen from her store.
Shop owner Cathy Tordiff like many others wants the city to do more.
"If the bylaw officers would actually — when they see the pan handling — say something to them that would also help," Tordiff said.
Cathy Tardiff from Terra Incognita Imports wants the city to do something about panhandlers outside her business. (Brady Strachan/CBC)
Another suggestions is to remove some of the benches.
"When we have a bench directly in front of our business, it's a gathering spot for panhandlers," said Bellerive.
The city is hiring two new bylaw officers for the summer to deal with this issue and city staff have also been asked to research possible solutions.
With files from CBC's Daybreak South and Tina Lovgreen.The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has given its official blessing to another presidential candidate forum amid ongoing complaints over the party’s lack of 2016 debates.
The event, sponsored by the progressive group MoveOn, is not an official debate — candidates will be responding to pre-recorded MoveOn member questions but not to each other’s comments directly. The forum is expected to be recorded and aired online in mid-November.
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“Candidate forums like this one hosted by MoveOn.org are important opportunities, along with town halls, living room conversations, county fair visits, and DNC debates all across the country, where our Democratic candidates get to engage with voters and highlight their vision for moving America forward,” DNC Chairwoman(Fla.) said in a statement released by MoveOn.“I know MoveOn's event will help our candidates continue to have substantive discussions about the issues voters care about most.”The additional forum comes as Democrats continue to press the DNC to add more debates, without any success. The DNC stands by its calendar despite criticism from a slew of Democrats, including DNC vice-chairs and presidential candidates, that six debates is too few.All of the Democratic candidates — former Secretary of State, Sen.(I-Vt.), former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee and Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig — have been invited to the MoveOn forum, but, so far, only Sanders has confirmed.This would likely be the first chance for Lessig to join his Democratic presidential rivals, as he was not included on stage for the first Democratic debate this month.O’Malley has been most vocal in calling for an extended schedule, saying the current one helps establishment candidate Clinton.Candidates who participate in unsanctioned debates will be barred from future debates, although that prohibition won’t extend to other candidate forums without the DNC’s blessing. That controversy boiled over around last week’s debate, when Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), a DNC vice-chair, claimed she had been uninvited to the first debate over her protestations. The DNC denied that characterization.
MoveOn is also still pushing for additional debates along with the forum and sent a letter to the DNC late last month to that effect.
There are four more sanctioned debates on the Democratic calendar, with the next one scheduled for Nov. 14 in Iowa. A South Carolina candidate forum, sponsored by the state Democratic Party and moderated by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, is set for Nov. 6.Racist flyers have painted a Sikh candidate running for mayor of a New Jersey town as a terrorist.
The advertisements, left on car windshields in Hoboken, were directed at City Councilman Ravi Bhalla just days before Election Day on Tuesday.
'Don't let TERRORISM take over our Town!' read the larger message on the flyers, placed directly above a photo of Bhalla in his turban.
The flyer used the majority of an advertisement originally run by fellow mayoral candidate Michael DeFusco that attacked Bhalla over an alleged conflict of interest and added the larger print.
Scroll down for video
Racist flyers have painted a Sikh candidate running for mayor of a New Jersey town as a terrorist. 'Don't let TERRORISM take over our Town!' read the larger message on the flyer placed directly above a photo of Bhalla in his turban (pictured)
The advertisements, left on car windshields in Hoboken, were directed at City Councilman Ravi Bhalla (pictured, left, and right, with a supporter) just days before Election Day on Tuesday. If elected, Bhalla would be Hoboken's first Sikh mayor
'My wife was in tears. The hardest part as a father was answering my daughter's questions, asking: "Why are people attacking you because you wear a turban?"' said Bhalla (pictured, right, posing with supporters)
'There's been an undercurrent of racism I've seen in this campaign,' Bhalla, who would be Hoboken's first Sikh mayor, told the New York Daily News.
'That sort of whispering campaign has come to the surface now, where people have the audacity to send a flyer like that.'
Bhalla, the first Sikh to hold elective office in New Jersey, wears a turban as required by his religious beliefs.
He said his wife is in tears over the incident and he is having a hard time explaining the offensive flyers to his 10-year-old daughter.
'My wife was in tears,' said Bhalla. 'The hardest part as a father was answering my daughter's questions, asking: "Why are people attacking you because you wear a turban?"'
'That's a hard question to answer to a little girl, 10 years old.'
The flyer used the majority of an advertisement originally run by fellow mayoral candidate Michael DeFusco that attacked Bhalla over an alleged conflict of interest and added the larger print (Pictured, the original advertisement)
DeFusco (right), vying to become Hoboken's first gay mayor, quickly denied any part in printing or distributing the attack ads against Bhalla (left). 'I condemn this piece of racist garbage in the strongest possible terms,' he said, ripping up one of the offensive flyers at a press conference on Saturday
Courtesy of News12 NJ
The flyers were first seen tucked beneath the windshield wipers of parked cars by a volunteer for Bhalla's campaign on Friday evening.
Bhalla tweeted a picture of the flyer, writing: 'Yesterday, a flyer [with the] word “terrorist” above a pic of me was circulated in Hob[oken]. Of course this is troubling, but we won’t let hate win.'
DeFusco, vying to become Hoboken's first gay mayor, quickly denied any part in |
and conquer strategy," said Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell. "The tea party is maybe repenting for years of neglecting poor hungry children or veterans. It does feel like we're in a strange land right now."
Rep. Keith Ellison, one of the most outspoken progressives in the House, said even the vote to fund WIC was an easy one for him to oppose.
"No, it's not hard because I know it's not going anywhere," he said. "People in my district and districts all over this country know who is for food stamps, they know who is for WIC, they know who is for education. [Republicans] cannot switch their identity that miraculously. They wanted to cut $40 billion out of food stamps two weeks ago. They are trying to get Democrats on bad votes. The American public isn't stupid."
"I don't think anyone buys that Democrats are the heartless ones in Washington," said Rep. Joe Crowley, a member of the Democratic leadership in the House.
It's an uphill strategy for the GOP, considering it was Republicans who set the government on the path to a shutdown when they first insisted that any bill to fund the government would have to also defund or delay Obamacare. There's now no clear plan for an end game. As one Republican lawmaker told The Washington Examiner last week, "We're not in a situation that has been planned out and war-gamed and plotted."
But in the short term, the latest strategy has caused a few dozen Democrats to buck party leadership on the piecemeal bills, giving Republicans some bipartisan cover. It also prompted an unforced error by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid when he was asked about funding for cancer patients at a press conference. So far, the House has passed seven mini-funding bills, all of which Reid has said he won't take up and the president has threatened to veto.
And talk to any Republican and you'll get virtually the same message : We've done something to end the shutdown. They haven't.
The exception to that pattern is a bill that guarantees furloughed workers will receive back-pay once the shutdown ends, which the president has signaled he will sign. A bill that guarantees pay for the troops was passed and signed into law before the government shutdown.
Democrats said Republicans' strategy resemble the successful one the GOP employed during the sequester battle, during which progressives effectively caved. This time, they say, they won't make the same mistake.
"Their strategy for sequester was to try and piecemeal it. They thought they could have their cake and eat it too. They are trying to have that same cake now with the shutdown," said Democratic Rep. Steve Israel. "The sequester was damaging enough, but a shutdown of the entire government of the United States of America is a completely different matter. We're not interested in continuing a game."
The face-off will continue this week with the added pressure of a deadline for hitting the debt ceiling on Oct. 17. House Speaker John Boehner said on ABC this Sunday that the House doesn't have enough votes to pass clean continuing resolution despite the fact that more than 20 Republican members have signaled they'd vote for one with House Democrats should the bill ever come to the floor.
"Let me issue him a friendly challenge. Put it on the floor Monday or Tuesday. I would bet there are the votes to pass it. We have just about every Democrat, 21 Republicans have publicly said they would. There are many more Republicans who have said that they privately would," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, who followed Boehner appearance on ABC. "So, Speaker Boehner, just vote. Put it on the floor and let's see if you're right."
But if the last week was any indication, that's not going to happen. Instead, the House will continue to take up the piecemeal bills: On Monday they'll vote on one to keep the FDA running during the shutdown, and later in the week one that funds Head Start educational programs. Boehner has continued to insist that it is the president and Senate Democrats who are responsible for keeping the government closed because they refuse to negotiate.
"[I]t's my way or the highway. That's what he's saying. Complete surrender and then we'll talk to you," Boehner said of Obama. "It's about having a conversation. I gave the Senate majority leader some advice at the White House about how to proceed. I gave him some advice over a week ago about how to avert this. And yet they refuse to do it."Yes, it is that time of year again. And again, as I do every year, I try to list the holiday deals and specials I know about and give a few suggestions for gift-giving. Lets look at the discounts and deals first.
You may seen this on the website already but Truefitt and Hill is offering a discount of 15% off most items from their website. Use the code manticsblog when checking out. Sign up for their email newsletter for additional holiday limited-time offers. http://www.truefittandhill.com
New York Shaving Company is offering a 20% discount to Sharpologist readers off anything purchased from their website (free samples with each order too!). Use the coupon mantic when checking out. http://www.nyshavingcompany.com/
Pacific Shaving Company is offering free shipping on all orders over $20. Use promo code SHIPFREE11 at checkout (expires 12/21). http://www.pacificshaving.com
Shave Place (previously Em’s Place) is offering a “Deal of the Day.” The webpage is at https://www.shaveplace.com/dealoftheday.asp
Shoebox Shave Shop is offering 5% off for orders between $25 & $99.99 (use coupon code xmas5), 10% off for orders between $100 & $199.99 (use coupon code xmas10) and 15% off for orders of $200 & up (use coupon code xmas15). http://www.shoeboxshaveshop.com
More discounts and specials will be passed along as they come to me. Newsletter subscribers will get first notice before they hit Sharpologist!
Gift Ideas
A perennial favorite of my gift list is Leisureguy’s Guide to Gourmet Shaving – Fifth Edition: Shaving Made Enjoyable. Now in its fifth edition, the Guide is a soup-to-nuts, everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-traditional-shaving-but-did-not-know-to-ask “shavapedia.” This edition is also available on the Amazon Kindle. I think the Guide plus my videos make a great synergistic pairing.
A couple other books about shaving that might make good gifts include Art of Shaving’s The Art of Shaving (also available on Kindle) and A Closer Shave: Man’s Daily Search for Perfection.
Another gift idea is Van Der Hagen Men’s Luxury, Shave Set. Paired with a modest razor, like the Lord Premium Safety Razor Model LP1822L aka L6 Plus BONUS BLUEBIRD Blades, you have a decent entry-level complete shaving set for under $50.prolicidal:
envyadams:
This Man Did Something That’s Already Expected Of Women But He Gets Extra Praise Cause He’s A Man
No. A lot of women don’t go to cosmetology classes to learn how to do hair, they have the experience from growing up-their mom doing their hair, Then experimenting which what they can do themselves. This guy probably had short hair his entire life with no clue on what to do. He didn’t just look up how to do a ponytail, he paid for actual classes so that he could do his little daughters hair in cool and creative ways so that SHE gets the learning experience and learns how to do it her own and then can go to school with fabulous.
This is A+ daddy right here, he went above and beyond because he knows that he lack in certain areas where a mom would pick this up. Please don’t destroy nice things that men do simply because they are men and you want to hate them.Trees and other plants, from towering redwoods to diminutive daisies, are nature’s hydraulic pumps. They are constantly pulling water up from their roots to the topmost leaves, and pumping sugars produced by their leaves back down to the roots. This constant stream of nutrients is shuttled through a system of tissues called xylem and phloem, which are packed together in woody, parallel conduits.
Now engineers at MIT and their collaborators have designed a microfluidic device they call a “tree-on-a-chip,” which mimics the pumping mechanism of trees and plants. Like its natural counterparts, the chip operates passively, requiring no moving parts or external pumps. It is able to pump water and sugars through the chip at a steady flow rate for several days. The results are published this week in Nature Plants.
Anette “Peko" Hosoi, professor and associate department head for operations in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, says the chip’s passive pumping may be leveraged as a simple hydraulic actuator for small robots. Engineers have found it difficult and expensive to make tiny, movable parts and pumps to power complex movements in small robots. The team’s new pumping mechanism may enable robots whose motions are propelled by inexpensive, sugar-powered pumps.
“The goal of this work is cheap complexity, like one sees in nature,” Hosoi says. “It’s easy to add another leaf or xylem channel in a tree. In small robotics, everything is hard, from manufacturing, to integration, to actuation. If we could make the building blocks that enable cheap complexity, that would be super exciting. I think these [microfluidic pumps] are a step in that direction.”
Hosoi’s co-authors on the paper are lead author Jean Comtet, a former graduate student in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering; Kaare Jensen of the Technical University of Denmark; and Robert Turgeon and Abraham Stroock, both of Cornell University.
A hydraulic lift
The group’s tree-inspired work grew out of a project on hydraulic robots powered by pumping fluids. Hosoi was interested in designing hydraulic robots at the small scale, that could perform actions similar to much bigger robots like Boston Dynamic’s Big Dog, a four-legged, Saint Bernard-sized robot that runs and jumps over rough terrain, powered by hydraulic actuators.
“For small systems, it’s often expensive to manufacture tiny moving pieces,” Hosoi says. “So we thought, ‘What if we could make a small-scale hydraulic system that could generate large pressures, with no moving parts?’ And then we asked, ‘Does anything do this in nature?’ It turns out that trees do.”
The general understanding among biologists has been that water, propelled by surface tension, travels up a tree’s channels of xylem, then diffuses through a semipermeable membrane and down into channels of phloem that contain sugar and other nutrients.
The more sugar there is in the phloem, the more water flows from xylem to phloem to balance out the sugar-to-water gradient, in a passive process known as osmosis. The resulting water flow flushes nutrients down to the roots. Trees and plants are thought to maintain this pumping process as more water is drawn up from their roots.
“This simple model of xylem and phloem has been well-known for decades,” Hosoi says. “From a qualitative point of view, this makes sense. But when you actually run the numbers, you realize this simple model does not allow for steady flow.”
In fact, engineers have previously attempted to design tree-inspired microfluidic pumps, fabricating parts that mimic xylem and phloem. But they found that these designs quickly stopped pumping within minutes.
It was Hosoi’s student Comtet who identified a third essential part to a tree’s pumping system: its leaves, which produce sugars through photosynthesis. Comtet’s model includes this additional source of sugars that diffuse from the leaves into a plant’s phloem, increasing the sugar-to-water gradient, which in turn maintains a constant osmotic pressure, circulating water and nutrients continuously throughout a tree.
Running on sugar
With Comtet’s hypothesis in mind, Hosoi and her team designed their tree-on-a-chip, a microfluidic pump that mimics a tree’s xylem, phloem, and most importantly, its sugar-producing leaves.
To make the chip, the researchers sandwiched together two plastic slides, through which they drilled small channels to represent xylem and phloem. They filled the xylem channel with water, and the phloem channel with water and sugar, then separated the two slides with a semipermeable material to mimic the membrane between xylem and phloem. They placed another membrane over the slide containing the phloem channel, and set a sugar cube on top to represent the additional source of sugar diffusing from a tree’s leaves into the phloem. They hooked the chip up to a tube, which fed water from a tank into the chip.
With this simple setup, the chip was able to passively pump water from the tank through the chip and out into a beaker, at a constant flow rate for several days, as opposed to previous designs that only pumped for several minutes.
“As soon as we put this sugar source in, we had it running for days at a steady state,” Hosoi says. “That’s exactly what we need. We want a device we can actually put in a robot.”
Hosoi envisions that the tree-on-a-chip pump may be built into a small robot to produce hydraulically powered motions, without requiring active pumps or parts.
“If you design your robot in a smart way, you could absolutely stick a sugar cube on it and let it go,” Hosoi says.
This research was supported, in part, by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency.Derby County were edged out in a chaotic seven-goal meeting with Cardiff City as their 11-game unbeaten run on home soil came to an end.
Two close range finishes in 10 minutes from Julien de Sart and Darren Bent saw Steve McClaren’s side establish a two-goal cushion early doors, but when they seemingly held total control, the visitors halved the deficit through Kedeem Harris’ strike from distance out of nothing.
As the contest’s pendulum swung, the Bluebirds scored two goals themselves in a strong start to the second half – through Harris and Craig Noone – to lead 3-2, before Bent’s glancing header levelled matters once more.
Joe Ralls scored the game's decisive goal as the game entered added time, however, scoring the winner from the penalty spot after Rhys Healey had been upended in the area as Neil Warnock’s side claimed a second successive win on the road.
A chaotic finish was the last thing anyone expected after the comfortable start the Rams made to their second home game in four days as they faced a Cardiff side who were all too happy to sit deep under the Pride Park floodlights as proceedings began.
Against Leeds United, the Saturday previous, the visitors had only had a 29 per cent share of the possession over the course of the afternoon, but that had no relevance on the outcome as they ran out 2-0 winners over the promotion hopefuls on their own turf.
The Bluebirds initially adopted the same defensive attitude for this fixture and the onus was entirely on Derby to ask the questions.
Bossing possession, McClaren’s men were patient in their approach, but two goals early doors saw Cardiff’s game plan thrown out of the window.
From a corner, won off the back of a clever dummy by Bent, Tom Ince swung the ball on to head of Alex Pearce. The defender rose, sending a header towards goal that was palmed away by
Allan McGregor into the path of de Sart, who placed the ball into the back of the net.
The second blow came 10 minutes later. Ince was involved again, picking out Bent, who made the most of some confusion between Matthew Connolly and McGregor to bundle in his sixth goal in as many outings.
Harris forced Scott Carson into a good save no more than a minute later, but that aside the Rams were in cruise control.
There was plenty of chances to add to the scoreline for the hosts too. Bent saw a shot blocked, Ince was denied by McGregor and Will Hughes saw a looping effort from the edge of the area deflect off a blue shirt and out for a corner.
There had been no sign of a comeback from Cardiff, but with four minutes of the first half remaining, Warnock’s men gave themselves a lifeline as Harris took aim from range, sending a shot into the back of the net via a deflection off Pearce.
The pendulum swung. Cardiff grew in confidence as they sought to go into the break on level terms as jitters began to creep into Derby’s game. The closest they came before the interval, though, was through Kenneth Zohore, the lone frontman, who was thwarted by Carson.
It proved only to be a brief reprieve as the Bluebirds levelled matters, making the most of Aron Gunnarsson’s giant throw into the area as Harris capitalised on a defensive error.
It got worse 10 minutes later, as Noone produced a moment of magic to turn the game on its head as he collected the ball on the edge of the area, took a touch and smashed an effort into the far corner with his second.
It could, and should, have been four shortly after the hour too. It came from a Derby corner, which was half cleared to the right side. Zohore took advantage of a rash challenge from Marcus Olsson, slipping the ball beyond the left back, to lead a four on two breakaway. Instead of passing, he took the shot himself, firing it straight at Carson.
Passing up the opportunity left Warnock with his head and his hands on the touchline as the Rams got themselves back on top to set up a grandstand and chaotic finish.
Jacob Butterfield went within inches of his first goal of the season to kick start a period of dominance for the hosts, whilst Johnny Russell, the substitute, saw a header cleared off the line.
The equaliser did come shortly after that, though, as Bent notched his fourth goal in two games by glancing Olsson’s cross from the left beyond a flat-footed McGregor.
On level terms, with plenty of time on the clock and in the ascendancy, Derby threw everything in search of what would prove to be a late winner and whilst there was one final twist in the tale, it didn’t go as expected.
On his own up front, Healey, on as a late substitute, collected possession deep inside Derby territory and with Pearce closing in. The young forward shifted the ball past the defender, made his way into the area, before tumbling under pressure.
Stephen Martin, the referee, reacted immediately and pointed to the penalty spot and up stepped Ralls, who sent Carson the wrong way to score the contest’s seventh goal as the Rams’ 11-game run at Pride Park came to an abrupt end.
Derby County: Carson, Baird (Russell, 65), Keogh (C), Pearce, Olsson; de Sart, Hughes (Nugent, 66), Butterfield (Blackman, 90); Ince, Anya, Bent
Substitutes not used: Mitchell, Christie, Shackell, Johnson
Cardiff City: McGregor, Connolly, Morrison, Bamba, Richards; Ralls, Halford (Healey, 80); Noone (Hoilett, 85), Gunnarsson, K. Harris (John, 88); Zohore
Substitutes not used: Murphy, Bennett, Whittingham, M. Harris
Attendance: 26,541 (308 away supporters)Actor best known for his roles as Rick in The Young Ones and Alan B'Stard in The New Statesman, dies aged 56
The British actor and comedian Rik Mayall has died at the age of 56.
The Essex-born actor, who starred in alternative comedy shows such as The Young Ones and Blackadder, died on Monday morning, a spokesman for Brunskill Management said. The cause of death is currently unknown.
Mayall was best known for his comedy partnership with Adrian Edmonson, whom he first met at university. The pair went on to become one of the biggest comedy duos of the 1980s, co-writing The Young Ones. Mayall later starred in Jonathan Creek.
Rik Mayall (left) as Rick in the Young Ones with Adrian Edmondson as Vyvyan, Nigel Planer as Neil, and Christopher Ryan as Mike. Photograph: Photos 12/Alamy
In 1998, Mayall was nearly crushed to death by the quad bike he was riding when he fell off. He suffered a fractured skull and severe haemorrhaging and spent five days in a coma.
Rik Mayall and Marsha Fitzalan pose as their 1980s TV characters Alan and Sarah B'Stard to launch the UK tour of its stage adaptation in 2006. Photograph: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
The comic actor later made light of the trauma at his Devon farm. "I beat Jesus Christ," he said. "He was dead for three days at Easter. When I crashed it was the day before Good Friday, Crap Thursday, and I was technically dead until Easter Monday – that's five days … beat him 5-3."
Mayall is survived by his wife, the Scottish make-up artist Barbara Robbin whom he married in 1985, and his three children Rosie, 28, Sidney, 26, and Bonnie, 19.By Maryant Fernández Pérez
On 14 November 2014, the Italian Presidency presented amendments to the Telecommunications package for comment by the Member State delegations. We are hereby making the document and its annexes publicly available (Note and addendum). These documents show that the Italian Presidency is now back-pedalling on meaningful net neutrality protections – having previously made some much more meaningful and positive suggestions. It presented a “principles-based approach” to the Member States “in order not to inhibit innovation and to avoid” having an outdated regulation in the future. In reality, all the text would do is add confusion for freedom of communication and online innovation.
The text proposes the removal of the definitions of “net neutrality”. “Instead of a definition of net neutrality there could be a reference to the objective of net neutrality, e.g. in an explanatory recital, which would resolve the concerns that the definition might be at variance with the specific provisions.” Yet, without meaningful and enforceable net neutrality provisions, the fundamental right to receive and impart information would be hindered – with significant costs for growth, investment and innovation.
Additionally, the text removes the definition of “specialised services” from Article 23. The deletion would in principle not be such a bad idea, as long as non-discrimination was clearly supported by the text. Sadly, the proposal would achieve the opposite:
“Traffic management measures that block, slow down, alter, degrade or discriminate against specific content, applications or services, or specific classes thereof” could be maintained by providers of Internet access services under certain circumstances, such as to “prevent the transmission of unsolicited communications” (which seems strange because an e-mail service is not an internet access service); to prevent “temporary congestion control” (whose exceptional nature should be clarified not to be the default); or to meet their “obligations under a contract with an end-user to deliver a service requiring a specific level of quality to that end-user” (which makes little sense in the “best effort” Internet).
The biggest gap in the Council text however is that Article 23 fails to prohibit discrimination on the basis of billing. Allowing “free” access to certain services and metered access to everything else is as much – and as damaging – an infringement of net neutrality and the fundamental right of freedom to impart information, as any blocking or filtering. If people have to pay extra to access your website (or if you have to pay internet companies to allow them to do so), then the essence of the open internet has been dismantled.
The proposal also makes a bizarre reference to the legislation being without prejudice to the lawfulness of “information, content, application [sic] or services” – even though nothing in the text could possibly be understood as legalising illegal content. The purpose of this text appears to permit the widespread arbitrary “voluntary” blocking practised in some EU Member States, most notably the United Kingdom. If this is the meaning, then it is in clear and obvious breach of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
In sum, this last proposal of the Italian Presidency would weaken citizens’ rights and annul the strong provisions adopted by the European Parliament in April 2014. If adopted, the text would lack the much needed protections to prevent internet access providers from creating a new monopoly – access to their customers. With all of the talk of the need for a single digital market in Europe, we would have new barriers and new monopolies.
National regulators would not have clear enforceable obligations to preserve citizens’ digital rights and freedoms by default. After Obama’s recent declarations emphasising the importance and need of real net neutrality, is the Council going to suggest leaving Europe in the slow lane?
The Member States are and will be discussing this document in the Council today and tomorrow. Any text that is adopted would need to be approved by the European Parliament before becoming law.
Leaked documents (14.11.2014)
Note: https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Note-NN-14.11.2014.pdf
Addendum: https://edri.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Addendum-to-the-note-14.11.2014.pdf
The Members States will discuss it in the Council today and tomorrow
http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/CM-5045-2014-INIT/en/pdf (17.11.2014)
http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-15597-2014-COR-1/en/pdf (19.11.2014)I would describe this article as a very premature lap of honor. Any commodity with 100% native volatility would make “wholly predictable” moves up and down such as bitcoin has done.
There was nothing wrong with the VHS cassette tape – would John Authers have said Netflix was “a solution in search of a problem”. Is John still paying 1000’s of pounds in long distance phone charges when interviewing his “sources” or is he using Skype? Indeed this digital article is proof itself that the world demands digital solutions or we would be reading the physical pink pages.
This solution is a) faster b) cheaper c) global. Give me one industry when offered that formula has turned it down?
The venture capital he talks about is real. Tens of millions a month at the moment – a faster investment pace that in the 1995 internet craze. I know the companies and the apps well. A year ago I would have said blockchain.info had the best app. I was stunned to see how much better coinbase looked a few months later. I was similarly stunned to see the Circle application at the Amsterdam bitcoin conference in May this year. And yesterday I was bowled over to see bitreserve.org’s new offering. These developers are leapfrogging each other, building out this open source community and honing in on the ultimate consumer of bitcoin – Joe Public.
So yesterday on the bitreserve platform I did the following. Logged on, created an account, funded it with some bitcoin, then emailed, yes EMAILED, some Euros, some Yen and some Sterling to friends. I bet if you walked into a bank, cold, and tried to do that it would take a week. The fees were, all in, less than 1%. It’s a bank killer.
As to whether bitcoin, the first application to sit on blockchain, will win – who knows? We think it will and in spectacular fashion. After all, when you see how well bitcoin can “rail” other currencies you will be left thinking WHY you use other currencies at all. I think bitcoin will co-exist with other fiats for a long time before consuming them all – like the Euro consumed other EU currencies (in a different way).
Where is John Authers “donate” button – oh, he doesn't have one.Bokashi: The Composting Samurai
Effective microorganisms (EM) are tiny little living entities that help break down compost and organic matter. They operate in a different way than beneficial bacteria or fungi in how they affect your plants. They turn up the volume on compost and aid in creating a soil that is rich in microbes and nutrients that you can integrate right back into your grow. Let’s dig into Bokashi.
What is Bokashi?
Bokashi is a Japanese word that means “fermented organic matter”. The term refers to both the method used and the inoculant mixture (the kick starter) used to power the fermentation process. The inoculant mixture consists of lacto acid bacteria (Lactobacillus casei), photosynthetic bacteria (Rhodopseudomonas palustris), and yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).
Freshly fermented bokashi doesn’t usually stay alive very long. Therefore, the inoculant mixture is made up of either bran or sawdust that has been soaked in water with molasses and beneficial microbes. This mixture is then dried out, packaged and remains shelf stable for up to two years for use in your grow.
Composting with Bokashi
Bokashi Applications
Bokashi has a number of benefits, which is why we love it. You can use it to compost, to add nutrients to your soil, or to brew in into a compost tea. The most common known use for it is its amazing power and efficiency fermenting compost. Many people use bokashi bran to create a simple, closed compost bucket in their kitchen. After a few weeks, you have usable compost right there under your sink. If you aren’t into composting in your kitchen, adding bokashi straight to your grow can improve the rhizosphere of your plants, as well.
Fermentation
The composting method involves layering the bran with layers of your compostable material and leaving it to ferment. A big benefit of using the bokashi composting method is that it doesn’t require heat or air the way that traditional compost heaps do. It can work its magic in a sealed container with no access to fresh air or sun. The bran acts as a compost accelerator. In just ten to twelve days, this miracle bokashi will have fermented your food scraps and plant waste to create healthy beneficial compost, full of microbes and nutrients, for your garden! There are a few different bucket methods, but the basic idea is that as you throw food scraps into your bucket, you then toss some bokashi bran on top. This article has really great instructions on how to use any of the simple bucket methods.
Due to the fact that bokashi decomposes waste so fast, it doesn’t create nasty odors that you usually get coming from compost piles. It may smell a little like vinegar or beer because of the yeast that is present but it should never smell putrid. You may see a light white layer of mold on top of the compost while it is fermenting, it is totally normal and not a fungal infestation. If you see black or green mold, however, that is a sign of contamination and you will not want to use it in your garden or grow.
Bokashi and Bacteria
The bacterias that are created during the bokashi fermentation process are the same as some of the bacteria that have been found in the soils of oak trees and fruit trees in Asia. They help to produce ATP in plants and enable them to grow bigger and stronger. These bacteria use the energy of the heat of the sun in the soil and convert the secretions of the plant’s roots by eating it and producing a nutrient that is easier for the plant to take in as food.
Breaking All the Rules
Thanks to the anaerobic processes in bokashi composting, you can throw more than just plant waste and your rotting vegetables in there. The environment in bokashi fermentation buckets doesn’t allow for pathogens to live or grow. This is because bokashi composting is an anaerobic process, which means that it does not require oxygen. No need to worry about sprouting unwanted pathogens while turning waste into nutrient dense soil. The only thing you will be adding is more micronutrients to your soil. So feel free to scrape your dinner plates directly into your bokashi bucket!
Adding Meat, Dairy, or Egg Products to Your Bokashi Compost
Bokashi has the ability to break down meat (not bones), cheese, and egg products in addition to your typical compost additions. Just make sure to add a layer of bokashi bran to the top of your bucket when throwing these protein items in. Charles Sturt University says there is no need to worry about those protein items messing up your microbial ecosystem with pathogens such as salmonella and e-coli.
There is little risk of a pathogenic infestation because of the lack of air available in the sealed bokashi composting bins, as well as the acidic presence of lacto bacillus. With an airtight seal, the only thing that has the ability to grow is the bokashi bacteria that actually help in making its own pathogen-fighting environment. To really make sure that you are not passing along salmonella or ecoli to your plants or gardens, let your compost ferment completely. If the idea of throwing meat and eggs in your compost bucket is too freaky for you, just leave it out.
How Do I Use It?
You can always use the composted material from you bin, but if you don’t want to commit to composting with bokashi, there are a few other ways to reap the benefits of what it has to offer. You can mix bokashi bran right into your soil, you can make a compost tea, or you can spray it directly on your plants. By mixing the bran directly into your soil, you are introducing tons of awesome micronutrients into your growing medium. It increases microbial activity and helps your plant to uptake nutrients as a higher rate.
Bokashi in Your Compost Pile
You can use bokashi bran to speed up your regular compost pile outdoors by just adding it to your existing pile or composting bin. We prefer to use the bokashi airtight bin in our kitchen to get the fermentation process started and then move the pickled goodness to the outdoor heap. Also, worms love bokashi. You can expect to see them more frequently in your outdoor piles doing work to your soil when you feed them nutrient dense bokashi compost.
Bokashi as a Top Dressing
When you use bokashi as a top dressing, add 1/3 cup of bokashi bran to every cubic foot of soil. Apply the top dressing once every two weeks to see awesome results.
Bokashi Tea
By making a compost tea, you ensure that your plants are receiving a uniform application. Additionally, a liquid application will be absorbed by the root system at a faster rate.
For a five gallon brew, begin with a mixture that is 0.5 liters of bokashi compost and then add 5 gallons of unchlorinated water. For best results with the tea, let it brew for 20-40 hours before applying to your plants. You can use that same diluted brew to spray directly on your plants, as well. If you are using bokashi to compost your vegetable and plant matter, simply add that compost to your grow or outdoor garden when it is done fermenting and watch your plants thrive!
Tried and Tested
If you want to see the difference that effective microorganisms and other added nutrients have on your soil, consider purchasing a BRIX meter. A BRIX meter measures the mineral, sugar, and nutrient density in your soil and plants. This handy tool can help you determine a more appropriate feeding schedule specifically for your grow. It can also help you better understand how added nutrients affect your plants.
Is It Compatible With My Grow?
You can use bokashi with any system- hydroponic, aquaponic, or soil medium. You do not want to add a bokashi brew to your hydroponic reservoir but instead should apply it directly to the root system. Bokashi can also be used with synthetic nutrients but that is where it gets a little bit of a grey area. Bokashi is meant to help foster a natural and organic grow- a step towards biodynamic farming. If you are using synthetics, you may not see all the benefits that you would in an organic system.
Why Use It?
Bokashi is an all natural additive that is not harmful to you, your plants, or the environment. Unlike regular composting, it doesn’t emit any greenhouse gasses, nor does it require any additional heat or churning. Another added benefit is the cost savings when compared to other fertilizers and synthetic nutrients. It provides micronutrients to your soil and is a renewable resource that you can even brew yourself.
Beneficial Microbes, Yet Again!
Developing beneficial microbial life through the bokashi process helps to diversify the microbial life of your soil. This creates a healthier ecosystem within your growing medium that is a huge benefit to your plants. These microorganisms help your plants grow bigger and stronger while becoming more disease resistant. Diversifying the microbiome helps your plants build up resistance to potential threats!
What Would We Do?
The product that we recommend is BOKASHIplus from Elevation Organics. It comes in 3.5 pound, 15 pound and 35 pound bags full of alfalfa meal and grain substrate fully inoculated with EM. BOKASHIplus has an added biochar that provides even more beneficial fungus, bacteria, and protozoa to the mix.
We recommend brewing a compost tea for a 24 hour period before adding it to your soils. The micronutrients then flourish before being added to your grow and they supply your plants with immediate benefits. You can expect to see more resilient plants as a result of a higher biodiversity in the soil, and as a result, higher yields.
For a detailed feeding schedule, visit the Elevation Organics website. The measurements in the chart are listed in measurements per gallon of water. It is laid out to account for both vegetative and flowering schedules. There are different measurement listed for whether you are growing with soil or coco too!
DIY Bokashi!
If you feel like taking on a new pet project, making your own bokashi bran could be right up your alley. It is pretty easy and cheap so you can save a few bucks when taking the time to make it yourself.
What you will need to gather for supplies:
-EM (effective microorganisms)- We recommend buying a prepared EM serum to ensure that it contains lactic acid bacteria, yeasts, and photosynthetic bacteria.
-Molasses
-Chlorine-free water- If using tap water, be sure to let it sit out for at least 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate.
-Wheat or rice bran
-A big tub or tarp to mix it all together
-An airtight container to ferment your bran
DIY B |
across America in a van with a tough-talking 11-year-old stowaway.
Chambers
Consumed by the mystery surrounding the donor heart that saved her life, a young patient starts taking on sinister characteristics of the deceased.
Christmas in the Wild
After her husband leaves her, a stylish New Yorker goes on an African safari alone and finds new purpose in her life. Kristin Davis and Rob Lowe star.
American Son
An estranged interracial couple searches for answers about their missing son. Based on the Broadway play. Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale star.
Shadow and Bone
Sinister forces plot against a young soldier when she reveals a magical power that might unite her world. Based on Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse novels.UPDATED: This story was updated on Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, to include comments to The Oregonian/OregonLive from the home's owner.
A couple who moved from Austin, Texas, to Portland to be closer to their first grandchild are suing their former landlord -- claiming that their $3,000-a-month rental was plagued by ants, mice and mold.
Christine and Michael Moser were promised a "high-end home" when they rented the Northeast Portland Tudor sight unseen in the city's hot rental market, according to the $14,382 lawsuit filed last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Photos currently on Zillow.com show warm-toned hardwood floors, vaulted ceilings and intricate tile work in the home along stately Alameda Street.
But when the Mosers moved into the three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in April, they "were dismayed at the state of the premises and duly noted the issues in the initial walk-through," according to the suit. They stayed because they had no where else to go.
The suit claims the home had a long list of issues: 55 burnt-out light bulbs, questionable electrical wiring in the basement, an upstairs plumbing problem, "a significant amount of mouse droppings throughout" its heating and ventilation system, "obvious signs of an ant infestation," "a very obvious mold and mildew issue in the garage," mold and mildew in the home's basement in-law apartment and garbage inside it from the previous tenants.
"At no time did they consent to live in premises with these issues," the suit states.
Because the Mosers believed the home's issues would be resolved, they spent more than $2,600 on paint and plaster repair and $792 to hire an ant and mouse exterminator, the suit says.
They made several requests for a professional to take care of the mold. A month into their tenancy, an expert arrived and sealed off the basement and the garage, the suit states. The expert hooked up a noisy "air scrubber" that ran around the clock, almost doubling their electricity bill, they claim.
Because the mold problem remained unsolved, the Mosers hired a mold abatement company at their own expense, the suit states. The couple finally gave up on the home and moved out at the end of June -- less than three months after they arrived.
According to a rental website, the home was put back on the market for $3,150 per month -- $150 more than the Mosers were paying. The home has since rented.
The couple seeks $14,382 -- which includes $8,800 reimbursement for the rent they paid, more than $2,100 in moving expenses and several thousand dollars for the money they say they sunk into the home in trying to bring it up to standards. The suit also seeks attorney's fees.
The suit lists the property management company BB Management Group of Tigard and the home's owner, Tracey Turkoly. The management company declined to comment.
Although Turkoly couldn't be reached for comment initially, she offered this comment on Monday, several days after this story was first published.
"The lawsuit as well as the article are shocking to me," Turkoly wrote The Oregonian/OregonLive in an email. "I need to hire a lawyer and believe that when the facts come to light, the result will be a positive outcome for myself and Bb Management."
Turkoly said she rented out her house after she had to move for a job.
"I am a conscientious home owner," Turkoly continued. "This is my PERSONAL home. I care for its condition because I love my house and have worked my entire life to live in such a nice home in a great area."
The suit was filed by Portland attorney Sarah Silberger.
-- Aimee Green
503-294-5119The premise of the Immerse or Die challenge is simple. I get on my treadmill, open a book, and start the clock. Then I do my best to stay immersed in the story until I reach the end of my 40 minute morning walk. If I make it, that book qualifies for all the attention ImmerseOrDie can bring it. But if I can’t stay immersed, the buzzer sounds and the book is closed.
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s a harsh standard. But frankly, I think indie books need a bit more tough love. Too many books are being published, for which real money is being charged, but that aren’t up to professional standards. Sure, I may only be one opinion, but too many of the people indie authors turn to for criticism seem willing to let weaknesses slide a little. And in that process, we all suffer.
Well, in this series, I promise not to compromise.
If somebody is charging us money for their books, we have the right to expect a few things. They should be good stories, well told, with proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar. The logic of the story should be consistent, the choices and behaviors of the characters should be plausible, and they should actually be doing something. Something interesting. Something worth telling stories about. A book that gets all those right will probably go the full 40 minutes with me. Sadly, a great many indie books do not seem to get those basics right.
To make it fair, I operate on a three-strikes policy. Remember, I’m actually trying to stay engrossed. I don’t want to have to stop my workout early, so I really do try to keep my head in the story world for the duration. But when something clubs me across the brain-pan and forces me out of the book’s world, that’s a WTF interruption. And when a title has collected 3 of them, the clock stops, the treadmill grinds to a halt, and I toddle off to write up a report of what went wrong.
Then I share that report with the world, posting here on Creativity Hacker, as well as on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Tumblr. They’re also available as a weekly digest email. Just plop your address into the box in the right-hand column (over there –>), and be sure to check “ImmerseOrDie weekly digest” before clicking the “Subscribe” button.
Summary of Issues: I have posted a database summarizing the problems I frequently encounter, along with a discussion of why it’s a problem for me, and with links to examples taken from real books. That info is here.
New Submissions Welcome: I am currently accepting books in fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and thriller genres. Details and submission form are here.
Recently Posted Reports: If you’re accustomed to seeing the most recent reports listed down here, you’ll now find them on the Recent Headlines page. Now you can just jump straight there instead of scrolling past all the explanation stuff up above.
Full Report Index: In addition, you can now find a complete listing of all reports on a single page. The report cards aren’t shown, but the crucial details are there in the text. So you can do in-page searching to find what you’re looking for in no time.Correction appended below
For decades, tumor size has been crucial to the treatment and prognosis of breast cancer.
Bigger usually meant the cancer was more advanced and at a higher stage, required more treatment and brought a worse outlook.
But now physicians have biological tests that help them determine how aggressive the cancer is likely to be and the best course of treatment.
One test in particular is considered so reliable that on Jan. 1 it will officially become part of the formula physicians use to determine the breast cancer stage.
The change could affect about a quarter of patients by bumping some down a stage, said Dr. Nathalie Johnson, medical director of the Legacy Cancer Institute.
The test, called Oncotype DX, also influences treatment, eliminating or changing chemotherapy.
It was a blessing for Kathy Landis-Kays, 53, of Portland, who was diagnosed with stage I breast cancer in April. She caught the tumor early but her biology isn't great. She has a gene mutation that causes breast and ovarian tumors. Her cancer was also on the move.
In the past, she could have lost her hair during treatment. But the test indicated that she'd fare just as well with a regime that would not affect her hair.
"The quality of life I get to live during this treatment is significantly improved," Landis-Kays said. "I'm able to have a less toxic treatment."
Her physician, Dr. David Page, a medical oncologist at Providence Health & Services, has been using genetic tests to diagnose breast cancer patients for years. He said the official inclusion of Oncotype DX into the staging formula marks an evolution.
"It's a watershed moment of sorts because it's telling us that measuring a tumor with a ruler and looking at lymph nodes is an antiquated way of doing things," Page said. "We're finally starting to build in more sophisticated tests into the paradigm of telling a woman what stage of cancer it is."
Staging is important in cancer diagnosis. It defines the tumor so doctors involved in diagnosis and treatment, from radiologists to surgeons, know what they're dealing with. It also helps specialists design studies and compare treatments among patients.
And it's a numeral that's easy for patients to understand. Stage I signals an early cancer. Stage IV means it has spread around the body and is no longer curable.
Patients want to know where they fall on that spectrum.
"People ask me about it every day," Johnson said.
The answer can affect a patient's mood and outlook.
"Hearing that you're stage I feels a lot better than hearing you are stage IV," Johnson said.
NAILING DOWN THE DIAGNOSIS
Size still matters in breast cancer in the sense that it indicates the quantity of cancer cells. The more there are, Page said, the more likely it is that some have figured out how to travel to other parts of the body.
When a cancer spreads beyond the breast, or becomes metastatic, it isn't likely to be curable.
But size doesn't determine treatment.
"It isn't about the size of your tumor or even what's in the lymph nodes," Johnson said. "It's the biology of your cancer that makes all the difference."
Tests tell doctors whether the tumor can be attacked with treatments aimed at a molecule, HER-2, that divides and multiplies cancer cells. They also determine which cancers are fed by estrogen or progesterone, two sex hormones. Hormonal therapies can shrink these tumors.
The Oncotype DX test is used for the estrogen-fed tumors, about 80 percent of breast cancer cases.
AN OPTION FOR TREATMENT
Landis-Kays' tumor was in that category. She discovered it last March during a self-exam.
The cancer hadn't spread to her lymph nodes. But genetic tests revealed she has a mutation of a Breast Cancer Gene – BRCA2 – that greatly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Actress Angelina Jolie also has the mutation, prompting her to have a double mastectomy to prevent illness.
Landis-Kays underwent the same surgery in May that got rid of the lump. But physicians also discovered another area in her left breast where cancer was forming.
That – and her genetic mutation – meant she needed chemotherapy.
The Oncotype DX test put her in a medium-risk category, with a 17 to 22 percent chance of recurrence. Her doctor said she had a choice of two types of chemo. One would have caused her to lose her hair. The other wouldn't. Both would reduce her risk to less than 10 percent.
She opted to keep her hair.
"To have testing that showed me statistically and scientifically that I'm in a range where I'm making a reasonable choice – that was an amazing gift," Landis-Kays said.
She's been able to keep working and has suffered minimal side effects.
"I feel good," Landis-Kays said. "I'm enjoying my life."
LESS AGGRESSIVE TREATMENT
Chemotherapy used to be the go-to therapy for breast cancer but these days it's not always the best option.
Johnson had one patient several years ago with a very large tumor – 7 centimeters wide – more than three times larger than a small tumor. Tests indicated that her cancer was slow-growing and susceptible to estrogen.
Johnson knew she could use a hormonal therapy but she was reluctant to just rely on that.
"The biology of her tumor looked really good but she had all this disease," Johnson said. "Our standard was to give chemotherapy."
The woman got one dose. It made her so sick that she ended up in an intensive care unit where she stayed for weeks.
The chemotherapy had no effect on her tumor so Johnson tried an anti-estrogen medication that isn't toxic.
Three months later, when the woman was out of the hospital, Johnson re-examined her. She couldn't find a lump. A magnetic resonance imaging test confirmed the cancer was gone.
That taught Johnson a lesson that sometimes less treatment – or targeted medication – is best.
"Even if you have a lot of disease, if the biology is good, you'll do fine without chemo," she said.
Correction: Kathy Landis-Kays' name was misspelled in an earlier version of the story.
-- Lynne Terry(Courtesy of Marvel/Disney)
Marvel and Walt Disney Studios have released the official trailer for the highly anticipated Black Panther, starring Chadwick Boseman. Along with a new poster, check out the latest footage behind the action/adventure film starring the popular Marvel superhero.
As we previously mentioned, after the events of Captain America: Civil War, King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) returns home to Wakanda to serve as his country’s new leader. Before he can sit on the throne, T’Challa is challenged from factions within his own country. When two enemies conspire to destroy Wakanda, Black Panther must team up with C.I.A. agent Everett K. Ross and members of the Dora Milaje, the Wakanadan special forces. They have to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.
Check out our 5 thoughts on the Black Panther teaser trailer!
5) All Together Now!
Martin Freeman continues using an American accent for his reprisal of agent Everett Ross. In the official trailer, Ross makes a point of explaining the continuity for newbies. He’s seen gods fly, aliens drop from the sky, but he ain’t seen nothing like this!
4) Is That Michonne!?!
Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead) makes a more prominent appearance as Okoye, a member of Wakanda’s bodyguard force. Always loyal, Okaye makes sure her king is ready for the upcoming battle. You don’t have have to worry about him freezing, because Black Panther never freezes.
3) The Revolution Will Not Be Televised!
The music for the teaser trailer sounded familiar because the beats and lyrics belonged to Run The Jewels’ “Legend Has It.” Now we have a new song for the official trailer. The catchy hooks come from Vince Staples’ “Bagbak.”
2.The Big Bad!
In the comics, Killmonger is the arch-nemesis of Black Panther and will be played by Michael B. Jordan (The Wire). In a duel for the throne, Killmonger and T’Challa will have to duke it out! Seriously, I can’t wait to see these two fight!
1) That Flip Again!
There always has to be some kind of ridiculous car crash in these Marvel movies! In eye-catching slow-motion, Black Panther jumps off the spinning car and leaps across the street while the vehicle explodes right behind him. Director Ryan Coogler (Creed) definitely marks each scene with flaire and style!
Black Panther arrives in theaters everywhere February 16, 2018.
– By Jorge Solis
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 4.58 KB I have nothing to do with the ending beyond a) having argued successfully a long time ago that we needed a chance to say goodbye to our squad, b) having argued successfully that Cortez shouldn't automatically die in that shuttle crash, and c) having written Tali's goodbye bit, as well as a couple of the holo-goodbyes for people I wrote (Mordin, Kasumi, Jack, etc). No other writer did, either, except for our lead. This was entirely the work of our lead and Casey himself, sitting in a room and going through draft after draft. And honestly, it kind of shows. Every other mission in the game had to be held up to the rest of the writing team, and the writing team then picked it apart and made suggestions and pointed out the parts that made no sense. This mission? Casey and our lead deciding that they didn't need to be peer-reviewe.d And again, it shows. If you'd asked me the themes of Mass Effect 3, I'd break them down as: Galactic Alliances Friends Organics versus Synthetics In my personal opinion, the first two got a perfunctory nod. We did get a goodbye to our friends, but it was in a scene that was divorced from the gameplay -- a deliberate "nothing happens here" area with one turret thrown in for no reason I really understand, except possibly to obfuscate the "nothing happens here"-ness. The best missions in our game are the ones in which the gameplay and the narrative reinforce each other. The end of the Genophage campaign exemplifies that for me -- every line of dialog is showing you both sides of the krogan, be they horrible brutes or proud warriors; the art shows both their bombed-out wasteland and the beautiful world they once had and could have again; the combat shows the terror of the Reapers as well as a blatant reminder of the rachni, which threatened the galaxy and had to be stopped by the krogan last time. Every line of code in that mission is on target with the overall message. The endgame doesn't have that. I wanted to see banshees attacking you, and then have asari gunships zoom in and blow them away. I wanted to see a wave of rachni ravagers come around a corner only to be met by a wall of krogan roaring a battle cry. Here's the horror the Reapers inflicted upon each race, and here's the army that you, Commander Shepard, made out of every race in the galaxy to fight them. I personally thought that the Illusive Man conversation was about twice as long as it needed to be -- something that I've been told in my peer reviews of my missions and made edits on, but again, this is a conversation no writer but the lead ever saw until it was already recorded. I did love Anderson's goodbye. For me, Anderson's goodbye is where it ended. The stuff with the Catalyst just... You have to understand. Casey is really smart and really analytical. And the problem is that when he's not checked, he will assume that other people are like him, and will really appreciate an almost completely unemotional intellectual ending. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. And then, just to be a dick... what was SUPPOSED to happen was that, say you picked "Destroy the Reapers". When you did that, the system was SUPPOSED to look at your score, and then you'd show a cutscene of Earth that was either: a) Very high score: Earth obviously damaged, but woo victory b) Medium score: Earth takes a bunch of damage from the Crucible activation. Like dropping a bomb on an already war-ravaged city. Uh, well, maybe not LIKE that as much as, uh, THAT. c) Low score: Earth is a cinderblock, all life on it completely wiped out I have NO IDEA why these different cutscenes aren't in there. As far as I know, they were never cut. Maybe they were cut for budget reasons at the last minute. I don't know. But holy crap, yeah, I can see how incredibly disappointing it'd be to hear of all the different ending possibilities and have it break down to "which color is stuff glowing?" Or maybe they ARE in, but they're too subtle to really see obvious differences, and again, that's... yeah. Okay, that's a lot to have written for something that's gonna go away in an hour. I still teared up at the ending myself, but really, I was tearing up for the quick flashbacks to old friends and the death of Anderson. I wasn't tearing up over making a choice that, as it turned out, didn't have enough cutscene differentiation on it. And to be clear, I don't even really wish Shepard had gotten a ride-off-into-sunset ending. I was honestly okay with Shepard sacrificing himself. I just expected it to be for something with more obvious differentiation, and a stronger tie to the core themes -- all three of them.
RAW Paste Data
I have nothing to do with the ending beyond a) having argued successfully a long time ago that we needed a chance to say goodbye to our squad, b) having argued successfully that Cortez shouldn't automatically die in that shuttle crash, and c) having written Tali's goodbye bit, as well as a couple of the holo-goodbyes for people I wrote (Mordin, Kasumi, Jack, etc). No other writer did, either, except for our lead. This was entirely the work of our lead and Casey himself, sitting in a room and going through draft after draft. And honestly, it kind of shows. Every other mission in the game had to be held up to the rest of the writing team, and the writing team then picked it apart and made suggestions and pointed out the parts that made no sense. This mission? Casey and our lead deciding that they didn't need to be peer-reviewe.d And again, it shows. If you'd asked me the themes of Mass Effect 3, I'd break them down as: Galactic Alliances Friends Organics versus Synthetics In my personal opinion, the first two got a perfunctory nod. We did get a goodbye to our friends, but it was in a scene that was divorced from the gameplay -- a deliberate "nothing happens here" area with one turret thrown in for no reason I really understand, except possibly to obfuscate the "nothing happens here"-ness. The best missions in our game are the ones in which the gameplay and the narrative reinforce each other. The end of the Genophage campaign exemplifies that for me -- every line of dialog is showing you both sides of the krogan, be they horrible brutes or proud warriors; the art shows both their bombed-out wasteland and the beautiful world they once had and could have again; the combat shows the terror of the Reapers as well as a blatant reminder of the rachni, which threatened the galaxy and had to be stopped by the krogan last time. Every line of code in that mission is on target with the overall message. The endgame doesn't have that. I wanted to see banshees attacking you, and then have asari gunships zoom in and blow them away. I wanted to see a wave of rachni ravagers come around a corner only to be met by a wall of krogan roaring a battle cry. Here's the horror the Reapers inflicted upon each race, and here's the army that you, Commander Shepard, made out of every race in the galaxy to fight them. I personally thought that the Illusive Man conversation was about twice as long as it needed to be -- something that I've been told in my peer reviews of my missions and made edits on, but again, this is a conversation no writer but the lead ever saw until it was already recorded. I did love Anderson's goodbye. For me, Anderson's goodbye is where it ended. The stuff with the Catalyst just... You have to understand. Casey is really smart and really analytical. And the problem is that when he's not checked, he will assume that other people are like him, and will really appreciate an almost completely unemotional intellectual ending. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. And then, just to be a dick... what was SUPPOSED to happen was that, say you picked "Destroy the Reapers". When you did that, the system was SUPPOSED to look at your score, and then you'd show a cutscene of Earth that was either: a) Very high score: Earth obviously damaged, but woo victory b) Medium score: Earth takes a bunch of damage from the Crucible activation. Like dropping a bomb on an already war-ravaged city. Uh, well, maybe not LIKE that as much as, uh, THAT. c) Low score: Earth is a cinderblock, all life on it completely wiped out I have NO IDEA why these different cutscenes aren't in there. As far as I know, they were never cut. Maybe they were cut for budget reasons at the last minute. I don't know. But holy crap, yeah, I can see how incredibly disappointing it'd be to hear of all the different ending possibilities and have it break down to "which color is stuff glowing?" Or maybe they ARE in, but they're too subtle to really see obvious differences, and again, that's... yeah. Okay, that's a lot to have written for something that's gonna go away in an hour. I still teared up at the ending myself, but really, I was tearing up for the quick flashbacks to old friends and the death of Anderson. I wasn't tearing up over making a choice that, as it turned out, didn't have enough cutscene differentiation on it. And to be clear, I don't even really wish Shepard had gotten a ride-off-into-sunset ending. I was honestly okay with Shepard sacrificing himself. I just expected it to be for something with more obvious differentiation, and a stronger tie to the core themes -- all three of them.Jeanne d’Arc Girubuntu was the first Rwandan woman and first black African woman to ride at the UCI Road World Championships this September, but many believe that this is just the start of her journey. The hope is that this 20-year-old woman from a poverty stricken nation devastated by genocide, could make it to the top level of cycling. If she does break through, Girubuntu would blaze a path not just for the female cyclists of her country, but for all black African women.
It’s only been two years since Jeanne d’Arc Girubuntu took up cycling but since then so much has changed. It quickly became clear that she was head and shoulders above her competition in Rwanda, both literally and figuratively.
The gaps were so large at the end of a race against her Rwandan competitors that she’d slow down near the end just to make it a little more acceptable, just as she would stoop her tall frame so it was closer to the height of those around her.
It was obvious that she was leagues ahead of the competition in Rwanda when at 18, she became national champion, beating her nearest rival by almost 10 minutes. But her skills and mentality were still so far away from those battling it out in the top level of the sport and on the world stage.
The football mad-nation of Rwanda, where bikes are commonly seen as a means of transport for those who can’t afford a car, hasn’t in the past been a hotbed of competition for cyclists but Team Africa Rising has been working for years to change this, helping to develop cyclists from Rwanda as well as Ethiopia and Eritrea.
There are a number of male cyclists from these countries that have made their way into professional cycling but this is not the case for female cyclists, who face additional barriers. The Tour of Rwanda, where millions line the streets to watch, gives the men a chance to take on a strong international field in their home country, but the races and cycling culture just isn’t there for the women.
The staggering 64 percent of women in the Rwandan parliament tells a tale of female empowerment that hasn’t necessarily trickled down to other areas of society and the traditional, deeply patriarchal attitudes hold firm in rural Rwanda where the norm is still for women to marry young and perform the bulk of the labour in the fields.
When Ella CyclingTips asked Kimberly Coats, director of marketing and logistics for Team Africa Rising, how big the cultural gap was that Rwandan female cyclists had to overcome her response was: “Have you ever seen the Grand Canyon? That’s how big the gap is.”
“Culturally Rwanda doesn’t have a lot of women on bikes,” said Coats. “In the rural villages where we live the women still don’t have a lot of rights and they are still doing most of the work. But it can change and I can see it changing.”
And Girubuntu, who comes from a small town in the eastern province of Rwanda, is leading the way.
From a small town in Rwanda to South Africa, Switzerland and the world championships
Initially, Girubuntu’s habit of slowing at the end of a race, her slouched posture and deferential attitude had Coats wondering if this young woman really had what it takes to make it amidst the tough competition of the highest level. But her natural talent couldn’t be ignored and Girubuntu was invited to a training camp in Africa at the start of the year, ahead of the African Continental Championships. Her confidence and list of wins grew after the camp and her potential was obvious.
“It was a great moment for me in my cycling career because it gave me an opportunity to learn a lot about cycling and I was able to meet other riders who are stronger than me,” said Girubuntu via a translator. “I was also able to compete in races in South Africa and ultimately I competed in the African Continental Cycling Championships, finishing in the top five which really showed me that I can make it.”
“It opened up an opportunity for me to train at the World Cycling Centre in Switzerland and that really changed the way I looked at cycling, that it could be my career,” Girubuntu added.
She arrived at the UCI World Cycling Centre in Switzerland in early May, the 1000th trainee but first Rwandan women to attend. Initially meant to stay for a one month talent identification training camp, Girubuntu ended up staying for three months to prepare for the African Games and the UCI Road World Championships.
Podiums missed but opportunities grasped
The road to developing as a top level cyclist, is never an easy one, and being a rider from a country where the culture is so far removed from Europe or the US makes it even tougher. Then there is the huge task of being a young, relatively new rider that began riding in a country with almost no women’s racing and limited skill development opportunities.
“The first important area we had to develop was her technical ability,” said Jean-Jacques Henry, coach at the UCI World Cycling Centre. “When she arrived she did not know how to ride a bike. Her skills were sufficient only for leisure cycling. She could not ride downhill and she almost crashed at every bend. Then she learned how to corner fast, to have the right technique and balance on a fast downhill road. At the same time, she learned how to keep her position in a peloton which was very new for her. After a few weeks, she had enough practice to start to fight for results in a cycling race.”
Girubuntu went on to the All Africa Games in September, missing out on the podium in the time trial by the slimmest of margins. Then she went on to become the first Rwandan women to race at the UCI Road World Championships later that month.
“This really made me very happy, especially that I was the first black woman to compete at the World Cycling Championships. Of course I was the only Rwandan female cyclist and did not expect to win because I did not have fellow country-mates to ride along with but I accepted this and said to myself that I should go strong,” said Girubuntu.
At the World Championships, Girubuntu was the second last rider to finish the road race, coming in 87th and rounded out the time trial results at 44th.
Since then Girubuntu has also raced the Momentum 947 Cycle Challenge, the first UCI sanctioned 1.1 race for women in South Africa. The race, run on the weekend, was won by South Africa’s national champion Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (Bigla) and Girubuntu secured 15th place in a field that contained a truly international fields and top professional teams like Bigla, TIBCO-SVB and Liv-Plantur.
“She has the potential to be a great cyclist but still has a long way to go”
Girubuntu has come a long way quickly and shown strength in the mountains, in time trials and an impressive recovery capacity, but those around her know that some patience and a lot of work will be required for her to develop her skills far enough to reach the ranks of a professional rider on the world stage.
Coates is hoping that 2017 could be the year and the UCI’s Henry also sees it as a possibility but cautions that it is a process that will take time, expecting that she will need two or three years more of development.
“She certainly has the potential to be a great cyclist but still has a long way to go. Firstly, she needs a career plan and financial support over several years. Secondly she needs to leave her country and find a team who will take care of her, not for a few weeks but for the whole season,” said Henry. “Then she will need people around her willing to help and protect her.”
The plan for the year ahead is to keep exposing Girubuntu to the top-level competition and development opportunities that she can only find by leaving Rwanda. Coats hopes to find her a spot in a training development camp with a US team and the opportunity to take part in a couple of early season races in California.
Then she will head back to the UCI World Cycling Centre for months of training and racing. Girubuntu’s focus needs to be on her own development but she also hopes it will spur on others.
“I want to be a professional cyclist and ride on a pro team. I also want to help my fellow girls back home and form a girls’ team in Rwanda. At competitions I always ride alone but I know that it is possible to encourage more girls to join cycling and we can do wonders in the near future. It is possible,” said Girubuntu.
It has been a ground-breaking year for men’s cycling in Africa, with team MTN-Qhubeka picking up a number of victories and becoming the first African registered team to take part in the Tour de France. They also did more than just take part, with Eritrean cyclist Daniel Teklehaimanot becoming the first African cyclist to wear the polka dot jersey. Teklehaimanot and teammate Merhawi Kudus were also the first black African cyclists to take part in the Tour de France. Now there is hope that there can be similar ground-breaking performances in women’s cycling.
“After the world championships we asked (Girubuntu) do you really want to do this,” said Coats. “This is going to be the hardest thing she has ever done in her life, but if she does it she will change a continent.”
Thanks to Usher Komugisha (@Pinkett888) for translating Girubuntu’s comments.The government, like it did with hydrocarbons, is set to open up exploration and production of atomic minerals to private mining companies.
It is part of a strategy to increase domestic supplies of fuel as the country readies to expand its nuclear power generation capacity, Balvinder Kumar, secretary in the ministry of mines, said.
India currently has a 5.7 gigawatts (GW) nuclear power generation capacity, which barely accounts for 2% of the total power capacity but is expected to witness a sharp increase over the next 16 years as the country moves away from fossil fuels for its energy needs.
The Department of Atomic Energy’s target is to have 63GW of nuclear power capacity by 2032.
Fossil fuels account for 71% of the electricity output and the government wants to bring it down to less than 60% by 2030 as per its climate change action plan.
The proposed six nuclear reactors, for which talks between the Nuclear Power Corp. of India Ltd and US-based Westinghouse Electric Corp. are likely to be concluded by 2017, will alone more than double the country’s nuclear power output in the short term.
Kumar said rules for opening up exploration of atomic minerals to the private sector will be brought out shortly. Out of the country’s 1,400 sq. km of atomic mineral-rich area, about 1,000 sq. km along the coast—where minerals are available below specified thresholds—will be offered for prospecting and production through competitive bids. State agencies will retain rights to operate the remaining 400 sq. km.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act of 1957, which was amended in March 2015, provided for the auction of mining leases except for atomic minerals, for which the government was empowered to frame separate rules. “We are now addressing that part that was left out, in order to usher in competition and transparency in the case of atomic mineral leases. This will help us tap resources that are available domestically, so that imports can be reduced," said Kumar.
The government does not give the break-up of imports and domestic supply of nuclear fuel. Data tabled in Parliament show the country processed 1,252 tonnes of natural uranium from imported as well as domestic sources in 2014-15. An indigenous 700 megawatts (MW) pressurized heavy water reactor requires about 125 tonnes of uranium a year. The new mining lease auction rules will cover minerals such as uranium, thorium, titanium and zirconium.
There are large deposits of uranium in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Rajasthan and Telangana, according to the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research. Mines in some of these states are being expanded. Some of the minerals classified as atomic minerals have other industrial applications, too. Titanium, for example, is used in the paint and pigment industry.
Experts, however, said private mining firms’ interest in these leases would largely depend on how reliable the data available to them on mineral reserves is, how the nascent market for these minerals picks up and the deftness state administrations show in handling issues relating to local communities.
“It will be a challenge to run an auction for these minerals at this time as key supply and demand parameters such as resource availability and market prospects |
is available now, plus Storm King's Thunder is up for pre-order and will be delivered to your Roll20 account on September 6th," reads a brief announcement over at Roll20's Facebook page.
Some commenters are already concerned that the licensing arrangement is the first step toward an eventual Dungeons and Dragons takeover of Roll20. However, the service assures this isn't the case, and that other games and non-D&D rulesets will still be fully supported.
"We have no interest in becoming a solitary system platform. We continue to love a bunch of games, and additionally know that people play even D&D in a bunch of different ways via Roll20 that would be negatively impacted by over-optimization," reads a comment from Roll20.
"So look forward to a BUNCH of other cool stuff with a bunch of other cool publishers down the line."
The one sticking point of Roll20's new license is that these digital goods are a separate purchase from any physical modules you might have already bought for your own Dungeons and Dragons sessions. In other words, you'll be paying twice to play a new digital version of Storm King's Thunder, and that's not going to come cheap: $50 for the module, which is the same price as its physical book. (The first licensed module, Lost Mine of Phandelver, costs $20.)
"We're always looking to broaden access to Dungeons & Dragons, and Roll20 already plays a significant part of that expansion. We are excited to see what the future brings," said Greg Tito, communications manager at Wizards of the Coast, as reported by Polygon.‘The disparity of these circumstances is enough to shock the Court’s conscience’
San Diego State University violated “procedural fairness” by refusing to let a student accused of rape have an advocate “with the same or substantially similar skills, training and experience” as his accuser’s advocate, a California court ruled.
Judge Joel Wohlfeil ordered the university to “dissolve the finding” by Dr. Lee Mintz, who also served as the school’s investigator, that “John Doe” did not stop having sex with “Jane Roe” when she asked.
It also must take back its finding that Roe “became incapacitated” and Doe “continued to have sex with her.” Mintz characterized those findings as “sexual assault” and “rape.”
Doe did not contest findings that “may support the sanction of expulsion” that he received before filing suit, so the California Superior Court judge declined to overturn his expulsion.
Wohlfeil scheduled a March 10 hearing on whether SDSU should get another crack at trying Doe on the now-dissolved findings against him.
‘Deeply flawed’ adjudication system
Doe and Roe had sex shortly after he offered her an edible marijuana called a “Black Bar,” which contains high doses of concentrated THC oil.
Roe claimed she tried to stop the previously consensual intercourse when she started feeling sick from the bar’s effects, while Doe said the sex was over before the bar could have had any psychoactive effect on Roe.
Doe’s lawyer had presented text messages and phone records from Roe that undermined her claims about the duration of sex and her alleged incapacitation, noting she was able to walk “normally” out of Doe’s apartment and down to her friend on the street. A polygraph examination also supported Doe’s version of events, his lawyer said.
Wohlfeil’s Feb. 1 “minute order” denounces the university’s “well-intentioned, but deeply flawed, administrative system to investigate and review complaints of student misconduct,” which stacks the deck against accused students.
“The disparity of these circumstances is enough to shock the Court’s conscience,” the judge wrote.
California Superior Court order against San Diego State in Doe v. Rivera by The College Fix on Scribd
“Dr. Mintz wore multiple hats,” Wohlfeil said: SDSU first assigned her to investigate Roe’s claims, and then she “became” the accuser’s “advocate” and “advisor. … From the start of the process through and including the hearing, Dr. Mintz both counseled Jane and spoke on her behalf.”
She was required to receive “training” on “how to conduct an investigation process that protects the safety of the Complainant,” meaning the accuser, Wohlfeil wrote.
‘A rational foundation exists’ to reverse the findings
The judge made clear that he was bound by an “extremely deferential substantial evidence standard of review,” meaning the university’s findings have a “strong presumption as to their correctness and regularity. … Only if no reasonable person could reach the conclusion reached by” SDSU would Wohlfeil dissolve its findings.
Even as he agreed that there was evidence to “support the hearing officer’s findings,” and that Wohlfeil was not allowed to “weigh the evidence, consider the credibility of witnesses, or resolve conflicts in the evidence,” the judge noted his disapproval of the process.
Mintz gave Doe’s medical records to the hearing officer “without authentication, foundation or explanation from any competent person,” and over Doe’s protests, Wohlfeil wrote.
“Multiple witnesses were allowed to speculate and express, without an adequate foundation, opinions about a subsequent ‘panic attack’ that Jane allegedly suffered” after the incident and “consequences to Jane from the alleged assault,” the judge said.
After Doe provided a Mintz report to a polygraph expert through his attorney – who was not allowed to participate in the hearing – the hearing officer attacked Doe’s “credibility” and called it “inappropriate.”
In a vast understatement, Wohlfeil said that “from a fair reading of the record, a rational foundation exists to support findings the hearing officer could have made in favor of” Doe that “the incident, as alleged by Jane, did not occur.”
Judge wonders how Doe handled himself so well
Doe was “fundamentally deprived of a fair hearing” by the university’s failure to give him an “adult advisor” on par with Mintz, the judge said. That didn’t need to be a lawyer – it could have been a faculty member – but Doe needed the assistance of an “adult” to ensure the playing field was level for both Doe and Roe, according to Wohlfeil.
SDSU violated U.S. Department of Education rules on providing advocates “equally for both parties,” the judge said, laying out just how much SDSU tilted the proceedings against Doe.
“At the time of the incident, Petitioner [Doe] was 18 years old. At the time of the hearing, in which Dr. Mintz accused him of ‘sexual assault’ and ‘rape,’ Petitioner was 19 years old,” Wohlfeil said:
Respondents [SDSU] presented their case through a skillful, trained and experienced advocate; namely Dr. Mintz. Petitioner was left to present an opening statement, examine lay and expert witnesses, and argue his defense on his own behalf. True, Petitioner was allowed to consult with his attorney (which the record reflects as “whispering”) but he was still the only person allowed to advocate his defense.
The judge concluded: “The Court wonders how, given Petitioner’s youth, infant stages of his post-secondary education and the seriousness of the charges, Petitioner was able to conduct himself as well as he did.”
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IMAGE: ShutterstockWe've repeatedly said that the best backup is the one you use. The Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive for Mac (1TB) ($129 list) is a prime choice for the Mac user. It is fastest when copying files, which defines the backup process. Take it out of the box, plug it in, and say yes when it asks you to use Time Machine. What could be easier? It's got more storage space than our current portable drive Editor's Choice, so the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive for Mac is a great choice for those who value storage space over raw speed.
Design and Features
The Backup Plus Portable for Mac looks very much like the Editors' Choice Seagate Backup Plus ($139.99 list, 4.5 stars) drive we reviewed earlier this year. Both are compact, portable drives with a removable USM (Universal Storage Module) interface adapter on one end. The USM interface lets you swap out the included USB 2.0/3.0 interface to connect the drive to optional adapters for Thunderbolt ($99) or FireWire 800 ($25). Though the adapters are extra, they are the same as the ones used for Seagate's previous GoFlex line of drives, so if your business uses that older line of drives, you can share adapters. The drive measures about 0.57 by 3.25 by 5 inches (HWD), so it fits easily in your coat pocket or commute bag. The drive light is on the USM adapter, which leaves the drive body itself featureless save a raised Seagate logo. The top of the drive case is painted a matte silver to match your MacBook Air or Pro, while the rest of the drive is basic white.
The drive inside has a 1TB capacity, with a less expensive 500GB ($109.99 list) option in case you don't want a whole Terabyte of storage. The drive is formatted HFS+ out of the box, so it will work with Time Machine right away. The drive comes with an installer for Seagate Dashboard, which is an optional program that can be used to backup and share photos from social media sites like Flickr or Facebook. People who already use iPhoto for this purpose may not need to install the program, but it's useful for those users that mainly use their smartphone to post images to these social media sites. One plus is that the program lives alongside Time Machine instead of taking over the drive. Seagate includes a two-year warranty, double that of other more basic drives.
Performance
The Backup Plus Portable for Mac is a decent drive for those with USB 3.0-equipped Macs, which are MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac systems built in 2012. You're going to get much slower performance if you run the drive on an older Mac with USB 2.0-only ports. That said, the drive will work with older Macs with the aforementioned lower performance. The Backup Plus Portable took a scant thirteen seconds to copy our 1.2 GB test folder over, which is a lot faster than the G-Technology G-Drive Mobile, which took much longer (19 seconds USB 3.0, 22 seconds FireWire 800). Older drives like the Verbatim Store 'n' Go Hard Drive for Macs ($174 list, 3 stars) took over forty seconds to copy the same file over USB 2.0. This means that the Backup Plus is well suited to the task at hand: copying files over so they can be saved in case your primary storage goes bad (which it will eventually).
The Backup Plus Portable isn't quite as prolific in sustained throughput tests, running the kind of tasks you'd expect for a video editor. The Backup Plus only managed a 90MBps write and 107 MBps read score on the AJA System test. Our current Editors' Choice for portable hard drives, the LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt ($199 list, 4.5 stars) is better suited to that task with a blazing 200 MBps write and 379 MBps read throughput score on the same test. Keep the Seagate drive as a backup drive, rather than a scratch disk for graphics tasks. If you must use a drive for high-end graphics work, use a SSD or a spinning desktop-class drive.
For Mac users who want to back up their digital life, the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive for Mac (1TB) is an economical choice. It's capacious, has a decent dollar per GB ratio (it's $10 less expensive than the generic Seagate Backup Plus drive we reviewed earlier), and it comes ready for Time Machine. It's got the same strengths as the more generic model, plus its silver visage will match your Mac better. It's not as fast as the Editors' Choice winning LaCie Rugged USB 3.0 Thunderbolt, and the Seagate requires a $99 adapter for Thunderbolt, so the LaCie holds on to its Editors' Choice title for now. But if all you need is backup, the Seagate Backup Plus is perfectly named.
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive for Mac (1TB) with several other hard drive side by side.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
WICHITA, Kansas - Think back to your high school's senior prank.
Maybe you and your pals slipped a pig into the building or greased all the door handles or turned all the chairs upside-down.
So it's no surprise that Wichita high school Principal Sherman Padgett was reluctant to play along last week when a student showed up and told him to stand in the hallway holding a bucket.
"She didn't say anything about why. She just said 'hold the bucket,'" the North High School principal told CNN affiliate KWCH. "I'm not going to hold the bucket unless I have a little inkling of why it could be."
Good thing he changed his mind.
Once he did, student after student streamed by, dropping notes of praise and thanks into the bucket.
"Thank you for making high school the best years of my life," one said.
"You've made my first year experience in America one that I will always fondly remember," read another.
One student recalled how Padgett "helped me get through my eating disorder and helped me get into therapy."
The notes were the idea of senior Emily Jones.
She decided she wanted to do something nice for the principal and cooked up the plan with her mother.
"Padgett's an awesome principal," she said.
For Padgett, who has been principal at North since 2006, the experience was priceless.
"Became a little emotional on some of them," he said. "I kind of read them and thought, 'Man, this is better than a paycheck. This is why I do the things that I do.'"Frequently Asked Questions
All of the games in this bundle are available for Microsoft Windows. Steel Storm is available for Mac and Linux as well. Unfortunately we aren't offering more platforms for the other games, in this bundle.
This bundle is a temporary offer and will last until July 3.
I'll be posting updates to my Twitter.
Follow @VinoBS
If you have technical or support questions specific to a game in the bundle, contact that game's developer. Otherwise you can contact me.
One of the games, Delve Deeper, can be redeemed on Steam. The remaining games are available on Desura.
The good news is that if this bundle is successful, Valve may be more open to seeing more of these games on Steam.
There were some issues with Desura keys early in the bundle. We offered sacrifices to the Bundle Gods and they have since been resolved. If your Desura keys didn't work or you didn't get one, contact me and I will get you fixed up.
Your download links have a lifetime of about a week. This is due to a limitation imposed on us by our payment provider. If you want to access your game after that time, please contact the developer and we would be happy to furnish you with a fresh link.
Beginning Monday June 26th we are offering a sixth game for the same price of five bucks. The game is Star-Twine, a somewhat abstract space RTS. Players who purchased the bundle before June 26th will still have Star-Twine available to them, but due to a technical inconvenience they must request it by contacting our support line.
Star-Twine should now be redeemable on Desura with the original Desura redeem code, regardless of when you purchased the bundle.Thousands took to the streets of central Hong Kong Saturday night holding candles as they marched in memory of pro-democracy Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo
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Hong Kong (AFP)
Thousands took to the streets of central Hong Kong Saturday night holding candles as they marched in memory of pro-democracy Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Veteran activists led the solemn gathering which wove its way from the commercial heart of Hong Kong Island to China's liaison office, with some marchers in tears.
Liu's ashes were buried at sea Saturday, depriving supporters of a place to pay tribute following his death Thursday from cancer while in custody on the mainland.
Hong Kongers have already held memorial events but Saturday's was by far the largest.
It came the day after four pro-democracy legislators were disqualified from Hong Kong's parliament, worsening fears that freedoms in the semi-autonomous city are under serious threat from an ever more assertive Beijing.
"Loving a country is wanting it to make progress," said marcher Emily Chau, 24.
"But this is how he was treated for being so loyal to the country."
Chau said she feared Hong Kong's freedoms were also now in jeopardy.
"With the disqualification of the lawmakers yesterday, it's like this place is decaying," she told AFP.
"While we still have the chance, I want to play some kind of role."
The city is ruled under a "one country, two systems" deal granting it freedoms unseen on the mainland, guaranteed in the handover agreement when colonial power Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.
But Beijing stands accused of increased interference in a range of areas, from politics to media and education.
Marchers of all ages carried floral wreaths and white chrysanthemums, bowing three times in front of a makeshift memorial to Liu outside the liaison office, a traditional sign of respect at funerals.
Some brought their children and grandchildren with them.
Steven Wong, 45, had travelled from Singapore to attend the march, saying he had respected Liu for many years.
Wong was born and grew up in Beijing and was a high school student there in 1989, the year of the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in the city's Tiananmen Square.
He said he remembered burned-out tanks and blood smeared on lamp posts the day after. Shortly afterwards his family moved to Singapore.
"He was a great scholar who woke up young people, especially of my generation," Wong said of Liu.
"He made me think deeply about what we can do as a Chinese (person) and what we can teach our students," said Wong, who is now an arts researcher.
Former Hong Kong lawmaker and long-time democracy advocate Alan Leong called for Liu's wife, Liu Xia, to be freed.
He also said Hong Kong was facing a "dire situation" as Beijing was "committing treachery" against it.
"We just stay calm and carry on," Leong told AFP.
© 2017 AFPThere’s a growing interest in developing ARM servers as a power-efficient alternative to systems based on Intel’s processors: Lenovo is the latest hardware vendor to test the concept with a prototype system.
Lenovo is building the server together with the U.K.-based Science and Technology Facilities Council. The project aims to see if it’s possible to scale up system performance while keeping power draw in check.
Low-power ARM chips are used in most smartphones and tablets, and server makers hope they will bring higher levels of power efficiency to servers as well. Data center servers, especially those supporting cloud services and applications, are handling increasing processing burdens. Companies like Facebook and Google that run huge data centers are interested in ARM servers as a route to lower electricity bills.
Lenovo is the last of the top three server makers to get in on the ARM game. HP already offers ARM processors for its Moonshot dense server, while Dell is still experimenting with the architecture in its servers.
Lenovo is using 64-bit ARM processors in a NextScale system, which was first developed by IBM but then turned over to the Chinese server company as part of the x86 server portfolio sale last year. The NextScale rack-scale server—which competes with HP’s Moonshot—was originally built in late 2013 around low-power x86 chips, but has been expanded to include a water-cooling system and Intel’s Xeon chips.
The goal of the prototype ARM server is to drive up performance-per-dollar and performance-per-watt compared to traditional server design methods deployed today, said Doug Augustine, a Lenovo spokesman, in an email.
The ARM server is optimized for specific uses like web search, caching and cloud, Augustine said.
The NextScale can hold up to 12 ARM-based server boards, or 1,152 processing cores. Lenovo is using Cavium’s ThunderX system-on-chips, which includes ethernet, memory, I/O and other key interfaces. Each ARM chip has up to 48 cores, and can operate at a frequency of up to 2.5GHz.
Besides Cavium, AppliedMicro, AMD, Broadcom, and others are supplying chips for ARM servers.
Lenovo today sells only servers with x86 chips from Intel. It doesn’t view ARM servers as a high-volume opportunity at the moment, Augustine said.
Intel today holds more than 90 percent market share in servers, and even ARM server chip vendors like AMD have admitted it may take many years before the chips are widely adopted in data centers. But an effort is underway to raise awareness about the chips’ benefits and to develop compatible software.
Lenovo’s project is a positive sign for ARM, said Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research. Qualcomm said late last year that it is developing ARM-based server chips, and momentum behind the architecture is only growing, he said.
“It’s going to make the server environment more competitive, that’s what everyone is waiting for,” McGregor said. “It’s just a question of how long it’s going to take.”
The market for ARM in the enterprise will only take off when the ecosystem that rides on it is built, Lenovo’s Augustine said. OS, hypervisors, compilers, performance optimizers, file systems, and the like are just starting to be put in place, he said.
Many Linux applications are already compatible with ARM server chips, and Oracle’s Java supports the architecture. Microsoft is rumored to be building a version of Windows Server for ARM processors.Launch gallery Photo: Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune data journalist Abraham Epton and reporter David Kidwell, who’s done astonishing reporting on the city’s speed and red-light camera programs, just dropped an intensive three-part investigation on more problems with speed cameras.
It’s incredibly detailed, impressive given the immense amount of data they were working with. And some of those details are revealing, especially about how the administration boxed itself in by focusing on the safety of schoolchildren. It also shows the awkward balance we strike between traffic flow and street safety.
Quirks in the Law
Because the focus has been on kids, speed cameras are subject to narrow, often confusing restrictions.
For instance, to be valid under state law, the 20 mph school-zone rule is in effect only when the speed camera documents the presence of a child. And not just any child: “The revised guidelines changed the rules to stop ticket processors from counting a child in a stroller or in an adult’s arms as evidence of a violation.”
Another headscratcher: Parks are supposed to be protected by the speed cameras, but is a bike path a park?
It also leaves the administration open to criticisms like this (emphasis mine):
Administration officials say the speed cameras are placed where crash statistics show the biggest safety problems. The data posted on the city’s website to justify the camera placement show more than 47,700 accidents from 2009 through 2012 with a connection to speed but that include a broad definition of when speed is a factor and count all types of crashes, involving not just pedestrians and involving people of all ages.
By one way of looking at it, this is kind of perverse. Shouldn’t the city want to prevent crashes of any kind? That’s the point that John Greenfield makes at Streetsblog, defending the program as broadly successful using preliminary CDOT data: “The department found that injury crashes dropped 18 percent within the 21 safety zones where speed cams were installed in 2013–a major improvement. Fatal and severe crashes within the safety zones went down a full 22 percent.” But the political balance struck to get the program in place—not just rhetorically, but baked into the structure of the program—puts child safety at the center.
CDOT defended using broad crash data to the Trib, arguing that “we are not going to wait for a kid to be killed before putting the cameras up somewhere where we see a high risk and significant evidence of traffic crashes and speeding problems.” Which makes a certain amount of sense—why wait for the problem to arise, when the problem is injured children?
But Kidwell and Epton counter with a very important point:
The Tribune examination of Chicago Police Department crash data from 2004 through 2014 revealed 108 children on foot or on bicycle were injured in accidents where the police cited “exceeding the authorized speed limit” as a contributing factor. The majority of those accidents happened on side streets, not on the major streets where speed cameras are typically placed.
It’s a small part of the article, but critical. What would targeting those crashes look like?
How the Dutch Make Streets Safer for Pedestrians
A couple years ago I talked about this with Peter Furth, who teaches civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University. I wanted to talk to Furth because of his expertise in Dutch traffic engineering, and the Dutch are often considered to be the gold standard in the Western world. We mostly talked about how to create a safe city for cycling, but the Dutch have created safe streets for pedestrians and drivers as well. And it came about because of an explicit movement to stop the killing of children in traffic. Literally: “Stop de Kindermoord,” or “Stop the child murder.”
It’s a strong word, especially when you consider that active-transportation advocates in America are still trying to persuade the media to use the word “crash” instead of "accident.” But it worked. The Dutch took the implications of the word seriously, and used diverse strategies to make their streets safer.
They invented the “woonerf,” which has come to America as the “living street” or “complete street,” which allow cars, but only at “walking speed.”
For a few months they banned the use of motor vehicles on Sundays. Though it had more to do with the OPEC crisis of the early 1970s, it opened the streets up to alternative forms of transportation. (Meanwhile, in Chicago, one member of the media floated the idea of having bike-free days.)
They built sophisticated, safe, separated networks of bike lanes throughout the country. This video, “How the Dutch Got Their Cycle Paths,” shows not just the cycling infrastructure, but who uses it, as a result. The elderly and young, riding casually in dress clothes without helmets, in contrast to American bike traffic, which is typified by young men decked out in don’t-hit-me yellow. Today Dutch cycling infrastructure is so good that it almost seems like they’re showing—the latest addition being a solar-powered bike lane, which is different from their glowing Van Gogh-inspired bike path, both of which go nicely with their glow-in-the-dark highway.
And there were legal changes. The Dutch are cracking down on misbehaving cyclists, including ones without lights and reflectors; cycling is part of the school curriculum. Furth told me that checking for a cyclist before opening your door is part of the driving test—if you don’t, you fail.
Perhaps all of that is terribly ambitious in an American context, but it does cast our exceptionally mild attempts at traffic calming into stark relief, like Chicago’s guidelines for verifying that a speeding violation takes place.
For instance, the guidelines say not to forward a ticket when it’s “questionable” whether a pedestrian photographed is a child, or when a pedestrian doesn’t “fit the physical description and features of a child.” It lists specific items to look for: “Children’s clothing and accessories, such as a school uniforms or school team uniforms, lunch boxes, bags.”
Kidwell and Epton document the astonishing detail with which the city pores over speed-camera photos to meet these legalistic burdens. From one hearing officer’s ruling: "Of the individual that I can actually see in the video that I reviewed at 300% four times, there does not appear to be any individuals that appear to be under the age of 18.”
The administration is getting pounded for this, but it’s worth considering the entire process of back-and-forth—of politics—that led to this complex, burdensome system that is easily misused, intentionally or not. There are other ways of going about it. They’re hard, but when you examine our speed cameras as closely as Kidwell and Epton do, they seem a lot easier.
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A High Court ordered the Amona outpost to be evacuated by December 25 since it was found to have been built on private Palestinian land in a case that has taken on international importance.
Dozens of Israeli youths streamed into the hilltop outpost of about 40 families in windy and bitterly cold weather in the middle of the night on Thursday, as they feared the army would move in imminently to clear them out.
Many of them, alerted to the decision on social media, crowded into a small synagogue and dozed in sleeping bags on the floor, while others stayed in their cars or simply walked the streets.
After sunrise, some of the youths, wearing knitted Jewish skullcaps with sidelocks dangling, spread nails on roads along with stones and wooden poles.
Several took up position on top of a water tower while waving an Israeli flag. They also hauled an empty dumpster with them for unclear reasons.
READ MORE - Portrait of an occupation: Human rights of the settler
A spokesman for Amona residents, who has lived in the outpost for 14 years, said they had not been given any notice of when an evacuation could happen.
Asked whether he was concerned that the youths' presence at the outpost would lead to violence, he said: "I'm worried about the government inflicting pain on people - needless pain."
"There is no difference between Amona and Tel Aviv," said Eli Greenberg, a 43-year-old father of eight.
"There's no reason to take us out of here," he said as he sat on the front deck of his mobile home near a hillside planted with rows of olive trees.
The dispute over whether to demolish the outpost northeast of Ramallah has taken on international importance because of concern over settlement expansion in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967.
Israeli nationalist politicians, settlement advocates, and Amona residents have resisted the move, and the international community is watching closely over whether the court order will be obeyed.
All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, are illegal under international law, but Israel differentiates between those it has approved and those it has not.
Settlements such as Amona are called outposts because Israel has not approved them.
There are concerns over how any evacuation will play out.
In 2006, the demolition of nine permanent houses in the outpost led to clashes between settlers and Israeli security forces.
Israel court denies request to keep Amona settlement
Settlements are seen as major stumbling blocks to peace efforts as they are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
But the settlement movement wields significant power in Israeli politics.
Key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, seen as the most right-wing in the country's history, openly oppose a Palestinian state and advocate annexing most of the West Bank.
Kalmen Barkin, a 20-year-old from Jerusalem with a long red beard, was among those gathered in the Amona synagogue before dawn.
He said he did not advocate violence and would passively resist.
"When they come to take you, grab on to something."A teenage moped rider has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to murder a policeman in north London.
Scotland Yard said the uniformed officer was injured when he was hit by a moped being driven "erratically" in Balls Pond Road in Islington at around 4.15pm on Wednesday.
The 22-year-old policeman signalled for the rider to stop but was ignored before the crash took place.
He suffered leg injuries and was taken to hospital but has since been discharged.
The teenage rider came off his moped and was detained by another officer at the scene.
The 18-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, taking and driving away and possession of a class B drug.
He remains in custody at a north London police station.
Later enquiries found the moped had been reported lost or stolen.
The road was taped off near the junction with Southgate Road as a sea of police vehicles descended on the scene.
Stunned witnesses told how they saw a police officer attempt to stop the rider before he was attacked in broad daylight.
Eyewitness Peter Nguyen, who manages local restaurant Salvation in Noodles, told the Standard: "We were preparing for Chinese New Year when we saw a policeman try to stop a guy on a bike.
"The guy on the moped then smacked the police officer and tried to drive off.
"He got about 15 to 20 feet down the road before the police car stopped him again and pulled him over.
"It was quite scary people were coming out of their houses and shops and staring. The police blocked the road.”
Another witness said: "I saw lots of police officers, more than I've seen before.
"They were gathered by the junction at the end of the road. There was a police van where they were loading a cuffed man into
"As I moved up the road a first response car arrived, followed by a trauma unit."
Witnesses told on social media how swarms of police raced to the |
I was always trying to improve my shot and improve my game and it’s an honour that someone like him is telling me that that I have a good shot and I’m a good player.”
Good might not be the right word. Based on the early returns, Laine appears destined for greatness. Obviously, he won’t score anywhere close to the 76 goals that Selanne had as a rookie. But so far, he’s doing the Finnish legend proud.
“I’m so happy the way he’s playing. He’s been rock solid right away,” said Selanne. “I’ve been waiting a long time for when Finland was going to bring another superstar in the league. And finally, we have one of them.”That the Deepwater Horizon’s blowout preventer shear rams likely closed yet failed to stop the flow of oil (as we reported today) isn’t necessarily a surprise. Many observers have speculated that was the case.
But we were surprised when more than a few sources told us with a nonchalant matter-of-factness: “You know, BOP’s aren’t really designed to stop a well that is already flowing.”
What? The emergency-fail-safe device isn’t actually designed to stop an emergency?
Granted, it’s ridiculous for those of us who until a year ago didn’t know a BOP from a Christmas Tree to act outraged at such a revelation. The 24-hour news coverage of the spill made all of us think we’re armchair drilling engineers as we guffawed at testimony that a mere six centralizers were sufficient for the well. And doesn’t everyone know a nitrified cement slurry needs more time to set up? (Note: The previous statements were meant sarcastically).
But we’re not the only ones responding this way.
David Pursell, head of macro research of Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. in Houston, also found the notion a bit surprising.
Pursell has worked in the field on onshore wells, which he admits are certainly different from deep-water wells like Macondo. But his understanding of BOPs while working in the field was that they could close on a flowing well.
“When you close your shear rams you’re at DefCon 5; your well is probably flowing,” Pursell said.
If the industry’s excuse for not being able to control the well is that the BOP wasn’t designed to do that job, Pursell said he’d find it hard to defend that logic.
“Maybe they weren’t designed for it, but maybe they should have been,” he said.
Satish Nagarajaiah, a professor of civil and mechanical engineering at Rice University, notes that American Petroleum Institute specifications for testing blind shear rams require they hold full pressure after drill pipe is sheared. That’s a far different expectation from requiring them to close, shear and seal while hydrocarbons are flowing in the well.
But in the past it appears BOPs have shut and remain sealed during blowouts, Nagarajaiah notes.
“So in summary, this notion of BOP isn’t designed to actually stop a well in full flow is debatable,” he said in an e-mail. “If this was the case we would have had many more failures; there are cases where the BOP actually worked.”
But in the case of the Deepwater Horizon many things went wrong and the BOP was clearly being asked to work in the toughest possible situation.
And of course the best blowout preventer of all is the rig crew watching carefully for what the well is saying about its condition. It’s now pretty clear that BOP failed first at Macondo.In a bizarre move, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan (AWKUM) has decided to probe three students for alleged "blasphemous activity", a notification posted to their website said Friday.
Of the three students named in the notification, one was killed and another severely injured after being brutally assaulted by an enraged mob a day earlier.
The university's notification on a probe into 'blasphemous activities' allegedly committed by three students.
The notification, dated April 13, did not mention any details of the incident or a condemnation of the student's killing, even though the university's provost, Fayyaz Ali Shah, said it had been issued after the lynching.
"I [the assistant registrar] am directed to notify that... [an] Inquiry Committee has been constituted to probe into the matter of blasphemous activities carried [out] by [three] students of Department of Journalism," the notification read.
"Further, the mentioned students are hereby rusticated and their entry into the premises of the University (all campuses) is banned until further orders," it added.
When asked why the school administration had also rusticated the deceased student, Shah said: "it is a clerical error which is being revised".
Horrific attack
23-year-old AWKUM student Mashal had been killed and another student, Abdullah, seriously injured a day earlier by a vigilante mob for allegedly "publishing blasphemous content online", local police had said Thursday.
No case had been filed against the two students prior to the incident and police had not been investigating the two on blasphemy charges.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. An eyewitness's video of Mashal Khan's lynching.
The mob instead seems to have been incited by rumours circulating among the university's student body.
An eyewitness said the mob had first surrounded Abdullah and forced him to recite verses from the Holy Quran, then proceeded to beat him bloody.
The police, when alerted, reached the site of the incident and rescued Abdullah, after which the mob turned on Mashal, who was in his hostel at the time, the eyewitness said.
Mashal was first shot, then beaten with wooden planks till he succumbed to his injuries. The mob had also wanted to burn his body before police intervened, a senior police official had said.
The incident had occurred within the university premises.
The campus was shut down indefinitely and its hostels vacated to avoid a further escalation of violence.
One of Mashal's teachers later told Reuters that he was a passionate and critical student.
“He was brilliant and inquisitive, always complaining about the political system of the country, but I never heard him saying anything controversial against the religion,” the teacher said.
Funeral prayers for Mashal were offered early Friday in Kalu Khan, Swabi District, where he was laid to rest.
'Police unable to control the situation'
Students had said police was alerted when the incident happened and was present on campus at the time.
A university administration official confirmed that over 20 police officers had arrived at the scene after being summoned for help, but were unable to control the situation because of the number of students involved.
When asked why they didn't intervene, police said there were "too many people" in the mob for them to take on.
However, at least 45 people had been arrested in connection with the incident by Thursday evening.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered by police on Friday in the Sheikh Maltoon police station against 20 suspects, eight of whom had been arrested.
The suspects were identified through video footage of the incident. Police had formed three teams to arrest the remaining suspects.http://www.heartland.org/pdf/12508.pdf 22 by Steven B. Cord Here Are 22 Empirical Studies On the Effects of Land Value Taxation In Actual Applications My dilemma is this: recounting 237 studies (more are coming) is mind-boggling and brain-busting. It will lead to e-g-o (eyes glazed over) among readers, so I am listing 22 brief summaries of them here. Anyone desiring all 237 summaries should write me for them (10528 Cross Fox Lane, Columbia, MD 21044; cost: $12). I did some of these studies myself. These 237 studies come from a close reading of the back issues (from 1974 on) of Incentive Taxation, an eight times yearly newsletter reviewing empirical studies of the taxation of land values. Here are the 22 summaries mentioned above:
(1) The contiguous cities of Allentown and Bethlehem in eastern Pennsylvania
(2) Washington and nearby Monessen (both in southwestern Pennsylvania)
(3) Connellsville, Pa.
(4) Aliquippa, Pa.
(5) In 1989, Clairton, Pa., an industrial suburb of Pittsburgh,
(6) Let us now compare two-rate Oil City, Pa.
(7) The long two-rate LVT experience of Pittsburgh
(8) In other countries, there are many good studies of the effect of a building-to-land switch on construction.
(9) Then there’s the study by professors Wallace Oates and Robert Schwab
(10) In 1995, Professor Nicolaus Tideman of Virginia Tech University and his then-graduate student, Florenz Plassmann
(11) Harry Gunnison Brown, a leading economist in the 1930s, reported that suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
(12) A Pittsburgh City Council study (1976)
(13) A Washington, D.C. council-authorized study done in the 1970s
(14) In 164 suburbs outside central Melbourne (Aus.),
(15) Twelve studies in rural Victoria found that LVT-only towns
(16) If you fall through the earth, you will emerge near Perth, Western Australia
(17) In North Dakota,
(18) California Irrigation Districts
(19) Malvern, Australia
(20) Tax defaults:
(21) According to a city-funded 1980 study in New Castle, Pa.,
(22) Assessment officials in both Pittsburgh and Scranton, Pa.
(1) The contiguous cities of Allentown and Bethlehem in eastern Pennsylvania are comparable as to size and economy. However, in 1997 Allentown became two-rate LVT. The difference between the land and building rates was expanded in each of the following four years while Bethlehem remained one-rate. Allentown’s new construction and renovation grew by 82% in dollar value in the three years after it adopted two-rate LVT as compared to the prior three years. Its new construction and renovation grew 54% faster than Bethlehem’s new construction and renovation despite the infusion of much federal-grant money into Bethlehem (but not into Allentown) during 1997-99. These figures are based on a study of city-hall building-permit data on file in the Allentown and Bethlehem city halls, done by Benjamin Howells (a science researcher and former Allentown councilman), William Kells (a science-oriented businessman), and Steven Cord (professor-emeritus) in 1999. The study was summarized in Incentive Taxation (hereafter referred to as IT), 7/00, p. 1. (2) Washington and nearby Monessen (both in southwestern Pennsylvania) are roughly comparable as to size and economy. After Washington became two-rate LVT in 1985, it saw its new construction and renovation increase by 33% in dollar value in the three years after two-rate adoption as compared to the prior three years. During the same time periods, nearby one-rate Monessen’s new construction and renovation decreased by 26%. A report of this study, based on building-permit data on file in the Washington and Monessen city halls, can be found in IT, 10/88. Also see IT, 9/00, and 10/97). (3) Connellsville, Pa. saw its new construction and renovation jump 3.46 times in the three years after it adopted a two-rate LVT property tax as compared to the prior three years. This jump can be compared to nearby the rather modest 1.07 increase in nearby Uniontown during the same time period. The two cities are quite comparable, although Uniontown is somewhat larger and is the county seat (both these differences are economic development plusses). A report of this study can be found in IT, 10/97. It is based on building-permits issued on file in the Connellsville and Uniontown city halls. (4) Aliquippa, Pa. presents interesting statistics because both the city and eventually its school district went two-rate LVT. When the city adopted a substantial two-rate building-to-land shift in its local property tax in January 1988, its new construction and renovation jumped 97%, 1988-90 as compared to 1985-87. See IT, 10/91. Meanwhile, nearby Ambridge (comparable except that it was closer to the Pittsburgh international airport and enjoyed a brisk tourist traffic at its Old Economy Shaker Village - both economic plusses) experienced a 30% decline in building-permits issued during the same period of time. Nearby Beaver Falls, also comparable except that it was less hilly than Aliquippa and is the county seat (both economic plusses), experienced a 7.2% decline during the same period of time. In July 1993, the Aliquippa School District adopted a two-rate building-to-land switch in its property tax. Another spurt in new construction and renovation took place: for 1994-95, it was 2.3 times greater than for 1991-92 (based on building-permit records on file at city hall; see IT, 12/99). (5) In 1989, Clairton, Pa., an industrial suburb of Pittsburgh, was under direct state fiscal control, officially labeled “financially distressed.” It took the advice of the prestigious Pennsylvania Economy League by going two-rate LVT in January of that year, taxing building assessments at 2.105% and land assessments at 10% (instead of both at 3.7%). During the three-year period after the switch, its taxable building permits were 8.5% more than in the three years before. This is to be compared to the 5.8% decline in U.S. building permits during the same periods of time (based on building-permit records in Clairton City Hall; see IT 10/93). (6) Let us now compare two-rate Oil City, Pa., which adopted two-rate LVT starting in January 1989, with its nearby one-rate-but-otherwise-comparable neighbor, Franklin, Pa. Oil City experienced a 58.2% increase in new construction and renovation in the three years after it adopted a two-rate property tax as compared to the three years before, whereas one-rate Franklin experienced a 12.2% decline during the same time periods (based on building-permit study in the two city halls, IT 11/94). (7) The long two-rate LVT experience of Pittsburgh has provided many studies: for instance, in the years 1980-84, when Pittsburgh was expanding the difference between its land and building property-tax rates, its new construction as measured by building-permits issued was fully 3.57 times higher, adjusted for inflation, than in the pre-change years of 1974-78, despite the steady post-1980 contraction of Pittsburgh’s steel industry (source: Pennsylvania Economy League study of Pittsburgh’s two-rate Graded Tax, 1985, p. 16). For the entire United States, 1980-84 office-building permits were only 1.6 times higher than for 1974-78 (not adjusted for inflation, per Daniel Sansbury, U.S. Bureau of Census, Suitland, Md. on 1/21/93 and as reported in IT, 10/93). The boom in Pittsburgh continued: in 1985, its building permits increased 2.29 times over 1984; in 1986, it was 2.38 times greater than in 1984 (source: Pbg. Bldg. Inspection Dept.; also see IT 10/86, p. 2). But there’s something even more striking: after Pittsburgh increased its land-tax rate in 1979 and again in 1980, its construction increased an almost unbelievable 26.18 times faster than construction in the U.S. during the same period of time (sources: table 1194, U.S. Census report C30, and the building-permit annual reports, city of Pbg.). (8) In other countries, there are many good studies of the effect of a building-to-land switch on construction. For instance, Godfrey Dunkley, a mechanical engineer specializing in the design and sale of fluid filtration equipment, extracted interesting statistics from the official Municipal Yearbooks of the government in South Africa. Dunkley compared 1959 assessments to 1979 assessments and found that the one-rate towns (taxing land and buildings equally) increased their total assessments by 486%, the two-rate towns (taxing land more than buildings) increased by 561%, and the 46 towns that switched from taxing only land assessments increased by 850%. Inflation affected all these figures, but the more a town taxed land values, the faster it grew. Further substantiation: the eight towns that switched from one-rate to LVT-only increased by 748%, and the 15 towns that switched from two-rate to land-taxing-only increased by 996%. A later Dunkley study of a different time comparison yielded similar figures (for a summary of Dunkley’s first study, see IT 9/83). (9) Then there’s the study by professors Wallace Oates and Robert Schwab, both of the University of Maryland, which reported that 15 large northeastern cities in the U.S. averaged a decline of 15.5% in their annual value of building permits issued between 1960-1969 and 1980-1989, but two-rate LVT Pittsburgh recorded a 70.4% increase. Columbus, Ohio was the only other city in the study recording an increase - a rather modest 3.6% – but it had annexed some fast-growing suburbs in the interim (see IT, 10/92). (10) In 1995, Professor Nicolaus Tideman of Virginia Tech University and his then-graduate student, Florenz Plassmann (now a professor at the University of Binghamton), completed a highly technical study of land value taxation in Pennsylvania entitled “A Markov Chain Monte Carlo Analysis of the Effect of Two-Rate Property Taxes on Construction.” See IT 12/00 for the verbatim conclusion of the original study and the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Economics, pp. 216-47, for the full study. To quote from the conclusion of their original study: “The results say that for all four categories of construction, an increase in the effective tax differential is associated with an increase in the average value per permit. In the case of residential housing, a 1% increase in the effective tax differential is associated with a 12% increase in the average value per unit… From the perspective of economic theory, it is not at all surprising that when taxes are taken off of buildings, people build more valuable buildings. But it is nice to see the numbers.” (11) Harry Gunnison Brown, a leading economist in the 1930s, reported that suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which were about five rail miles from Flinders Street in the center of Melbourne and which taxed land values only, had 50% more dwellings constructed per available acre in the 1928-1942 period than those which did not. Making a similar comparison for suburbs seven miles out, the land-value-tax suburbs did 2.33 times better; LVT suburbs 9.5 miles out did twice as well. (12) A Pittsburgh City Council study (1976) showed conclusively that a 1% earned income tax would hit the city’s homeowners 3.59 times harder than an equivalent-in-revenue LVT increase. The same study also found that a two-rate LVT would down-tax 73.6% of homeowners. (13) A Washington, D.C. council-authorized study done in the 1970s shows that if the current property tax were shifted from land and building assessments to land assessments only, then there would be these tax reductions: single-family homes - 18.1%,
two-family homes - 20.9%,
row houses - 14%,
walkup apartments - 38.9%,
elevator apartments - 22.5%. (14) In 164 suburbs outside central Melbourne (Aus.), during the two-year period 1955/56 to 1957/58, there were 42 new factories, of which half were in the 17 localities using LVT-only. Not only that, but factory employment in these l7 LVT-only localities increased by 445 whereas in the remaining 147 localities, factory employment decreased by 361 (source: Aus. govt. statistics in “Public Charges Upon Land Values,” a 1961 study of the General Council of Rating [local taxing] Reform). (15) Twelve studies in rural Victoria found that LVT-only towns averaged a construction-and-renovation growth of 29%, as compared to the growth of their real-estate-income-taxing neighbors of a modest 2.6% in the same period of time (source: GCRR study of building-permits issued as reported in Progress Magazine, Melbourne 3/75). In each case, LVT-only was adopted as a result of a poll only of landowners. (16) If you fall through the earth, you will emerge near Perth, Western Australia (pop. 400,000). 17 localities there tax land values only; they experienced a 34.36% increase in the total number of dwellings between 6/30/71 and 6/30/76. The nine nearby localities taxing both land and buildings and presumably subject to the same economic-growth influences, experienced a 0.02% decrease in the same time period (source: Aus. govt. statistics, as cited in Progress, 11/77, p. 10). (17) In North Dakota, according to USN&WR, 4/3/78, p. 54, farmers paid no tax on farm buildings, and a survey by a high official of the N.D. League of Cities revealed that this has encouraged new farm construction. (18) California Irrigation Districts - Ever since 1909, California law requires that when new irrigation networks are built, they are to be financed by a tax on the affected land values only; all privately owned improvements were to be property-tax exempt. The theory was that since land values jumped due to the publicly owned irrigation networks, the expense of those networks should be borne by the affected landowners. The result has been beneficial to the local farmers, particularly the smaller ones. The irrigated valleys are among the most productive in the world, and in 1914 the Modesto Chamber of Commerce stated, “as a result of the change many of the large ranches have been cut up and sold in small tracts. The new owners are cultivating these farms intensively. The population of both country and city has greatly increased… The new system of taxation has brought great prosperity to our district. Farmers are now encouraged to improve their property. Industry and thrift are not punished by an increase in taxes” (Congressional Research Service, “Property Taxation,” p. 48). (19) Malvern, Australia experienced a marked construction spurt after it adopted LVT-only in August 1955, but the most extensive construction took place in its blighted problem neighborhoods. Before August 1955, those neighborhoods accounted for only 22% of the city’s building permits, but in each of the five ensuing years, that percentage jumped first to 35% and then steadily moved up to 47% in 1960 (remember that these percentages are of continually larger construction figures; source - Victoria Building & Construction Journal, 1979). (20) Tax defaults: in New Zealand in the late 1950s, ten large LVT-only cities had slightly less defaults than three large non-LVT-only cities. This would indicate that exempting buildings from local taxation does not increase tax defaults (source: H. Bronson Cowan, a Canadian and president of the Intl. Research Com. on Real Estate Taxation, p. 31 of the 1961 report of the Canadian Federation of Mayors and Municipalities). See IT, 12/81. (21) According to a city-funded 1980 study in New Castle, Pa., seven vacant and two poorly developed downtown sites would be an estimated $150,851 more profitable to build upon with an LVT-only property tax. If county and school taxes were also to adopt LVT-only, then the extra profit would approximate an estimated $243,750 a year. (22) Assessment officials in both Pittsburgh and Scranton, Pa. reported to Steven Cord that after these cities shifted some of their local property taxes from buildings to land, there were no significant changes in assessment appeals. After more than fifty years of searching, I have never been able to locate an LVT jurisdiction that did not increase its construction and renovation after its LVT adoption, and more importantly, did not out-construct and out-renovate its comparable non-LVT neighbors. The following is a summary of the 237 empirical studies (soon to be much more): 45 empirical studies conclusively prove that when a town adopts LVT, a spurt in new construction and renovation results. I encountered no studies proving otherwise.
. I encountered no studies proving otherwise. 63 empirical studies conclusively prove that a local building-to-land-tax switch has always resulted in a spurt in new construction and renovation, as measured by building permits issued, and what’s more important, these 63 have out-constructed and out-renovated their comparable neighbors (presumably they were subject to the same economic-growth influences). No studies prove otherwise.
, as measured by building permits issued, and what’s more important, these 63 have out-constructed and out-renovated their comparable neighbors (presumably they were subject to the same economic-growth influences). No studies prove otherwise. 85 empirical studies conclusively prove that most voters pay less with a building-tax-to-land-tax switch (with no diminution in govt. revenues). In two of these studies, the voters were found to pay more (that could happen if there was a large factory in town that fared a little better with a building-tax-to-land-tax switch than did the homeowners).
. In two of these studies, the voters were found to pay more (that could happen if there was a large factory in town that fared a little better with a building-tax-to-land-tax switch than did the homeowners). 30 empirical studies conclusively proved various miscellaneous LVT advantages.
6 studies concerned farmers : in three studies, farmers essentially broke even with a shift to LVT, in one study farmers would pay slightly more, and in two studies farmers would pay slightly less. But in Australia, farmers generally voted in LVT.
: in three studies, farmers essentially broke even with a shift to LVT, in one study farmers would pay slightly more, and in two studies farmers would pay slightly less. But in Australia, farmers generally voted in LVT. Endorsements were listed in 8 empirical studies (but we have hundreds more endorsements listed elsewhere). If you think the down-taxing of buildings will lead to more buildings and the up-taxing of land will lead to the more efficient utilization of land-sites, then act. The poor and unemployed need your help. (For more information about LVT, consult http://www.EconomicBoom.info) *I would very much appreciate all comments. Please send them to: Steven Cord, 10528 Cross Fox Lane, Columbia MD 21044, 1-410-997-1182 (ph/fax), stevencord2000@yahoo.com>BOSTON—Stacy Gruber of Harvard Medical School laid out the numbers: 28 states and the District of Columbia have medical marijuana laws, 17 others allow some cannabis-based products, and eight states now allow recreational use. The US has turned into a grand experiment on the medicinal use of pot, even as the federal government's classification of the drug makes it extremely difficult to do good research on it.
But that doesn't mean research isn't getting done. Gruber and two other researchers described what they're learning about medicinal marijuana at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “This is the direction we’re headed," Gruber said, "and it’s good to be prepared.”
Canadian vigilance
Mark Ware of McGill University had a term for one way of tracking the effect of pot use: pharmacovigilance. Harmful side effects of drugs like acetaminophen and Vioxx weren't caught during clinical trials. Instead, they were identified by tracking the use of these drugs once they became available to the general population. This regular monitoring of drug users is what he called pharmacovigilance. It's the same process that has made us aware of the widespread abuse of prescription opioids.
So far, indications are positive. Cannabis users are reporting lower use of other drugs, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other antidepressants. There's also a drop in pain prescriptions in states allowing medical use. That in turn has led to a 25 percent drop in opioid mortality in these states compared to those where medical use remains prohibited. While the data is correlative, it's certainly suggestive of significant changes following the legalization of medical use.
Canada, Ware suggested, is also a great place to do pharmacovigilance for marijuana. It has a federally regulated medical use program, handled by 38 licensed producers. These producers offer 160 distinct strains in various forms, making it possible (if difficult) to identify the major components of what patients are taking. So he's involved in two Canadian studies that plan to do careful pharmacovigilance.
Ware also described a couple of in-progress studies that plan to build on this sort of approach. In one, chronic pain clinics enrolled patients, both pot users and controls, for a one-year follow-up study that tracks adverse events. Ware's team has also been training doctors in the Quebec area to enroll patients in a long-term tracking study; they're currently at 1,000 of their planned 3,000.
South of the border
Ryan Vandrey of Johns Hopkins was doing something similar here in the US thanks to cooperation with the Realm of Caring (RoC) registry. The research cohort that Hopkins and RoC have set up includes people in all 50 states, ranging in age from one to 86. People using cannabis products for cancers, autoimmune problems, behavioral issues, neural and psychological problems, pain, and autoimmune disorders are all represented.
One thing that's clear: cannabis is not the first drug of choice for many of these people. That idea shows up in both raw numbers—35 percent say it's a drug of last resort—and in many other statistics. Patients in the cohort are using an average of three other prescriptions and two over-the-counter medications. And only a quarter of the people in the registry had a history of prior cannabis use, which is about half the national average.
As for the products they're using, well... Vandrey said that only 17 percent of the products they've tested are accurately labeled. A quarter had more drug than promised, and a few didn't appear to have any active ingredients. The median dose was 55mg—which Vandrey called "a hefty dose"—but it ranged up to over 1,200mg.
Given the chaos in the products on the market, the Johns Hopkins group has turned to the federal government, obtaining a supply of marijuana in order to test its behavior once ingested. The pot was ingested through a single method (passive exposure, vaporized, ingested, or smoked), and the participants then provided blood and urine samples over the following hours and provided self-assessments of their mental and physical states. Vandrey showed a hilarious image of a dozen people in sterile gowns and caps in a room filled with the smoke emanating from the six who were allowed to smoke as much pot as they wanted.
The work showed that passive ingestion does show up in the blood (enough to fail a blood test), but the effects are minor. 10mg doses are also relatively weak; dosages didn't start showing effects that were consistently stronger than placebo until 25mg. Both smoking and vaporizing showed a similar effect, with a quick spike in drug levels in the blood followed by a fairly rapid decline; the spike was larger when a vaporizer was used. Ingesting cannabis didn't show any sort of spike, but ingesting helps maintain a long-lasting presence of the drug in the bloodstream. This finding is important, because it can allow us to tailor the route of intake to whether the event is sudden-onset or a chronic problem.
Side effects were about what you'd expect: some vomiting and a few panic and anxiety issues.
Your brain on drugs
Ultimately, however, researchers want evidence that marijuana is actually treating something, which is where Stacy Gruber's talk came in. A recent review of medical uses suggested that there was substantial evidence that marijuana is effective against chronic pain, chemotherapy side effects, and some symptoms of multiple sclerosis. There's limited evidence for it helping lots of other issues, but these studies need a lot more work. Gruber is leading efforts to try to close the evidence gap through the MIND program: marijuana investigations for neuroscientific discovery.
She described an observational study of people who are already using medical marijuana. Samples of their drug are sent to labs for analysis, and her group follows their neurological state, using a baseline performed prior to treatment. At this point, 33 participants have completed their first three-month follow-up, which consists of surveys, a battery of tests, and some MRI scans.
Most of the results aren't significant at three months of use, but some stand out. To begin with, opioid use is down by 43 percent, consistent with some of the population-level measures. Users also report improvements in pain management, social function, and fatigue, though self-reported measures always have to be viewed with caution.
The big results, however, come in tests of executive function—the ability of our more detailed thought processes to override our gut reactions. Things like the ability to quickly pick out the word "green" even when it's displayed in red lettering. Here, many tests show significant improvements; the remainder are all statistically insignificant. There are no drops. This is about the exact opposite of what you'd expect from marijuana use, but Gruber reminded the audience that many of these patients are in chronic pain, which we know detracts from executive function. Successfully treating the pain has the potential to restore more careful thought.
Strikingly, the effects were backed up by a functional MRI study that looked at brain activity in areas known to be involved with executive control. Healthy controls showed a strong response in those brain regions while taking executive function tests, a response that was absent in the patients during the baseline study. Three months later, activity in those areas looked indistinguishable from those of controls.
It's important to note that this doesn't mean that cannabis is improving people's mental acuity. But it does hint that the drug may be effectively treating a condition that would otherwise rob us of it. And in these early days of the US' grand cannabis experiment, that sort of detailed information is hard to come by.Backbone.js is a javascript MVC framework, and is the newest addition to my frontend toolbox. What’s great is that DocumentCloud, the team that released it, is actively developing and using the framework, making it better everyday. I’m currently using it in various projects, including QuietWrite, a javascript-heavy document editing service.
The major advantage of Backbone is that it’s simple, lightweight, and gets out of your way, but provides just enough structure to organize large javascript projects.
In this tutorial, I’ll go over the code for CloudEdit, an example Backbone.js app backed with Rails that outlines some basic patterns that I’ve used successfully in my Rails Backbone projects. I’ll start by describing the spec for the app, and then detail how the models, controllers, and views hook up. This tutorial assumes you already have some basic knowledge about Rails — I’ll be focusing mainly on the Backbone.js concepts.
You can grab all the code for the example app in the GitHub repo. You can also play around with a live version of CloudEdit here.
The Spec
CloudEdit is an extremely simple document editing app. Here are the specs:
Users should see a list of the latest documents. To edit, the user clicks the document in the list.
Users should be able to edit documents with a title and body, and should be able to save their edits to the server.
Users should be able to create new documents.
Directory Structure
First, let’s get the directory structure organized. For our Rails project, we have the usual MVC directory structure underneath the apps directory. For the Backbone files, I like to create another set of MVC directories underneath the javascript directory:
app/ controllers/ documents_controller.rb models/ document.rb views/ home/ index.html.erb public/ javascripts/ application.js controllers/ documents.js models/ document.js views/ show.js index.js notice.js
Notice how the MVC directories mirror the Rails MVC directories.
I like to use Jammit to deliver and package the CSS and Javascript files. It also allows you to specify load ordering. So, for example, you can tell it to load all the vendor javascript files before loading the application specific files.
Let’s first go through all the Backbone related code, and then tackle the Rails code (which is much simpler).
Backbone Models
We only have one model: the Document. It has a title and a body attribute. But take note that you don’t actually need to specify that in the Backbone model: they’re populated by JSON data, either from the server or from the client.
var Document = Backbone. Model. extend ({ url : function () { var base = 'documents' ; if ( this. isNew ()) return base ; return base + ( base. charAt ( base. length - 1 ) == '/'? '' : '/' ) + this. id ; } });
public/javascripts/models/document.js
The only method defined is the url method, which tells Backbone the URL to persist the Document model when calling save() or destroy(). In this case, it’s a pretty typical Rails RESTful model: if it’s a new unsaved model, then it should POST to /documents for a CREATE action, and if it’s not new, then it should POST to /documents/id for an UPDATE action.
Backbone Controllers
There’s 3 actions in our app:
Index: Show a list of documents.
Edit: Shows a specific document ready to be edited and saved to the server.
New: Shows a blank document ready to be created and saved to the server.
Note that these match up with the RESTful pages we would expect from a Document resource. You certainly don’t have to organize it this way, but I find that it really helps to have your Backbone structure follow a RESTful pattern.
App. Controllers. Documents = Backbone. Controller. extend ({ routes : { "documents/:id" : "edit", "" : "index", "new" : "newDoc" }, edit : function ( id ) { var doc = new Document ({ id : id }); doc. fetch ({ success : function ( model, resp ) { |
open(const char fname[]);
void close() { _win.close(); filebuf::close();}
virtual int sync();
private:
DebugStreamWindow _win;
};
void DebugStreamBuffer::open(const char fname[])
{ close();
filebuf::open(fname? fname : "NUL",
ios::out | ios::app | ios::trunc);
_win.open(fname);
}
int DebugStreamBuffer::sync()
{ int count = out_waiting();
_win.append(pbase(), count);
return filebuf::sync();
}
All code relating to streams is complete. What remains is to bring up a text window on the screen, and to provide the mechanics of stuffing text into it. To avoid reinventing the wheel, we use a window with an EDIT child window to display the text.
class DebugStreamWindow
{
public:
DebugStreamWindow() : _win(0), _edit(0) {}
void open(const char fname[] = 0);
void close() { DestroyWindow( m_win ); }
void append(const char text[], int count);
~DebugStreamWindow() { close(); }
private:
enum { BUFSIZE = 16000 };
int removeFirst();
int getLength();
static long FAR PASCAL _export winProc
(HWND hwnd, UINT message, UINT wParam, LONG lParam);
HWND _win;
HWND _edit;
};
To open the window, we go through the usual RegisterClass / CreateWindow sequence. The only nonstandard aspect is the way in which we obtain the instance handle of the current application. The window procedure of the DEBUGWIN window class creates the EDIT child window and handles WM_SIZE. Note the usual trick of storing the this pointer of the associated C++ object in the `extra' bytes.
void DebugStreamWindow::open(const char fname[])
/* PURPOSE: Open a window for output logging
RECEIVES: fname - the file name (for the window title)
*/
{ if (_win) close();
char* title = new char[(fname? strlen(fname) : 0) + 20];
if (title)
{ strcpy(title, "DebugStream");
if (fname)
{ strcat(title, " - (");
strcat(title, fname);
strcat(title, ")");
}
}
HTASK hTask = GetCurrentTask();
TASKENTRY te;
te.dwSize = sizeof(te);
TaskFindHandle(&te, hTask);
HINSTANCE hInstance = te.hInst;
WNDCLASS wndclass ;
wndclass.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
wndclass.lpfnWndProc = winProc;
wndclass.cbClsExtra = 0;
wndclass.cbWndExtra = sizeof(void far*);
wndclass.hInstance = hInstance;
wndclass.hIcon = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_ASTERISK);
wndclass.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
wndclass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH) GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH);
wndclass.lpszMenuName = NULL;
wndclass.lpszClassName = "DEBUGWIN";
RegisterClass(&wndclass);
_win = CreateWindow("DEBUGWIN", title,
WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW | WS_VISIBLE,
CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
CW_USEDEFAULT, CW_USEDEFAULT,
NULL, NULL,
hInstance, (LPSTR) this);
delete[] title;
}
long FAR PASCAL _export DebugStreamWindow::winProc
( HWND hWnd, UINT message, UINT wParam, LONG lParam )
{ DebugStreamWindow* thisWin =
(DebugStreamWindow*)GetWindowLong( hWnd, 0 );
// caveat: this pointer is 0 until after WM_CREATE;
switch (message)
{
case WM_CREATE:
LPCREATESTRUCT lpcs = (LPCREATESTRUCT) lParam;
thisWin = (DebugStreamWindow*) lpcs->lpCreateParams;
SetWindowLong( hWnd, 0, (LONG) thisWin );
thisWin->_edit = CreateWindow("EDIT", NULL,
WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_HSCROLL | WS_VSCROLL |
ES_LEFT | ES_MULTILINE | ES_READONLY |
ES_AUTOHSCROLL | ES_AUTOVSCROLL,
0, 0, 0, 0,
hWnd, 1,
lpcs->hInstance, NULL);
return 0 ;
case WM_SIZE:
MoveWindow( thisWin->_edit, 0, 0, LOWORD (lParam),
HIWORD (lParam), TRUE) ;
return 0 ;
case WM_DESTROY:
thisWin->_win = 0;
thisWin->_edit = 0;
break;
}
return DefWindowProc (hWnd, message, wParam, lParam) ;
}
Text is entered into the edit window by the EM_REPLACESEL command, the only method I found of changing the edit text.
void DebugStreamWindow::append(const char text[], int count)
/* PURPOSE: Append text to the output window
RECEIVES: text - the start of the text
count - the number of bytes
REMARKS: This function performs
-> \r
translation
*/
{ if (!_win) open();
if (!_edit ||!count) return;
char* t = new char[2*count+1]; // worst case
if (t == 0) return; // out of memory
int tlen = 0; // index into t
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{ if (text[i] == '
')
t[tlen++] = '\r';
t[tlen++] = text[i];
}
t[tlen] = 0;
int nchar = getLength();
while (nchar > 0 && nchar + tlen > BUFSIZE)
nchar -= removeFirst();
SendMessage(_edit, EM_SETSEL, 0, MAKELONG(nchar, nchar));
SendMessage(_edit, EM_REPLACESEL, 0, (long)(const char far*)t);
SendMessage(_edit, EM_SETREADONLY, TRUE, 0);
delete[] t;
}
int DebugStreamWindow::getLength()
/* PURPOSE: Get the length of the text in the edit box
*/
{ if (!_edit) return 0;
int linecount = SendMessage(_edit, EM_GETLINECOUNT, 0, 0L);
int nlast = SendMessage(_edit, EM_LINEINDEX, linecount-1, 0L);
if (nlast < 0) nlast = 0;
else nlast += SendMessage(_edit, EM_LINELENGTH, nlast, 0L);
return nlast;
}
int DebugStreamWindow::removeFirst()
/* PURPOSE: Remove the first line in the edit box
RETURNS: The length of the removed line
*/
{ if (!_edit) return 0;
int nfirst = SendMessage(_edit, EM_LINEINDEX, 1, 0L);
if (nfirst >= 0)
{ SendMessage(_edit, EM_SETSEL, 0, MAKELONG(0, nfirst));
SendMessage(_edit, EM_REPLACESEL, 0,
(long)(const char far*)"");
return nfirst;
}
else return 0;
}
This completes the implementation of the DebugStream class. Naturally, the same mechanism can be employed to send debug messages to another destination.
7. Conclusion
Common wisdom holds that streams are superior to stdio because they are typesafe and extensible. In this article I showed that the extensibility goes far beyond the addition of new types to the formatting layer. I added a manipulator to convert printf formatting commands to their stream equivalents. And I added a new stream class that displays output in a debug window under Microsoft Windows, fully supporting all features of the ostream class (including the new format manipulator). Both additions require very little code, but the programmer must know where to hook into the streams framework. This is, of course, characteristic of programming with frameworks.
References
[1] S. B. Lippmann, C++ Primer, 1st ed. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley, 1989.
[2] S. Teale, C++ IOStreams Handbook. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
1993.
[3] B. Kernighan and D. Ritchie, The C Programming Language, 2nd
ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989.– A family in Aurora was expecting to welcome home a man who was ordered to be released from prison, only to learn that he was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and may be deported to Cuba.
Rene Lima-Marin, a father, son and husband, was sentenced to 98 years in prison for armed robbery. He was released early by mistake and spent six years leading a productive life before he was once again sent back to prison to serve the rest of his sentence.
On Tuesday, Rene’s wife, Jasmine Lima-Marin, learned that a judge had released him. The next day, Wednesday, she was planning for his return home when he was placed on an ICE hold.
“We just have to wait,” Jasmine Lima-Marin said.
Lima-Marin came to the U.S. from Cuba when he was 1 year old, according to Jasmine. He never applied for citizenship but U.S. relations with Cuba allowed him to stay.
That continued until Lima-Marin was convicted of armed robbery and flagged for deportation in 2000.
He is on the Department of Corrections’ list of illegal immigrants that is annually turned over to the federal government.
When asked if she saw this coming, Jasmine replied, “Not at all.”
Lima-Marin was convicted in 1998 for his role in two armed robberies and sentenced to 98 years in prison.
After a decade of serving time behind bars, Lima-Marin wound up being freed in error. It took the State of Colorado six years to realize that a clerical issue was behind Lima-Marin’s early release and he was returned to his cell.
In the years he was free, Lima-Marin reset his life. He married his high school sweetheart, had children and found faith. He also checked in regularly with ICE.
“He was very vigilant in attending those check-ins and never anticipated it would be a problem,” said Celeste Martinez with Together Colorado.
On Tuesday, Judge Carlos A. Samour ordered that Rene Lima-Marin be released from the Colorado Department of Corrections.
“At the end of the day, the Court concludes that it would be utterly unjust to compel Lima-Marin, at this juncture, to serve the rest of his extremely long sentence,” Samour wrote in his court order. “The government—not Lima-Marin, his family, the community, and society—should bear the brunt of the consequences of its conscience-shocking deliberate indifference.”
A resolution asking Gov. John Hickenlooper to grant clemency to Lima-Marin was unanimously approved on the state Senate floor earlier this month.
Jasmine told CBS4 he remains on an ICE hold in Aurora. ICE told CBS4 it will be up to Cuba whether or not the country accepts Marin’s removal.
“The fact that he has a family could be relevant to whether or not he qualifies for any type of relief from removal,” said immigration attorney Eric Johnson.
When asked if she would follow him to Cuba if he is deported, she replied, “I will try.”A boy sits on a bicycle in front of damaged shops after an airstrike on the rebel held al-Qaterji neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, on Sept. 25. (Abdalrhman Ismail/REUTERS)
“Catastrophic” is the word several U.S. officials use privately to discuss the latest developments in Syria, in which a savage Russian bombing campaign has brought Aleppo near the point of surrender. Yet even as members of the Obama administration acknowledge the horror, they remain wary of options that might counter the onslaught.
Whatever else U.S. officials say about Syria, they should begin with an admission that we are diminished, as individuals and as a nation, by watching the destruction of a city and its people. Russia may be wading further into a military quagmire, but the United States is deep in a moral one. The stain of Syria won’t leave our national consciousness for many years.
U.S. intelligence officials describe a Russian campaign to break the Syrian opposition’s will, much as the United States and its allies did in the incendiary bombing of German and Japanese cities in World War II. Russian weapons now include thermobaric bombs, incendiary munitions, cluster bombs and bunker busters. They are attempting to burn Aleppo alive.
As cease-fire talks collapsed over the past two weeks, the Russians have struck hospitals, bread lines at bakeries, civilian neighborhoods. The message, says one U.S. analyst, is: “Surrender and you can eat again.”
Here’s a U.S. intelligence official’s chilling assessment: “The Syrian regime and its Russian backers have adopted a calculated approach of exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in Aleppo as a weapon of war. Their apparent goal is to make living conditions in the city so intolerable that the opposition has no choice but to capitulate.”
Think about those dry analytical words: The Russians have made civilian suffering “a weapon of war.”
U.S. analysts fear that Aleppo may fall in a few weeks, marking a significant turning point in the war. The analysts note that the city could hold out several months longer, given residents’ resilience. I witnessed that spirit four years ago this month, when I visited Aleppo as it was being shelled, even then, by the regime. I stayed a few hours. The Syrian residents have remained for 48 months.
If Aleppo does fall, what then? The answer is a deeper, nastier civil war. Explains the U.S. intelligence official: “Even if the regime is able to eke out a victory in Aleppo, the opposition will not be easily defeated. They are simply too large to defeat.” The opposition force totals about 100,000, including fighters from the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, analysts estimate. (The group said recently that it was changing its name to the Front for the Conquest of Syria and splitting from al-Qaeda.)
U.S. officials see two possibilities if Aleppo surrenders. Opposition fighters could disperse and harass Syrian and Russian troops behind the lines or they could concentrate forces in the rural areas of provinces such as Idlib, Homs, Hama and Daraa where the opposition is already strong. The United States and its coalition partners — such as Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia — could increase covert military support to these fighters.
Backing the opposition is a tricky problem. A U.S. official says Jabhat al-Nusra has been the “main beneficiary” (other than the Assad regime) of Russia’s onslaught. “Until Moscow stops bombing hospitals and aid workers, Nusra will continue to exploit the situation... and portray itself as the defender of the Syrian people,” the official explained.
“What’s ahead is not regime control, but guerrilla warfare,” predicts one analyst. For Russia, that can’t be an appetizing prospect. That’s one reason U.S. officials are keeping the door open for Russia to return to the table — not in bilateral talks with the United States, which were suspended this week, but in a multilateral forum that might include Iran and Saudi Arabia.
White House caution about military options is reinforced by the Pentagon, as has been the case since the Syria conflict began. Pentagon officials still cite a 2013 letter from Gen. Martin Dempsey, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warning Congress that a no-fly zone to protect civilians would cost $500 million initially and $1 billion a month thereafter, and would “require hundreds of ground and sea-based aircraft.” The administration’s wariness has deepened since Russia’s intervention in 2015.
If military options are risky in Aleppo, what about humanitarian assistance? Here, there’s an opportunity for America to be bold — in a massive mobilization, organized as quickly as hurricane or earthquake relief, that could bring aid to suffering civilians.
Line the relief convoys up at the Turkish, Jordanian and Lebanese borders and dare the Russians to stop them. Air-drop supplies to a besieged, desperate city. Let the world see what Russia’s brutal policies have brought. These are inadequate, imperfect options, but they’re surely better than doing nothing.
Read more from David Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.A Democratic senator is working on a bill meant to prod the federal government to grapple with the potential impact of artificial intelligence on everything from workers to privacy.
Washington state's Maria Cantwell has circulated draft legislation — which has yet to be introduced and could still be edited — to create a board that would provide advice on a broad range of AI-related topics to the federal government.
Why it matters: As it stands, the U.S. has no policy on the potential threat of robotization to jobs, or even a legal definition of AI. The draft bill falls short of ordering action or formulating policy. But, if it moves all the way to President Donald Trump's desk and is signed into law, it would push the executive branch to begin wrestling with the issues, and could officially define A.I. in a federal law for the first time.The Cost To Keep The Home Team At Home May Not Be Worth It
Enlarge this image toggle caption David Goldman/AP David Goldman/AP
$498 million — that's how much the state of Minnesota and the city of Minneapolis have agreed to pay as their share of a new, nearly $1 billion football stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. Team owner Ziggy Wilf says he believes Minnesotans got a fair deal.
And as it turns out, the deal is pretty standard. But is it fair? Increasingly, privately owned sports teams aren't just asking for newer, fancier digs. They're also asking the public to pay half — or more — of the bill.
Hidden Costs Add Up
Judith Grant Long is a professor of urban planning at Harvard who has studied sports facility deals for over a decade. She tells All Things Considered host Audie Cornish that cities often end up paying far more than their fair share because of hidden costs from new roofs, police details, garbage pickup and a loss from property taxes (most sports facilities don't pay them).
She says those things add up and increase the average public share from 50 percent to 75 percent of a facility's total cost. And she's not alone in seeing through the perceived economic benefits from these deals.
"The consensus amongst economists — and this outcome has really not changed much over the last 20 years — is that new sports facilities deliver very little in the way of new jobs and new taxes that are meaningful," she says.
Grant Long says that's in large part due to the "substitution effect." If someone decides to go to a Major League Baseball game, he is choosing not to do something else — like see a movie or go out to a restaurant.
Some sports teams have tried to sell deals with the promise of larger urban development and neighborhood revitalization. It can help smooth the public approval process, even if the promises don't pan out.
"It turns out to be a fairly convenient thing to package the sports facility in the context of this larger project," she says. "What we're seeing in the short term is that these other kinds of developments simply haven't arrived yet."
So when — if ever — do these deals make financial sense for a city? Grant Long says it's not so bad when cities stick to providing land and infrastructure.
"I think it makes sense for a city to take on certain kinds of costs and to do them thoughtfully," she says. "And on a cost basis, on average, land and infrastructure comes up to about 25 percent of a total facility cost. So the idea [is] that cities would be aiming for a 25-75 split on the partnership."
Tough Decisions
Grant Long says one major reason elected officials agree to pay too much for a new stadium is that no one wants to be blamed for losing a beloved sports team. Just ask Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed — both the baseball and football teams in his city were asking for help earlier this year. Reed struck a deal with the Falcons to help pay for a new football stadium. But he stunned baseball fans by saying no to the Braves, who wanted a costly upgrade to their ballpark.
Now the storied franchise of Hank Aaron is leaving Turner Field in downtown Atlanta for neighboring Cobb County.
To Reed, the deals were black and white. He says the Falcons arrangement is a "revenue generator" for the city and will be funded through a hotel-motel tax. Additionally, the city won't be on the hook for the debt of the $1.2 billion football stadium.
"The Braves have no revenue stream," he says. "The Braves needed somewhere between $150 million to $250 million in enhancements.... And at the end of the day, we would've had to take on debt, and the city of Atlanta's general fund would have had to backstop that debt."
Like Grant Long, Reed doesn't believe that stadiums are strong drivers of development. He says that hasn't happened around Turner Field, which was initially built for the 1996 Olympics and later retrofitted. In the end, the math just didn't add up for him.
"You know, I have to live in the world that I live in," he says. "And the fact of the matter is, I've got a city with a $900 million backlog for infrastructure — which is just a fancy word for roads, bridges, sidewalks, green spaces. And I think the people of Atlanta are more concerned with me investing $200 million... [in infrastructure] than they are me investing $200 million in a retrofit for a multibillion-dollar company."
Enlarge this image toggle caption David Goldman/AP David Goldman/AP
Still, Reed says the decision was a "very emotional" one for him, and he's experienced some pushback from Braves fans.
"On the day that the team made the announcement, there was a great deal of anger and hurt from people who live in the city and people who live in the region because baseball is a game that respects and values tradition," he says.
But the Braves' owners made a business decision, which Reed says he respects. He offers an analogy.
"We had a terrific Ford that worked really well, we were prepared to keep our Ford running strong, and somebody drove up and offered the Braves a Range Rover and said, 'I'll pay 40 percent of it for you. I'll give you a brand new stadium, I'll let you control real estate development and I'll have the taxpayers pay 40 percent of the bill,' " he says.
He also sympathizes with other elected officials who are under pressure to sign off on big sports facility deals.
"I think municipalities do it because fans have a love of sports in the United States of America. And no leader of a city wants to be a leader that loses a major sports franchise," he says. "And I think all of those are drivers and I think that it gives our professional sports teams a great deal of leverage."
Grant Long, the Harvard University professor, analyzed her database and placed some of the 121 stadiums in use during 2010 into three price ranges based on their capital cost — and the public's share of the investment.
Here are her case studies from around the country:(EDIT: Due to time constraints, the original post for today will be posted tomorrow. This is now the post for day 10, and I hope you enjoyed it.)
Hello everyone, and I have returned to give an extra post as a sort of follow-up to yesterdays.
There are a few points intentionally left vague that have come to my attention, and I wish to give more clarification as well as a deeper look into the game’s story. I apologize for the necessity of this follow-up, but today’s post will not be affected by this. I also thank you for bringing these points to my attention, and now we shall begin.
To start with, there was an error I made in my review yesterday. While Halo 4 is the first game in which 343i took up the bulk of development, they did have a hand in Halo Wars, supported Halo Reach immensely post-launch, and oversaw the development of Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary. Halo 4 does represent the point where 343i made the mainstream content of Halo truly theirs, but their role in the franchise does stem back to their inception in 2007.
Another thing pointed out is the expanded universe and my standpoint on it. My idea of Halo’s expanded universe is all material existing outside of the game’s (such as books, comics, and films), with features like the Terminals and Audio Logs serving as great ways to expand on a game’s story from within. It is important to note the difference in how Bungie and 343i approach the expanded universe as well. Bungie’s idea was very in-line with how Star Wars approached all fiction outside of the core saga, (being the films) with game’s coming first in canon precedence and all other materials such as books and comics coming second. With the exception of slight variations in The Flood from Halo: Combat Evolved (which are by nature inconsequential), all entries in the Halo universe could peaceful exist. The only exception to this rule is Halo Reach, as it has some discrepancies with The Fall of Reach in exactly how the battle played out. In the novel, the Fall of Reach is presented as a Pearl Harbour sort of attack; in the game, it is presented as a month-long campaign. While 343i has made a great effort in alleviating the conflicts between the two, it should still be noted that this is a case where Bungie put the games ahead of the expanded universe.
343i is quite different in regards to its approach to the expanded universe. Instead of games>everything else, they treat every piece of canon as equal and even have interconnecting webs that link everything together. The Didact’s (or Ur-Didact for those of us that have read Silentium) backstory is presented through the novels, all leading up to his appearance in Halo 4. Buck’s transition from the leader of Alpha-Nine to a member of Fireteam Osiris is presented in New Blood, and so on. I love this concept, but I cannot ignore some of its flaws by design. For one, those who immerse themselves in the expanded universe are rewarded when everything comes together in the games, and casuals are presented to a deeper layer of Halo’s overarching narrative. However, there is the issue when important aspects in a game are not clarified from within the game, or not direct enough to leave the more casual fans scratching their heads.
Halo 4 did not have too much of an issue with this, but it still exists in the game. The Didact’s motives are very complex, and more so than Halo 4 may imply to someone who has not read Silentium. Jul ‘Mdama may seem like a ‘big baddie’ sort of Sangheili for one that only plays through Spartan Ops and Halo 5, but his motives and characterization are not as two-dimensional for those of us who have read Glasslands and The Thursday War. The latter example is not of leaving essential facts out, but casual fans are presented with a very different character than lore fans are. The resurgence of the Covenant could have also been further explored in Halo 4’s narrative, but it is not a huge problem with the two huge plot points being the awakening of the Forerunner legacy (which I accidentally called the ‘Forerunner awakening’ yesterday) and the relationship between the Master Chief and Cortana.
In terms of plot points left unexplained in Bungie’s games, there are definitely some that exist. How did the Master Chief return to Earth before Halo 2? What is Doctor Halsey’s importance to the universe (for those who have only played Reach)? How did the war with the Covenant start prior to Halo: Combat Evolved? While these are further expanded on in great detail in the novels, (with the specific issues above being explained in First Strike, The Fall of Reach, and Contact Harvest) they are not essential to understanding and appreciating the plots of these games. The are background details left vacant, and I will not argue if one states that Halo 2 is not a true sequel to Halo: Combat Evolved in some aspects, or that Halo Reach uses the expanded universe materials sloppily but does not necessarily require them for an appreciation of the game. The Didact is an essential part of Halo 4’s plot, and while the Terminals do an adequate job at explaining his backstory, imagine how amazing it would be if Greg Bear’s characterization for the character seeped in more seamlessly.
While the issue of connectivity between the expanded universe and mainstream media existed in Halo 4, it is a much bigger issue in Halo 5. While aspects of the game can be enjoyed, characters in Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris could have used stronger characterization within the game. I feel as if players will only truly appreciate the development and subtleties of characters such as Tanaka and Locke if they have prior knowledge of their backstories, as it weaves them together in stronger ways. Had the emotion of Tanaka’s survival on a glassed planet or Locke’s former team being ripped apart from the inside been portrayed more directly in the game without being too numbingly obvious, casual fans would have gotten more out of these characters and not put Tanaka in ‘Top 5 Worst Halo Characters.’ (Sigh.)
Required reading may not be essential to getting the gist of these characters, but those not versed in the expanded universe will not fully appreciate them as the strong characters that they are. Fireteam Osiris is a spectacular concept and each individual character is strong overall and connect in meaningful ways throughout the game, but leaving important details to more off-the-path lines and novels have been left to more meaningful interactions with these characters that can be more directly showcased to the casual audience.
One example is where Buck is in Halo 5 as opposed to Halo 3: ODST. New Blood explains how Buck went from point A (being ODST) to point B, (5) but it is referenced nowhere in Halo 5. The ultimate fate of Alpha-Nine is not touched on, and the ultimate fate of its members (minus Dare) are not touched on. In Halo 2, it can be inferred that Master Chief got back to Earth in the Longsword, (despite this being impossible) and some casuals just think Johnson died in the Legendary ending (which is not canon, if you did not know) and somehow came back to life back on Cairo Station. While a better explanation could have been offered in-game (and you should read First Strike anyways) I feel as if Buck’s transition from Halo 3: ODST to Halo 5 could have been greatly touched on in-game. It almost turns to Halo needing a ‘codex’ feature of sorts to catalogue its vast lore that cannot be crammed into exposition. Bits of lore like Blue Team’s history and what the Domain is (and not leaving casuals with the ‘Forerunner Domain’) could be easily spun up, and I am in all support of this idea.
In terms of Blue Team’s appearance, this is technically not their first game. Linda is present in a cryo pod in Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and her and Fred are present in one of Halo 2 Anniversary’s Terminals. However, Halo 5 is their first mainstream appearance to the wider audience of the franchise. And I was incorrect in saying their place in the Halo canon is not reflected in Halo 5: it is definitely is, albeit in brief lines of dialogue. And while they appear in more than three missions, they are only playable in three. The most disappointing aspect to me is how much could have been done with these characters and how ripe they are in storytelling opportunity, and their introductory cutscene is a very effective one at showing their current relationships. It is perhaps a flaw that stems from Bungie’s reluctance to ever use or even mention these characters outside of a few loadout names in Halo Reach, as they are some of the most important characters in the Halo universe that have only appeared in the mainstream media so many years after their introduction.
And yes, Kelly is lame in Halo 5. Ghosts of Onyx’s amazing scene where she flips off an Onyx Sentinel oozes characterization that Halo 5 does not come close to imitating. Fred and Linda do not suffer too much in this regard, but at the same time, I feel as if 343i did not do enough with these characters to fully cement their place in Halo 5. This may be due to time, but I wish these characters were used in more dynamic ways. As 343i does seem to listen to our concerns, Halo 6 will hopefully alleviate my issues with Blue Team’s portrayal in Halo 5 that feels so much more stagnant than it should be for these characters that represent the accomplishment of Halo’s place beyond just games.
In terms of my issues with the ‘AI rebellion’ story commenced out of left-field, it perhaps does make a bit more sense when the term ‘history repeating’ is applied. I forgot about Mendicant Bias, and how the Primordial inflicted him with the Logic Plague. This convinced Mendicant that the Flood were the ultimate form of peace for all life, and he then turned on the Forerunner’s and caused great devastation in his wake. However, there was always a difference between humanity’s relationship with AI’s as opposed to the Forerunner’s. The latter treated more as tools than as individuals of sorts, while humans do treat them as people in a sort of way. (Despite their application as, well, tools) The mistreatment of AI’s and how they are not content with their situation of a seven-year lifespan has not been addressed at all in both the mainstream media and expanded universe and even goes against what we know. It does make sense for the offer of immortality to be appealing, but the defection of most human AI’s was not built up, unlike all the other plot-points that Halo 5 dropped into an endless void.
As well, the assertion that the Librarian planned for ‘the Created’ to claim the Mantle comes out of nowhere to justify their takeover of the galaxy.
Another issue is how 343i wants players to believe that Cortana is a grey character in Halo 5. She is in the wrong and doing more than something we simply disagree with. While I stated that she killed millions, the activation of the Guardians did cause potential collateral damage of immense proportions, and it is implied throughout the game and Dominion Splinter that she has complete control over the Warden Eternal and the Prometheans. This means that the people of Meridian were harmed by Cortana’s actions, and furthermore, in Rossbach’s World, she may have killed off the entire populace of Sydney when a Guardian used an EMP on a ship directly above the city. The EMP’s themselves could cut off significant infrastructure that could cause further harm with medical equipment shutting down, and plenty more than people rely on from a day-to-day basis. One frightening thing is that one of the AI’s that pledges their allegiance to Cortana in the last mission is used for education, and the potentially propaganda and indoctrination is something that can shake up the entire Halo universe as we know it.
While there are many flaws to Halo 5’s story, I do believe that 343i can salvage it without writing it out of existence. Having humanity being the underdogs again is interesting, and the totalitarian threat of the Created could make a nice blend of an Orwellian story in Halo’s climate. I do hope the solution to fighting them is a lot more complicated than ‘shutting down the Domain’ or something of a similar nature, and from this past year alone, 343i seems to be vastly improving the landscape of Halo’s lore and stories. Mythos and Fractures are excellent, and Halo Wars 2 is looking to be an excellent story both as a follow-up to the first game and an introduction into this uncertain phase of the universe.
And yes, Halo’s story is ultimately told through every form of media from its beginning to end, but the games are the forefront. They shape the Halo universe for many, and I only hope 343i weaves the story more effectively going forward.
As always, thank you for taking your time to read this, and I will be back later today. 🙂In 2009, the 0.5% of New Yorkers who made $1 million or more accounted for 27% of the city's income (nearly three times their share nationally), and an even higher share of its tax take. But while the smart set that attends President Obama's frequent Manhattan fundraisers has prospered, in no small part thanks to low-interest Federal Reserve policies that have helped big banks more than working people, just across the Harlem River roughly one in three Bronx households lives in poverty — making it the nation's poorest urban county.Over the Bloomberg years, New York was the national leader in both luxury housing and in homelessness — with a 73% jump in the number of homeless families here. Last January, an unprecedented 21,000 children were in the city's shelter system each night. This year, that number is rising.There was both good and bad news from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, where 14 adult quagga mussels have been found attached to moored vessels and dock structures in Lake Powell.
The word that the invasive pests have turned up in the big lake isn't good, but all is not yet lost in the battle to keep the invaders out of the lake. The encouraging news is none of the mussels were close enough together for successful reproduction.
In recent weeks, park staff have found the adult quagga mussels attached to moored vessels and dock structures at the Wahweap Marina in Lake Powell. The first four mussels were found when employees of a local marine service business noticed the small shells on a boat that had been pulled out of the water for maintenance; they then notified the National Park Service.
The park's dive team inspected boats, docks and cables in Wahweap Bay and found an additional ten adult mussels which were physically removed from the lake. Marina structures and vessels will continue to be monitored. The Antelope Point area was inspected beginning last December, with no mussels discovered.
Early Detection May Save the Day
'We really appreciate the report of this finding since it will help in the removal of the adult mussels before they can reproduce,' said Mark Anderson, an aquatic ecologist at Glen Canyon. Superintendent Todd Brindle remains hopeful that the monitoring results are not evidence of an established population of mussels. 'If it is an early detection, the mussels may not establish and reproduce,' said Brindle.
The NPS has an active monitoring program to help keep Lake Powell free of quagga. NPS photo. The NPS has an active monitoring program to help keep Lake Powell free of quagga. NPS photo.
'It is important to note that we have not found a reproducing population,' Anderson said. 'Prevention is still the most effective way to fight invasive species, so we will continue the boat inspections that are currently in place. Everyone needs to take this as a warning to continue to clean, drain, and dry your boat and equipment after every use.'
Even a Few Mussels Are a Big Concern
Why all the concern over just 14 small mussels?
Unless you've been impacted by the results of an infestation by these unwelcome animals, |
ρία" (Timōría, "Punishment") and "Κυπαρισσάκι" (Kyparissáki, "Little cypress"). Both these songs tied for first prize. Mouskouri performed Kostas Yannidis' composition, "Ξύπνα αγάπη μου" (Xýpna agápi mou, "Wake up, my love"), at the Mediterranean Song Festival, held in Barcelona that year. The song won first prize, and she went on to sign a recording contract with Paris-based Philips-Fontana.
In 1961, Mouskouri performed the soundtrack of a German documentary about Greece. This resulted in the German-language single Weiße Rosen aus Athen ("White Roses from Athens"). The song was originally adapted by Hadjidakis from a folk melody. It became a success, selling over a million copies in Germany. The song was later translated into several languages and it went on to become one of Mouskouri's signature tunes.
Nana Mouskouri with her first husband Georges Petsilas in the Netherlands in 1971
Family life [ edit ]
Mouskouri has been married twice: firstly at 25, to Yorgos (George) Petsilas,[19] a guitarist in her backing band (the trio "The Athenians") and the first man she had kissed. They had two children (Nicolas Petsilas in 1968 and Hélène (Lénou) Petsilas (singer) in 1970) but divorced when Mouskouri was 39.[20] Not long after that, she met her second husband, André Chapelle[citation needed], then her sound technician, but they did not marry then because she "didn't want to bring another father into the family" and divorce was against her conservative upbringing.[20] They eventually married on 13 January 2003, and live primarily in Switzerland.
Life outside Greece [ edit ]
In 1960, Mouskouri moved to Paris.[21] She performed Luxembourg's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1963 that year, "À force de prier". Although the song achieved only eighth place in the contest, it achieved commercial success, and helped win her the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque in France. Mouskouri soon attracted the attention of French composer Michel Legrand, who composed two songs which became major French hits for her: "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg" (1964) and an arrangement of Katherine K. Davis's "Carol of the Drum", "L'Enfant au Tambour" (1965).
In 1962, she met Quincy Jones, who persuaded her to travel to New York City to record an album of American jazz titled The Girl from Greece Sings. Following that she scored another hit in the United Kingdom with the song "My Colouring Book" (later included in her 1973 album Songs from her TV series). In 1965, she recorded her second English-language album to be released in the United States, entitled Nana Sings. American singer Harry Belafonte heard and liked the album. Belafonte brought Mouskouri on tour with him through 1966. They teamed for a duo album entitled An Evening With Belafonte/Mouskouri. During this tour, Belafonte suggested that Mouskouri remove her signature black-rimmed glasses when on stage. She was so unhappy with the request that she wanted to quit the show after only two days. Finally, Belafonte relented and respected her wish to perform while wearing glasses.[22]
On September 15, 1965 Mouskouri appeared for the first time on American television with Harry Belafonte on the Danny Kaye Show. While on the show Mouskouri performed "Telalima" followed by "Όπα νινα ναϊ" (Opa nina nai) accompanied by Harry Belafonte and Danny Kaye.
Mouskouri's 1967 French album Le Jour où la colombe raised her to super-stardom in France. This album featured many of her French songs, "Au cœur de septembre", "Adieu Angélina", "Robe bleue, robe blanche" and the French pop classic "Le Temps des cerises". Mouskouri made her first appearance at Paris' legendary Olympia concert theatre the same year, singing French pop, Greek folk, and Hadjidakis numbers.
These successes across Europe and elsewhere impressed Yvonne Littlewood, the BBC producer who had first met Mouskouri at the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest in London. Following several successful guest appearances on British TV after her Eurovision performance, the BBC then invited Mouskouri and her backing group, the Athenians, to start hosting a TV series called Presenting… Nana Mouskouri from 1968 onwards. Each episode of the series typically contained songs from her developing repertoire of Greek folk music, French chansons, classical pieces and contemporary pop, and the shows often featured world music stars of the time as guests, making it one of the first BBC TV series to do so regularly. Despite the fact that stars from mainland Europe singing in languages other than English have tended to find it difficult to break into the British market, the series proved very popular with viewers of the new BBC-2 channel, and it ran until the mid-1970s. As well as performing British and American pop and folk songs in her shows, Mouskouri also welcomed the television audience, chatted to her guest stars and gave spoken introductions to her French and Greek songs in fluent English. These introductions, along with a modest stage presence and her bespectacled appearance, made her a very distinctive star, as Yvonne Littlewood later explained:
"I suppose it was unusual to see a singer wearing glasses. She didn't look like everyone else. She didn't have blonde hair, and she was very distinctive in her appearance. […] You know, we should remember that, in those days, we didn't have all the holiday programmes, so Greek music and anything Greek wasn’t as well known to the average public as it is now. […] She would give the gist [in English] of the subject of the song before she sang it, and that was really quite unique and quite charming."[23]
Nana Mouskouri receiving two gold discs for record sales in Netherlands (1971)
In 1969, Mouskouri released a full-length British LP, Over and over, which reached number 10 and spent almost two years in the UK album charts.[24] This was the first of a series of English-language albums which, boosted by her TV appearances, sold extremely well in the UK and Ireland, as well as in other European countries, during the early 1970s, including The exquisite Nana Mouskouri (1969), Turn on the sun (1970), A place in my heart (1971) and Presenting... Nana Mouskouri (1973), while concerts from two of her British tours were also recorded and released as LPs: British Concert (1972) and Live at the Albert Hall (1974).
Mouskouri's international appeal encouraged the BBC to sell her programmes to television stations across the world, a fact which she acknowledged in a BBC interview in 2014:
"This series – I mean, for about 10 years I was doing every year the series on BBC-2… and they went everywhere… in Asia… of course in the Commonwealth… but even in South America… so that I think that I owe to the BBC a lot. And to Yvonne Littlewood, really." [25]
Mouskouri also hosted her own shows for French and West German broadcasters during this period. At a time when TV programmes could attract huge audiences, her popularity as a multilingual television personality turned her into a truly international star.
Although music series such as hers were becoming less common on British TV as the 1970s wore on, the BBC continued to engage her regularly for one-off television specials and guest appearances on other programmes until the mid-1980s, by which time she had been a regular contributor to British TV for more than 20 years. Meanwhile, during the 1970s and 1980s, she expanded her concert tour to include her new fans, not only in the United Kingdom, but also in Ireland, New Zealand, Japan and Australia, where she met and befriended Frank Hardy, who followed her to the south of France in 1976.
Always a prolific recording artist, the 1970s saw Mouskouri record several LPs in German, including the hit albums, Sieben schwarze Rosen (1975) and Lieder, die die Liebe schreibt (1978). In France, she continued a series of top-selling records, such as Comme un soleil (1971), Une voix qui vient du cœur (1972), Vieilles chansons de France (1973), and Quand tu chantes (1976). Meanwhile, Passport, a compilation including her most popular songs in English, reached number 3 in the UK album charts in 1976 and won for her a gold disc.[24]
As her fame began spreading outside her fanbase in Europe, the USA and the Commonwealth, Mouskouri was asked to record songs for the Japanese market. Meanwhile, in 1976, a renowned Taiwanese author, Echo, heard her music and introduced it to one of her female radio DJ friends. Mouskouri's records then become popular in Taiwan, especially among high school and college students, with one of her British albums, Nana's book of songs (1974) becoming particularly popular.
Middle years [ edit ]
In 1979, Mouskouri released another English-language album named Roses and Sunshine. This album consisted largely of folk and country material, and included work from sources including Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Bob Dylan and John Denver. It was well received in Canada, and one of the album's tracks, "Even Now" (not the same song as the 1978 Barry Manilow hit), became a staple on beautiful music radio stations in the United States. She scored a worldwide hit in 1981 with "Je chante avec toi Liberté", which was translated into several languages after its success in France. The momentum from this album also helped boost her following German album, Meine Lieder sind mein Leben. In 1984, Mouskouri returned to Greece for her first live performance in her homeland since 1962.
In 1985, Mouskouri recorded "Only Love", the theme song to the British TV series Mistral's Daughter – based upon the novel by Judith Krantz – which reached number 2 in the UK charts. The song was also a hit in its other versions: L'Amour en Héritage (French), Come un'eredità (Italian), La dicha del amor (Spanish), and Aber die Liebe bleibt (German). The German version was also recorded with an alternate set of lyrics under the title Der wilde Wein but was withdrawn in favour of Aber die Liebe bleibt.
That same year, Mouskouri made a play for the Spanish-language market with the hit single Con Toda el Alma. The song was a major success in Spain, Argentina and Chile.
She released five albums in different languages in 1987, and the following year returned to her classical conservatory roots with the double LP The Classical Nana (a.k.a. Nana Classique), which featured adaptations of classical songs and excerpts from opera. By the end of 1987, she had performed a series of concerts in Asia, including South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.
Later years [ edit ]
Mouskouri's 1991 English album, Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri, became her best-selling release in the United States. She spent much of the 1990s touring the globe. Among her early 1990s albums were spiritual music, Gospel (1990), the Spanish-language Nuestras Canciones, the multilingual, Mediterranean-themed Côté Sud, Côté Coeur (1992), Dix Mille Ans Encore, Falling in Love Again: Great Songs From the Movies. Falling in Love featured two duets with Harry Belafonte.
In 1993, Mouskouri recorded the album Hollywood. Produced by Michel Legrand it was a collection of famous songs from films, and served not only as a tribute to the world of cinema, but also as a personal reference to childhood memories of sitting with her father in his projection room in Crete.[26][citation needed]
She recorded several more albums over 1996 and 1997, including the Spanish Nana Latina (which featured duets with Julio Iglesias and Mercedes Sosa), the English-language Return to Love, and the French pop classics, Hommages. In 1997, she staged a high-profile Concert for Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. This concert was later released as an album, and aired as a TV special on PBS in the United States.
On 30 May 2013, Mouskouri was awarded an honorary degree by McGill University, Canada.[27]
UNICEF and politics [ edit ]
Mouskouri was appointed a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in October 1993.[28] She took over from the previous ambassador, the recently deceased actress Audrey Hepburn. Mouskouri's first U.N. mission took her to Bosnia to draw attention to the plight of children affected by Bosnian war. She went on to give a series of fund-raising concerts in Sweden and Belgium.
She was a Member of the European Parliament through the New Democracy party from 1994 until 1999, when she resigned from her position as an MEP. Several reasons have been given for the resignation, one being her pacifism, and another being that she felt ill-equipped for the day-to-day work of a politician.[29]
21st century [ edit ]
Nana Mouskouri, waiting for an interview in 2006
Mouskouri lives in Switzerland with Chapelle, and, until her final performance in 2008, performed hundreds of concerts every year throughout her career. In 2004, her French record company released a 34-CD box set of more than 600 of Mouskouri's mostly French songs. In 2006 she made a guest appearance at that year's Eurovision Song Contest which was held, for the first time ever, in her native Greece.
In the same year, she announced her plans to retire. From 2005 until 2008, she conducted a farewell concert tour of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, South America, the United States, and Canada. On July 23 and 24, 2008, Mouskouri gave her two final 'Farewell Concert' performances at the ancient Herodes Atticus Theatre, in Athens, Greece, before a packed stadium, including Greece's Prime Minister and Athens mayor, plus the mayors of Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg, along with fans from around the world and thousands of her Athenian admirers.
In 2010, in response to the financial crisis in Greece,[30] Mouskouri announced that she would forgo her pension to contribute to the country's recovery. She commented: "Everywhere I see stories about my country going bankrupt. And people are aggressive about it. It's frightening. And it's painful for me. Nobody wants their country to be treated badly. It's frustrating and very sad."[20]
In late 2011, Mouskouri released two newly recorded CDs, the first featuring songs of the Greek Islands, recorded with other Greek singers, and the second featuring duets with French contemporaries. In late November 2011 Mouskouri sang again at a single concert, with guests, in Berlin, commemorating the 50th anniversary of her hit single "The White Rose of Athens". She then did a concert tour in Germany in 2012.[31] At age 80, she embarked on a three-year Happy Birthday Tour[32] and in 2018 had booked a five-month Forever Young Tour through parts of Europe and North America.[33]
In 2015 she was awarded with the Echo Music Prize for Outstanding achievements by the German music association Deutsche Phono-Akademie.[34]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The British comedian Benny Hill impersonated Mouskouri on The Benny Hill Show. Wearing a long dress, large glasses and long black hair, he talked and sang with a slow and quiet voice. He introduced a song with a long translation into English of all the events supposedly mentioned in the song... and then sang just a single line of "Greek".[35]
Andrea Martin played Mouskouri in a sketch, 'The Nana Mouskouri Story', during the 1981–1982 season of SCTV (later included in a DVD compilation.)
In 1976, Ronnie Barker performed a song in drag as a parody of Mouskouri in The Two Ronnies as Nana Moussaka. Mouskouri was also parodied in the first episode of the 1970s New Zealand political satire A Week Of It.
In 1991, British comedienne Victoria Wood mentioned Mouskouri in her original song, "The Reincarnation Song." The song was included in Wood's television special of that year, Victoria Wood: Sold Out.
Karl Pilkington included Mouskouri as a clue in his contest 'Rockbusters', part of the radio show The Ricky Gervais Show on XFM. Broadcasting on December 31, 2005, the clue was "Me granny's taking a penalty. She better get the ball in the back of the net," initials (NM) = Nana Mouskouri (nanna must score 'ere). Gervais described this clue as "one of his best clues ever."
In 2015, Liina Vahtrik parodied her song "Only Love" on the Estonian version of Your Face Sounds Familiar.[36]
Partial discography [ edit ]
Epitaphios (1960)
(1960) Nana Mouskouri canta canciones populares griegas (1960)
(1960) I megales epitichies tis Nanas Mouskouri (Οι μεγάλες επιτυχίες της Νάνας Μούσχουρη) (1961)
(1961) Ta prota mas tragoudia (Τα πρώτα μας τραγούδια) (1961)
(1961) Weiße Rosen aus Athen / The White Rose of Athens (1961)
(1961) Greece, Land of Dreams (1962)
(1962) The Girl from Greece Sings (1962)
(1962) Roses blanches de Corfu (1962)
(1962) Ce soir à Luna Park (1962)
(1962) Crois-moi ça durera (1962)
(1962) Un homme est venu (1963)
(1963) Sings Greek Songs-Never on Sunday (1963)
(1963) Au feu! (1964)
(1964) Celui que j'aime (1964)
(1964) Ich schau den weißen Wolken nach (1964)
(1964) The Voice of Greece (1964)
(1964) Chante en Grec (1965)
(1965) Nana Mouskouri et Michael Legrand (1965)
(1965) Griechische Gitarren mit Nana Mouskouri (1965)
(1965) Nana Mouskouri in Italia (1965)
(1965) Nana's Choice (1965)
(1965) Nana Sings (1965)
(1965) An Evening with Belafonte/Mouskouri (1966)
(1966) Le Cœur trop tendre (1966)
(1966) Strasse der hunderttausend Lichter (1966)
(1966) Nana Mouskouri in Paris (1966)
(1966) In Italia (1966)
(1966) Moje Najlepse grčke pesme -Yugoslavia- (1966)
(1966) Pesme Moje zemlje -Yugoslavia- (1966)
(1966) Un Canadien errant (1967)
(1967) Un souvenir du congrès (1967)
(1967) Nana Mouskouri à l'Olympia (1967)
(1967) Showboat (1967)
(1967) Chants de mon pays (1967)
(1967) Singt ihre grossen Erfolge (1967)
(1967) Le Jour où la Colombe (1967)
(1967) Christmas with Nana Mouskouri (1967)
(1967) Nana (1968)
(1968) What Now My Love (1968)
(1968) Une soirée avec Nana Mouskouri (1969)
(1969) Dans le soleil et dans le vent (1969)
(1969) Over and Over (1969)
(1969) The Exquisite Nana Mouskouri (1969)
(1969) Mouskouri International (1969)
(1969) Grand Gala (1969)
(1969) Verzoekprogramma (1969)
(1969) Le Tournesol (1970)
(1970) Nana Recital 70 (1970)
(1970) Nana Sings Hadjidakis (Νάνα τραγουδά Μάνο Χατζιδάκη) (1970)
(1970) Turn On the Sun (1970)
(1970) Bridge over Troubled Water (1970)
(1970) My Favorite Greek Songs (1970)
(1970) Je chante avec toi Liberté / Song for Liberty (1970)
(1970) After Midnight (1971)
(1971) A Touch of French (1971)
(1971) Love Story (1971)
(1971) Pour les enfants (1971)
(1971) Comme un soleil (1971)
(1971) A Place in My Heart (1971)
(1971) Chante la Grèce (1972)
(1972) Lieder meiner Heimat (1972)
(1972) Xypna Agapi mou (1972)
(1972) British Concert (1972)
(1972) Une voix... qui vivent du coeur (1972)
(1972) Spiti mou spitaki mou (1972)
(1972) Presenting... Songs from Her TV Series (1973)
(1973) Vieilles chansons de France (1973)
(1973) Chante Noël (1973)
(1973) Day Is Done (1973)
(1973) An American Album (1973)
(1973) Spotlight on Nana Mouskouri (1973)
(1973) Nana Mouskouri au Théâtre des Champs-Elysées (1974)
(1974) Que je sois un ange... (1974)
(1974) Nana's Book of Songs (1974)
(1974) The Most Beautiful Songs (1974)
(1974) Adieu mes amis (1974)
(1974) Le temps des cerises (1974)
(1974) If You Love me (1974)
(1974) The Magic of Nana Mouskouri (1974)
(1974) Sieben Schwarze Rosen (1975)
(1975) Toi qui t'en vas (1975)
(1975) Träume sind Sterne (1975)
(1975) At the Albert Hall (1975)
(1975) Quand tu chantes (1976)
(1976) Die Welt ist voll Licht (1976)
(1976) Eine Welt voll Musik (1976)
(1976) Lieder, die man nie vergisst (1976)
(1976) Nana in Holland (1976)
(1976) Songs of the British Isles (1976)
(1976) Love Goes On (1976)
(1976) Quand tu chantes (1976)
(1976) An Evening with Nana Mouskouri (1976)
(1976) Ein Portrait (1976)
(1976) La Récréation (1976)
(1976) Passport (1976)
(1976) The Three Bells (1976)
(1976) Une voix (1976)
(1976) Alleluia (1977)
(1977) Glück ist wie ein Schmetterling (1977)
(1977) Star für Millionen (1977)
(1977) Geliebt und bewundert (1977)
(1977) Lieder, die die Liebe schreibt (1978)
(1978) Nouvelles chansons de la vieille France (1978)
(1978) Les Enfants du Pirée (1978)
(1978) À Paris (1979)
(1979) Roses & Sunshine (1979)
(1979) Even Now (1979)
(1979) Vivre au soleil (1979)
(1979) Sing dein Lied (1979)
(1979) Kinderlieder (1979)
(1979) Vivre avec toi (1980)
(1980) Come with Me (1980)
(1980) Die Stimme in concert (1980)
(1980) Wenn ich träum / When I Dream (1980/1983)
/ (1980/1983) Alles Liebe (1981)
(1981) Ballades (1982)
(1982) Farben (1983)
(1983) Quand on revient (1983)
(1983) La Dame de cœur (1984)
(1984) Athina (1984)
(1984) Live at Herod Atticus (1984)
(1984) Nana (1984)
(1984) I endekati entoli (1985)
(1985) Ma vérité (1985)
(1985) Alone (1985)
(1985) Libertad / Liberdade (1986)
/ (1986) Kleine Wahrheiten (1986)
(1986) Tu m'oublies (1986)
(1986) Why Worry? (1986)
(1986) Only Love (1986)
(1986) Love Me Tender (1987)
(1987) Con tutto il cuore (1987)
(1987) Tierra viva (1987)
(1987) Du und ich (1987)
(1987) Par amour (1987)
(1987) Classique (1988)
(1988) A Voice from the Heart (1988)
(1988) The Magic of Nana Mouskouri (1988)
(1988) Concierto en Aranjuez (1989)
(1989) Tout simplement 1 & 2 (1989)
(1989) Nana Mouskouri Singt die schönsten deutschen Weihnachtslieder (1989)
(1989) Taxidotis (1990)
(1990) Gospel (1990)
(1990) Only Love: The Best of Nana Mouskouri (1991)
(1991) Nuestras canciones 1 & 2 (1991)
(1991) Am Ziel meiner Reise (1991)
(1991) Côté sud – Côté cœur (1992)
(1992) Hollywood (1993)
(1993) Falling in Love Again: Great Songs from the Movies (1993)
(1993) Dix mille ans encore (1994)
(1994) Agapi in'i zoi (1994)
(1994) Nur ein Lied (1995)
(1995) Nana Latina (1996)
(1996) Hommages (1997)
(1997) Return to Love (1997)
(1997) The Romance of Nana Mouskouri (1997)
(1997) Concert for Peace (1998)
(1998) Chanter la vie (1998)
(1998) Sentimiento latino (compilation 1998)
(compilation 1998) As Time Goes By (1999)
(1999) The Christmas Album (2000)
(2000) At Her Very Best (2001)
(2001) Erinnerungen (2001)
(2001) Songs the Whole World Loves (2001)
(2001) Fille du soleil (2002)
(2002) Un Bolero por favor (2002)
(2002) Ode to Joy (2002)
(2002) The Singles+ (2002)
(2002) Nana Swings: Live at Jazzopen Festival (2003)
(2003) Ich hab'gelacht, ich hab'geweint (2004)
(2004) L'Intégrale Collection (34 CD Box Set) (2004)
Collection (34 CD Box Set) (2004) A Canadian Tribute (2004)
(2004) I'll Remember You (2005)
(2005) Complete English Works Collection (17 CD Box Set) (2005)
Collection (17 CD Box Set) (2005) Moni Perpato (2006)
(2006) Nana Mouskouri (Gold) (2 CD) (2006)
(2 CD) (2006) Le Ciel est noir – Les 50 plus belles chansons (3 CD) (2007)
(3 CD) (2007) The Ultimate Collection (2007)
(2007) Les 100 plus belles chansons (5 CD) (2007)
(5 CD) (2007) 50 Hronia Tragoudia (50 Years of Songs) (2007)
(2007) Alma Latina – Todas sus grabaciones en español (5CD) (2008)
(5CD) (2008) The Best Of (Green Series) (2008)
(2008) The Very Best Of (Readers Digest 4 CD-Box) (2008)
(Readers Digest 4 CD-Box) (2008) The Ultimate Collection / In Asia (Taiwan) (2CD) (2008)
(Taiwan) (2CD) (2008) The Greatest Hits: Korea Tour Edition (2 CD-Box) (2008)
(2 CD-Box) (2008) The Singer (2008)
(2008) Nana Mouskouri – Best Selection (2009)
(2009) Nana Sings (reissue) (2009)
(reissue) (2009) Nana Mouskouri: Les hits (2009)
(2009) Meine schönsten Welterfolge vol. 2 (2CD) (2009)
(2CD) (2009) Les n°1 de Nana Mouskouri (Edition limitée) (2CD) (2009)
(2CD) (2009) La más completa colección (2009)
(2009) Nana Mouskouri I (2009)
(2009) Nana Mouskouri: Highlights 娜娜穆斯库莉:精选 (2010)
(2010) As Time Goes By (Nana Mouskouri Sings the Great Movie Themes) (reissue) (2010)
(reissue) (2010) The Danish Collection (reissue) (2010)
(reissue) (2010) Nana Jazz (2010)
(2010) My 60's Favourites (2010)
(2010) Mes Chansons de France (2010)
(2010) Nana Around the World (2010)
(2010) Ballads and Love Songs (2010)
(2010) Nana Country (2010)
(2010) Nana Mouskouri & Friends – Tragoudia apo Ellinika nisia (Songs from the Greek Islands) (2011)
(2011) Nana Mouskouri & Friends – Rendez-vous (French version) (2011)
(French version) (2011) Nana Mouskouri & Friends – Rendez-vous (German version) (2012)
(German version) (2012) Nana Mouskouri & Friends – Rendez-vous (English version) (2012)
(English version) (2012) Happy Birthday Tour (2014)
(2014) Forever Young (2018)
Autobiographies [ edit ]
Chanter ma vie, by Nana Mouskouri, Grasset ed., Paris 1989. ISBN 2-246-39211-X and ISBN 978-2-246-39211-8 (in French).
, by Nana Mouskouri, Grasset ed., Paris 1989. ISBN 2-246-39211-X and ISBN 978-2-246-39211-8. Το όνομά μου είναι Νάνα ( To ónomá mou eínai Nána, "My Name Is Nana"), by Nana Mouskouri, Livani Publishing, Athens 2006. ISBN 960-14-1341-3, ISBN 978-960-14-1341-9 (in Greek).
(, "My Name Is Nana"), by Nana Mouskouri, Livani Publishing, Athens 2006. ISBN 960-14-1341-3, ISBN 978-960-14-1341-9. Mémoires: La fille de la chauve-souris, by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy, XO Éditions, Paris 2007. ISBN 2-84563-311-4 and ISBN 978-2-84563-311-7 (in French). Memoirs, by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy, translated by Jeremy Leggatt, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 2007. ISBN 0-297-84469-5 and ISBN 978-0-297-84469-3 (in English). Stimme der Sehnsucht: Meine Erinnerungen, by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy, translated by Ulrike Lelickens, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2008. ISBN 3-89602-848-0 and ISBN 978-3-89602-848-8 (in German).
, by Nana Mouskouri with Lionel Duroy, XO Éditions, Paris 2007. ISBN 2-84563-311-4 and ISBN 978-2-84563-311-7.
Further reading [ edit ]
Poilly-Genoud, Audrey. Nana Mouskouri, une fragilité fondatrice: quelques notes éparses sur les lunettes de Nana Mouskouri. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2010 ISBN 978-2-296-12948-1
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
(in French) (in English) (in Spanish) (in German) Site québécois de Nana Mouskouri Biography, discography by language, list of 1 800 recordings, covers magazines, TV in Quebec, drawings, memories et topicalities.
Official
Biographies
Discography
Nana Mouskouri discography at MusicBrainz
FilmographyTHE Galwayman who bought Ireland is dead, England is deserted, while Australia and New Zealand have merged.
THE Galwayman who bought Ireland is dead, England is deserted, while Australia and New Zealand have merged.
They were designed to make Dubai the envy of the world: a series of paradise islands inhabited by celebrities and the super-rich reclaimed from the azure waters of the Arabian Gulf and shaped like a map of the Earth. It was called The World.
As millions of tonnes of rock were dumped into the sea for the foundations, timely leaks suggested that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were to buy Ethiopia, Richard Branson was tipped to occupy England, while Rod Stewart would border him in Scotland.
Hazard
Instead it has become the world's most expensive shipping hazard, guarded by private security in fast boats and ringed by warning buoys to keep the curious away.
A development that was meant to send Dubai's star into the firmament of First World cities has been left to the mercy of the waves and the baking winds.
Mile after mile of breakwater built from boulders brought hundreds of miles by ship has been laid, but inside its man-made lagoon, work has completely stopped.
The expected map of the world of 300 islands is instead a disjointed and desolate collection of sandy blots -- a monumental folly just out of sight of Dubai's shore.
Those who bought into what was the world's most ambitious building project were not celebrities.
Many were more ordinary investors who put down 70pc deposits, some of them Anglo-Indians.
Galway auctioneer turned developer, John O'Dolan (51) fronted a consortium under his O'Dolan International banner and bought Ireland for e28m in 2007 and last year snapped up England from under the noses of several UK interests for e23.5m.
But the property crash brought tragedy in its wake as the Galwayman committed suicide in February of this year.
As well as his foreign investments, the popular family man had extensive business interests in Ireland. He owned a bar and a hostel in Galway as well as other properties in Dublin and Limerick.
A couple of weeks before his tragic death, a receiver was appointed to his Galway hostel and a property company. His body was discovered in a shed on his Barna Road property.
His fellow investors in the Dubai development now have little prospect of seeing a return. The World has stopped, but they can't get off.
"The World has been cancelled. It doesn't even look like the world. Basically there is one island that is maintained that is said to be owned by the Sheikh [Dubai's ruler] and the rest looks like a pile of muck," said one local property agent.
It is the starkest example of a financing crunch that faces the emirate but many other projects are also in jeopardy.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a part, about $ |
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Continue reading part 2 hereBut That Won’t Stop Right Wingers Who Want to Impeach Pres. Obama for Bombing Libya
There they go again. The drumbeat on the right for impeaching Pres. Obama is reaching a feverish pitch.
The GOP put impeaching the president on the table last summer, even before it was a cinch they would retake the House in November. Over at the birtherist site, World Nut Daily, they even published a book listing putative impeachable offenses against the president titled, “The Case for Impeachment: Why Barack Hussein Obama Should be Impeached to Save America.” One notable offense in the book: The president, or someone at the White House, reportedly allowed pop stars Beyonce and Jay-Z to have their photographs taken in the White House Situation Room.
Then, as the midterms drew near, Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who would chair the House Oversight Committee, where impeachment investigations usually originate, described the president to Rush Limbaugh as “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times” and announced that he would increase the size of the committee’s staff. (Issa, who should know from corruption — he’s a suspected arsonist and was charged with grand theft auto in 1980 — later tried to walk back his characterization of the president.)
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the history-challenged prospective GOP presidential candidate, also piled on, suggesting that if Republicans gained control of Congress, they should forget governing and do nothing but investigate the president. “Oh, I think that’s all we should do,” she said. “I think that all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another. And expose all the nonsense that is going on. And it’s very important when we come back that we have constitutional conservative leadership because the American people’s patience is about this big.”
Now, in the wake of Pres. Obama’s order last Friday to bomb Libya in preparation for establishing a no-fly zone, right-wing radio talkers and others on GOP propaganda outlets are clamoring once again for impeachment. Critics of the president charge that he violated the War Powers Clause by initiating the bombing without first seeking approval of Congress.
Leaving aside the merits of bombing Libya, the case for impeaching the president on these grounds is precarious. For one thing, there are numerous precedents that did not lead to impeachment, starting in 1950 when Pres. Truman invaded Korea without prior notification to Congress.
But this precedent ought to be of particular interest to the right wing, especially those under the sway of the Cult of St. Ronnie:
In October 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced that he had ordered a pre-dawn invasion of Grenada by nearly 1,900 Marines and armed airborne troops under the code name “Urgent Fury.” The fighting was heavier than expected and by the end of the month, the United States military presence had reached more than 5,600 troops. After a few days of heavy fighting and a number of deaths, the shooting ended. The invasion and occupation constituted, within the meaning of the War Powers Clause of the U.S. Constitution, a war against the people of Grenada. The president, however, at no time sought the required congressional approval. He justified the invasion by claiming falsely that the lives of U.S. medical students were in danger. The same pretext was given to justify the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965.
(Of course, Reagan cultists have been brainwashed to ignore facts about his record that don’t jive with the mythology they are so invested in. For example, they are blissfully ignorant about the fact that one of his first acts as governor of California was to hike taxes by $1 billion to cover the budget deficit caused, in part, by spending increases he ordered — and that, as president, he raised taxes at least seven times, including the largest corporate tax increase in history.)
Impeaching presidents is as much a political exercise as it is a legal pursuit, as was illustrated by the Republicans’ bogus case against Pres. Clinton in 1998 — an effort led by Newt Gingrich, the most impetuous and ideological speaker in recent history.
In 1983, however, calls for impeaching Reagan in the Democratically controlled House went nowhere, at least in part because Speaker Tip O’Neill refused to pursue them. On a practical level, he knew the matter would likely fail in the Senate, where Republicans were in the majority. Politically, he surmised impeaching Reagan, whose Gallup approval rating was 49 percent, would not sit well with the public.
After Speaker O’Neill took impeachment off the table, a group of civil libertarians brought a lawsuit against the government for violating the War Powers clause on behalf of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. In fact, during Reagan’s two terms in office, Democratic members of Congress sued him four times for War Powers Clause violations, including the Conyers action, as well suits related to his sending military advisers to El Salvador and his activities in Nicaragua and the Middle East. All four cases were dismissed.
In the 1990s, Pres. George H.W. Bush was sued by Rep. Ron Dellums, D-Calif., for not consulting Congress before sending troops overseas to prepare for the Gulf War. A few years later, 26 members of Congress, led by GOP Rep. Tom Campbell of California, sued Pres. Clinton for not consulting Congress before he invaded Yugoslavia. These cases were dismissed, too.
In general, courts dismissed these lawsuits on the grounds that the Constitution established impeachment as the preferred method for adjudicating criminal charges against the Executive Branch by Congress.
While some liberals view congressional notification as a constitutional, rather than a partisan issue — just this week Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, called for impeachment hearings on Pres. Obama’s actions in Libya — Republicans don’t give a damn about violations of the War Powers Clause when GOP presidents do it.
For the current crop of Republicans, the issues are unimportant — they are shopping around for a pretext for impeaching Obama, just as their predecessors under Speaker Gingrich spent six years in the 1990s searching for something, anything, over which to impeach Pres. Clinton. After Whitewater, Travelgate, Filegate, the Vince Foster suicide and even the their investigation into Socks the cat failed to produce impeachable offenses, they resorted to trapping Pres. Clinton in a perjury about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
In 1983, Speaker O’Neill refused to pursue Reagan over his illegal invasion of Grenada because it was a political non-starter. Not only did the president’s party control the Senate, where impeachment trials are decided, Reagan’s popularity was just under 50 percent.
Today, Speaker Boehner faces a similar political landscape. The president’s party controls the Senate, and the president’s approval rating is 48 percent, according to Gallup.
But John Boehner is no Tip O’Neill. He is neither particularly smart nor politically savvy — but the starkest contrast between them is that Speaker Boehner is the leader of his party in name only. The Tea Party Caucus, led by the half-witted Rep. Bachmann, has him and his team on a very short leash.
And that is the political wild card here. Like Gingrich-era Republicans whose loathing of the Clintons drove them to recklessness, Bachmann, Issa and the rest are blinded by an irrational, partisan hatred of Barack Obama. If they demand impeachment hearings now, Speaker Boehner would be powerless to stop them.CHAPEL HILL, N.C., June 21, 2011—The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) has surrendered to the “heckler’s veto” by revoking Professor Emeritus Elliot Cramer’s network access following outside complaints about a link on his website to an organization that advocates for animal welfare. Despite telling the complaining individual that the dispute was “not a University matter” and that the university did not monitor the content of websites maintained by professors, UNC nevertheless demanded that Cramer remove the link from his website and later canceled his network access entirely. Cramer came to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.
“Apparently, UNC is willing to punish its own professors on the basis of their speech at the request of an outside party, if that person is simply persistent enough,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “Instead of protecting members of its community from outside threats to free speech, UNC has let this ‘heckler’s veto’ trump free expression on campus.”
Cramer, a psychology professor at UNC since 1966 and an emeritus faculty member since 1994, is an active scholar as well as President of the Board of Directors of the Piedmont Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). For months, Cramer has been in a dispute with Joseph Villarosa that apparently originated with complaints about an animal shelter in Robeson County, North Carolina—a matter of public concern. Villarosa repeatedly drew UNC into their dispute by frequently complaining that Cramer’s website on the university network contained a link to the PAWS website, which in turn contained a link to a page about the dispute.
On April 20, 2011, UNC General Counsel Leslie Chambers Strohm, apparently tired of dealing with Villarosa’s complaints, emailed Cramer ordering that he immediately remove “any links to material referencing Mr. Villarosa, either directly or indirectly.” Later on the same day, however, Strohm informed Villarosa via email that she had visited Cramer’s website and had seen “no reference to you [Villarosa] whatsoever,” that Villarosa’s recourse lay “directly with Dr. Cramer,” and that this issue was “not a University matter.”
Cramer promptly removed the link, but it was too late. UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp notified Cramer on April 27 that he had ordered UNC’s IT Security office to permanently disable Cramer’s UNC network privileges, which also cut off Cramer’s access to electronic library resources. Thorp accused Cramer of violating UNC’s Personal Use Policy by “embroil[ing] the university in your personal issues and divert[ing] resources … to a degree that is simply unacceptable.”
FIRE wrote to Chancellor Thorp on June 1, pointing out that it was not Cramer who “embroiled” UNC in the dispute or who caused the “diversion” of university resources, and that free expression on campus is in jeopardy when an outside party must merely prove sufficiently annoying in order to cause UNC to cut off network access for a member of the university community.
UNC General Counsel Strohm replied to FIRE on June 15, stating that UNC would not restore Cramer’s network access and characterizing Cramer’s reasonable, good-faith efforts to defend himself as part of the problem. Strohm also claimed that UNC had not acted due to the content of Cramer’s expression, despite the fact that Strohm herself had ordered Cramer to remove content from his website.
“UNC itself says its emeritus professors are a ‘valuable resource’ who are ‘continuing members of the university community,'” FIRE Senior Vice President Robert Shibley said. “Yet when UNC was forced by an outside party to defend an emeritus professor’s right to free speech, it instead decided to punish and silence him. Is this really how UNC chooses to treat its longest-serving faculty?”
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.
Contact:
Robert Shibley, Senior Vice President, FIRE: 215-717-3473; robert@thefire.org
Holden Thorp, Chancellor, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 919-962-1365; chancellor@unc.edu
Write to Chancellor Thorp and urge him to restore Professor Cramer’s rights today!AN EMPLOYEE reported the Subway restaurant, 4303 W. Irving Park Road, was robbed at about 11:10 p.m. Saturday, March 18, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The employee reported that two men entered the restaurant wearing ski masks and implied that they had guns, demanded money and took $215 in cash from the register, according to police.
A MAN AND a woman reported that they were robbed at about 2:15 a.m. Friday, March 17, in the 4100 block of North Keystone Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 25-year-old man and the 34-year-old woman reported that as they were walking home four men in a gray or light blue Mazda CX5 followed them through a church parking lot at 4120 N. Kedvale Ave., according to police. The man and the woman reported that three men exited the vehicle and demanded their cell phones, and that one of the men pointed a gun at them and took their phones and a purse containing credit cards, personal identification cards and house keys, police said.
A MAN REPORTED that he was robbed at about 10:05 a.m. Friday, March 17, in the 4700 block of North Troy Street, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 56-year-old man reported that he purchased jewelry valued at $8,000 at La Caridad Wholesale, 3039 N. Milwaukee Ave., placed the items in a bag, and then drove to his business, according to police. The man reported that when he parked and exited his vehicle, a man approached him with a handgun and another man approached him with a knife and said in Spanish, "Give us everything or we will kill you," and then took his jewelry bag and iPhone, police said.
A MAN REPORTED that he was robbed at about 9:30 p.m. Monday, March 20, in the 3600 block of West Glenlake Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 37-year-old man reported that as he was entering his vehicle, a man drove next to him, pointed a gun at him, demanded money and took between $600 and $800 in cash from him, according to police.
A MAN WAS shot at about 11 a.m. Sunday, March 19, in the 3600 block of West Sunnyside Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
Officers responded to a call of shots fired and discovered two bullet shell casings between the second and third floors of an apartment building and saw a 20-year-old man sitting in the entrance of his apartment with gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen, according to police.
THE MAN REPORTED that a man had shot him with a handgun and provided officers with a description and address where the man lives, police said. The man was transported to Illinois Masonic Hospital in critical condition, according to police.
Officers questioned the man at his residence and following an investigation the man was placed into custody in connection with the shooting, police said.
The suspect was identified by police as Michael Comiso, age 19, of the 4800 block of North Saint Louis Avenue.
A MAN REPORTED that a man cut him with a broken bottle at about 4:45 p.m. Saturday, March 18, in the 4800 block of North Kimball Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 23-year-old man reported that as he was walking a man approached him and asked for a cigarette and knocked the cigarettes out of his hand and then attempted to cut him with a broken bottle, according to police. The man reported that he attempted to deflect the bottle, causing lacerations to his hands, police said.
The man reported that he went to Swedish Covenant Hospital and was treated and released, according to police.
A WOMAN reported that her apartment in the 3000 block of West Wilson Avenue was burglarized at about 12:15 a.m. Saturday, March 18, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The woman reported that when she returned home she discovered that a bedroom window had been opened and a MacBook Pro laptop valued at $3,000, and Apple iPod valued at $300, a Samsung Galaxy cell phone valued at $300 and $180 in cash were missing, according to police.
A MAN REPORTED that his apartment in the 4800 block of North Saint Louis Avenue was burglarized between 10 p.m. Saturday, March 18, and 5:45 p.m. Sunday, March 19, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The man reported that when he returned home he discovered that the rear door had been forced open and $800 in cash, a credit card and a box of coins were missing, according to police.
The man’s sister reported that she was home during the time of the incident and that she heard a noise around midnight, but she thought that it was her brother, police said.Wilson and Howe scoop October awards after Bournemouth's run of four straight wins lifted the club top of the table
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe and striker Callum Wilson have been named the Sky Bet Championship Manager and Player of the Month for October.
Howe guided his side to four straight league victories during the month to help them advance to the top of the table by early November.
Wilson scored in each of the four October matches, netting five goals in total, including both goals in the 2-1 win at Bolton and the winner in the 1-0 home victory over Charlton.
Still and Cullen: Hatters on the up again
The judging panel for the awards comprises Football League Chief Operating Officer Andy Williamson, Football League Head of Communications John Nagle, League Managers’ Director Olaf Dixon and Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery. Former Norwich City manager Chris Hughton sits on the Manager of the Month award panel, while Sky Sports Football League expert Don Goodman sits on the Player of the Month award panel.
Preston manager Simon Grayson earned the plaudits in League One, while Oldham forward Jonathan Forte secured the player award.
Luton claimed double honours in League Two, with John Still named Manager of the Month and striker Mark Cullen Player of the Month after the club won all five league games during October to move into the automatic promotion places.
Here, Sky Sports takes a more in-depth look at the award winners...
Howe: Cherries in fantastic form
Sky Bet Championship Manager of the Month: Eddie Howe (Bournemouth)
Sixteen goals in five Sky Bet Championship and Capital One Cup outings during October have propelled Howe’s Cherries to the top of the league.
Howe will be particularly pleased with the way his team beat Birmingham 8-0 at St. Andrew’s.
Sky Sports’ Football League pundit Don Goodman said: “Eddie Howe has built an extremely talented young side on the South Coast and The Cherries are in an impressive run of form.
“Dan Gosling, Junior Stanislas and Adam Smith are seizing the fresh chances that Howe has given them and summer-signing Callum Wilson is repaying the faith shown in him with plenty of goals.”
Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery said: “His return from Burnley in 2012 has been hugely beneficial for The Cherries and they are now looking down the barrel of promotion to the Premier League, which is a 2/1 shot with Sky Bet.
“Howe’s side are 13/2 to win the league after their five wins in October.”
Wilson: Banging in goals for Bournemouth
Sky Bet Championship Player of the Month: Callum Wilson (Bournemouth)
Bournemouth are one of the best teams to watch this year.
They have the most goals in the Championship with 33, Callum has nine of those and his form recently has been electric.
He scored in four consecutive League games followed by a cup goal against Premier League opposition.
He’s starting to look every bit the player Bournemouth needed to replace last season’s top scorer Lewis Grabban.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said: “Callum has settled in quickly and been a key part of the success we have had as a team.
“He is a great finisher, as you can see through the goals he has scored, and has great pace and strength, as well as having a really good work ethic.
“He has scored nine goals already, including five during October, but now the challenge for him is to keep scoring and maintain his impressive start.”
Sky Sports’ Football League pundit Don Goodman said: “Wilson’s has made the step from League One to the Championship look easy and has continued the fine goal-scoring form he showed at Coventry last season.
“He is a proper No 9, with a fantastic attitude, great upper body strength and an eye for goal.”
Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery said: “Wilson is now 13/2 from 12/1 at the beginning of this month to finish top scorer in the league.”
Simon Grayson: Preston going well
Sky Bet League One Manager of the Month: Simon Grayson (Preston North End)
Grayson is clearly the best manager at this level after a brilliant month for his Preston North End charges, which saw them win six consecutive games and extend their run to eight straight wins.
Sky Sports’ Football League pundit Don Goodman said: “It doesn’t get better than a 100% record, and Grayson’s North End side were unstoppable in October.
“They narrowed the gap on league leaders Bristol City to two points with their sixth consecutive win away at Leyton Orient.”
Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery said: “After previously winning promotion from Sky Bet League One with Blackpool, Leeds and Huddersfield, Grayson is in a great position to win this honour again as The Lilywhites are 10/11 to go up this term.
“Simon struck a perfect balance between attacking prowess and defensive solidarity last month, he is a real popular man around the town due to the excellent work he is performing at the helm of the club.”
Jonathan Forte: Starring for Oldham
Sky Bet League One Player of the Month: Jonathan Forte (Oldham Athletic)
The Sky Bet League One Top Scorer market was starting to look very uncompetitive as Eoin Doyle was way ahead of everyone else.
However, this month Forte managed to grab himself five goals to move within three goals of the top scorer in the league.
Oldham manager Lee Johnson said: "Jonathan fully deserves this award and not just for his goals.
“Since joining the club he has been professional in everything he does.
“He trains well, works hard, talks to young professionals and passes on his vast knowledge.
“The award from Sky Bet is recognition of great work in the month of October.”
Sky Sports’ Football League pundit Don Goodman said: “Forte is red-hot at the moment and this is already the most prolific season of his career.
Opponents continue to double up on him, but he continues to find a way through.''
Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery said: “Forte is now 7/1 to be top of the pile at the end of the season having been 20/1 at the beginning of the month.
“Making him 3rd favourite behind Preston’s Joe Garner (9/2) and Chesterfield’s Eoin Doyle (11/10).”
Still: Luton flying high
Sky Bet League Two Manager of the Month: John Still (Luton Town)
Luton Town have gone from strength to strength this term in Sky Bet League Two after their promotion from non-league football last season and wily veteran manager John Still has been the brains behind this.
The Hatters won five of their six games in October with one credible defeat against League One Crawley Town in the Football League Trophy.
Sky Sports’ Football League pundit Don Goodman said: “John Still has invigorated Luton Town as a club and they have carried all of their momentum from last season into the Football League.
“The man from Essex continues to use his tried and tested methods to great effect.”
Sky Bet Football Trading Manager Paul Lowery said: “The highlight of their month was their victory at local rivals Stevenage which included an 83rd minute winner.
“Luton lie in second behind Wycombe and are 8/11 to win promotion or 4/1 with Sky Bet to win the Championship.”
Mark Cullen: Luton hotshot
Sky Bet League Two Player of the Month: Mark Cullen (Luton Town)
Luton have been in fine form recently and Mark has certainly been a factor in that.
He grabbed himself five goals during October including a hat-trick in the 3-1 victory over Dagenham & Redbridge.
Luton Town manager John Still said: “Although Mark has hit the headlines with his goals in October, his overall performances so far this season have been terrific.
“A lot was made of Andre Gray’s departure in the summer, but I knew that in Mark we had a natural goal-scorer.
“He is capable of scoring any kind of goal, and obviously his hat-trick against Dagenham saw him highlight that, with goals with both feet and his head.”BUFFALO, NY – Buffalo’s best music festival in back for a 4th year at a new location at the OXBO Campgrounds in Westfield, NY. The new location is just a 1 hour drive from the city of Buffalo and a mere 30-minutes from Erie, Pa.
This year’s installment of Buffalove Music Festival, will once again run 3 stages, featuring over 30 Local, Regional and National Acts over 4 days & nights at our beautiful, brand new sprawling 80+ Acre venue in Westfield, NY.
The Sunday night headliner is Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. Other headliners include EOTO (Late Night Set,) Aqueous (Performing 4 Sets over 2 Nights!) Particle (Late Night Set,) Jimkata, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Consider the Source, Funktional Flo (4 Sets over 3 Nights,) Tropidelic & Broccoli Samurai.
This year the festival in introducing a DJ Tent for the first time. It will run all 3 nights featuring over 18 sets of music from Artists like: Weazildust, Matka, JeffRepeater, The Verdict x2, Chunin x2, Ab.Styles, trash, Dj-Chucks and many more! Another first this year is a KID’s TENT with activities each day to keep the kids busy during the festival.
Daily Activities will include: Food & Craft Vending, Morning Yoga & Disc Golf with Kayaking, Swimming and Fishing (Available at the neighboring State-Owned Gorge.)
Tickets are now $100 in advance ($125 at the gate) for a 3-Day Pass, that includes all 3 nights of music and camping! Day passes are available on Sunday only for $40. Tickets are available ONLINE:HERE
If you would like to purchase a hard copy ticket for this years Buffalove Music Festival 2016 you can purchase your ticket at these locations throughout WNY:
Terrapin Station Buffalo – 1172 Hertel Ave, Buffalo, New York 14216
Chautauqua Music – 110 E 2nd St, Jamestown, New York 14701
eARTh House – 32 (EaSt) Main St (Heritage Square Plaza, By Papa Leo’S), Lockport (city), New York 14094
Glass Roots – 12 Center St, Batavia (town), Genesee County, New York 14020
Alchemy Shop – 6910 Buffalo Ave, Niagara Falls, New York 14304
HEADLINERS:
Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad, EOTO (Late-Night), Aqueous (2 Nights, 4 Sets), Particle (Late-Night), Jimkata, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, DrFameus (Allen Aucoin of The Disco Biscuits – Late Night), Consider The Source, Funktional Flow (3 Nights, 4 Sets), AquaFlow (A VERY special set featuring members of Aqueous & Funktional Flow), Tropidelic, Broccoli Samurai
Also Performing:
Adam Bronstein’s Freehand Band, AjamajA, Awakening (The songs of Skyepilot), Band Of Peace, Ben Whelan Your Mom & The Reacharounds, Blue Rootz, Boss Tweed & The Carpetbaggers, Buffalo Afrobeat Orchestra, Buffalove SuperDiscoJam (Late-Night), Jim Candytree, Experimental Sandwich, Folkfaces, Formula 5, Gang of Theives, Jerry Garcia Bunch (Performing the music of the Jerry Garcia Band), Gnosis, Gravy, Imperial Brown, Ponder the Giraffe, Roger Kuhn, Luanjie x2, Mister F, PA Line, Pasadena, Ocular Panther, Slip Madigan x2, The Slyboots Drum Ensemble, Smackdab x2, Sonder x2, Space Junk x2
DJ Tent:
Ab.Styles, AllDay x2, Basha x2, Chucks, Chunin x2, Dano, Drag n Drop, DropD, JeffRepeater x2, JennaBeatz, K-Rog (of Space Junk), MatKa, MixMaster Bates, Spark x2, Stero Nest x2, trash, The Verdict x2, Weazildust (Packy Lunn of Jimkata)
http://buffalovemusicfest.com/Norwegian laborers are facing harsher competition from the cheap immigrant workforce. Migrant workers have grabbed the majority of the new jobs in industries like construction, cleaning and service, according to a new report. The primary reason for this is lower wages.
Since 2003, some 450,000 jobs have been created in Norway, a Nordic nation of five million. Many of the fresh jobs were snatched by migrant workers, a survey by Center for Wage Formation, research foundation Fafo and research institute Socio-Economic Analysis showed. The report also indicated that cheaper immigrant labor has outcompeted Norwegians in many branches.
The researchers identified cleaning, retail, accommodation, catering and construction as the main industries that ended up being largely dominated by the immigrant workforce. Up to 60 percent of costly Norwegian personnel were replaced by "cheap" immigrants. The rate of replacement reached its peak in the low-wage part of the Norwegian private sector. On average, foreign-born workers receive 15 percent less in wages, which made them ideal for employers. A significant part of the newcomers were handpicked by employment agencies.
Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO) Director Svein Oppegaard believes that the influx of migrant workers was largely beneficial at a time when the country needed labor. During this period, many new jobs were created, and the labor force was in a flux, he pointed out.
"During this period, we lacked manpower in Norway. However, we had strong labor immigration, and it was necessary to fill the vacancies we had. It was good for Norway, good for foreigners who earned decent money and good for their families," Oppegaard told Norwegian national broadcaster NRK.
© AFP 2018 / JONATHAN NACKSTRAND Posters Pop Up in Norway to Motivate More Migrants to Leave Voluntarily
According to the survey, nearly half of the Norwegians who were still working at the end of the four-year-period had moved to other industries, whereas 12 percent of the Norwegians left the labor market completely for various reasons.
Project manager Roger Bjørnstad from Socio-Economic Analysis expressed fears that the policy of wage dumping will continue for lack of coherent protection measures. According to him, Norwegians with a low level of education constitute the most exposed risk group and may end up being "squeezed out" of the labor market.
"Wage disparity between immigrants and native Norwegians allows numerous employers to pick the cheapest labor," Bjørnstad said.Solidarity Network against Censorship prepared a report named “Reflection of War on Press in 40 Days” and released to the public with Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK). The report includes violations of the law between July 27 and August 28.
The report says, 2,544 people were detained, 338 people were arrested, 137 people died, 130 regions of 15 provinces were declared as special areas in 40 days and ‘basic rights were suspended.’
Attacks against journalists and the media
Between July 27 and August 28.
* 103 websites, 23 twitter accounts were blocked. 50 URL were blocked with the attempt of a businessman, Ethem Sancak.
* 10 journalists were attacked, three journalists were threatened by the police.
* Newspapers Evrensel and Sol were threatened by Turkish Revenge Brigade (TİT). Sözcü Newspaper announced ‘they won’t be silent.’
* 20 journalists from Newspapers Hürriyet, Milliyet and HaberTürk.
21 journalists were on trial, two journalists were arrested
* Two British journalists were arrested.
* 21 journalists were put on trial since they published the images of prosecutor Mehmet Kira who was kidnapped by gunmen and they were sued for imprisonment for 157,5 years.
* A media group was raided by policemen.
Solidarity Network against Censorship said these violations and attacks should be perceived as attacks against freedom of expression and press.
Solidarity Network against Censorship
Solidarity Network against Censorship was founded on August 18, upon the suggestions of censored websites’ journalists, Journalists' Union of Turkey, DİSK’s press branch and Alternative media Association. (EA/BD)
Click here to read the article in Turkish
This publication has been produced within the partnership with Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of IPS Communication Foundation and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.The year is 1995. Humankind has stretched out into space, setting up colonies on other planets and mining asteroids within our solar system for resources, while technological developments have advanced far enough to give us devices like the antigravity drive.
P.O.L.L.E.N, Mindfield Games’ upcoming virtual reality (VR) first-person exploration game, is a love letter to classic sci-fi, meant to focus on curiosity and discovery in a world that’s equally laden with elements of fantasy and science fiction.
“All of us are huge science fiction fans, especially of the old science fiction,” Olli Sinerma, project lead on P.O.L.L.E.N, told us during an interview. “Everyone loves sci-fi, even so far that one of our founders, one of the artists of the game, was on the Mars One project,” Mars One being the initiative, surrounded by some controversy, announced back in 2012 that will send the first humans to Mars beginning in 2026 in order to establish a permanent settlement on the red planet. “She was in the top 100 chosen people, and she folded it because she wanted to do P.O.L.L.E.N.”
“In P.O.L.L.E.N,” Sinerma continued, “we decided that the world is like the old science fiction come true.” In this case, that old science fiction is the sci-fi of the 1970s.
“Everything you see you can touch, operate, or rotate, and everything in the world has an action.”
Exploring new frontiers
As the player, our character has taken advantage of a sudden job opening to replace a missing mechanic at Rama Industries’ Research Base M on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, but the details we’re given about the actual work that’s done there are slim; the bulk of the game leaves exploring Research Base M to uncover clues as to what’s been happening there up to the player.
“One thing that we decided to do in P.O.L.L.E.N is to make the whole world interactive,” Sinerma said. “Everything you see you can touch, operate, or rotate, and everything in the world has an action. So, if you see some food in the kitchen, you can cook it in a microwave.”
The interaction with our environment doesn’t end there, either. While our main job is piecing together the clues we find, Research Base M has everything we’d expect from a facility intent on keeping its residents healthy and free from boredom. Side-activities in the game span from the cooking Sinerma mentioned to playing basketball in a basketball court or, yes, playing video games inside of a video game.
Stepping forward as a pioneer
Designing the game from the ground up in VR has posed many challenges, but the team at Mindfield Games was keenly aware of the difficulties they’d have before development even started.
“First person movement is something developers are so afraid of because it [gives] simulator sickness, and that’s why we decided to tackle it,” Sinerma said, with spiral staircases being an example of something ordinary that the team had to remove because it just doesn’t work in VR without making people want to vomit.
But the technical challenges go beyond what does or doesn’t make the player sick: audio is always an important part of a game, but it’s doubly more so in a VR game where some more traditional tools of the trade aren’t used, such as cinematics or background music.
“[Audio] has been super important from the beginning,” Sinerma said, “because we are controlling two senses from the player totally: the eyes and the ears. We are using bilinear audio, which is three dimensional, so if something happens on the right side of your head, your right ear hears it first and your left ear hears [it] second.” Careful consideration has gone into the audio elements of everything in the game world. We’ll be able to not only interact with everything in the game’s environment, but Mindfield wants it to be as realistic as possible and true to what we |
promise to lavish the parents of Victorian kindergarteners with $100 cheques. One might well ask whether the Coalition is aware that there are parents out there with children who aren’t in kindergarten and who, in fact, also pay taxes. Why should they subsidise the parents of kindergartners? There is no economic reason or motive for this policy – it was a grubby vote buying exercise, pure and simple.
This is not to mention the incredible number of welfare payouts to businesses, grants to multicultural groups, arts groups and other handouts strewn about by the Liberals in this campaign.
Economist David Friedman was probably speaking of the Victorian election campaign when he wrote:
Special interest politics is a simple game. A hundred people sit in a circle, each with his pocket full of pennies. A politician walks around the outside of the circle, taking a penny from each person. No one minds; who cares about a penny? When he has gotten all the way around the circle, the politician throws fifty cents down in front of one person, who is overjoyed at the unexpected windfall. The process is repeated, ending with a different person. After a hundred rounds everyone is a hundred cents poorer, fifty cents richer, and happy.
The Liberal love affair with special interest politics has also caused Liberal Party members to abandon their party and join the pro-liberty Liberal Democratic Party.
I know – because I made the transition for this very reason, and saw so many of my former Liberal friends make the same choice. A substantial number of our members are former Liberals who are sick and tired of the waste, welfare, handouts and nanny-state politics of the Napthine government. Real liberals, classical liberals, to say nothing of conservatives, no longer feel at home in the Liberal Party. It’s as simple as that.
Speaking as a current Liberal Democrat I can report that I am more than happy to be part of a party that unreservedly opposes the politics of special interest and corporate welfare. And I am very far from alone. Victorian Conservatives and Classical Liberals supported the Liberal Democrats’ campaign in this election– and for good reason. Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt and free market economist Sinclair Davidson promoted our campaign launch online. Economists and columnists Mikayla Novak and Chris Berg spoke at our launch. The editor of Quadrant Online, Roger Franklin, also attended the launch. The reason they promoted us is simple. We were the only voice that stood up against big government—the Liberals’ big government—in this election.
I hope the Coalition will learn from its mistakes in future elections and make the case for a bold liberal agenda in future elections. But sadly, I doubt it. The Party seems to be filled with hacks who have no understanding of economics and who could easily find their place in the ALP. That’s not the Party for me—and it’s not likely to win any elections, either.
Vladimir Vinokurov is a solicitor, a former member of the Liberal Party and the current Public Relations officer for the Liberal Democratic Party’s Victorian Branch—a party committed to promoting free market policies in Australian politics.
First published at Menzies House.“You know, I was kind of freaking out,” says Pranay Sharma. In between classes and studying at the University of Pennsylvania, Pranay acts as business manager for Penn Masala, “the world’s first and premier South Asian a cappella group.”
So when he was contacted by Deke Sharon, musical director for the film Pitch Perfect, about the group performing in the eagerly awaited sequel, freaking out did ensue.
“Eventually, I got it together, and he explained the process and what he wanted us to do. So we recorded a song for them,” says Pranay. “We worked remotely with them to do that. Then we went down to Baton Rouge for a week and filmed a couple of scenes alongside some very cool groups.”
For Penn Masala, the road to the silver screen stretches back long before Pranay’s time as their business manager. The group started in 1996 in a UPenn dorm room, born out of the dual musical identity that many children of South Asian descent experience. “We’ve grown up listening to American music with friends and Indian music at home. They’re both simultaneously part of our lives,” explains Pranay. “And in college, a lot of the a cappella options were great, but none of them quite captured that. What’s special about us is that we blend the two, and mix Western pop with Bollywood beats. It’s our spin on classic a cappella.”
That unique spin has taken Penn Masala to some amazing places. In just the past few years, they’ve performed for President Obama at the White House, an audience at the Kennedy Center, and a crowd of 20,000 people at the International Indian Film Academy Awards. And over the course of Penn Masala’s life, they’ve recorded eight full-length albums.
Bringing these opportunities to life isn’t just luck, though. Staying organized is critical, especially because Penn Masala’s lineup is constantly in flux as students start school and graduate. As Pranay explains, “People are constantly coming in and out of the group, and having a sense of continuity is so important to us. If things aren’t well organized, they’d fall by the wayside, and it would get very confusing very fast.”
"You constantly see the guys with their phones out, hooked up to Dropbox.”
That’s where Dropbox fits in. Pranay keeps three folders accessible to the group: one for administrative documents, one for marketing, and one for music they’ve recorded. This setup helps him keep the 13 members connected — and prepped for shows. “The guys constantly need to listen to their recordings for rehearsal,” says Pranay. “And the way they do that is by using mobile. So you constantly see them with their phones out, hooked up to Dropbox listening to background parts they’ve recorded earlier to learn them for shows.”
The music folder has even become an integral part of the recording process. Pranay describes how Penn Masala works with their studio engineer: “He takes all the files for a specific song and uploads them to Dropbox. It’s actually enabled us to see the evolution of each song. One song might have ten versions as we’re going through the process of recording it. Dropbox lets us make tweaks as we’re going and understand what’s changed from iteration to iteration.”
“It answers all their questions in one fell swoop, just like that.”
But more than just helping Penn Masala record their own music, it also helps them work with other artists from afar. “We recently did a remote collaboration with really fantastic artist by sending our recordings to her via Dropbox,” says Pranay. “That was how she got our files and sent hers back to us. I don’t actually know how we would have done it without that. She needed our background files to record her lead over, and we needed to hear her lead over the background to mix the entire thing afterward. I thought that was a very cool application of the whole thing.”
Dropbox also helps Pranay when it comes time to book performances. “Promoters typically ask me for a few things when they’re putting on a show: photos, a blurb about the group, some background,” he says. “So I prepared some marketing materials that I immediately share with them. It answers all their questions in one fell swoop, just like that. And it saves me the hassle of having to go through this process with each and every guy. Instead I just send them one link to a Dropbox folder, and show prep is basically done.”
But it’s not all recording sessions and film shoots for the group. The members of Penn Masala are, first and foremost, students. And that means balancing their studies with their music. Luckily, there’s a fourth Dropbox folder the group shares: the academic folder. “We all compile notes and study guides,” says Pranay. “And we keep it in one centralized place so that everyone can draw on it.” So professors and parents, rest assured: on stage and in the classroom, Pranay and the gang are taking care of the important stuff.
To check out Penn Masala’s music, visit pennmasala.com for info, videos, and tour dates, and be sure to follow them on Facebook. And, of course, you can catch them on the big screen in Pitch Perfect 2.As the world burns (the United States in seemingly insurmountable debt, Russian planes being bombed by “JV team” ISIS, Israel’s existence in constant threat and the Syrian Refugee Crisis growing exponentially worse), LGBT Activists set their sights on the issue of “bathroom equality.”
(Make it trend: #BathroomRightsMatter)
Houston, Texas is the latest target of the left because the city proved level heads still rein, provoking liberal outrage everywhere by shooting down an ordinance pushed by Mayor Annise Parker (the city’s first lesbian mayor) which would have allowed transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice based on how they “identify” and not their genetic makeup.
Although the ordinance’s denial will act to effectively avert any Mrs. Doubtfire-like bathroom mix-ups, LGBT activists are none too pleased.
Now LGBT activists are calling for an economic boycott of the city and are trying to strong-arm the NFL to move the 2017 Super Bowl, which is scheduled to be held at Houston’s NRG Stadium.
Though the people of Houston are the ones who rejected the bill, transgender military veteran Brynn Tannehill quickly condemned "religious leaders" as instigators of potential hate-crimes against transgender people.
“Religious leaders have been so successful at dehumanizing transgender people there, that it’s only a matter of time before some vigilante kills another transgender woman, just for using the bathroom,” said Tannehill.
A petition on Change.org is also calling to move the Super Bowl,
“Houston is currently scheduled to host Super Bowl LI, the NFL's championship game, on February 5, 2017. By pulling the game from Houston, the NFL can demonstrate its commitment to equality, freedom and justice in a truly meaningful way," it says.
Change.org has previously displayed the left’s lack of tolerance by calling for both CNN anchor Don Lemon and “The View” co-host Raven Symone to be fired for being disagreeable with Black Lives Matter ideology.
Amongst this increased scrutiny, the NFL has released a statement denying any plans to cave to the petitions and move the Super Bowl. The Washington Blade reports:
Brian McCarthy, an NFL spokesperson, confirmed the NFL is rejecting calls to move Super Bowl LI, which is set to take place in 2017 at NRG Stadium in Houston. “This will not affect our plans for Super Bowl LI in 2017,” McCarthy said. “We will work closely with the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee to make sure all fans feel welcomed at our events. Our policies emphasize tolerance and inclusiveness, and prohibit discrimination based on age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other improper standard.”
Time will tell if the NFL will cave to unreasonable demands screamed by a minority voice or if they will side with the rational thought of the silent majority.
Note: We will keep you posted on President Obama’s inevitable divisive remarks. (I mean, isn’t that his job as divider-in-chief?)THQ's Melbourne, Australia office will shut shop in the region within months, the firm announced today. All local staff have been dismissed following the news, with the publisher's future software distribution to be handled by third-party, All Interactive Entertainment (AIE).
"The evolution of our distribution model in the Asia Pacific region will allow us to increase our reach with a lower cost model," THQ’s executive vice president of global publishing Ian Curran confirmed in a statement. "AIE is a trusted business partner with whom we have worked with for many years as our distributor in New Zealand. We believe the company will benefit from AIE’s backing and comprehensive distribution network across Australia."
Robert Kingston, director of AIE acknowledged the appointment, saying "We are delighted to broaden our relationship with a top publisher such as THQ. We look forward to bringing THQ’s highly-anticipated new video game releases and existing game portfolio to our retail network in the territory."
The details come less than six months after Sega Australia closed its doors in similar fashion; moving the entirety of its business to distributor Five Star Games.
No other regions of operation are believed to be impacted as a result of THQ's office closure in Australia.
[UPDATE] In a statement to Gamasutra, a THQ spokesperson told the publication approximately 18 employees were impacted by THQ Australia's closure.
The statement also delves a little deeper into THQ's decision to shut down its Australian operations:
"In line with THQ's corporate strategy to focus on wholly-owned IP and move away from affiliate label programs, we have evaluated how best to take our more-focused product lineup to market in the territory."
"After a thorough analysis, a decision has been made to move from a direct sales model to a distributor model, which means that our Melbourne publishing office will be closing."Intel's new CEO Bryan Krzanich thinks that cheap tablets are the way forward, and they're going to be even cheaper than he's hinted before. Today at the 2013 Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, he told the audience that Intel tablets will be available "at price points below $100" this holiday season.
Krzanich had previously said that touch screen laptop prices could drop below $200, and that tablets could dip below $150 when they go on sale this holiday, but under $100 we're beginning to talk about impulse-buy territory, where consumers can get a capable tablet for the price of an e-reader. Krzanich didn't say how capable those sub-$100 tablets might be or what their quality might be like — even at $379, we've seen Intel-powered tablets that were stinkers— but perhaps it could help cement Intel's position in the market, finally. He also didn't specify whether they would run Windows or Android. Intel can support both operating systems with its latest Atom silicon.A 27-year-old woman has been sentenced to 18 months in prison following an incident in a police station after her arrest for refusing to take off her niqab.
Stephanie Djato was arrested on 31 May 2012 at a bus stop in the Brussels borough of Jette. She had been asked to remove her niqab — a cloth face covering that forms part of the hijab worn by some Muslim women — in accordance with Belgian law, but refused.
Ms. Djato resisted arrest but was eventually taken to a police station. On the way there she continued to put up resistance, and head-butted one of the female police officers.
On arrival at the police station she continued acting aggressively, and as the situation deteriorated further still two women police officers were injured and Ms. Djato was taken to hospital.
Dutch newspaper, Het Laatste Nieuws, reports the court today found Ms. Djato solely responsible for the fracas, handing down a prison sentence of 18 months and a 900 euros fine. She was also ordered to pay compensation to the police officers she attacked, with most going to the one who sustained the headbutt.
The Belgian law that effectively bans the niqab was passed by Parliament in late April 2010. In fact it bans “attire and clothing masking the face in such a way that it impairs them to be recognisable”. The penalty breaching the law is rather less serious than the sentence handed out to Ms. Djato for her violent reaction.
The law exists explicitly for security reasons and makes no direct reference to the niqab. Nevertheless it prompted anger from the Islamist community in Belgium and beyond, especially following Ms. Djato’s arrest.
Shariah4Belgium, a Mulsim fundamentalist group that has since been banned, called for protests in her support which then descended into riots that rumbled on for several days. In addition two police officers were stabbed in a Brussels Metro Station by a French Islamist who travelled from Paris in order to launch the attack in protest against Belgian government policy towards Muslims.
Ms. Djato did not attend her trial, but the court has now ordered her immediate arrest.Reporter
The Washington Free Beacon disclosed in congressional testimony on Friday that it is the mysterious client that initially paid for opposition research on Donald Trump performed by Fusion GPS, the firm that later worked with a former British spy to produce a dossier of claims about ties between Trump and Russia.
Just three days earlier, the Free Beacon, a conservative news site founded in 2012, told its readers that before Democrats hired Fusion GPS in April 2016, the firm's work “was funded by an unknown GOP client while the primary was still going on."
The GOP client was not “unknown” — not to the Free Beacon, anyway. The site's feigned ignorance would have led any reasonable reader to conclude, wrongly, that it was not involved in the work of Fusion GPS.
Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti did not immediately respond to a Fix inquiry about his site's lack of disclosure. But he and Free Beacon chairman Michael Goldfarb posted a statement on the site Friday night, in which they said that the Free Beacon routinely “has retained third-party firms to conduct research on many individuals and institutions of interest to us and our readers.”
“In that capacity,” they continued, “during the 2016 election cycle, we retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton.”
Continetti and Goldfarb said they did not know about Fusion GPS's subsequent work on behalf of Democrats during the general election. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee contracted Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump, an effort that resulted in the dossier authored by Christopher Steele, which, in turn, yielded leads that the FBI investigated.
“We stand by our reporting, and we do not apologize for our methods,” Continetti and Goldfarb wrote.
Update: Continetti on Monday posted an additional statement on the Free Beacon's website:
Prior to Oct. 27, 2017, the Washington Free Beacon published several articles referencing the research firm Fusion GPS that did not disclose the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Washington Free Beacon. The reason for this omission is that the authors of these articles, and the particular editors who reviewed them, were unaware of this relationship. The articles in question tended to be aggregated stories relying on the reporting done by other media outlets. This type of article undergoes a different editorial process from the original investigative pieces that appear on our website. Beginning today, all articles referencing Fusion GPS will mention its history with the Washington Free Beacon. The Free Beacon is also reviewing its editorial process with respect to aggregated news sources to consider ways to avoid similar issues in the future. We regret the error.
Fusion GPS is run by former Wall Street Journal reporters Glenn Simpson, Thomas Catan and Peter Fritsch. One could argue that the Free Beacon's hiring of Fusion GPS amounted to bringing in a few experienced, big-league journalists as consultants.
“It's a serious organization,” New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, another Journal alumnus, said of Fusion GPS on MSNBC this week.
But President Trump and his allies have sought to cast Fusion GPS as a shadowy, illegitimate outfit that produced a “fake” dossier. And the Free Beacon published such characterizations unchallenged — without noting that it considered Fusion GPS reliable enough to pay for its services.Share
Though we’re not entirely convinced that any Hollywood studio has a spotless track record, if any group comes close, it’s certainly Pixar. Since releasing Toy Story in 1995, the company has made a name for itself as one of those rare entities capable of consistently creating good films aimed at kids that are equally enjoyable for their parents. In Pixar’s favor (and much to the delight of parent company Disney), this isn’t just a way of earning widespread critical propers; by convincing parents that they’ll be entertained as well at any given Pixar movie, the company has guaranteed that when scanning the local “Now Playing” listing, anyone in charge of a small child will automatically seek out a Pixar film. There just aren’t any other, better options for kids flicks.
This widespread affection for Pixar makes the studio one of the few Hollywood shingles whose films can generate massive interest based on the most scant details. Even movies that are years away from completion have fans salivating purely based on an interesting, quirky premise and the minute number of people already signed on to work behind the scenes. Thus, though the information released this morning on two upcoming Pixar projects offers very little solid info on how these two films might turn out, it’s just enough to generate uncontrollable, twitchy anticipation amongst those who religiously follow the company’s efforts.
The first film, intriguingly dubbed The Good Dinosaur, is being directed by Bob Peterson, a gent who IMDB lists as one of the co-directors of 2009’s Up. Bleeding Cool describes the film as being “set in a world where that infamous cataclysmic meteor missed planet earth and the dinosaurs didn’t die out, evolving alongside mammals and, in the present day, sharing the planet with humans.” Though The Good Dinosaur has been public knowledge for a while now, the film’s title and word that it will see theaters in May 2014 is all new info. That release date puts it after Pixar’s upcoming “crimson-haired girl battles evil and sexism with awesome archery skills” film Brave and the upcoming Monsters Inc. prequel Monsters University.
Following some time thereafter is an as-yet-untitled, undated film that The Wrap describes as a Pixar effort to win the hearts of “the burgeoning Hispanic audience.” The movie focuses on the Mexican Dia de los Muertos holiday, which, for those of you who don’t habla español, translates to “Day of the Dead.” Traditionally, the annual event is held every November 1 and 2 (to coincide with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls Day, respectively. It offers revelers a chance to remember and communicate with loved ones who have passed on, and most celebrants do so by creating personal altars for their relatives, making delicious candy and pastries, and taking trips to local cemeteries to fawn over the graves of their departed relatives.
What exactly this means for the plot of Pixar’s film remains to be seen, as beyond the key focus, and word that the film will be helmed by Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich, almost nothing is known of this project. That said, it’s probably a safe bet to assume that Pixar will be lending its colorful, CGI-driven cartoon style to the intricate, festively macabre costumes and decorations that Dia de los Muertos is most often known for.
Likewise, it’s also probably safe to assume that the film, despite its focus on the Day of the Dead holiday, will have nothing to do with the George Romero zombie flick of the same name (though we’ve got our fingers crossed for a few of Pixar’s typically clever references to that classic of shambling corpse cinema).The United States and Venezuela will work to improve their strained relations, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday after meeting with his counterpart from Caracas, who hours earlier had accused Washington of helping foment a coup against Venezuela’s socialist government.
On a day that started with Kerry backing calls for a referendum to recall President Nicolás Maduro, as well as Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez saying Washington was “bullying” her country, Kerry and Rodriguez spoke privately for about half an hour. Initially they avoided eye contact when posing for photos and exchanged an awkward handshake, but Kerry later described their conversation as “very congenial and very respectful.”
Kerry said the United States does not support suspending Venezuela from the Organization of American States, one possible outcome of a push by OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who has accused the Maduro government of failing to live up to the group’s Democratic Charter. Rather, Washington supports mediated talks with the Maduro government’s opponents as Venezuela continues to be roiled by food and medical shortages, high inflation and anti-government protests.
“That wouldn’t be constructive,” Kerry said of a suspension. “It’s more constructive to have the dialogue than to isolate.”
Kerry said he would dispatch Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the undersecretary for political affairs, to Caracas “immediately” for talks. He also suggested that improved relations between the two countries depend on whether Maduro acquiesces to opposition calls for a recall referendum.
“We are supporting it in the context of a constitutional prerogative that is available to the opposition, which they have chosen to exercise and have been frustrated in the exercise,” Kerry said.
Asked whether Maduro would be open to dialogue with the opposition, Kerry said that he had talked it over with Rodriguez and that “she indicated that he wants to proceed in this direction, and we will explore that.”
“I’m committed to see if this can work, so let’s see if we can improve the relationship,” he said.
Kerry’s soothing words appeared to be an attempt to tone down a fiery start to the OAS General Assembly meeting here.
Kerry opened the session decrying the “deeply troubling” situation in Venezuela, citing reports of people dying while queuing in long lines for food and medical care.
“Like all people of the Americas, Venezuelans have the right to use constitutional mechanisms to express their will in a peaceful and democratic manner,” Kerry said. He then called on the Venezuelan government to release political prisoners, respect freedom of expression and assembly, and honor petitions for a recall referendum.
[In Venezuela, life is undervalued, and death is overpriced]
Moments later, Rodriguez responded with harsh words against both Washington and the OAS secretary general over his proposal to suspend Venezuela from the 34-state organization.
Calling Almagro “biased” in favor of her country’s political opposition, Rodriguez said the secretary general’s efforts prove he is intervening in the country’s domestic politics.
“I see now this is ordered by Washington,” she said, adding of the OAS, “I know they are on Washington’s payroll to meddle in the domestic affairs of Venezuela.”
Rodriguez trained her anger further on the United States, which she said has shattered the Middle East and Africa.
“Today, Venezuela is the victim of international bullying from the right,” she said, blaming nations that “seek to overthrow progressive left-wing governments in our region.”
[Photo gallery: Harrowing scenes of Venezuela on the brink of collapse]
Venezuela is spiraling toward chaos. Low prices for oil, the financial bedrock of Venezuela’s socialist domestic programs and its regional political power, have hurt the country’s ability to import goods, causing shortages of food, medicine and other products. Electrical blackouts are so severe that Maduro has urged women to stop blow-drying their hair.
Maduro has responded with what critics call growing authoritarianism. He declared a state of emergency that has allowed him to throw critics in jail, undercut the independent press and suppress the opposition in the National Assembly. Anti-government protesters have been repelled by security forces in Caracas.
[There has never been a country that should have been so rich but ended up this poor]
A June 23 meeting of the OAS has been called to discuss a 132-page report that Almagro released last month and that reads like an indictment of Maduro’s government. Almagro needs a majority, or 18 votes, to agree with him that “there is an alternation in the [Venezuelan] constitutional order that seriously affects the democratic order.”
The United States supports Almagro’s efforts, which Kerry said “will open a much-needed discussion about Venezuela” that could ultimately help ease the pressures that have led as much as a third of Venezuela’s 30 million residents to say they want to leave their country.
Since Almagro became head of the OAS last year, he has increased the organization’s focus on democracy and human rights. Washington pays 60 percent of the OAS budget and is home to its headquarters.
Although the crisis in Venezuela is not officially on the agenda of the General Assembly, it is dominating many of the private discussions.
[U.S. intelligence officials: Venezuela could be headed for collapse]
According to diplomats at the assembly, the United States is floating a draft statement seeking support for the measures Kerry outlined in his speech. Washington can expect support from Canada, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil.
In return, Venezuela is circulating a draft that calls for the United States to apologize for its 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic. That year, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 22,000 U.S. troops into the country to prevent what he called the establishment of a “communist dictatorship.” Caracas has its own list of allies, including Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador and several small Caribbean countries that receive heavily discounted oil from Venezuela.
The fracas at the OAS over Venezuela has grown intensely acrimonious in recent weeks. Maduro has accused Almagro of being a CIA agent, and told him to roll up the OAS Democratic Charter in a vial and “stuff” it. Almagro has accused Maduro of being a traitor to his people and being on the path to becoming a “petty dictator.”
In his morning remarks, Kerry expressed disappointment that the Dominican government had barred representatives of civil organizations from attending the General Assembly.
“Transparency and citizen participation are not optional, and they are not prerogatives of the host government,” he said.
Read more
Harrowing scenes of life in Venezuela
Venezuela declares a 2-day work week because of energy shortages
Collapsed price of oil is the only number that matters in Venezuela
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the worldThe item landscape in League of Legends is ever-changing. Whether because of small tweaks, medium-sized redefinitions of items, or new items altogether, fresh obstacles are presented before us every so often for us to dissect and conquer. In the latest round of changes, we have what can be thought of as a swap of stats between what is now Abyssal Mask and Banshee's Veil while they retain their Unique Passives. I'll be going over the changes in detail and talking about how the changes have affected and may continue to affect specific champions and roles.
The Changes
Abyssal Scepter
-> Abyssal Scepter -> Abyssal Mask 60 AP 0 0 Health 300 60 Magic Resist 65 0% Health Regeneration 100%
The above table only lists the changes that occurred on the 7.9 patch (excluding the name and icon changes, which rolled out on 7.11). Abyssal Mask still retains:
-10% cooldown reduction
-Unique Passive: Nearby enemy champions take 10% more magic damage.
Banshee's Veil
Old -> New 0 AP 70 70 Magic Resist 60 300 Health 0 100% Health Regeneration 0% 0% Cooldown Reduction 10%
Like with the Abyssal changes, the above table aggregates both the major 7.9 changes and the minor 7.11 changes (Gold cost 2700->3000 and Magic Resist 45 -> 60). It retains its Unique Passive that grants a spell shield that blocks the next enemy ability. This shield refreshes after no damage is taken from enemy champions for 40 seconds.
Guardian Angel
-> Old -> New 60 Armor 30 45 Magic Resist 0 0 Attack Damage 40
While Guardian Angel wasn't directly related to the Abyssal/Banshee's swap, it has been redefined as strictly an AD item, meaning that the defensive options for AP champions, though very few ever considered buying Guardian Angel, are even more limited than before.
Unlike the other items, its Unique Passive has been changed very slightly:
Unique Passive: Upon taking lethal damage, restores ((old) 700 health or 30% of maximum health --> (new) 50% of maximum health) and 30% of maximum mana after 4 seconds of stasis.
Winners and Losers
Considering that the changes roughly amount to the Abyssal passive being swapped for Banshee's bubble passive and Guardian Angel becoming an attack damage item, the winners and losers can be boiled down to who was affected most seriously both offensively and defensively by these changes. In general, both Abyssal Mask and Banshee's Veil are powerful situational items, but Banshee's seems to be built more.
Winners
Low Cooldown or Poke Mages
This section includes champions like Xerath, Viktor, and Taliyah. These champions have a way to pop a Banshee's veil that is relatively low cost and do not have difficulty keeping it off (meaning damaging the enemy every 40 seconds). They also had little use for the Abyssal Aura or Guardian Angel. Cassiopeia is a champion that fits in the Low Cooldown mage territoy but being considered a winner would be very debatable. While she does benefit from the general increase in Banshee's Veils, she was one of the few mid lane champions who could reasonably build old Abyssal Scepter or old Guardian Angel and feel good about it. She's losing two good items while League moves into a slightly more friendly ecosystem for her (when directly compared to how other champions will fare).
Tanks on Magic Damage Heavy Teams
Thinking back to the days of Sunfire Cape stacking and Sunfire + Abyssal combos, I never thought we'd see an iteration of Abyssal Scepter that is a tank item. Not only that, but the slightly less recent Abyssal changes (-20 MR aura -> 10% magic damage taken aura) are even great for tanks in a top lane or split push scenario against other tanks once some Magic Resist is built. Considering Banshee's Veil wasn't all that popular on tanks to begin with, this change seems to, at worst, give them another option for magic heavy teamfight scenarios. Champions like Amumu, Maokai, and Zac like this change a lot (though I suppose any AP Amumu players out there aren't very happy), and the reworked Galio loves it.
Losers
Short Range Burst Mages or High Cooldown Mages
This includes champions like Annie, Diana, Morgana, and Veigar. Morgana is probably the biggest loser here. She only has two abilities that can interact with Banshee's Veil, her ultimate, a ~100 second cooldown with less range than Caitlyn, and her Q, a slow skillshot on an 11 second cooldown. Annie and Veigar have a harder time landing their stun or getting their full combo, while Diana can't apply her passive and reset her ultimate at will, with her Q being her only good way of removing a Veil. Morgana, Annie, and Diana also no longer want to buy Abyssal Scepter, despite making great use of its passive. I'm not including champions like Syndra or Lux here as I think they have an easy enough time with preparation for their own burst combo due either to Lux's extreme range or Syndra wanting to throw down a large number of Spheres for a better ultimate anyways.
Pick Champions
Thresh and Blitzcrank are the two main losers in this category if we look purely at the aforementioned changes. They've seen more play overall, but that's due to changes elsewhere in League. Like many of the other losers mentioned above, in the presence of a Banshee's Veil, they become completely reliant on a teammate to open up their hook possibilities.
Late Game Magic Damage Dealers
For the first time in a very long time (maybe ever), we have three legitimately good options for tanky magic resist items in Spirit Visage, Adaptive Helm, and Abyssal Mask. Each of these items has Health, Magic Resist, Health Regeneration, and Cooldown Reduction. While Spirit Visage is clearly still the strongest and most general of the three, the other two have legitimate niches in the game and are top level (in terms of slot efficiency) items.
The Banshee's Veil and Abyssal Mask passive swap along with the Guardian Angel changes follow a long standing pattern in League of Legends: mixing offense and defense in single items. Zhonya's Hourglass is a classic example of this type of item that has become more and more pervasive in League, whereas Redemption is probably the "Has science gone too far?" moment for this archetype.
Just in the 7.9 patch, Abyssal Scepter went from an offensive item that happened to build out of Negatron Cloak to a defensive item with an offensive passive. Banshee's went from a purely defensive item to an offensive item with a defensive passive. Guardian Angel changed from a purely defensive item and the only remaining non-utility or support item with both magic resist and armor to an AD Carry item with a mix of attack damage and armor on top of the same old revival passive. Even the recent Black Cleaver changes gave it more health and less attack damage.
All that being said, items like Infinity Edge, Rabadon's Deathcap, Randuin's Omen and Warmog's Armor still exist. Riot's just been filling in the gray area between them. Whether that'll be a good thing long term is yet to be seen, but the additional options in itemization are certainly nice for now.
As always, thanks for reading and I'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback.
Like our content? Support us by getting our merchandise in our shopWhen Marlee Matlin became the first deaf actor to win an academy award, for Children of a Lesser God in 1987, it was still rare for audiences to see American Sign Language (ASL) onscreen.
Now two decades into her career, Marlee, 48, is still making history. Last March, Switched at Birth, the hit ABC Family TV show on which she plays guidance counselor Melody Bledsoe, aired an episode with dialogue entirely in ASL. The series, which features several hearing-impaired actors playing deaf characters, is helping to change the public’s—and Hollywood’s—perception, Marlee says.
Marlee, who lost her hearing as a toddler, has lobbied before Congress to require all TV sets to provide closed-captioning. During a busy season shooting Switched at Birth and a guest appearance on Glee, the mother of four (ages 10 to 18) talked with us about her career, her advocacy and how she stays healthy through it all.
What’s it like being part of the first TV show featuring more than one permanent cast member who is hearing impaired?
Switched at Birth is an amazing show that accurately illustrates the culture of deaf people, rather than portraying them as victims. It’s also the first television show I’ve been on where I can be myself. I don’t have to depend on someone else interpreting for me or speaking my words.
Tell us about your smart phone app, Marlee Signs.
It’s a free app that offers a simple, visual way for people to learn ASL at their own pace. It starts with the alphabet, and then goes on to common expressions. A lot of parents are teaching babies sign language, too, and this offers a basic guide to ASL presented in a way that hasn’t been done before.
How has technology changed the way you communicate?
I love my smart phone and I live and breathe FaceTime, where I can see and talk to people, whether I’m calling my kids or someone at their school. I |
Getty Images
With the 49ers cutting receiver Torrey Smith (and assuming it’s not being leaked simply to prompt a Branden Albert-style phone call), the Eagles become a prime candidate to give Smith a landing spot.
The Eagles and 49ers negotiated a potential trade that would have sent Smith to the Eagles during the 2016 season, but a deal couldn’t be finalized before the deadline. Smith himself acknowledged that talks had occurred.
Smith makes plenty of sense in Philadelphia, apart from the fact that they desperately need guys who can catch passes. His speed would stretch the field and open up the underneath areas for other targets, making the rest of the players better because they will be more likely to finagle single coverage (or none at all) if Smith is dragging targets deep down the field.
And let’s not completely discount the possibility that Smith was told he’ll be cut before the cut comes in order to get the Eagles or someone else to send a conditional seventh-round pick in 2018 (for example) to San Francisco. The challenge becomes convincing a new team to take on Smith’s $6.5 million contract; his performance from the past two years could make that difficult to justify.
Smith could always restructure to facilitate a trade, but why should he? It always makes more sense to push for a release and then become a free agent.
Then again, it’s only $6.5 million (plus another $1.375 million in roster and workout bonuses). That’s No. 2 receiver money, and Smith’s production during his two years in San Francisco likely had something to do with the quality of the offense and the quarterback play. So maybe it makes sense for the Eagles or someone else to call the 49ers and offering them anything. Because anything is better than the nothing they otherwise will get.President Donald Trump used Twitter to wish Irish people around the world a happy St. Patrick’s Day in Irish Gaelic.
But there was a slight problem with his well-intentioned Friday morning tweet in that he misspelled one of the words. Instead of correctly translating St. Patrick’s Day as “Lá Fhéile Pádraig,” he erroneously posted “Lá Fheile Phadraig.”
Happy Lá Fheile Phadraig to all of my great Irish friends! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2017
Twitter users immediately spotted the additional “h” in the third word and delightedly pointed it out (some more savagely than others).
Really? @realDonaldTrump - "Lá fhéile Pádraig sona dhuit" is correct. But then why start now? — Kathleen Obrahalahan (@obrah318) March 17, 2017
@realDonaldTrump You spelt it wrong...'Lá Fhéile Pádraig'
👍 — Lorcan O'Connor (@LorcanOConnor2) March 17, 2017
@realDonaldTrump Slight correction: It's "Lá Fhéile Pádraig." You don't need a séimhiú on "Pádraig," and you forgot the fada. — William Brennan (@wm_brennan) March 17, 2017
It’s the latest St. Patrick’s Day-linked gaffe from Trump and his administration.
At Thursday’s Friends Of Ireland luncheon in Washington D.C., Trump was widely ridiculed for reciting a proverb for his “Irish friends” ― which turned out to probably not be Irish at all ― and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) held up a lackluster pint of Guinness and got seriously dragged on Twitter.Langston Hughes' poetry ran in the Post during the 1940s, despite a relationship that could be described as "love-hate."
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This edition of Famous Contributors to The Saturday Evening Post focuses on the renowned Poet Laureate of Harlem, Langston Hughes.
Hughes’ life crisscrossed with other famous African-Americans—he went to Lincoln University along with famed civil rights attorney and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; his uncle was John Mercer Langston, the first African-American elected to the US Congress; and he worked alongside important figures such as W.E.B. DuBois during the Harlem Renaissance to foster creativity and expression in the black community. Hughes won the Harman Gold Medal for Literature, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, and received the NAACP’s yearly Spingam Medal for outstanding achievement.
His work focused on the exploitation and oppression of fellow African-Americans and, during the 1920s and 30s, much of it showed a nod to Marxism. In 1932 he visited the Soviet Union, an experience that moved the young writer deeply.
However, his controversial viewpoints would come back to haunt him later in life. He was called in front of Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953, and, although he was not charged as a “card-carrying” Communist, he was unable to make a decent living afterward. Even so, he is remembered as one of the greatest poets—of any color—in American history.
Hughes’ relationship with the Post could be described as “love-hate.” In his younger years, he described the publication as a “magazine whose columns, like the doors of many of our churches, has been until recently entirely closed to Negroes,” and criticized the magazine in his poetry. However, the relationship became more amicable as Hughes got older and he eventually submitted poetry to the magazine. Below are two poems from Hughes as they originally appeared in the Post.
Refugee In America By Langston Hughes There are words like “Freedom,” Sweet and wonderful to say. On my heartstrings freedom sings All day everyday. There are words like “Democracy” That almost make me cry. If you had known what I knew You would know why.Common Core Reading: 'The New Colossus'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Hanford/American Public Media Emily Hanford/American Public Media
Part 1 in a four-part series on reading in the Common Core era.
The Common Core State Standards are changing what many kids read in school. They're standards, sure — not curriculum. Teachers and districts still have great latitude when it comes to the "how" of reading instruction, but...
The Core standards explicitly require students to read "complex" material, and the fact is, many kids simply weren't doing that before the Core. What were they doing?
Teachers in Washoe County Schools (in and around Reno, Nev.) — and many districts nationwide — once used what they call a "skills and strategies" approach to teach reading. It was particularly common among poor schools where lots of kids struggled.
The idea was this: To learn how to be a good reader, kids needed to learn the skills and strategies that good readers use. Those include knowing how to find the main idea of a text, identifying key details, being able to draw conclusions, etc.
Teachers in Reno would begin each lesson by telling students the skill they'd be learning that day, says Cathy Schmidt, who taught elementary school.
"Like, today we're going to read to make inferences. Or, today we're going to predict. Or, today we're going to draw conclusions," says Schmidt.
After going over the skill of the day, teachers would typically give kids a quick summary of the story they were about to read. Then they would define the words that might be difficult for kids, says Aaron Grossman, a teacher trainer for the district who used to teach elementary and middle school.
"I would do this huge gin-up," Grossman says, revealing the story before kids could read it, with the belief that doing so would help struggling readers get through it more easily.
Next, teachers would ask students about their personal experiences with the topic of the text. If the story was about a family taking a train trip, Schmidt would ask her class: "Have you ever been on a train? Tell me about the time you've been on a train."
The goal was to engage students by connecting what they were reading with their personal experiences. Some kids would always raise their hands, eager to talk about their train trips and family vacations, says Schmidt. But others had nothing to say. Many had never been on a train or even a vacation.
Keep Kids Out Of Frustration
When kids did finally get down to reading, they wouldn't necessarily all read the same text, says Torrey Palmer, who was a literacy coordinator for the Washoe County Schools.
Teachers used a technique called "leveled instruction." Palmer describes it as "an approach to literacy in which students spend the vast majority of their time in a text that is at their reading level. So if a student is in fifth grade and they're reading at a third-grade level, they spend most of their day reading texts at a third-grade level."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Hanford/American Public Media Emily Hanford/American Public Media
Even in the upper grades, students might get different texts depending on their reading level, says Angela Orr, who was a high school history teacher.
"I was told if I wanted students to understand a primary source, I should excerpt it for the 'highest' kids," she says, "give all of the definitions of hard words for what were called the'medium' kids. And then actually change the words to something really comprehensible for the kids that were struggling readers."
Some textbooks included multiple versions of the same text, Orr says. She remembers a particular example that bothered her:
"In one level, students were learning about the founders of our nation," she says. "In another level, the word 'founders' was taken out as if it were too difficult, and a student would read a sentence that says 'Ben Franklin started the nation.' "
The idea of all this leveling was to "keep kids out of frustration," says Aaron Grossman. This was the message from the school district, from publishers, from all kinds of experts. The goal was to make sure "you don't create a classroom environment where kids feel defeated."
The Common Core Shifts
When Nevada adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010, Grossman recently had started a job as a teacher trainer for the school district. The message from above was that Common Core wasn't going to be a big change from the old Nevada state standards. It would mostly be a matter of adding a few things and moving material around, officials said.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Emily Hanford/American Public Media Emily Hanford/American Public Media
"At that point, I was out," says Angela Orr, rolling her eyes. To her, Common Core sounded like one big, bureaucratic nightmare. No one was talking about why the standards were changing or what the new standards actually said.
Since it was Aaron Grossman's job to teach teachers the new standards, he decided to do some of his own research. And what he found surprised him.
The Common Core English Language Arts Standards call for three major shifts in instruction. The first is: "Regular practice with complex texts."
The idea, as Grossman learned, is to move away from focusing so much on reading skills and strategies and instead to think more about what kids read and, in particular, to make sure all students are reading text that is at their grade level. In other words, less leveled instruction.
The second Common Core shift in instruction is: "Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts."
Instead of using a text as a springboard into kids' personal experiences, this Common Core shift demands that students stick to the material, reading it carefully and citing evidence for all that they say or write.
One reason for this shift is that the "text to self" technique often puts kids from lower-income families at a disadvantage, says David Liben of Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit set up by the authors of the Common Core.
Liben says that if assignments and class discussion are about personal experience, "that privileges those children who have that experience," but when students have to cite evidence from a text, they all can find something to say.
The third Common Core shift in instruction is "building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction."
In Washoe County and many other school districts, students typically read stories, especially in the early grades; there was very little nonfiction, says Grossman.
"Social studies and science just weren't being taught," he says. "In the effort to teach kids reading skills, we had kind of forgotten about the importance of a lot of other stuff."
"The New Colossus"
Grossman shared what he'd learned with his colleague, Torrey Palmer. Her reaction? "This is big, this is different!"
I believe you should know your enemy.
They asked their boss if they could bring a small group of teachers together to share what they'd learned about the Common Core and to hear what the teachers thought.
One of those teachers was Linnea Wolters, then teaching fifth grade at a low-income school in Reno.
"Oh, I'll go," she thought to herself when she got the invitation. "Because I believe you should know your enemy."
Like Angela Orr and a lot of other teachers in Washoe County, Wolters was suspicious of the Common Core. It seemed like just another education reform in a long line of reforms that, in her opinion, weren't improving schools.
Wolters agreed to try a Common Core sample lesson with her students, a "close reading" of a text. Close reading is not a new idea, but it has gained currency as a technique to teach the Common Core.
She was shocked when she realized the sample lesson focused on "The New Colossus," a sonnet by Emma Lazarus that's engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
"You gotta be freaking kidding me," she said to herself, assuming the poem would be much too difficult for her fifth-graders.
Wolters' students began by reading the sonnet on their own. Next, Wolters read the sonnet out loud, in part to help students who may have had trouble reading on their own.
After everyone had read the sonnet at least twice, Wolters guided the class through a series of "text-dependent questions and tasks." The first asked students to figure out the poem's rhyme scheme and to assign a different letter to each set of rhyming words.
"We were highlighting things and writing A's and B's and C's and D's," Wolters says. It was kind of chaos, and she wasn't sure the kids were catching on. Then a student called out, "It's a pattern!"
The voice belonged to a girl who was receiving special education services for a learning disability. She had been the first to figure out the rhyme scheme.
If Wolters had been teaching this sonnet without the Common Core-aligned lesson plan, she says she would have started by telling the students it was a poem that compares the Colossus of Rhodes, an ancient Greek statue, and the Statue of Liberty. But the new lesson plan said not to do that. The idea was to see what kids could come up with on their own, just by reading the text.
They weren't coming up with much though. At one point, the room was silent except for the sound of crickets coming from the classroom lizard cage. Then two boys who were working together raised their hands.
"Yes?" Wolters asked.
She was surprised to see the boys with their hands up. They didn't speak English at home, and they struggled to keep up in class, especially with reading.
"It's about the Statue of Liberty," they said.
The class responded with a collective "What?" They weren't buying it.
Wolters asked the boys if they had any evidence to support their idea. They pointed to the sonnet and said, "It says it's a woman with a torch."
"What do you think of Ezekial and Salvadore's ideas?" Wolters asked the class. The other students weren't sure. "Why don't you see if you can find more evidence?" she asked them.
And that got the class going.
"All of a sudden I've got kids popping off with, 'She's in a harbor!' and 'There's two cities!' " Wolters says. "They're giving me all this information, and we're highlighting. And everybody's updating their notes."
Wolters was amazed. She'd rarely seen her kids so excited about learning. And she had no idea they could succeed with such a challenging text. She couldn't wait to tell her colleagues about what had happened.
This story originally appeared as part of American RadioWorks' "Greater Expectations: The Challenge of the Common Core."Hillary Clinton released her 2015 tax returns Friday, shedding light on her financial situation and putting even more pressure on her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, to release his own tax returns.
In 2015, Clinton paid a federal tax rate of 34.2% and a New York state rate of 9% for a total effective tax rate of 43.2%. Her tax rate has been above 40% every year since she left the state department in 2013.
Clinton and her husband, Bill, claimed a total income of $10,745,378 in 2015, and paid federal taxes of $3,624,455.
Her vice presidential running mate, Tim Kaine, also released his tax returns Friday for the years 2006-2015. Kaine and his wife, Anne Holton, paid a federal tax rate of 20.3% and a state tax rate of 5.4% in 2015, for a total of 25.6%. They earned $313,441, and paid $63,626 in federal income taxes.
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Clinton had already released her tax returns for the years 2001-2014.
Trump has so far refused to release his tax returns, claiming he can’t do it while he’s under audit by the IRS. Some have theorized—including the New York Times’ James B. Stewart Friday—that his refusal could be because Trump doesn’t actually pay any taxes.
But that’s not uncommon for real estate developers, who have a number of ways to avoid taxes, via legitimate deductions that aren’t available to people who work for a company.
Contact us at editors@time.com.“We took shelter under the tables. Everyone was scared. We cried,” a shaken eleven-year-old girl told reporters, as she described how she and her classmates hid from a masked attacker who killed two and injured several others at a school on Thursday. Her tale of the hours in lockdown, sadly, would have been nothing out of the ordinary in America, where school attacks occur almost every week. But the girl, who wore a headscarf, spoke Swedish, and was standing next to her father outside an elementary and middle school in normally peaceful Trollhättan, an industrial town about fifty miles north of Gothenburg. She blinked and looked down a few times as her father described how he had come running when his daughter had called, crying and pleading with him to hurry. He pointed to his feet: he was still in his shower sandals.
The attack has stunned Sweden, where violent crime is rare, and the last reported school attack was in 1961. Children often walk unaccompanied to school, where main entrances are usually unlocked and unguarded, allowing anyone to enter. This might be perceived as naive or even dangerous in another country, but in Sweden it is part of a very conscious and deeply rooted practice of keeping society open and accessible to its citizens.
The twenty-one-year-old killer was a native Swede named Anton Lundin Pettersson, and according to witnesses he arrived at the school in a black trench coat, a face mask, and a black helmet and stabbed his victims with a large knife. After attacking an Iraqi-born teacher’s aide, at the school entrance, he appeared to have deliberately avoided fair-skinned students. Instead, he marched on until he found and killed a Somali-born fifteen-year-old and severely injured a recently arrived Syrian teenager, according to Swedish police. Shortly after, police gunned down the attacker, who died at a local hospital. He left behind a letter stating his reasons for the attack, police said, which makes clear that it was a racially motivated hate crime.
Unlike Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who killed sixty-nine people at a summer camp, in 2011, and was charged with terrorism, Lundin Pettersson did not carry a gun, which likely would have led to a larger death toll. He was, however, one in the familiar pattern of an isolated young man who spent much of his time online, leaving traces of his interest in Nazi Germany and far-right, anti-immigrant ideology.
Before it was taken down, his Facebook profile showed just a handful of friends and the logo of the German heavy-metal band Rammstein, which has been accused of racist and fascist sympathies. Only hours after Lundin Pettersson was identified as the attacker, right-wing fan groups appeared online, heralding him as someone who defended his country from racial integration. Trollhättan is the most segregated city in Sweden, according to Swedish political scientists: in the school’s neighborhood, half of the population is foreign-born.
The attack cut right into what has been described as an identity crisis for social democratic Sweden, which has long been the top recipient of asylum seekers per capita in Europe, and has prided itself on a humanitarian approach to the current refugee crisis. Even as some of the most generous European countries, such as Germany, have taken steps to tighten asylum procedures and limit what migration experts call “the pull factor,” Sweden has left its southern border largely open and has stood by a broad interpretation of the United Nations refugee convention, accepting three out of every four asylum seekers. The lack of a coherent European system for handling asylum seekers, a breakdown of the continent’s internal and external border controls, and the recent deterioration of Afghanistan have contributed to the influx of migrants to Sweden in recent months, as has Sweden’s policy, unique in Europe, of extending permanent residency to Syrians applying for asylum.
In a rather homogenous country of only nine and a half million people, fourteen per cent of the population is now foreign-born, and the number is expected to rise. The school killings occurred only hours after the government agency for migration announced that a hundred and ninety thousand asylum seekers could arrive in Sweden this year, almost triple the previous estimate and far surpassing the number of people who sought refuge in Sweden during the Balkan wars.
The ongoing arrival of about fifteen hundred asylum seekers each day has already caused a domestic political crisis. More than a dozen asylum centers have been set on fire in recent months, and the Sweden Democrats, a populist anti-immigrant party, have been rapidly gaining popularity, according to recent polls. The weak green-left coalition government has been forced to reënter negotiations over immigration with the center-right opposition, agreeing to some compromises in order to retain control. On Thursday, when the school attack occurred, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven abruptly left those talks to speak to victims and their families in Trollhättan.
The Swedish historian Lars Trägårdh perhaps best described the situation when he told Swedish Radio last week that the country is experiencing a clash of ideals. The traditional Swedish ideal and self-image have revolved around a pride in and recognition of the nation-state, where citizens work hard and pay taxes. But a more recently developed Swedish ideal, held by many, has more of a universal human-rights focus that sometimes places the instinct to help as many refugees as possible ahead of the traditional priorities of a nation-state, such as securing high employment levels, insuring housing and social welfare for existing citizens, and protecting its borders.
With its large foreign-aid contributions, its stated feminist foreign policy, as well as the open door to migrants and refugees, the Swedish government likes to boast about being a “humanitarian superpower.” That self-image—and, understandably, the discomfort around having an openly anti-immigrant party in parliament—has unfortunately caused Swedish politicians across the spectrum to, until recently, largely avoid debate around the sensitive issue of immigration, and whether there may be limits to what Sweden can handle, out of fear of being accused of aligning themselves with the far right.
Now the country will also have to process the trauma of what may ultimately be labelled an act of domestic terrorism. Certainly, there will be calls for increased openness and tolerance, to powerfully manifest against racism, xenophobia, and hatred, along the lines of Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg’s bold approach to the Breivik attacks. But there will also be those who say that the small, wealthy nation needs to take a more cautious approach to immigration, in order to preserve its citizens’ faith in the traditional social contract while maintaining a strong humanitarian ideal. What the U.N.H.C.R. calls the largest refugee crisis of all time may also be Sweden’s most painful and complicated political struggle in the next decade, and a very personal one for many Swedes.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
In an interview with Rolling Stone about receiving the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement, outlaw country legend Merle Haggard reflected on meeting President Obama. He blasted “the media,” for making up and spreading lies about Obama, “It was also nice to meet Obama and find him very different from the media makeout. It’s really almost criminal what they do with our President.” It is obvious that Haggard was talking about Fox News.
When asked by Patrick Doyle of Rolling Stone about the highlight of the Kennedy Center Honors Haggard talked about meeting both former President Clinton, and President Obama. Haggard said of Obama, “It was also nice to meet Obama and find him very different from the media makeout. It’s really almost criminal what they do with our President. There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he’s doing certain things that he’s not. It’s just a big old political game that I don’t want to be part of. There are people spending their lives putting him down. I’m sure some of it’s true and some of it’s not. I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be.”
When asked what is the biggest lie out there about Obama, Haggard answered, “He’s not conceited. He’s very humble about being the President of the United States, especially in comparison to some presidents we’ve had who come across like they don’t need anybody’s help. I think he knows he’s in over his head. Anybody with any sense who takes that job and thinks they can handle it must be an idiot.”
Now where could Merle Haggard have possibly ever gotten the idea that Obama is conceited? The myth of Obama’s arrogance is the favorite personal attack that Fox News uses against this president.
Here is Sean Hannity calling Obama arrogant:
Here is Karl Rove on Hannity also calling Obama arrogant:
Then we have Charles Krauthammer discussing Obama’s arrogance on Special Report with Bret Baier:
We can safely conclude that Merle Haggard either got the idea about Obama’s conceit from watching Fox News, or that the people who Haggard talks to everyday informed him about Obama based on what they had seen on Fox News. Many people have written about Haggard defending Obama, but to me Haggard’s surprise when he met the real Obama demonstrates both the power and the spread of Fox News’ misinformation.
Merle Haggard is a white man in his 70s with a GED. He is the base audience for Fox News. I thought his comments about what Fox News and right wing media are doing to Obama were right on the money. The misinformation and lies that they are spreading about this president on a daily basis is almost criminal. The problem is that Fox News is not only misinforming the 2 million people that tune in every day. They are also misinforming all of the people that the Fox News audience talks to. A mass media misinformation campaign becomes a grass roots campaign as viewers individually spread the inaccurate information and character attacks on Obama via word of mouth.
Merle Haggard by his own admission was a Republican up until 2007, and in a Time interview, he described himself as a born again Christian who turned away from Bush, but is not a liberal. Haggard said, “I supported George W. I’m not exactly a liberal. But I know how that Texas thing works, who those oil folks are and what they wanted in Iraq. I’m a born-again Christian too, but the longer I live, the more afraid I get of some of these religious groups that have so much influence on the Republicans and want to tell us how to live our lives.” Haggard supported Hillary Clinton in 2008.
The Fox News message seeps into the entire culture. This is what many on the left don’t understand. When Americans who don’t follow politics hear this misinformation about Obama from friends, relatives, neighbors, or co-workers, they don’t know any better and they accept the information as truth from a personally trusted source. I wish more people could have the same experience that Haggard did. They need to see the disconnect for themselves between the lies on Fox News and the truth about the President of the United States.
The truly vile part of this attack on Obama is the underlying racial component. Notice that Fox News likes to call the President arrogant and conceited. These terms are euphemisms for uppity. The message from Fox News is that Obama is an arrogant and conceited black man who doesn’t belong in the White House.
The story here isn’t just that Haggard defended Obama, but that we got to see one man’s reaction to being deceived by a right wing media/Fox News message. I have a feeling that Haggard’s anger at being lied to by the right wing media would be echoed by many other Americans if they could be reached with the truth. Countering the attacks and misinformation of Fox News is the challenge that President Obama, his supporters, and every single American who care about truth must face in 2011 and beyond.
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:Star Wars fans have any number of outlets for the collectible addictions, but Funko has certainly contributed many items to the cause courtesy of their POP line. Now they might be introducing a new line of POPs that features Star Wars Legends.
The toy company published a poll on their Twitter account that said "Research time! Out of THIS group, who is your favorite Star Wars Legends character?"
The choices included Dash Rendar, Jaina and Jacen Solo, Kyle Katarn, and Galen Marek/Starkiller. Dash Rendar is a character from the expanded universe, specifically from Shadows of the Empire. As for Jaina and Jacen Solo, they are two of the three children that Han and Leia had in the expanded universe.
Research time! Out of THIS group, who is your favorite Star Wars Legends character? — Funko (@OriginalFunko) December 23, 2016
Kyle Katarn meanwhile actually got to those Death Star plans before Jyn Erso ever had a chance to. Katarn was the lead character in Star Wars: Dark Forces, and also popped up in the other Jedi Knight games. Galen Marek/Starkiller is known from the popular Star Wars games "The Force Unleashed" and its sequel. He also cameoed in a Soul Calibur game and has remained a favorite even though he exists out of the regular canon.KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at U.S. soldiers in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least one serviceman on Sunday, local officials and the NATO-led coalition said.
The so-called “insider attack” in Paktika province is the fourth in less than a month and is likely to strain already tense ties between coalition troops and their allies, with most foreign troops scheduled to withdraw by the end of next year.
A Reuters tally shows Sunday’s incident was the tenth this year, and took the death toll of foreign personnel to 15.
“A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at Americans in Sharana city (the provincial capital) near the governor’s office,” said an Afghan official, adding that two soldiers had been hit by the gunfire.
The NATO-led coalition confirmed one soldier had been shot by a man in security forces uniform, but did not comment on his nationality or whether the Afghan was wearing a army uniform.
Insider attacks threaten to further undermine waning support for the war among Western nations sending troops to Afghanistan.
A similar flurry of attacks last year prompted the NATO-led force to briefly suspend all joint activities and take steps to curb interaction between foreign and Afghan troops.
That has cut down the number of incidents, but some soldiers say the measures have further eroded the hard-won trust painstakingly nurtured between the allies over more than 12 years of war.
Late on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced they had reached preliminary agreement on a bilateral security pact that now depends on the approval of Afghanistan’s tribal leaders.Advances in the campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq are forcing the extremists to abandon territory there, generating concerns that they are carving out a new stronghold in oil-rich Libya, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday.
“As everybody here knows, that country has resources,” Kerry said at a conference of 23 foreign ministers from nations that form the core of a coalition fighting the Islamic State. “The last thing in the world you’d want is a false caliphate with access to billions of dollars in oil revenue.”
Both Kerry and Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said the radical Islamist group is expanding its presence in Libya, as fighters pushed out of Iraq and Syria relocate there and are joined by others new to the battle.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers expressed concern over the “growing influence” of the Islamic State in Libya. They vowed to “continue to monitor closely developments there, and stand ready to support the Government of National Accord in its efforts to establish peace and security for the Libyan people.”
Kerry ruled out military intervention in Libya by the United States in the near future. But he said that could change if there were “some turn of events, like weapons of mass destruction ending up in the hands of the wrong people.”
Libya has been in a state of chaos since 2011 when longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi was ousted. Two rival governments subsequently emerged, and continuing conflict has foiled efforts to establish a united Libyan government.
Though the emerging threat in Libya commanded much of the diplomats’ attention, the situation in Syria remains troublesome. Success in pushing Islamic State fighters out of an estimated 40 percent of territory they controlled in Iraq and 20 percent to 30 percent of the land they held in Syria has created its own set of urgent problems.
[U.S. envoy slips into Syria to encourage anti-ISIS forces]
Fleeing fighters often booby-trap homes and demolish buildings, which then need to be cleared and rebuilt before residents can return. Kerry urged his fellow foreign ministers to donate more money to a stabilization fund for rebuilding and restoring services in those areas.
Now that U.N.-backed Syria peace talks aimed at ending the war have started in Geneva, Kerry called on Russia to stop bombing opposition fighters and the Syrian government to grant humanitarian access to besieged towns.
“We are at the table, and we expect a cease-fire,” he said. “And we expect adherence to the cease-fire, and we expect full humanitarian access.”
In Geneva, where U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura on Monday declared the official opening of talks between the Syrian government and opposition, both sides said that as far as they were concerned, negotiations had not yet begun.
In a statement, the opposition delegation said Syrian rebels are facing “a massive acceleration of Russian and regime military aggression... including attacks on hospitals and critical infrastructure” near the cities of Aleppo and Homs over the past two days. It repeated the opposition’s insistence that formal negotiations cannot start until the attacks cease.
The Syrian government delegation accused the opposition of acting like “amateurs and not professional politicians.” Syria’s United Nations ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said his side challenged the participation of two “terrorist” groups in the opposition delegation, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
The Obama administration is eager for the peace talks to begin and has pressured the opposition to participate. Opposition representatives have said the agreed-upon rules for the negotiations, in a U.N. resolution, call for an end to bombardments and government sieges of civilian areas, as well as the release of prisoners.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, told reporters there that his government considered members of Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham to be participating in the opposition delegation in their “personal capacity” rather than as official representatives. Russia and Syria consider the groups, which control thousands of opposition fighters in Syria, to be “terrorist” organizations, and Syria has objected to their inclusion.
Lavrov also said that he considers it the responsibility of the United States, as leader of the coalition against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, to prevent conflict among the various participants operating strike aircraft over those countries.
Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
Read more:
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the worldThere are two events I’d like to tell you all about, both taking place the weekend of August 4-5.
The first is on Saturday, August 4, at Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe, from 7 to 9 pm. Continuing a “tradition” which started last year of the staff and visiting instructors from Wofford College’s Shared Worlds teen writing camp, Malaprop’s is hosting a Fantasy and Science Fiction Extravaganza with Nathan Ballingrud, Tobias Buckell, Naomi Novik, Will Hindmarch, Karin Lowachee, and Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, moderated by Shared Worlds director Jeremy L.C. Jones:
http://www.malaprops.com/event/shared-worlds-malaprops-fantasy-and-science-fiction-extravaganza
https://www.facebook.com/events/449700638386204/
The second is one I hope you’ve all heard about and are excited about already, on Sunday, August 5, at Chapel Hill’s Flyleaf Books |
from others. Moreover, removing voting tools that have been disproportionately used by African Americans meaningfully differs from not initially implementing such tools.” This is an importation of non-retrogression ideas from section 5, at least in the discriminatory intent context. And the court found that the rise in African-American turnout did not negate a finding of discriminatory intent. “Moreover, although aggregate African American turnout increased by 1.8% in 2014, many African American votes went uncounted. As the district court found, African Americans disproportionately cast provisional out-of-precinct ballots, which would have been counted absent SL 2013-381. See N.C. State Conf., 2016 WL 1650774, at *63. And thousands of African Americans were disenfranchised because they registered during what would have been the same-day registration period but because of SL 2013-381 could not then vote.” The 4th Circuit says remand is not necessary because the trial court created and described an extensive record. It just weighed the facts in clearly erroneous way. And the law under conditions of racial discrimination cannot be justified to prevent voter fraud. “Thus, we do not ask whether the State has an interest in preventing voter fraud — it does — or whether a photo ID requirement constitutes one way to serve that interest — it may — but whether the legislature would have enacted SL 2013-381’s photo ID requirement if it had no disproportionate impact on African American voters. The record evidence establishes that it would not have.” In any case, the Court makes the point I have made in The Voting Wars and many others have made. If you want to stop fraud, you don’t use ID, which targets virtually non-existent voter impersonation fraud. You go after absentee balloting, where fraud actually does occur. But that’s not what this law did. The law also excluded the types of ids likely held by African-Americans for no discernible anti-fraud purpose. The court marched through the other provisions of the law and the state’s justifications, calling them “a solution in search of a problem.” “The record thus makes obvious that the ‘problem’ the majority in the General Assembly sought to remedy was emerging support for the minority party.” As to remedy, the court did not enjoin the entire law, because much of the law went unchallenged and could be severed from the unconstitutional parts. “Therefore, we enjoin only the challenged provisions of SL 2013-381 regarding photo ID, early voting, same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting, and preregistration.” However, the court divided on whether remand was appropriate in part on the voter id law, to figure out if the reasonable impediment voter id softening was good enough to solve the discriminatory intent problem. The majority said no remand was necessary (the dissent, written by Judge Motz, who otherwise wrote the majority opinion, would have remanded.) The majority found the reasonable impediment softening was not good enough (a position I’ve taken). “To the contrary, the record establishes that the reasonable impediment exception amendment does not so fundamentally alter the photo ID requirement as to eradicate its impact or otherwise ‘eliminate the taint from a law that was originally enacted with discriminatory intent.'” This is the only issue on which the judges divided. Perhaps most surprising to me is the refusal to consider putting Section 3 preclearance in place. It is within the discretion of the court. Declining to do so does lower the temperature, and perhaps that explains it. Or perhaps the judges felt they would have had to remand to the trial court, who (given the trial court’s views of the plaintiffs’ case) certainly would have declined to exercise discretion, setting up the possibility of yet another major reversal of the trial court on grounds where the trial court ordinarily would have great discretion.
[This post has been updated.]Update #10: Propaganda Poster Contest + Backer Reward Upgrade!
Update #11: Story Mode Character Contest Winner
Update #12: Quick Update, and Other Notable Projects!
Update #13: Madness Day Helmets & Masks / Campaign Nearing the End!
Update #14: The Final Push
You sneak around the back of the military complex, pistol silenced, clinging to the concrete wall and approaching the blast door. Your squadmate plants the charge: an electronic lock interference device. A moment later the door sparks and slides open, and the both of you advance into the dark interior.
They don't see you coming. Not because you caught them off guard - they were expecting your attack - but because your second charge goes off, and the installation loses power just as you unload your magazine on the unsuspecting enemy Agents. Good thing you brought your infrared goggles. The badguys...they were not so well-prepared.
Somewhere else in the world, a ragtag band of unwashed civilians huddle together for warmth over a small campfire, their tents and vehicles blotted with mud and riddled with rust and decay. The world has ended, and they are all that's left.
...that is, if you don't include the swarm of zombies crawling out from the darkness. Maybe a campfire was not such a great plan. The ones who make it will remember the ones who died for this invaluable lesson.
Back in the headquarters of the Nexus Core, you step out into the arena, your trusty weapon in hand. You crafted it yourself from parts and would stake your life on its reliability. In fact, in twenty seconds you'll have no choice. Your superiors are unleashing a battalion of trained killers on you, a few at a time. Your mission is to survive. To learn. To become a better soldier. The alarm sounds, and you cock back the slide of your piece.
You were born for this kind of Madness.
Michael "The" Swain: Programmer and team co-founder. Swain has been coding and designing Flash games for six years, and worked with the Unity 3D engine for the last year.
Matt "Krinkels" Jolly: Lead artist, 3D modeler, and team co-founder. Matt has over ten years of experience as an artist and Flash animator.
Sean "Cheshyre" Hodges: Musician and effects artist. Check out a sample of his mood-inducing techno work below.
Devin "Locknar" Martin: Dubstep Wizard. Check out some of his adrenaline-inducing electronic music below.
We are hoping to surpass our base goal and enlist the help of the mega-talented 3D animator and modeler Jose Ortiz. Here's a sample of Jose's work, plus a link where you can see what he's capable of (and why Project Nexus 2 would be THAT MUCH BETTER with him on board)!
Jose "Mindchamber" Ortiz's rendition of Mag Hank
Check out a few of his rotatable 3D models below:
Mag-hank by MindChamber on Sketchfab
hank by MindChamber on Sketchfab
Mindchamber scenery from the Madness series.
Sean "Cheshyre" Hodges has been single-handedly producing the music of the Madness universe since 2003. Naturally, he's coming with us until the end.
Devin "Locknar" Martin is new to the Madness scene. In 2012 he donated music to Project Nexus 1 as a fan of the series. His contribution was such a hit with Madness fans that we've taken him on to help diversify the project.
The last six months of development have been paid for out-of-pocket. That means we've slowly emptied our bank accounts while we developed the framework for Project Nexus 2. However, there's still much to do! And we want to do it the right way.
This Kickstarter is how we're going to be able to work full-time on this game without having to take commissioned work to support ourselves. It's how we overcome all of the delays involved in stopping production because of day jobs and monetary obligations. By donating, you're not just funding the game; you're actually helping to free its creators from the kinds of distractions that would definitely hurt the final product!
Every dollar has been accounted for, from the upgrades our computers need to properly build this game, to promotional cards and space at conventions. We have licenses we need to buy for the software to make this game, the fees charged by Kickstarter and Amazon for every donation, and Uncle Sam taking his cut. Most importantly, we gotta eat! Looks like it's ramen noodles and tap water for us for the next few months.
THE CAST
Hank: A psychopathic mercenary gunman on a take-no-prisoners mission to wipe out an all-powerful Agency...one which maintains a stranglehold on Nevada with its seemingly unlimited supply of loyal and disposable soldiers. Hank is the primary anti-hero of the series.
The Savior: A magically-augmented telekenetic weapons master who has chosen to adopt the image of a certain two-thousand-year-old messiah.
Tricky: The zombified remains of a psychopathic assassin clown.
Sanford and Deimos: Gadget-brandishing and meathook-wielding extraction team duo, who work closely with Hank but whose loyalties are not fully known.
The Nexus Core has access to an array of soldiers, ranging from the disposable to the specialized.
Who are "The Employers"?
Left for dead and he only came back tougher. The Sheriff will watch over his people against any intrusion. If you're going to step to him, you'd better shoot to kill...or you may wake one night to find his revolver to your temple.
The bandits took him in. They nursed him back to health, this ravening, hulking monstrosity. Eventually he came to watch over them like family. It was a stupid plan, taking in this monster. And now it's your problem.
Zed City, South End: The Industrial Zone. The now-militarized sector of what was once Zed City's fabrication district. The Sheriff resides here and rules with an iron gauntlet of terrible justice.
Original Mindchamber Mag Concepts
Experiment Title: Ghoul. Class: Mag Unit. Subclass: Carrion Eater. Subject Notes: Do not house subject "Ghoul" with other Experiments.
Most versions of the original Mag Unit: Hive Class could not contain their auto-replicating, nearly cancerous cells. It took only one egghead scientist (now deceased) to realize that this self-replication could be directed...outward.
WELL WHAT DID YOU EXPECT
...and many more! At 1,400 Backers...I'll draw hank as an Abstract Cubist portrait.
GAME MODES
STORY MODE
This game begins where Project Nexus 1 left off (though no knowledge of the prequel will be necessary to fully enjoy the Project Nexus 2 experience). Players will wander from the outskirts of the never-ending wastelands battling bandits and cannibalistic raiders, infiltrate a corrupt metropolis known as Zed City, and take on the Nexus Core directly in a sidescrolling open-world combat and exploration game.
While many missions will be reliant on planning out how you'd like to invade enemy camps and bases, you'll not always know what's coming next. Agency hit-squads, hunting raider parties, and the inveitable swarm of hungry undead are also looking for you as you duck between alleyways and push ever forward toward the heart of Project Nexus.
"An abomination! The experiment was a failure. Back to the drawing board, and...dispose of the subjects."
ARENA MODE
You begin with a blank palette. Your new character, grey and lifeless as any Grunt in the Madness world. He or she is not very skilled. In fact, they can barely stand against a stiff breeze, let alone a battle-hardened opponent. The Employers, however, do not care about your cherubic amateurity, and being shown mercy is not in your contract. You are destined to possess such great skill and strength that you're prepared to die just to learn to wield it.
And die you will. Many times. Death does not nullify your contract. But destroying the Nexus Core...that might just make The Employers happy enough to consider your resignation.
---
In Arena Mode, players will build the kind of Madness combatant they've always dreamed of by picking from an ever-expanding tree of skills and abilities gained through surviving wave after wave of baddies. Want a gunslinger of legendary proportions? Go for it. Stealth ninja with a penchant for pistol-and-katana kills? You got it. C-4 and trap-laying expert? We dare you not to enjoy making enemies go boom.
Once you've reached a certain pinnacle of excellence, you'll have the option of branching off into one of many Legendary skill trees. From telekinesis and flight to time-slowing battle sense and unbelievably huge size, you'll have at your disposal the power to make your character truly and unsurpassably unique. These are powers the likes of which only the true heroes and villains of Nevada may possess. Will you be one of them?
"Intruders? Send in the G04LM Units. If they fail...well, then we deserve whatever comes next."
ZED SURVIVAL MODE
The open world zombie horror campaign we've always wanted to play. So many games have tried this before, and a good deal of them have excelled in one or two major areas. Imagine the suspense and distrust you feel between encounters while exploring the world of Day-Z. Remember that thrill of finding a new stockpile of goods and weapons in Infinity Mode of Dead Rising. Picture your character going from pathetic to powerful in Dead Island. Feel the blend of adventure and dread you got from Organ Trail. And conjure the heart-thumping panic and excitement of being overwhelmed in the Zombies mode of CoD.
Our problem is that we want TOO MUCH. We want all of those feelings to blend from one to the next in a single game. And we want it to be roguelike, randomized, and a new adventure every time you play. Too much to ask for? We truly believe that it is not.
So where is Project Nexus 1?
The original was a Flash game that premiered on Newgrounds.com, and placed players directly in the middle of the fast-paced, shoot-em-up action that is hallmark to Krinkels' Madness cartoon series.
It did extremely well by Flash standards, pulling in over 8.8 million plays since its release in March of 2012...and that's just on Newgrounds alone. Compare that to the 3.5 million plays for the original Flash release of Super Meat Boy, one of the biggest success stories of modern indie game development, and you can see that Project Nexus wasn't messing around.
Check out the origins of Project Nexus below!
We're On Steam Greenlight!
We did it! Your votes have brought Project Nexus 2 to Steam!
Team Madness wants to make your support worth it! YOU are the reason this game has a chance at life. Let us do something for you in return.
If you have any questions on the rewards we're offering, send us a message and we'll explain anything you like in full detail. It's no problem!
To all of our backers: you're bringing attention to our game just by being here and making even the minimum pledge. Thank you for helping to bring our game into the world!
The full version of the game. When it is complete, you'll receive a key to redeem for your DRM-free copy of the game, including all final content and game modes assured by our Stretch Goals, as well as beta and early access!
A handful of buttons and stickers featuring Madness Combat and Project Nexus 2 artwork, splash images, and so forth. We can't wait to go crazy with zany sticker and button art for you guys after the campaign is over!
The complete Madness: Project Nexus 2 soundtrack in digital format, featuring music by long-time Madness series composer Sean "Cheshyre" Hodges, as well as newcomer Devin Martin, the caesar of Dubstep. We're lucky to have them on board, and even luckier to be able to share the game's music with our backers!
A calligraphed letter from Krinkels and Swain, right to your doorstep. There will be no mass printing or generic thank-you notes here - every letter will be a unique, handwritten message on high-quality stationary, made to look gritty like it's survived more than one gunfight. Who knows, maybe pirates got hold of it or something? We'll let you make that judgment call.
Concerned that we might not have that one sword you saw in that one movie that one time? Think your Arena Mode character would be incomplete without that one haircut that one dude has in that one manga? Hoping you'll get to theme a gang of dudes that you just can't WAIT to punch in the face? Backers who receive this reward get to dictate an exact thing they'd like to see in the game...and we'll make it happen. Y'know, within reason.
The Madness Combat Series DVD. In an effort to stay CUTTING EDGE, backers who receive this reward will have in their hands the VERY LATEST in VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT VIOLENCE for their VIEWING PLEASURE. Contains all Madness Combat episodes and non-canon cartoons to date as well as some extras, and maybe even a preview of Krinkels' next Madness episode...!
Super duper high quality print of Project Nexus artwork, created by Krinkels himself for our awesome backers. Exactly which print you get will be randomly decided, but Krinkels and/or Swain will write you a personalized thank-you of your choice on your gift.
Your very own cheat code! Not only do you get to tell us what it does, but you will be the only person to receive instructions on how to unlock it. None of that "insert cheat code" prompt nonsense here! We're talking a good old-fashioned Up-Down-Up-Down kind of cheat, like our grandfathers used to use. The kind of cheat code America was founded on. Once you've got your code, it's up to you to decide if anyone else but you ever knows about it, you little hacker you.
Your name, handle, likeness, or message of choice sprayed by Nevada's hooligans on a wall somewhere in the Madness world. This is your chance to literally leave your mark on the game. If you're artistic, we'll let you take the reigns and provide us with a piece of art (to our specifications). Otherwise, describe it for us and we'll handle the grunt work.
Call us up on Skype! We wish we could have face time with every single fan, supporter, and enthusiast, but we're limited to offering this gift to high-end backers. We'll arrange a time that both of us (Krinkels and Swain) can meet with you that fits with your schedule, and we'll talk shop with you about the game, the biz, the cartoon series, or whatever tickles your fancy. Because we're fulfilling this reward before development ends, you can freely express your expectations for the game to us, and maybe even help to direct and advise us on the parts that interest you most.
One of our exclusive rewards: Swain will cook you a delicious gourmet dinner of your choice while you play video games with Krinkels and hang out at our home office in Philadelphia, PA. We won't be able to cover your travel and lodging expenses, but we'll keep you fed and happy while you're in our company. We'll discuss with you a time that works best with your schedule to redeem your reward, which could be during or after Project Nexus 2 development. THAT MEANS you'll get to see the game in action before it's done, OR see the new free content we'll be working on after the final game has been launched.
We want to extend an invitation to our Savior Backers to come join Team Madness in Philadelphia, PA, where we'll host you for a two-day party celebrating the release of Madness: Project Nexus 2! Although you'll have to make your own travel and lodging accommodations, we'll take care of the rest. Who knows, you may just bump into Newgrounds founder and mastermind behind Castle Crashers, Tom Fulp, or internet funnyboys William Stamper and Chris O'Neill, while you're there. Philadelphia is a small town, and we're a tightly knit bunch. Why don't you come be a part of that with us?
The amount we're asking for will guarantee Project Nexus 2 gets made, but let's face it: that's the minimum we require to make the game at its most basic state. Yet, it could become so much more than that if we receive even more backing! At zero additional cost to supporters, Project Nexus 2 could be released with a number of new game modes and features that we otherwise would not have the time or resources to include.
That means the copy(s) of the game you receive will have that much more content if our Kickstarter does very well!UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday its inquiry into mass rape allegations in Sudan’s Darfur region was inconclusive and needed further investigation as Sudan questioned the competence of the peacekeepers and told the U.N. Security Council no one was raped.
Local media reported accusations last month that Sudanese soldiers had raped some 200 women and girls in Tabit in Darfur.
U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said a team from the joint U.N. and African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur needed to return to Tabit “in part due to the heavy presence of military and police” during their first visit several weeks ago.
But Sudan has refused to allow the team to go back. Instead Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador Rahamtalla Mohamed Osman Elnor gave the 15-member Security Council Khartoum’s own report by Prosecutor General for Darfur Crimes, Yasser Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed.
“The team pursued the presence of any physical proof such as victims’ clothes drenched in blood, broken doors at houses of families in the area, injuries of some women or men, yet we did not find any,” Ahmed wrote in the report, obtained by Reuters.
“In search of medical indications about receiving rape victims for treatment, we found none,” said Ahmed, adding that no one questioned knew of any rape cases. “This reassured us that no rape of any woman in the area of Tabit took place.”
Addressing the Security Council on Thursday, Ladsous urged the Sudanese government to allow immediate and independent access to Tabit for the joint U.N. and African Union peacekeeping mission so the reports could be verified.
“Only an independent investigation by UNAMID will address the concerns over these serious allegations,” he said.
Law and order have collapsed in much of Darfur, where mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms in 2003 against the Arab-led government in Khartoum, accusing it of discriminating against them. UNAMID has been deployed in the region since 2007.
Sudan envoy Elnor questioned how it could be “conceivable that 200 women and girls could have been raped in a village without anybody avenging the honor of their daughter or their wife, without anybody reporting the incident.”
He told the Security Council a need for investigators from the peacekeeping operation to return to Tabit “shows a lack of professionalism by the mission, which should have withdrawn immediately from the village if it had thought there was military presence or other presence hindering its work.”Traders rued their burnt shops, farmers mourned the death of their sons to police bullets; but as four days of violence drew to a close, both sides could only speak of one thing: demonetisation.
“Notebandi destroyed the trust between farmer and trader,” said Sunil Ghatiya, a soybean trader in Mandsaur’s Pipliya Mandi, “It finished off our market.”
“A farmer sells when he needs cash immediately – for a wedding, a funeral, to pay a loan,” said Madan Lal Viswakarma, “But after notebandi, traders at the government-run markets only pay by cheque.”
“The traders exploited us,” said Dinesh Patidar, whose son Abhishek was killed when police opened fire on farmers demanding loan waivers and better prices for their crops, “They knew the farmers were desperate for cash.” The Modi government insists the economy has weathered the shock of demonetisation of 86% of India’s currency on 8 November last year, even as evidence to the contrary piles up and economists say they lack the tools to isolate its effects.
In Mandsaur, where four days of rioting resulted in the deaths of five farmers and the destruction of crops, farms, shops, and trucks, the policy’s effects are visible: demonetisation has disrupted every aspect of the rural economy – land markets, credit networks, procurement, and crop prices. “A farmer sells when he needs cash immediately – for a wedding, a funeral, to pay a loan,” said Madan Lal Viswakarma, “But after notebandi, traders at the government-run markets only pay by cheque.”
The cheques take 20 days to clear, Madan Lal said, and then the banks have no currency to give. “If you want cash, the traders beat down your price, and charge two rupees on every hundred they pay,” he said.
The quest for cash, Lakshmi Narayan Viswakarma said, had pushed farmers deeper into debt.
“At harvest, everyone rushes to sell so they can pay back their loans,” he said, explaining that money lenders lend at 2% per month, or 24% a year, and settle all accounts in cash. Those who can’t pay, like farmer Dinesh Patidar, are forced to sell their land.
“But land prices have halved, from Rs 5 lakh per bigha, to Rs 2.5 lakh per bigha,” said Patidar. “After notebandi, no one has the cash to buy land,” he added.
Across the road from Patidar’s home, traders said the note-ban had destroyed them as well. “The farmers demanded cash, but the government tied our hands,” said Ghatiya, the soybean trader. “Some cheques bounced because of a spelling mistake, the farmers felt we were cheating them.”
Trader credit had dried up as well, reducing each trader’s purchasing power. “A lot of chit-fund money finds its way into the agricultural markets,” said a pulse trader, “That completely vanished this year, so traders couldn’t buy as much as they usually do.” As a result, unsold produce started piling up, and the price of all crops crashed.
“The price-crash has affected us as well,” said Ghatiya, “The value of the stocks in our godowns has fallen too.”
This spiral of currency shortage and falling prices, traders and farmers agreed, meant the market was on edge even before the protests began on June 1. So when farmers and traders got into an argument on June 5, the violence quickly escalated. “On one hand you had gun-powder, on the other a match,” said a senior cop, “All you needed was a spark.”
First Published: Jun 12, 2017 07:27 ISTNote: This story had been the victim of a well known plagiarist who, besides me, likes to target DLP authors and copy dozens of stories on several accounts. It has recently been taken down, but the guy is nothing if not tenacious. This is the original, and I am the original author. If you encounter this story anywhere else, please notify me and make sure to report such to the administrators.
The girl in the picture is Victoria Coleman.
~TMC~
How to Break Your Contract in Five Easy Steps
~TMC~
The Auror office was a peculiar place. It was the main sub-section of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, it took up most of Level Two of the Ministry of Magic building, and had the most renown among the public. However, the actual way the Office functioned was not widely known.
For one, most of the people working in the Office weren't Aurors. Aurors themselves were mostly field agents who spent their time investigating, hunting dark wizards, and guarding places and people. The only time they visited the Office was to brief, debrief, deliver suspects or write up their mission reports. Most of the day-to-day workers were paper-pushers, taking care of the massive amounts of red tape necessary for the Office's function. The most permanent Auror presence in the Office, excluding the ones coming in and out, were the few guards stationed there and the Head Auror.
The Head Auror's office was on the edge of the Auror Office part of the floor, close to the Director of Magical Law Enforcement's own. His duties were many and varied, being second in power and responsibility only to the Director himself. Unlike a normal Auror's field-oriented workload and despite the fact that the most decorated Auror was usually the one picked for promotion, the Head Auror's duties were mostly organizational.
Aurors worked individually in most cases. There were no ranks to being an Auror, they all had equal power and responsibilities. One was an Auror, or one wasn't, though there was respect and deference given to the more senior and experienced members among them. The one in charge of this force, the one who directed them, who sent them on their assignments and gave them their orders was the Head Auror, answering directly to the Director of the Department.
When Harry Potter accepted the job of Head Auror, he thought he'd been prepared. He never planned to stay a simple Auror forever, of course. Head Auror was the next step. Many of his friends had briefly joined the corps before leaving to pursue other professional careers. Ron was expanding his and George's business, and Neville was teaching little tykes Herbology at Hogwarts.
But not Harry. Harry had a plan. Harry was going to change things.
But he hadn't been prepared for a desk job. The Head Auror rarely headed out into the field: only for very delicate or important assignments where his presence and judgement were necessary. It took him a good while to get used to all the paperwork he had to deal with, to mold his thought process from investigator and hunter to that of a strategic leader with finite resources. Still, it wasn't all bad. He liked his job, he was good at it, and the Auror Office flourished under his guidance.
None of those made him feel any better at that moment. Listening to someone drone on and on about unnecessary stuff was never his strong suit.
What was the man's name? McCain? McCorn?
"Mister McCain," Harry interrupted the man, noting that he must have gotten the name right judging by the lack of correction. "I understand your plight." He didn't. "But as I said, the matter is not in our hands. Handling of dangerous magical beasts falls under the jurisdiction of Regulation and Control. You'll have to talk to them."
"But surely-"
"Talk to madam Weasley. She will be more than happy to help you with your manticore. Her people are very capable."
"You don't understand, sir-"
"I understand that you're missing your manticore," Harry cut him off, having heard enough of this story. "And you believe he was kidnapped. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of illegal action. it is much more likely that he ran away, as manticores are not suited to domestication. I cannot in good conscience assign Aurors to finding him unless Regulation and Control deem that their presence is necessary. Are we clear?"
Perhaps it was his tone of finality. Perhaps it was his set jaw underneath the wooden smile, but the elderly man seemed to finally give up.
"Yes, mister Potter. Thank you for your time."
"Good evening, sir." He got up and walked the man to the door of his office, closing it behind him.
Now alone, Harry Potter, Head Auror, returned to his desk, all but falling into his chair. He melted into its contours with a weary sigh, pushing his hair back with his hand. He rather liked his chair. He'd custom-ordered it no more than four weeks after ascending to the station and had not regretted his choice.
He had a small break before the meeting with the small Auror squad returning from Ireland. No more than fifteen minutes, but Harry allowed his eyes to droop beneath his glasses.
"Um, Head Auror, sir?"
Harry groaned as he opened his eyes. One of the interns, in charge of secretarial duties, was poking his head through his door.
"What is it, Radley?"
"Um, something arrived for you in the mail."
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Put it in the pile with the others. I'll read it later."
"Sir, it's from Gringotts. It's marked as urgent."
Harry let out a sigh, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses. "Fine. Send it in."
"Right away, sir."
"Could you have some tea brought in, please?"
"Of course."
The young man closed the door, leaving alone again. Three minutes later, a small tray phased through his office door, floating to his desk and setting itself on some free space. In it was a small pot of tea and a thick envelope with the Gringotts crest on it.
Harry prepared his tea and took a sip, before opening the envelope with one hand. He unfolded the letter inside, murmuring to himself. "Mister Potter, son of so and so, owner of this and that, we hope to … blah blah blah, your presence required etcetera etcetera." He took another sip as he skimmed. "… pending contract? Timed-out deadline?"
Harry frowned. To his knowledge, he had no open contracts with Gringotts or anyone associated with them. "...your presence in our bank no later than tomorrow evening to discuss the terms of fulfilment," Harry concluded, before putting the letter down.
He couldn't think of anything this could pertain to. Shrugging his shoulders, Harry put the letter on a pile of correspondence. He'd deal with it later.
He was done from work around seven. As Head Auror, it was always a possibility that he'd be called in in case something happened that needed his input or guidance, but other than he had a normal schedule that he followed every day.
He said goodbye to the staff that would stay in the office and headed down, taking the elevator to the bottom level before heading to the Atrium. It took much longer than it should have in theory because, as always, he stopped many times to greet, shake hands or exchange a few words with various people, civilian and ministry workers alike. Some friends, some strangers.
He Apparated directly to Diagon Alley, appearing in front of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He went inside, nodding to the cashier, who allowed him entrance to the staff only area. There he found Ron, hunched over some book and biting his pen.
"Hey mate," Harry greeted. Ron looked up, giving him a grin when he spotted him.
"Hey Harry."
"Drinking on the job?" Harry nodded towards a half-empty bottle of butterbeer as he sat on a chair.
"Just staving off the headache."
"Wish I could do that in the Auror office."
Ron snorted, turning his gaze back to his bookkeeping. "Good reason I left the department, mate."
"I thought it was because of your dream of being an accountant?"
They caught up for a bit, Ron finally giving up on what he was trying to do and passing him a butterbeer. Eventually, Harry got up.
"It's getting late," he said. "I'd better go. I need to get to Gringotts before they close."
Ron nodded absently. "Sure mate. We still on for tomorrow?"
"Of course. I'll bring the dessert."
"You know you don't have to. Hermione will nag at you about it."
"Let her. Alright, I'm off."
He left the shop, heading out into the now dark Alley. He ascended the steps of Gringotts, entered the bank and headed to a teller.
"Greetings."
"Hello," he greeted, passing over the letter from one of his pockets. "I received this today."
The goblin examined it with his monocle for a minute, nodding to himself. "Go through those doors, third door to the left."
"Thanks."
Harry accepted the letter back and followed the goblin's instructions, going through the hallway to lesser frequented parts of the bank, the offices. The door had a heading with the title 'Boltnail, Executive Contractor'.
Inside was a large office with a single goblin sitting behind a desk and a mound of books.
"Ah, mister Potter. I was expecting you."
"Good evening, Boltnail. I assume the letter was from you?"
"One of my underlings, but yes. We have business to discuss. Take a seat."
Harry sat, accepting the cup of water that appeared on the desk in front of him with a nod.
"I was unaware I was under any sort of contract. Perhaps there's been a mistake?"
"There was no mistake, mister Potter. You've been under a contract since a few weeks after your conception."
Harry blinked. "Excuse me?"
"I see that you were not aware. I have a copy of the signed contract here. Perhaps you should read it before we proceed."
The goblin presented several stacked pages of parchment to Harry. He resisted the urge to groan as he began to riffle through them. The names on the first page caused him to raise his eyebrows in surprise.
"My parents wrote this."
It wasn't a question, and the goblin said nothing, allowing Harry to continue reading in ever increasing speed. He skimmed the lingo, the superfluous words all contracts seemed to share, and many sub-sections that he simply could not understand, and zeroed in on the important bits.
"It is agreed by both parties … properties to be passed to … on the event of … upon eighteenth birthday … legally wed within no less than two years … signed James and Lily Potter, Fabio and Karina Greengrass?"
With every sentence he uttered his eyes widened a bit more, his voice rising, until he ended up staring incredulously at the goblin.
"A marriage contract?"
"Indeed."
"Is this a joke?"
The goblin glared at him. "I do not make it a habit to waste my time like this, mister Potter."
Harry stared between the papers and the goblin. His throat felt clammy and his mouth dry. He fought to bring his thoughts into order, and he succeeded.
"Who was I to marry, then? Please tell me it's not Astoria. I hear she's been getting it on with Malfoy."
"On the fourth page it is mentioned-"
Harry ignored him, going to the fourth page and reading it carefully. In a part he had previously skimmed, was mentioned the phrase 'eldest daughter'.
That gave him pause. "Daphne, huh?"
His thoughts travelled to the blond-haired Greengrass sister. She'd been in his year back in Hogwarts, though they'd never really interacted. Back then, she was friends with Davis |
cardo was elected to a second term of office on Tuesday, June 5, 2018. [49]
Personal life [ edit ]
Sam Liccardo married Jessica Garcia-Kohl in 2013.[50] He was named for his paternal grandfather, who owned and operated a neighborhood grocery store in downtown San Jose, the Notre Dame Market. Liccardo is descended from the first Mexican settlers in the Bay Area, and is also of Sicilian and Irish descent.[51]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]By Kamal K.M, Countercurrents.org, 16 July, 2012
‘Dandakaranya’ is a stretch of forest in India that runs through the states of Chattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh. Roughly translated in Sanskrit, the word means `Jungle of Punishment’.
When you enter the village of Kottaguda, located in Bijapur district of Chattisgarh, the first impression is one of serenity. The vestiges of the Salwa Judum pillage from a few years ago still remain as a burnt scar. The houses have stood starkly against these acts of aggression.
We couldn’t see any trace of massacre from ten days ago.
We were a group of thirty people from different parts of India, people of different professions and academic backgrounds. There were some people in the group who had been to similar kind of fact finding report missions, like Advocate Tharakam, Prasanth Haldar, V.S Krishna, Advocate Raghunath, C Chandrasekhar, R Shiva Shankar, and Ashish Gupta. Some of them were official members of different human rights organizations under the umbrella of Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO). We – advocates, teachers, government employees, students, former trade union activists and media professionals – were united by a single objective – to unearth the truth about what had actually happened on the night of June 28 th.
When we entered the village there was a solemn air about it. The only humans we saw there were some heavily armed paramilitary forces inside the bushes – they might have been from CoBRA force or CRPF.
The men in arms averted our gaze. They couldn’t meet our eye with the shadow of the dastardly act of a few days ago looming large over them.
8pm on the evening of 28 th June, Kottaguda village in Bijpapur District, Chattisgarh.
There was a meeting being held to discuss the upcoming seed festival – Beeja Pondum. It was a wet monsoon night. Some people from other villages, like Sarkeguda and Rajpenta, were also attending the meeting. A few children loitered around playfully. At 10pm, the CoBRA force and CRPF cordoned off the villages and started firing indiscriminately and without any warning.
The first attack came from the west, and instantly killed three adivasis. This was quickly followed by firing from three other directions. Terrified villagers started running – some tried to take shelter, some ran towards their respective villages. Yet, the bullets continued to spray for another 30 minutes. Then, as if to survey the dead, the CRPF forces fired two flare guns that lit up the area. They languidly ambled through the scene and collected the dead bodies that remained.
The national Media duly reported the incident following the government version. But by the next morning it slowly emerged that those killed were actually villagers. It was infact a massacre. It was clear that the victims were tribal villagers, who were randomly killed. Some news papers and tv channels corrected their mistake and reported the truth. Some still have not corrected their mistake.
After that news report, there was no reaction at the National level. The Governments at the State and the Centre indicated that the massacre was actually Maoist encounter, thus relegating the blame to victims. A day later, Mr. Chidambaram expressed regret over the massacre taking place in a BJP-led state. The blame was passed around in this way. One would have thought that as Home Minister, he could have walked into the village, and expressed regret in a more palpable way.
The tribals in this area have had to suffer violence at the hands of various aggressors in the past. Feudal lords, in a lust for power, terrorised the villages with rape and pillage. Being a tribal belt, the post-industrialisation Government also ignored the well-being of the people there. In reaction to this injustice, the Maoists emerged as revolutionaries to liberate the people from this aggression.
Beginning June 2005, the Chattisgarh government encouraged a criminal vigilante movement titled Salwa Judum that pitted tribal against tribal—a ‘divide and rule lesson learnt from the Raj. Adivasis in the former united Dantewada district received weapon and training support from the Chhattisgarh State Government. They ran amuck terrorising tribals perceived of being the support base of the Maoists. Over 600 villages were torched, over a hundred adivasis killed and a lot of sexual violence took place. Thousands of adivasis were forced into camps, even as upwards of 70,000 tribals fled to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, which has a fairly long border with Dantewada.
The Maoists came together from different parts Andhra Pradesh, and started working with village folk – protecting them from the intruders, organizing their farming techniques, empowering their women, teaching them to wear clothes. All in all, the tribals of Dantewada forests felt safe with the Maoists.
The group implies no membership and there’s no levy to the Party. It is a non-organized political presence in the State. In fact, there is no other political presence in the area, as the moneyless tribals don’t find a place of significance with other political parties.
The proceedings that terrible night of June 28 were nothing but a routine meeting in the village to discuss several community issues. Nobody was conspiring against the Indian Government, as our Home Minister, Mr. Chidambaram insinuates. Dismissed by NGOs and Corporate Charities as “Maoist infested” areas, the tribal of Dantekada have little hope as relief for their circumstance. Yet, those thirty minutes plunged them into a profound, grieving silence – a silence that they are still trying to come to terms with.
As our fact-finding team entered the open ground between the villages of Sarkeguda and Kottaguda, we could hear a mournful singing. The women of the village were gathered around a house. The first women who saw us, started crying, as though they had seen some distant relatives come to offer condolence.
The village folk started gathering around us. Men, women, children – each had their story to tell, each one desperate to be heard. Mothers who had lost their sons wept inconsolably. Widows and children looked on hopelessly. Several relatives showed us photos of their deceased loved ones, wearing them like badges of fortitude. Many didn’t even have such a relic to display.
Six of the dead were minors, including a 12-year old girl, Kaka Saraswati, daughter of K Rama. She was hit while fleeing towards her house in Kottaguda. Of the other five minors, two — Kaka Rahul (16) and Madkam Ramvilas (16) — were studying in class 10 at a school in Basaguda. Both stayed at a hostel in Basaguda and were visiting home during the summer vacations.
Several victims showed us their injuries – bullets that had penetrated their flesh. The landscape too had been tainted. Bullets, which had been randomly sprayed at the villagers, were found lodged in nearby trees.
A loitering bull had also been injured. Apparently several other cattle had also been killed that night. This particular bull had a bullet lodged in his leg. He could not put his foot down, because of the deep pain he felt. His resilient balancing act on three legs spoke volumes for the people who tended to him. My question about any veterinary help for the ailing bull was dismissed as facile. There was no doctor to tend to the injured people here in these distant villages.
As each person spoke, we started to patchwork the facts of the incident together. On the morning of the 29 th, CRPF killed the last victim when he came out his house to check on the silence outside. Then the CRPF men dragged two women to the fields nearby, and tore at their clothes. Three other women were also abused, beaten up and threatened with rape – all this, to no end.
In fact, flouting standard norms, the CRPF men not only carried away the bodies but also scooped away the bloodstained ground beneath the bodies. According to the Bijapur superintendent of police, “proper post mortem was conducted by a team of doctors at the Basaguda police station and a report is being prepared”. This is hogwash, as a post mortem has to be conducted at a hospital properly equipped for the routine and not a police station. Significantly, the villagers are unanimous that no post mortem was carried out, a fact corroborated by several reporters who saw none of the tell-tale marks that show on the body after a post mortem procedure.
The CRPF now says that seven of the deceased — Madkam Suresh, Madkam Nagesh, Madvi Ayatu, Kaka Sammayya, Korsa Bijje, Madkam Dilip and Irpa Narayana are Maoists and that there are various cases of violence of a serious nature lodged against them in various police stations across Chattisgarh State.
The killing was actually arbitrary. For the CRPF to now find some validation of it is astonishing. If what they say is to be taken at face value, then it is clear that it is extra judicial killing in prima facie.
Ten days after the massacre, the first governmental action was taken. A truckload of compensation arrived, escorted by R. A. Kuruvanshi, the Revenue Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Bhoopalapatnam. Rice, daal, clothes, utensils – this was the value of seventeen lives. The villagers vociferously refused it. Their anger screamed, but with dignity. They did not abuse or curse. They didn’t set ablaze the truck – an epitome of the insult rendered to them by the Government.
If we are Maoists, then why do you bring us this rice? Why did you do this to us?
The Revenue officer listened dumbfounded. He didn’t have any real response in front of the lamenting people. He returned with a shiver in soul. Everyone watched silently as the truck made its way back through the jungle path.
In the recent past, encounters between Maoists and members of the police and special forces have only drawn attention when it is the latter who are injured or killed. In 2010, the Prime Minister demanded a report from the Home Minister about the incident of April 6, 2010, when 74 troopers of the CRPF were shot dead by the Maoists near Chintalar in what is now Sukma district. The massacre of tribal villagers in Kottaguda didn’t illicit such a response. It is convenient to believe the official version – that the massacre was an encounter between Maoist and State forces, and that the villagers were used as a human shield.
The N ational Human Rights Commission didn’t consider visiting the villages with an official fact finding team, and scouring for the truth of what happened that night. They asked for a report from CRPF Director General after 12 days of the incident. One can only imagine what kind of report will be drawn out.
An expert group of the Planning Commission of India had declared that the Maoist insurgency is to be viewed not merely as a law and order problem, but as one with roots in material deprivation, unfreedom and social oppression that have over many decades remained unaddressed by the Indian State. It stated that though the Maoists employed a fair amount of violence towards their ends, it was essentially a political movement. This implied that the resolution necessarily required negotiations with the Maoists. It was also reiterated that legislation which protect the rights of Adivasis and Dalits should be implemented properly. Despite this, the scenario hasn’t changed. The Government all but consigned this precious deocument to the dustbin and persists with thoughtless decisions of indiscriminate killing.
It is only the Government of Violence that is the ever-present demon in these Forests of Dandakaranya.
Kamal K.M is a Mumbai based film maker. He was part of the fact finding team that visited the villages where the massacre took place. He can be reached at snehapoorvamkamal@gmail.comOne of the most painful realizations I had when I started getting my financial life in order was that my job didn’t help me earn as much money as it seemed.
Since I made this realization when I earned around $40,000 a year, let’s use that as a baseline.
On the surface, that’s really good money. If I worked 40 hours a week for 50 weeks a year, I would be earning $20 an hour, right?
Well, that’s not entirely true.
Factors that Reduce Your Take-Home Pay
First of all, we have taxes. Federal income taxes, state income taxes, and FICA taxes. Federal taxes would eat about 11% of my paycheck, state taxes would eat about 4% or so, and FICA would eat about 2%.
Second, I had to pay for my commute. This was about ten miles each way, and it was the primary reason I owned a vehicle. So, let’s tack on top of that a monthly car payment of about $200, about $40 a month in gas, about $30 a month (prorated) in maintenance expenses, and about $40 a month in insurance, just to keep that car on the road.
I also had to wear a nicer wardrobe. I spent $200 a year to make sure I dressed appropriately for meetings, conferences, and the like – and that’s a low-end estimation.
There were at least two meals eaten out a week, costing $10 each. There was travel about three times a year where many of the expenses would be challenged, meaning each of those trips set me back about $100 out of pocket.
Not only that, there were a lot of times where I would put in extra unbilled hours to meet a deadline. I easily averaged 50 hours a week there.
Plus, there’s the time spent traveling – another 50 hours spent places where I didn’t want to be per trip. There’s the time spent commuting – about 40 minutes per day. There were also work-related meals and other activities to attend, eating down another four hours per month.
When you start running the math on this, the equation starts to change.
After receiving my $40,000 salary, I’d pay out $6,400 in taxes each year. I’d pay out $3,720 in commuting costs each year. I’d pay out $200 in wardrobe costs each year. I’d pay out $1,000 in extra meals each year. I’d pay out $300 in extra travel expenses each year.
Suddenly, my $40,000 salary became $28,380, just like that.
Now, I’d work 40 hours a week, totaling 2,000 hours per year, right? On top of that, I’d add ten hours of unbilled work a week (over 50 weeks), three hours of commute a week (over 50 weeks), 150 extra travel hours a year, and 48 extra hours of activities a year. This would bring my total up to 2,848 hours, or an average of 57 hours a week spent devoted to my job.
My job is suddenly paying me less than $10 an hour.
Of course, there were other job benefits that had some significant value, but frankly, I wasn’t actually using them. My wife and I sat down and compared the health insurance offerings at our two jobs and her insurance was far better than my own, so we used her insurance. I had no use for their life insurance option, either, and their retirement plan wasn’t particularly strong. These things do have value when you’re comparing jobs in this way, but only if you’re using them.
Amazingly, I was actually earning more money that I could keep with my part-time job as an undergraduate. I earned $12 an hour. There was no travel costs, no wardrobe costs, no extra activities, no unpaid work (I kept a diligent timesheet), no commute (I worked really close to where I lived). I would be left with more than $10 per hour working at this job.
On a per-hour basis, my part-time job in college was more lucrative than my first “good” job after college. It was also certainly less stressful and far less intrusive on my time.
One of my closest friends at the time made $7.50 an hour working at the night shift at a local gas station right after college. The gas station was just down the block from his apartment, and he’d spend most of his time there reading or practicing his sketching, as he’d have a customer maybe once every fifteen minutes. He didn’t have a car and on the rare occasions where he needed to go somewhere, he would just take the bus for a quarter or two.
It often seemed that he had more money to spare than I did. At the time, I thought it was just an illusion, but when you start running the numbers this way, it’s not entirely surprising, particularly if he was paying lower rent and lower utilities than I was.
When You Discover Your Salary Isn’t Worth It
It was realizations like this one that convinced me to make a scary career leap and start working on my writing full time. Doing that meant that I no longer had a commute (saving on car maintenance and fuel and time), nor any wardrobe costs, nor any eating out costs. My time spent on work was actually spent on work. There was no more travel – I’ve only been tempted to travel related to it once, and that one time was cancelled due to a family illness.
On the surface, my salary dropped through the floor when I made this move, but when I started running the numbers like this, I began to realize that my hourly income really wasn’t going down that much.
Whenever you’re thinking about your next job or your next career move, you need to think through these kinds of things. Often, a job that looks like it earns you great pay or is a great opportunity really isn’t either, and a job that seems like you won’t be earning much actually leaves you with a lot of money in your pocket. When you take into account things like stress and schedule flexibility, sometimes the “low-end” job is just the job for you, particularly if you’re simply working to earn a paycheck and are focusing your energies on making a side business or another opportunity get off the ground.
5 Steps to Calculate How Much You Really Make
Consider your annual salary or calculate your annual salary if you are paid hourly.
Figure out your tax rate and how much you’ll pay in federal and state taxes each year.
Add up the costs of your commute, which can include car payments, gas, and auto maintenance and repairs.
Look at the other costs of your job, including your wardrobe and meals.
Subtract all applicable expenses from your annual salary to see how much you really make.
This post is part of a yearlong series called “365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),” in which I’m revisiting the entries from my book 365 Ways to Live Cheap,” which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my “photography intern” for this project.A trace of radioactive Iodine-131 of unknown origin was in January detected over large areas in Europe. Since the isotope has a half-life of only eight days, the detection is a proof of a rather recent release.
Where the radioactivity is coming from is still a mystery.
The air filter station at Svanhovd was the first to measure small amounts of the radioactive Ionide-131 in the second week of January. The station is located a few hundred metres from Norway’s border to Russia’s Kola Peninsula in the north.
Soon, the same Iodine-131 isotope was measured in Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland. Within the next two weeks, traces of radioactivity, although in tiny amounts, were measured in Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, France and Spain.
Norway was the first to measure the radioactivity, but France was the first to inform the public about it.
“The preliminary report states it was first found during week 2 of January 2017 in northern Norway,” Institute de Radioprotection et de Süreté Nucléaire (IRSN) writes in a press release.
“No health concerns”
Head of section for emergency preparedness at the Norwegian Radiation Protection Autority, Astrid Liland, says to the Barents Observer the levels measured raise no health concerns.
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“We do measure small amounts of radioactivity in air from time to time because we have very sensitive measuring equipment. The measurements at Svanhovd in January were very, very low. So were the measurements made in neighbouring countries, like Finland. The levels raise no concern for humans or the environment. Therefore, we believe this had no news value,” Astrid Liland answers when asked why the public was not informed.
She points to Norway’s nation-wide online network of 33 stations were people can check real-time measurements.
At Svanhovd, measurements in the period January 9-16 show levels of 0,5 micro Becquerel per cubic meter air (µBq/m3). In France, where authorities decided to publish the information, measured radioactivity were much lower, from 0,1 to 0,31 µBq/m3.
Levels measured in Finland were also lower than in northern Norway with 0,27 µBq/m3 measured in Rovaniemi and 0,3 µBq/m3 in Kotka. Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) decided to follow the French example and posted a press release about the increased levels of radioactivity.
Unknown source
Finnish authorities also underscores that the levels measured are far from concentrations that could have any effect on human health. Neither STUK, nor IRSN speculate in the origin of the released Iodine-131.
Astrid Liland can’t either explain the origin of the radioactivity.
“It was rough weather in the period when the measurements were made, so we can’t trace the release back to a particular location. Measurements from several places in Europe might indicate it comes from Eastern Europe,” Liland explains.
“Increased levels of radioactive iodine in air were made in northern-Norway, northern-Finland and Poland in week two, and in other European countries the following two weeks, Astrid Liland says.
Iodine-131 in the air could come from an incident with a nuclear reactor. The isotope is also widely used in medicine and for that purpose; many countries around the globe produce it.
Map by Institute de Radioprotection et de Süreté Nucléaire.
All operators of nuclear reactors or institutions using Iodine-131 for medical purposes have detectors for external releases of radioactivity. Someone out there knows why the radioactivity was spread over larger areas of Europe.
Nuclear installations in northeastern Europe, were the radioactivity was first discovered, includes nuclear power plants in Finland, Sweden and Russia, in addition to nuclear powered vessels on Russia’s Kola Peninsula and White Sea area. The source could as well come from even further away installations.James Rhein
A New York man has been arrested after bulldozing the home where he lived with his wife.
James Rhein rented an excavator Monday and demolished the Middletown house, but police said he failed to notify the homeowner – his wife.
Records show Diane Andryshak, not Rhein, is listed as the sole owner of the property, which her husband rented, and police said he failed to obtain her permission before destroying the 840-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch home.
“He bulldozed all her clothes in there — washer, dryer, furnace, hot water heater, everything was still in there. In fact, her medication was still in there.” said neighbor Steve Belfiglio, who described Rhein as a “loose cannon.”
Rhein also neglected to obtain proper permits or call utility companies to shut off gas and electric service, which had to be turned off by emergency crews to prevent an explosion or fire.
“He could have blew the block up, I suppose,” Belfiglio said.
Rhein said the home was dilapidated and its foundation was crumbling from years of disrepair, so he decided to tear it down.
He claims he tried to obtain a demolition permit but was unable because the office was closed for the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
“So I took it down, that’s it,” Rhein said.
He claims he tried to call his wife to notify her of his intention, but she didn’t answer her phone.
A neighbor said Andryshak arrived home to find the house reduced to rubble and became very upset, but Rhein said she had recovered.
“She’s over it, we’re good,” he said. “I’m a good husband, what can I tell you?”
Rhein, who lived at the home for three years, denied that he needed his wife’s permission to destroy their home with her possessions still inside.
“We’re married, it’s a community asset,” Rhein said.
He has been charged with second-degree criminal mischief, a felony, and could face additional charges in the incident.
Rhein, who was arrested in 2013 on harassment charges not involving his wife, was released on $300 bond.
An Ohio man made national news nearly five years ago when he bulldozed his house ahead of foreclosure.
Watch this video report posted online by WCBS-TV:Carden Crow and his spouse, Shronn, just wanted to have a picnic one day with all their friends, since they weren’t going to be around for the Tulsa pride parade, little did they know that there fifteen-person picnic would turn into an event with over 600 attendees.
Carden created a Facebook event for the picnic he was having, and within the first week, 50 people had joined the event. Soon, the guest list reached 100.
“Facebook did exactly what it’s there for. More than 5,000 people saw the event," wrote Carden. "I had no idea it would get this big. I thought maybe 15 people tops would come."
Carden couldn't believe how many people were coming and realized that this event couldn’t be hosted in his backyard anymore. He reached out to the city and got a permit to have the picnic at the nearby park. As the days past more and more people continued to RSVP to his event, he couldn’t believe it. Carden just realized that he just might have started the first LGBT Pride event in his town of Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
As as the event date neared, Carden, Shronn, and their friends came together to make it happen. Shronn organized a flash mob, and a few drag performers from Tulsa volunteered to perform. A local vendor asked to set up a booth to support the event, and a DJ offered his services as well.
As everything was coming together, Carden couldn’t believe how much support he was getting. When he was in school 10 years before, he had a hard time getting the support he needed from the Young Allied Gays group that he was a part of. Though there was some opposition to Carden's Pride event, the town was on his side and let the event continue as planned.
As the day arrived, Carden prepared for any protestors who might try to ruin their Pride event, but as it turned out, there was no one trying to sabotage the day, which was full of celebration from start to end. About 600 people showed up from a town of 1600, making for an amazing turn out. There were kids running around with flags, face paint and balloons, and people were happy to bring their families to such a great gathering.
A very special moment for Carden was seeing a local teen at the event that he'd seen before aroung town. Carden always wanted to talk to the teen because he knew that he was gay, and he wanted to reassure the young person that he wasn’t alone in this town. The teen told Carden that this was his first LGBT event, and that he was having a great time. His family was coming around to the fact that he was gay, so that was a great feeling as well.
After the first Tahlequah Pride, Carden and the group that helped him organize the event felt so inspired that they filled out the necessary paperwork and formed a non-profit organization called TahlEquality. They will be raising money and developing community outreach programs for young people who identify as LGBT,and for anyone that is struggling with their sexual orientation or gender identity.Mike Morse nearly had an incredible first Spring Training game: the Giants outfielder conked two shots well to right field against the Oakland A's. Instead, he had two long flyouts, as Josh Reddick scaled the wall twice and made two plays that could find themselves on any best of the season list -- you know, provided the season had already started, and it wasn't Feb. 26.
Here are the two robberies, and no, you're not having deja vu:
Your browser does not support iframes.
The first one is absolutely preposterous: Robbery No. 2 is just your run-of-the-mill perfectly-timed over-a-10-foot-wall snag. Although he does also double off a runner at second on the second one.
After the game, Reddick tried to play it off easy:
Well that was a fun day. Guys came out swinging it. Pitching staff threw well. Nothing too exciting. — Josh Reddick (@joshreddick16) February 26, 2014
But Morse wasn't having it:
@joshreddick16 was thinking the same thing 🙊🙈 — Double M's (@Mcode38) February 26, 2014
So Reddick offered to make up for the theft:Stephen Kearney's time as Parramatta coach is over. Fairfax has been told that at a meeting between Kearney and club officials yesterday it was decided Kearney would not see out his time at the club.
It is understood Kearney will announce his resignation at a media conference tomorrow, but that he has effectively been sacked after failing to get the team to fire in his first two seasons.
Leaving the Eels... Stephen Kearney. Credit:Getty Images
Kearney, who was contracted until the end of next season, is expected to depart either straight away or after a farewell game as coach against Melbourne at Parramatta Stadium on Saturday night.
There has been speculation NSW State of Origin coach Ricky Stuart could replace Kearney as coach next year, but he has more recently been strongly linked to Canberra. It is anticipated recently appointed assistant coach Chris Anderson and Brad Arthur will take charge of the team in the short term.
It has been well documented that Kearney has a clause in his contract allowing for a full year's payout if it is terminated, but what conditions he and the club have worked out now is not clear.
The Eels are on the bottom of the table as they prepare to meet the competition-leading Storm. They only narrowly avoided the wooden spoon last season.This article is about the album by the Beatles. For other uses, see Yesterday & Today (disambiguation)
1966 studio album by the Beatles
Yesterday and Today is a studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, their ninth album released on Capitol Records and twelfth overall American release. It was originally issued only in the United States and Canada, in June 1966. Typically of the Beatles' North American discography until 1967, the album contains songs that Capitol had withheld from its versions of the band's recent EMI albums – in this case, Help! and Rubber Soul – along with others that were issued on non-album singles.
The album is remembered primarily for the controversy surrounding its original cover image. Taken by photographer Robert Whitaker, and said to be the Beatles' statement against the Vietnam War,[1] this 'butcher cover' image showed the band dressed in white smocks and covered with decapitated baby dolls and pieces of raw meat. Others said it was the Beatles protesting the fact that their North American albums had been 'butchered' – switched around and not as originally intended.
The album's title plays on the title of the song "Yesterday". Having been deleted from Capitol's catalogue in 1986, Yesterday and Today was reissued on CD in 2014.
Song selection [ edit ]
In keeping with the record company's policy for all the Beatles' North American LPs until 1967, Capitol Records selected songs for Yesterday and Today that the company had culled from the albums the band released in Britain and other territories overseen by EMI, together with tracks issued on what were non-album singles outside North America.[3] The industry preference in the US for shorter LPs facilitated this policy, as did the fact that the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night and Help! albums became genuine soundtrack albums there, since the non-film songs had been replaced by orchestral selections from the respective film scores. Thus, even though the group had recorded six albums for EMI by early 1966, Yesterday and Today was the Beatles' tenth American Capitol album,[nb 1] and twelfth overall.[6] The two non-Capitol albums were A Hard Day's Night, then on United Artists Records, and Introducing The Beatles on Vee Jay Records.)
Yesterday and Today included tracks from the Beatles' two most recent LPs that had not yet been included on American albums, plus three from the LP they began recording in April 1966, plus two songs which were back-to-back on a single:[7]
The hodge-podge nature in which Capitol compiled their albums for the North American market infuriated the Beatles. In a 1974 interview, John Lennon complained that the band had "put a lot of work into the sequencing" of their albums and that they were told "there was some rule or something" against issuing the full fourteen-song LPs in the US, which led to Capitol releases such as Yesterday and Today.
Both Tim Riley[13] and American Songwriter journalist Jim Beviglia classified Yesterday and Today as a compilation album,[14] and MusicRadar said it was one in a series of "hit-filled compilation albums" that the American Capitol label "sliced and diced" from the Beatles' original British albums.[15]
Artwork [ edit ]
On 25 March 1966, photographer Robert Whitaker had the Beatles in the studio for a conceptual art piece titled A Somnambulant Adventure. For the shoot, Whitaker took a series of pictures of the group dressed in butcher smocks and draped with pieces of meat and body parts from plastic baby dolls. The group played along, as they were tired of the usual photo shoots; Lennon recalled the band's "boredom and resentment at having to do another photo session and another Beatles thing".[17] Whitaker's concept was also compatible with their own black humour. Although not originally intended as an album cover, the Beatles submitted photographs from the session for their promotional materials. According to a 2002 interview published in Mojo, former Capitol president Alan W. Livingston stated that it was Paul McCartney who pushed strongly for the photo's inclusion as the album cover, and that McCartney reportedly described it as "our comment on the [Vietnam] war".[19]
In the United States, Capitol Records printed approximately 750,000 copies of Yesterday and Today with this so-called 'butcher cover'.[21][nb 2] A fraction of the original covers were shipped to disc jockeys and reviewers as advance copies. Reaction was immediate, as Capitol received complaints from some dealers. The record was immediately recalled under orders from Sir Joseph Lockwood, chairman of Capitol's parent company EMI,[24] and all copies were ordered shipped back to the record label, leading to its rarity and popularity among collectors. The cover photo was replaced with a picture of the four band members posed around an open trunk. Lennon described the replacement as "an awful looking photo of us looking just as deadbeat but supposed to be a happy-go-lucky foursome".[26][nb 3]
At the time, some of the Beatles defended the use of the 'butcher' photograph. Lennon said that it was "as relevant as Vietnam" and McCartney said that their critics were "soft". However, this opinion was not shared by all band members. George Harrison said in The Beatles Anthology that he thought the whole idea "was gross, and I also thought it was stupid. Sometimes we all did stupid things thinking it was cool and hip when it was naïve and dumb; and that was one of them." In 2007 George Martin, the Beatles' producer, recalled that the cover had been the cause of his first strong disagreement with the band. He added: "I thought it was disgusting and in poor taste … It suggested that they were madmen. Which they were, but not in that way."[29]
Release and reception [ edit ]
Released on 20 June 1966, the Yesterday and Today album's controversial cover marked the first time the Beatles' judgment was criticised by the media and distributors. On 10 June, in response to the negative reaction from disc jockeys and record reviewers who had been sent advance copies, Capitol launched "Operation Retrieve", recalling 750,000 copies of the LP from distributors to replace the artwork.[36] The total cost to Capitol of replacing the cover and promotional materials was $250,000, wiping out the company's initial profit.[37] In Britain, the same photograph of the band smiling amid the mock carnage had been used in promotional advertisements for the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" single. A similar photograph from the shoot with Whitaker appeared on the cover of the 11 June edition of the British magazine Disc and Music Echo, accompanied by a caption reading: "Beatles, What a Carve-Up!" The cover imagery was viewed by some commentators and music industry executives as a statement on Capitol's policy of "butchering" the Beatles' albums for the North American market.[nb 4] In her study of the band's contemporary audience, sociologist Candy Leonard says that some fans recall interpreting the 'butcher cover' in this way and supported the Beatles "and their sense of humour".
Record World's reviewer included the LP among the magazine's "albums of the week" and wrote: "The new Beatle album contains a number of their recent hits … Also some rousing new ones like 'Drive My Car.' Of course, it'll be a big package."[45] Billboard described it as a "Hot album release" and said that the five previously un |
it’s clear to see how positively this can affect your productivity within the office.
language used when assertive at work
Assertive leaders use both verbal and non-verbal language in excellent ways to position themselves more effectively within their team. By having a strong, open and welcoming upright posture, assertive leaders come across confident and safe to their colleagues. This helps create a working environment that evokes safety and encourages expression and trust.
Leaders also listen and are empathetic towards others and their opinions, taking them into consideration when making conscious decisions. This also has a positive effect on their peers, who soon feel valued and appreciated within their team.
Additionally, when leaders are assertive at work, the way they talk in situations is different. Their way with words often connotes direction, reflecting their mental state of looking towards the future and reaching the goals set out by themselves and their teams. This has a positive effect on their team who will look to follow the lead and envisage the direction with their leader.
the word ‘no’ is assertive
Assertive leaders have the ability to say ‘no’ in the right way. There’s a thin line between saying no assertively in a positive way and saying no that results in ill feeling. Leaders say no, confidently, with context as to why and actively look to help find a solution to the problem. By doing so, they develop trust among their colleagues who believe in them and their values.
On the topic of solutions, not problems, assertive leaders showcase a positive mindset that looks for solutions first. This reflects their assertive nature to see direction, move forward and drive towards the end goal.
approaching situations in an assertive way
Being assertive at work is like treading a tight rope. Act too assertively and you’ll come across aggressive towards your peers, come across too passively and your ideas will not be taken as seriously you’d initially hoped for.
It’s a tough task finding the perfect medium between passive and aggressive. Often being assertive in your approach will achieve the goals you wish, whilst also looking after the emotions and opinions of others around you.
An example may be: when involved in a team meeting, you listen first, add value to the initial ideas and expand on them. This shows direction and forward-thinking whilst fostering collaboration and bringing others ideas to life. Ultimately this helps to build relationships with your peers and reflects a positive feeling towards idea spreading within the team.
accepting mistakes, learning and moving on
Assertive leaders don’t dwell on mistakes. They often encourage and recognise mistakes they make, using that natural ‘direction’ mindset again to help develop them by learning from the mistakes or failures made. This approach has a positive learning affect that spreads like wildfire internally and encourages creativity among teams.
These are a handful of positive effects that being an assertive leader has on the workplace. Can you think of any that have helped you drive your teams forward? If so, we’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
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Like this: Like Loading...by Bruce K. Adler
What seems to have been forgotten is that one reads past [political] theories, not because they are familiar and therefore confirmative, but because they are strange and therefore provocative. … What we should expect from a reading of Aristotle [or Plato, Augustine, Locke, Rousseau, and others] is an increase in political understanding. … The cultivation of political understanding means that one becomes sensitized to the enormous complexities and drama of saying that the political order is the most comprehensive association and ultimately responsible as no other grouping is for sustaining the physical, material, cultural and moral life of its members.
— Sheldon S. Wolin, “Political Theory as a Vocation”, The American Political Science Review (December 1969)
Bruce K. Adler A long distinguished political theorist, Professor Wolin died in October. His obituary, printed in the New York Times, notes that starting in the 1960s he “galvanized the profession by gathering key political philosophers, beginning with the Greeks, in a grand debate on democracy and examining their ideas not as historical artifacts, but as a way to criticize current political structures.” I can further attest – being fortunate indeed to have had him as a teacher and adviser – that his lectures were not only an academic pleasure, but demonstrated the power of an ever-reflecting, ever-curious mind. He was a “Plato” who drove his students to marvel at and then ponder political order. So I want to take this opportunity not just to pay tribute to his life and work but as much if not more to carry forward an obligation that by his example he imparted to all of his students: To try, now and again, in a thoughtful and positive way, to contribute to our common social conscience. For such is essential for any society, and a democracy most of all, if it is to sustain itself more nobly than desperately. Now it might appear that “asking” Plato ( 424/423 – 348/347 BCE ) and Aristotle ( 384 – 322 BCE ) to “comment” on modern-day America is but a ploy to advance one’s personal views through the guise of others’ estimable authority. But such an inquiry, seriously pursued, can yield credible insights. For in reading Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings with their observations of life in ancient Greece and their considered conclusions about what makes for the good and just society, we can see well enough where their understandings of political order roughly parallel or markedly diverge from our own.
In fact I was originally inspired in this essay by attempts in recent years to use Plato’s and Aristotle’s writings to further validate the Second Amendment and support gun rights in this country. For example, Aristotle argued that weapons are one of the things that are essential to a society’s existence because citizens “must carry them even among themselves, both for internal government in the event of civil disobedience and to repel external aggression”. [1] So I will use this issue as my entry point into their writings to get at their related political perspectives, which will allow them to “speak” to the nature of the American state today.
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights guarantees an individual right to own guns for private use. Advocates of such a right have since worked to expand and defend state and local laws that facilitate the common purchase of guns as well as their concealed or open carrying in public. Given Aristotle’s view of the necessity of carrying weapons in public, it appears that he – and as he was at one time a student of Plato, perhaps Plato, too – would thoroughly approve of this current state of affairs in America.
But no. Both would almost certainly see it as an abomination. Why or how so?
The reason has to do with the nature of individual rights in America. That nature is probably best described in the refrains of the Declaration of Independence. It states (with emphases added):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Thatwhenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …
Accordingly, individual rights in America derive from – what the Founding Fathers believed to be – the essential nature of human beings. And this comports with the outlook and assertions of many advocates of gun rights today. For example, they tend to oppose much of the existing or proposed regulation of gun ownership since they see it as violating that “Right of the People” to be able to oppose governmental tyranny as well as to defend one’s home and oneself in public against any form of violence. As one pithy saying has it: “An armed society is a polite society.” And enthusiasts would as likely add a “good and just” society.
Plato and Aristotle, however, conceived of “gun rights” rather differently. In their visions of the ideal or best form of society – which is described in their respective works Republic and Politics – ownership of a weapon is not an individual right as such. Instead, it is an obligation of being a citizen. Moreover, only a certain portion – a special class – of the citizenry or membership of the society is to have that obligation: those who have the necessary virtue and capability and consequent training to be the public servants and rulers of the society. [2] (In Aristotle’s case, he essentially defined that class as the citizens proper. [3] And though Plato does not expressly limit the possession and use of weapons to his equivalent “Guardian” class, the schema of their education virtually requires it. [4])
The basic idea here, which Aristotle clearly described, is that there should be an identity between those judged fit to rule and those judged capable of serving policing and military roles, for then the society is guaranteed to be rightly governed and maintained. Any would-be tyrant or conspiracy due to the corruption of the few would be quickly put down by the majority of the others in that same class. (Remember, those in that class are originally determined to be the most fit and virtuous to defend and lead that society, and are carefully trained and tutored to do so. In theory, then, corruption could not easily take hold, and if it did, it would only ever be among the few.)
If we now turn this perspective– Plato’s and Aristotle’s “gaze” if you will – on our American state, I think it is clear what they would think about “gun rights” here. In particular, the oft-made argument that the Second Amendment serves to prevent tyranny would strike them as nonsensical in both theory and practice. For where owning a gun is founded on an individual human right that applies to nearly all the members of the given state, their status as citizens in this regard is literally overwritten and the citizenry as such is politically sundered from the state. For now the stance and outlook of every so-called citizen exists “outside” of the state, which can no longer be seen simply as a homeland, but also and evermore as a potential enemy to be guarded against and when “necessary” – as determined perforce on an ad hoc basis – put down.
In short, one cannot be an individual – one’s own master – and at the same time a citizen and in this case a patriot. And yet that is exactly how the American state has been conceived and set up. And that – Plato and Aristotle would say – is the abomination!
It is important to understand that in their thinking, and that of the ancient Greeks generally, the state (which was traditionally a polis or city-state) does not come to exist out of happenstance – like the American model based on a so-called social contract and “the consent of the governed” – but instead is the innate aim and product of our human nature. Plato held that “a state comes into existence since no individual is self-sufficing; we all have many needs”. [5] Aristotle famously asserted that “man is by nature a political animal”, [6] and pointedly compared human beings living within and without the state:
A man is the best of all animals when he has reached his full development [by being a member of the state], so he is worst of all when divorced from law and morals. Wickedness armed is hardest to deal with; and though man while keeping his weapons can remain disposed to understanding and virtue, it is all too easy for him to use them for the opposite purposes. [7]
The purpose of the state, according to Plato and Aristotle, is to facilitate and complement “the best” or “the good” in each and every member. And that conception contrasts sharply with the stated purpose of the American state to secure individual rights such as liberty. Aristotle dismissed both equality and liberty as the defining characteristic of the best state. Instead, for him it is “noble actions”. [8]
Consequently, Plato’s and Aristotle’s shared concern about America would not be limited to “gun rights”, but every instance of an individual right that served in the main to displace citizenship in favor of base self-interest. And there would be many. Too many to allow them to feel anything but profound disappointment with the next great democracy to arise after ancient Athens.
But, perhaps, they might then shrug and say something like “it is what it is”. For they each knew all too well how hard it can be to motivate a state to significantly reform its political order. And in America’s case their preferred recommendation would likely be rejected as unthinkable as it would in fact call for rethinking the U.S. Constitution as well as rewriting or just deleting the Bill of Rights (where the latter document, they would be curious to learn, was not thought by George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison to be such a good idea in the first place).
So if Plato and Aristotle accepted the American state “as is”, how might they yet hope to see it “working out” as a good and just political order? The most practical course for them, I think, would be to advocate that the political paradox they exposed be strictly incorporated into the American psyche, becoming a key part of the political dynamic that every person has to deal with as a member of society, especially in a pluralism. As the saying goes, one “wears many hats” throughout life. We each have calls upon our time from and owe personal loyalties to various “others” – as a child to one’s parents, as a parent to one’s child, as a spouse to one’s spouse, as a friend or neighbor to one’s friends or neighbors, as a Good Samaritan to strangers in need, as a supplicant to one’s religious faith, and as an employee to one’s employer (or vice versa).
Each of these relationships, and others, are species of our individualism and self-interests. Each by itself can result in interpersonal conflict, as where a marriage devolves into divorce or one’s neighbors play loud music. But as well each can come into conflict with one another and produce a wholly internal personal crisis, as where a spouse wants to divorce but as a parent does not want to divide the family.
What Plato and Aristotle could propose is for every American to “recommit” to our other fundamental identity as citizen. Because while we Americans most certainly do acknowledge ourselves as citizens, those instances are few and far between those where we are individuals first and foremost. We are citizens “first and foremost” really only in matters of voting, immigration, international relations, and war.
But Plato and Aristotle might propound that hereafter “we the people” must be juxtaposed with “we the citizens”. That would mean that for any politically-charged issue that concerns us Americans, we are now obliged to answer two questions – “What is in my personal best interests?” and “What is in my country’s or my fellow citizens’ best interests?” – and then determine which answer is the better guide to resolving the issue. In this way, Plato and Aristotle could hope that the American state would yet become, to some extent anyway, what they envisioned as the best society.
Some examples of this approach to present-day issues:
Voting. The individual would be inclined to vote as long as the process was not too inconvenient. The citizen would consider voting to be a moral imperative.
Open-Carrying of Guns. The individual would choose to do so as that is, at its best, an exercise of free expression and a warning to “the bad guy” to mind his manners. But the citizen would choose not to do so because it would project an offensive stance to everybody, spreading tension and uncertainty and thus doing much more social harm than any good, not to mention undermining public confidence in official law enforcement.
Syrian Refugees. The individual might well fear the prospect of refugees and thus the possibility of one or more would-be terrorists being allowed to live in the U.S., and would much prefer that that chance not be taken unless for each refugee absolute proof exists that he or she is no threat whatsoever. The citizen might well fear the chance of terrorism, too, and would want reasonable efforts made to screen refugees, but would otherwise accept the risk on the view that it is better to die living the life that exhibits the values one believes in than doing everything possible to “guarantee” a long life, including sacrificing some of those values, which would amount to a spiritual treason.
Capitalism. The individual would, ideally, like to acquire great wealth, and would not hesitate to embrace any promising opportunity, from entrepreneurship to investment, to accomplish that goal. The citizen would also like to acquire wealth, but would be wary of and tend to avoid financial opportunities that in the extreme could result in economic chaos, like recessions, or other national harms, like long-term environmental damage.
Politics. The individual may strongly prefer to communicate and associate only with those who agree with his political values. The citizen would prefer from time to time to put his political values “to the test” by engaging with those who hold different values; he also would never use political beliefs as a litmus test for friendship let alone a scale of human worth.
Whatever they might have thought about this application of their political visions, Plato and Aristotle would surely have agreed on a related final point. And indeed Wolin, too. That is that for anyone, whether as a speaker or writer or listener or reader, to engage in thoughtfulness requires significant time – time to comprehend, to reflect, to assess, and in the end to judge or decide. And the same is especially true in a democracy. Democracy depends on its citizens being able to “take their time” in deciding what is true or best. In this digital age, then, with online “communities” of all persuasions, flowing emails, on-the-fly tweets, and racing comments, it is unfortunate that more and more of our personal time is becoming ever shorter and more urgent. This abating of time is the new enemy of democracy. And of philosophy. So we individuals and citizens must muster the strength of purpose necessary to defend the time needed for us to reflect on what we should stand for and what we should do in order to be a good and just people in a good and just state.
1 Aristotle, Politics, Book VII, Chapter 8. [2] Plato, Republic, Book II. 372 A-374 E, 375 A-376 E; Aristotle, Politics, Book VII, Chapter 9. [3] Politics, ibid. [4] Republic, Book II. 376 E-Book III. 412 B. [5] Republic, Book II. 367 E-372 A. [6] Politics, Book I, Chapter 2. [7] Ibid. [8] Politics, Book III, Chapter 9. * * * Bruce K. Adler is a retired lawyer whose legal practice involved products liability, commercial law, civil liberties, and constitutional law. He remains active in community affairs and local planning. His academic interests include the philosophy of law, social and political philosophy, and the history and philosophy of science. He is fascinated by the “problems” of consciousness and free will. And he feels inspired to do some serious writing on at least law and its related topics.A recent survey by the Cornell University newspaper found that 96 percent of faculty political donations have gone to Democrats over the past four years.
Jesse Watters decided to visit the university to see what's behind that lack of political diversity among the school's faculty. Unfortunately, he soon found himself sideways with the university's media relations department.
Watch the Watters' World clip above and check out some of the highlights below.
Plus, be sure to keep up-to-date with Watters on Facebook and Twitter.
According to this report, 96 percent of political donations by the faculty here went to Democrats.
"What's wrong with that?"
Do you ever feel that the professors are pushing a political agenda?
"I've got friends who are liberal arts majors. They write a paper and they bring up a conservative viewpoint, they won't get a good grade."
Are Cornell professors pushing a political agenda?
"If I want an 'A,' I tailor my papers to how the professor leans."
Do the professors pass around doobies in class?
"Maybe that I don't know about."
Can I buy you a "Make America Great Again" hat?
"Absolutely not. You can't buy me anything." "Dinner?" "Ok, this got weird."
We ask that you do not interview students on campus.
"We have his permission. Cornell doesn't have a problem with Fox News, does it?" "Absolutely not."
Would you grant us permission to interview students if they grant us permission to do the interview?
"Not on campus at this time." "It says here you guys have the power to grant us permission to shoot on campus." "We do. I'm not."
Watch more above.
Watch more Watters' World:
Watters' World Columbus Day Edition: Did These People Sleep During History Class?!
WATCH: Watters' World Visits the 'Arabic Capital of North America'
'I Don't Think We're the Same Species': Watters Drops by a Tattoo Festival
Pope Jesus?! Watters Asks New Yorkers About the Holy Father's VisitGoPro is going to show off its Karma drone for the first time on September 19th, according to a short teaser video posted to the company’s Twitter account. The company has been very tight-lipped about Karma, having only released a few short sample clips that were shot using the drone.
We first learned that GoPro was making a quadcopter in May of 2015 at Code Conference, where CEO Nick Woodman called it “the ultimate GoPro accessory.” Back then, the company promised that the product — later revealed to be called Karma — would be released in the first half of 2016.
This past May, GoPro pushed that release date all the way back to winter of 2016. It now plans to release Karma alongside the Hero 5 — GoPro’s first flagship camera in two years — in time for the holidays.
It also seems like a good bet that the Hero 5 could be unveiled on the same day as Karma. In a piece published this week about GoPro’s expansion into making its own shows, Variety says that “GoPro is expected to officially unveil its next-generation consumer camera, dubbed the Hero 5, in the coming weeks.”A Moncton fourth-grader is in the running to have his 3D Google logo take over the Internet for a day.
Wesley Babin created a metal sculpture for the Doodle 4 Google contest that represents his vision for the country's future.
After submitting his piece titled "A Mechanical Canada," the nine-year-old is now one of 12 finalists from across Canada.
"I got the idea by just fidgeting with little metal pieces and after a while I just create stuff," he said. "I just found one little piece looked like a letter so I just made it a G or an O or all that."
Babin's mother Denise said they learned about the contest while watching Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel. She said her son already created little statues from pieces of scrap metal and old toys for three years. He always wanted to be an inventor, she said.
"He loves to think that way," she said. "If I had the choice to let him play with crazy glue, which is not the best toy in the world, or electronics, I'd rather him play with crazy glue because he's using his imagination."
Babin added that he wanted to create something that was more than just a pretty picture. So when his mom told him that he didn't have to draw a doodle, "I just went right upstairs and started building something," he said.
Nationwide competition
Babin's 3D version of the Google logo. (Doodle 4 Google)
The Doodle 4 Google contest is a nationwide competition that saw over 11,000 students from Kindergarten to Grade 12 share their vision for a chance to design a new Google logo. Canadians can vote for their favourite doodles before June 2.
The winner will have their artwork featured on Google.ca for a day and win a $10,000 university scholarship, as well as a $10,000 technology award for their school. The winners of each grade group also win a $5,000 technology award for their respective schools.
"What better way to celebrate our past 150 years than by looking at the next 150 years and asking students from coast to coast about what they think Canada's future will be like," said Maria Cortellucci with Google Canada.
She added that the judging panel was surprised to receive so many entries and thrilled with the quality of the art. Students of all ages explored various topics from co-existing peacefully with nature, to innovative and eco-friendly technology, she said.
"I think really for us what was really cool about this contest... is mixing that intersection between art and technology and really getting them thinking about what Canada's future would look like beyond flying robots and travelling to Mars," Cortellucci said.
"We really wanted to get them thinking about different ways that Canadians could evolve and our culture could evolve, so with technology and innovation, and also with multiculturalism and diversity."
Praise for Babin's design
Other sculptures Babin created were a metal scorpion and a robot. (Denise Babin)
While all the pieces of art impressed the team at Google, Cortellucci praised Babin for combining his passion with his imagination.
"He is one of the coolest kids I think I've ever had the pleasure of talking to," she said. "He basically built this 3D doodle that looks like a robot. We were completely blown away and really, really impressed by it."
Babin felt "extremely good" when he found out he was a finalist, he said. "I was amazed."
He added that his art symbolizes the technological advances he expects to see in Canada one day.
"I think there will be a lot of robots, but not saying they'll control everybody or stuff like that," he said.
He now wants to become an engineer and create machines that can help people walk again after being paralyzed, or solar panel windows that reduce electricity use.
"I just want to create stuff to help people," he said.MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump was aware of the criticism Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte had received over his controversial war on drugs, but praised him for doing a “great job” when they spoke, Duterte’s spokesman said on Tuesday.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte waits for the Southeast Asian leaders to arrive during the opening ceremony of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Manila, Philippines April 29, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro
Trump’s invitation to the Philippine leader to visit him at the White House unleashed a storm of criticism in Washington due to the scale of the bloodshed of Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, which has killed thousands of people over the past 10 months.
The White House defended the invitation made during a phone call on Saturday, acknowledging that though human rights were an important issue, Washington needed allies in Asia to address the global threat of North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.
Duterte’s spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said Trump was very much aware of the criticism of Duterte, but had praised him for “doing a great job considering the weight and the enormity of the conditions in the Philippines”.
It was not clear if Abella was quoting Trump as praising the anti-drugs campaign specifically, or Duterte’s performance as president in general.
“I’m sure he’s aware of all these considerations,” Abella added, referring to Trump.
“However, from his point of view, it seems like the president of the Philippines is doing a sensible job.”
Duterte has received widespread condemnation in the West for failure to curtail the killings and address activists’ allegations of systematic, state-sponsored murders by police of drug users and dealers, which the authorities reject.
Duterte has also received praise, however, for his handling of one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, and a policy agenda geared toward supporting farmers and small businesses, developing infrastructure and fighting poverty in a country where a fifth of the people live on less than $1 a day.
But critics said Trump had gone a step too far with an invitation that was tantamount to an endorsement of Duterte’s bloody approach to law and order.
Duterte is also known for his foul language in lambasting the United States on a near-daily basis for what he calls a history of hypocrisy. He last week called the New York Times “assholes” for its coverage of his anti-drugs campaign.
Ben Cardin, a ranking member of the foreign relations committee of the U.S. Senate, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the invitation, and said he would this week introduce bipartisan legislation to send a warning to Duterte, which would include a ban on arms sales to the Philippine police.
“This is a man who has boasted publicly about killing his own citizens,” Cardin said in a statement.
“Ignoring human rights will not advance U.S. interests in the Philippines or any place else. Just the opposite.”
Abella also reiterated that Duterte had acknowledged Trump’s invitation, but had not accepted it.
Although Trump gave no timeframe for the invitation, Duterte on Monday told reporters he could not commit because he might be “tied up” with other overseas trips.Maryland's new gun control law will not head to voters now that organizers of a petition drive to halt the law failed to turn in any signatures before Friday night's deadline.
"This means there were no successful petitions this year," Stephen Ackerman from the Secretary of State's Office said in an email.
A referendum would have delayed the gun law until after the November 2014 election, and the petition drive’s failure was welcomed by gun control groups.
"This is a great day for Maryland," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence. "We are thrilled that the new law will take effect as planned and we look forward to making it a model for the nation on how to prevent gun violence."
Yet a promised court challenge still looms from the National Rifle Association and other gun groups, a coalition that urged gun-rights supporters to avoid the petition and instead back legal action.
Maryland’s new law, proposed by Gov. Martin O’Malley and signed in May, is one of the most sweeping responses to the December Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting that killed 27 and sparked a nationwide push for tougher gun laws.
Under the law, the sale of 45 different types of assault rifles will be banned, as will sales of magazines that hold more than 10 bullets and handguns that only accept such larger magazines. Handgun buyers will need a new license that requires fingerprinting a background check in Maryland’s newly bolstered background check system. More people – particularly those considered dangerous from mental illnesses – would be barred from gun ownership, and gun owners could face criminal penalties for not reporting lost firearms to police.
Polls conducted in Maryland after Newtown showed support for major provisions of the law: 71 percent of voters favor limiting magazine capacity to 10 bullets, and 62 percent support an assault weapons ban.
A half-dozen gun groups and the NRA announced in April that they would not endorse a petition drive to challenge the law. They said the Second Amendment right to gun ownership should not be put to a public vote.
Instead, they said they would focus energy on the promised NRA-backed lawsuit and campaigns to unseat lawmakers who voted for gun control.
Outgoing NRA President David Keene said in an interview last week that NRA lawyers “are still not sure” when the organization would file suit challenging the constitutionality of Maryland’s ban on the sale of assault-style rifles, among other provisions. The NRA has endorsed lawsuits this year against new gun laws in New York and Colorado.
Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler issued a 25-page letter in early May outlining why Maryland’s new gun law is constitutional, laying the framework for the anticipated lawsuit.
Sue Payne, the Montgomery County woman leading the effort to petition the law to referendum did not respond to requests for comment. She told a radio show Saturday night that her group was about 1,000 signatures short of the 18,759 required. She said she found even more delivered to her P.O. box Saturday morning.
"We really gave it the best effort," Payne said in the radio interview. "Another day or two we could have done it."
Payne said that a group of Republican lawmakers deliberately discouraged people against signing it, and that those legislators would be targeted in the next election.
ecox@baltsun.com
twitter.com/ErinatTheSunSpeaking to investors in a Q&A session recently, Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima has admitted that he wants the new system to do as well as the Wii did:
"The truth is we want to raise the installed base of Nintendo Switch up to the same level as Wii. As we mentioned during our presentation, Nintendo Switch in America had the fastest start of any Nintendo hardware, despite launching in March. In the video game business, it’s important for consumers to feel that a sales momentum is going to grow, and we are setting a standard with Nintendo Switch to release a continuous string of major software titles from now on.
“And if our sales go according to our plan this fiscal year, we will be able to see Nintendo Switch gaining the momentum in which it can approach relative parity with Wii afterwards. Plus, considering that Nintendo Switch is a home console video game system that you can take with you on the go so you can play anytime, anywhere, with anyone, we think there will be households that feel as though one is not really enough. This is another point that drives us to match the scale of Wii’s popularity with Nintendo Switch.”
The Wii sold 102 million units during its lifetime, so the Switch definitely has a lot to live up to.
What do you think of Kimishima's comments? Is this expectation too unrealistic? Let us know in the comments below!SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China’s new film law, its first formal legislation for the fast-growing sector, will target fake box-office sales and look to ensure movies reflect the country in a positive light, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Monday.
The legislation, set to take effect in March next year, laid out harsh punishments for producers using box-office fraud to artificially pump up ticket sales - a practice which has in-part helped propel huge market growth over the past few years.
China has been cracking down on ticket fraud that many say is behind a marked slowdown in box-office sales, which dipped almost a quarter in October versus 2015, according to market research firm Entgroup.
Despite the slowdown, China is a magnet for Hollywood studios looking to tap into the country’s growing middle class, but who face various challenges from state scrutiny over content to a cap on the number of imported films.
The law, passed by the largely rubber-stamp parliament on Monday, said films should “serve the people and socialism”, Xinhua reported. Foreign film makers “damaging China’s national dignity, honor and interests, or harming social stability or hurting national feelings,” were not welcome, it added.
It also laid out stricter rules for actors and film makers, saying people employed in the industry should have “excellent” moral integrity and “self-discipline”, Xinhua said. This follows recent cases of celebrities caught taking drugs.
($1 = 6.7784 Chinese yuan renminbi)Meb Keflezighi has no free time and no space left on his resume. In between races, serving as the vice president of running for Competitor magazine, fulfilling daddy duty for his three daughters, and logging heavy miles for the 2015 Boston Marathon on April 20, he has found time to publish his second book.
Meb for Mortals, out Tuesday, is an inside peek at the training regimen of arguably the best marathoner in U.S. history. It follows Keflezighi’s incredible feat last year when, two weeks shy of his 39th birthday, he won the 2014 Boston Marathon.
A guy that old winning a major marathon was unprecedented. But the victory meant so much more because it had been 30 years since the last American man had won the race, and it was the first race since the shocking finish-line bombing the year before. When the city and country needed a hero, Meb gave us someone to believe in.
Outside got in touch with Keflezighi to talk about his new book and to learn how to run from a man who appears to have tapped into the fountain of youth.
OUTSIDE: So first things first, why another book?
KEFLEZIGHI: To be able to share my secrets of training—well, they’re not secrets, but how to get the best out of yourself—and to share my wisdom, and the things I’ve learned over the last 25 years of running. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to share the story.
That sounds almost retrospective, despite the fact you just won Boston last year. When you look back at what you’ve done, does the Boston Marathon win carry greater importance?
Most definitely. To be able to pull off the victory after the bombing, it was the most meaningful victory of my life.
Your competitors had pretty much written you off as a podium finisher. Then you made an early move in Boston, which many consider a reckless strategy. What were you thinking?
What a race is, whether it’s 13.1 miles or 26.2 miles: It’s point A to point B. How you do it is completely up to you. The 2013 New York Marathon was a tough one for me. I finished 23rd and my competitors thought, “He ran 2:23 in New York. He’s going to falter in Boston.” So they thought they were letting me go. But really they didn’t let me go. I made a conscious decision to go.
A lot of people have written off Ryan Hall in the same way they have written you off. You guys used to train together in Mammoth Lakes, California. What do you think his chances are of rebounding?
Life is through ups and downs, and athletics is through ups and downs. It’s about how you come out of it. Ryan has been going through a lot of bad patches. Obviously we know what he can do—his resume speaks for itself. The question is, how do you retrieve that greatness?
As you get older, you have to gain confidence as to what you’ve done and what you’re still willing to do. You have to be able to push. People can say whatever they want to say, but you have to believe that what you’re doing day-in and day-out is up to you. I hope Ryan comes around.
After so many years at the top of American distance running, do you feel you have a responsibility to younger runners in the country?
I feel I have to be an example. Shalane Flanagan just sent me an email asking about altitude training. I provided what worked for me and the progression of how I got to where I am. She’s taken that advice, and hopefully it can pay dividends for her when she runs in Boston. Others have sent me texts or emails about training. Twenty-six miles is a long way—may the best man win. But advice should always be provided. If you keep it to yourself, |
Apocalypse: The Holy War Against Family Planning (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina: Center for Research on Population and Security, 1986), and The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina: Center for Research on Population and Security, 1996).
The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy
By Stephen D. Mumford, DrPH
Paperback Publisher: Center for Research on Population and Security (October 1996)
Kindle Publisher: Church and State Press (February 6, 2015)
ASIN: B00TBR5AIK
Kindle Store
Professor Milton Siegel, who for 24 years was the Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaks to Dr. Stephen Mumford in 1992 to reveal that although there was a consensus that overpopulation was a grave public health threat and would be a major cause of preventable death not too far in the future, the Vatican successfully fought off the incorporation of family planning and birth control into official WHO policy. This video is available for public viewing for the first time. Read the full transcript of the interview here.
Lester R. Brown interview with Rob Stewart
Professor Paul Ehrlich: Can a collapse of global civilization be avoided?
Be sure to ‘like’ us on FacebookThe Battle of Clontarf (Irish: Cath Chluain Tarbh) was a battle that took place on 23 April 1014 by the River Tolka, from Clontarf inland, near the then-small Dublin. It pitted forces led by Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, against a Norse-Irish alliance comprising the forces of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, King of Dublin; Máel Mórda mac Murchada, King of Leinster; and an external Viking contingent led by Sigurd, of Orkney; and Brodir of Mann. It lasted from sunrise to sunset, and ended in a rout of the Viking and Leinster forces. It is estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 men were killed. Although Brian's forces were victorious, Brian himself was killed, as were his son Murchad and his grandson Toirdelbach. Leinster king Máel Mórda and Viking leaders Sigurd and Brodir were also slain.
After the battle, the Vikings and the Kingdom of Dublin were reduced to a secondary power. Brian's family was temporarily eclipsed, and there was no undisputed High King of Ireland until the late 12th century.[citation needed]
The battle was an important event in Irish history and is recorded in both Irish and Norse chronicles. In Ireland, the battle came to be seen as an event that freed the Irish from foreign domination, and Brian was hailed as a national hero. This view was especially popular during English rule in Ireland. Although the battle has come to be viewed in a more critical light, it still has a hold on the popular imagination.[2]
Background [ edit ]
Map of the larger Irish kingdoms in 1014
The Vikings (or Norsemen) began carrying out raids on Gaelic Ireland in the late eighth century, and over the following few decades they founded a number of settlements along the coast. Vikings first established themselves in Dublin in 838, when they built a fortified area, or longphort, there.[3] During the tenth century Viking Dublin developed into the Kingdom of Dublin—a thriving town and a large area of the surrounding countryside, whose rulers controlled extensive territories in the Irish Sea and, at one time, York.[4] Over time, many Vikings were assimilated into Gaelic society and became the Norse-Gaels. Dublin was closely involved in the affairs of the Kingdom of the Isles, which included the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, and when the Dublin king Amlaíb Cuarán was defeated by Máel Sechnaill mac Domnaill at the Battle of Tara in 980, he was supported by the men of the Isles.[5][6] Amlaíb's son, Sigtrygg Silkbeard, who was King of Dublin from 990, allied himself with his uncle Máel Mórda mac Murchada, King of Leinster. They met Máel Sechnaill and Brian Boru at the Battle of Glenmama in 999, where they were defeated.[7]
From the time of the seventh century and the reign of Domnall mac Áedo, the kingship of Tara was a title which was strongly associated with the high kingship of Ireland and was held by members of the Uí Néill dynasty, who controlled the northern half of Ireland.[8] In the tenth century, the Dál gCais, until then a small kingdom in what is now County Clare, began to expand. By the time of his death in 951, Cennétig mac Lorcáin had become King of Thomond. His son, Mathgamain mac Cennétig, was King of Munster when he died in 976.[9] Mathgamain's brother, Brian Boru, quickly asserted his claim to the kingship of Munster, then invaded Leinster and gained its submission.[10] In 998 he attacked the Uí Néill stronghold of Meath. Máel Sechnaill responded by attacking Munster in 999, and over the following years the two kings struggled for supremacy in Ireland. In 997, Brian and Máel Sechnaill met in Clonfert and reached an agreement where they recognised each other's reign over their respective halves of the country—Máel Sechnaill in the north and Brian in the south. Brian received the hostages of Leinster and Dublin from Máel Seachnaill, and surrendered the hostages of Connacht to him.[10] The peace was short-lived. After they had jointly defeated the Vikings at Glenmama, Brian resumed his attacks on Máel Seachnaill.[11] He marched on Tara in 1000 with the combined armies of Munster, Osraige, Leinster and Dublin, but after an advance party consisting of the latter two groups was destroyed by Máel Sechnaill, Brian Boru withdrew from the area without giving battle.[12] In 1002 he marched with the same army to Athlone, and took the hostages of Connacht and Meath. He was now the undisputed High King of Ireland.[13]
Revolt of Dublin and Leinster [ edit ]
Brian consolidated his hold on Ireland by eventually obtaining the submission of the northern territories of Cenél nEógain, Cenél Conaill and Ulaid, following a series of circuits of the northern part of the island. He completed the task when, following "a great hosting...by land and sea" into the Uí Néill territory of Cenél Conaill in 1011, the King was brought south to Dál gCais territory to submit to Brian Boru in person at his royal site of Cenn Corad.[14] It was not long, however, before fighting was renewed. Flaithbertach Ua Néill, King of the Cenél nEógain, resented the rise of Brian Boru. Had the old political order persisted, Flaithbertach would have been in line to succeed to the high-kingship. He attacked his Cenél Conaill neighbours in 1012 but, while doing so, Máel Seachnaill attacked the Cenél nEógain inauguration site of Tullahoge. Flaithbertach in turn raided Meath the following year and Máel Sechnaill was forced to back down.[15] Sigtrygg and Máel Mórda took advantage, and themselves raided Meath. Máel Sechnaill sent his army to raid the hinterland north of Dublin as far as Howth but he was defeated. He lost 200 men including his son Flann. Sigtrygg then sent a fleet along the coast to attack the Munster town of Cork, but that was defeated, and Sigtrygg's nephew was killed.[16] A full-scale conflict was inevitable. Brian brought his army to Leinster in 1013, and camped outside Dublin from September until the end of the year.[17]
Sigtrygg went overseas in search of Viking support and enlisted the help of Sigurd Hlodvirsson, the Earl of Orkney and Brodir, a warrior of the Isle of Man. According to the Icelandic Njáls saga, Sigtrygg promised both men the kingship of Ireland if they defeated Brian.[17] In early 1014, Sveinn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, had invaded and become the first Norse king of England.
The Viking fleets of Orkney and Mann sailed into Dublin in Holy Week 1014.[17] Brian mustered the army of Munster, which was joined by Máel Sechnaill and two Connacht kings, Mael Ruanaidh Ua hEidhin, King of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne, and Tadhg Ua Cellaigh, King of Uí Maine, and marched on Dublin.[18][19]
Battle [ edit ]
1. Clondalkin and Kilmainham were plundered, Brian's son Donnchad (Donough) sacked Leinster (1014); 2. Brian's forces began war, camped near Kilmainham; 3. Finegall and Howth were plundered; 4. Vikings left Dublin to engage Brian; 5. Overseas Viking fleet arrived; 6. Battle of Clontarf; 7. Retreat of Vikings, some drowned in the sea, some forced through Dubgall's Bridge and were attacked again, a few returned to Dublin; 8. Brodar's possible route, killed Brian and was killed himself; 9. Brian's remains to Swords, then to Armagh.
No order of battle is given in the contemporary sources; the only leaders named are those who died in the battle. The nearest contemporary accounts are the Annals of Inisfallen and the Annals of Ulster. Among the fallen on Brian's side, they name the High King himself, his son Murchad and his grandson Toirdelbach, as well as his nephew Conaing, Domnall mac Diarmata of Corcu Baiscind (County Clare), Mac Bethad mac Muiredaig of Ciarraige Luachra (County Kerry), Mael Ruanaidh Ua hEidhin of Uí Fiachrach Aidhne, and Tadhg Ua Cellaigh of Uí Maine (both in south Connacht).[20] On the opposing side are named Máel Morda, Dubgall mac Amlaíb (brother of Sigtrygg), Gilla Ciaráin mac Glún Iairn (probably a nephew of Sigtrygg), Sigurd Hlodvirsson of Orkney, and Brodir, commander of the Viking fleet.[21] No notables from Meath are recorded among the slain; leading to the suggestion that, if present, Máel Sechnaill kept himself and his forces out of harm's way. But the Annals of Ulster say that Máel Sechnaill and Brian rode together to Dublin, and the Annals of the Four Masters go so far as to say that it was Máel Sechnaill who won the day, and completed the rout after the death of Brian.[22] On the other hand, Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib ("The War of the Irish with the Foreigners"), says that the men of Meath came to the muster with Brian, but "were not faithful to him".[23]
According to the Cogad, after his arrival at Dublin, Brian sent his forces north across the river to plunder the area known as Fine Gall, and they torched the country as far as Howth. Brian, now in his seventies, did not go with them but stayed behind to pray. The Dublin forces set out by land, and were joined at Clontarf at high tide by the Viking fleet that was in Dublin Bay.[24]
The front line of the Dublin-Leinster forces were the foreign Vikings, led by Brodir, Sigurd and a man called Plait, described as "the bravest knight of all the foreigners".[25] Behind them were the men of Dublin, commanded by Dubgall mac Amlaíb and Gilla Ciaráin mac Glún Iairn. Behind them again came the Leinstermen, headed by Máel Mórda.[25] Sigtrygg remained in Dublin with enough men to defend it, should the battle go against them. He watched the battle from the walls with his wife Sláine, the daughter of Brian.[26]
At the front of Brian's forces were the Dál gCais, led by Brian's son Murchad, Murchad's fifteen-year-old son Toirdelbach, Brian's brother Cudulligh and Domnall mac Diarmata of Corcu Baiscind. Behind them were the other forces of Munster, commanded by Mothla mac Domnaill mic Fáeláin, King of the Déisi Muman, and Magnus mac Amchada, King of Uí Liatháin. Next came the Connachta, led by Mael Ruanaidh Ua hEidhin and Tadhg Ua Cellaigh. To one side of them were Brian's Viking allies; Fergal ua Ruairc, with the Uí Briúin and the Conmhaícne was placed on the left flank. After the Connachta came Máel Sechnaill and the men of Meath, but (the Cogad says) he had made an agreement with the men of Dublin that if he would not attack them, they would not attack him.[27]
The battle opened with Plait taunting Domnall mac Eimin, a Scottish ally of Brian. The two men marched out into the middle of the field and fought, and both died, "with the sword of each through the heart of the other, and the hair of each in the clenched hand of the other."[27]
Then the battle proper got under way. It is described in the Cogad as remarkably loud and bloody. The men of Connacht fought the men of Dublin, and the fighting was so fierce that only 100 Connachtmen and twenty Dublinmen survived. The last casualties occurred at "Dubgall's Bridge", which Seán Duffy suggests was a bridge over the River Tolka, on the road back to Dublin.[28] Brian's son Murchad, at the head of the Dál gCais army, took on the foreign Vikings and, according to the Cogad, he himself killed 100 of the enemy—fifty with the sword in his right hand and fifty with the sword in his left.[29] The Vikings wore mail; the Irish did not. Yet the Irish gained the advantage, partly through the use of small spears, which they hurled at the enemy, and partly through numerical superiority.[30]
The battle, which had begun at first light, lasted all day. Eventually, the Dublin-Leinster forces broke, and some withdrew towards their ships, while others made for a nearby wood. However, the tide had come in again, cutting off the passage to the wood, but also carrying off the Viking ships. With no way out, they were killed in large numbers, many of them by drowning.[31] Samuel Haughton, in 1860, calculated that the tide at Clontarf would have been high at 5:30 am and again at 5:55 pm, which is consistent with the account in the Cogad.[32] It was at this point that Brian's grandson Toirdelbach was killed. He pursued the enemy into the sea, but was hit by a wave and thrown up against the weir, and drowned.[33] Murchad killed Sigurd, the earl of Orkney, but shortly afterwards he himself was killed.[33] Brian was in his tent praying when Brodir found him, and killed him. Brodir himself was then killed,[34] possibly by Ulf the Quarrelsome.
Aftermath [ edit ]
Viking re-enactors from all over the world at the Battle of Clontarf millennium commemoration in Saint Anne's Park, Dublin (lining up before charging at the opposition). April 19th, 2014.
Brian's body was brought to Swords, north of Dublin. There it was met by the coarb of Patrick, the traditional head of the church in Ireland, who brought the body back with him to Armagh, where it was interred after twelve days of mourning. Along with Brian were the body of Murchad and the heads of Conaing, Brian's nephew, and Mothla, King of the Déisi Muman.[35] Máel Sechnaill was restored as High King of Ireland, and remained secure in his position until his death in 1022.[36]
Though the Annals imply that life was not much changed after the death of Brian Boru, it created a succession crisis, as Brian's son and heir Murchad had died as well. Brian had two remaining sons who could challenge for the kingship: Donnchad mac Briain, his son with Gormflaith and Tadc mac Briain, his son with Echrad. According to the annals, Donnchad rallied the forces of the Dál gCais at Clontarf and led them home to Cenn Corad.[37]
Within weeks the Dál gCais, under the new leadership of Donnchad, were battling their old masters the Eóganacht Raithlind. Tadc initially joined his brother against the Eóganacht, but would eventually be killed in 1023 at the order of Donnchad.[37]
Sigtrygg remained King of Dublin until 1036, and was apparently secure enough to go on pilgrimage to Rome in 1028.[38] However, after Clontarf, Dublin had been reduced to a lesser power. In 1052, Diarmait mac Máel na mBó, King of Leinster, captured Dublin and Fine Gall, for the first time asserting Irish overlordship over the Norse of Ireland.[39]
Historical debate [ edit ]
In modern times there has been a long-running debate among historians, which is now 250 years old, about Ireland's Viking age and the Battle of Clontarf. The standard view, and the "popular" view, is that the battle ended a war between the Irish and Vikings by which Brian Boru broke Viking power in Ireland. However revisionist historians see it as an Irish civil war in which Brian Boru's Munster and its allies defeated Leinster and Dublin, and that there were Vikings fighting on both sides.[40][41] In January 2018 researchers from the Universities of Coventry, Oxford and Sheffield, led by Coventry University theoretical physicist Professor Ralph Kenna, published a paper[42] in the journal Royal Society Open Science, that used network science to mathematically analyse a medieval text, Cogadh Gáedhel re Gallaibh (The War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill, meaning invasions of Ireland by the Danes and other Norsemen), that listed over 1000 relationships between about 300 characters, and concluded that the standard and popular view was broadly correct, but that the picture was nevertheless more complex than "a fully 'clear-cut' Irish versus Viking conflict".[40][41] However one of the paper's co-authors,[42] PhD student Joseph Yose, added that “Our statistical analysis... cannot decisively resolve the debate".[41]
See also [ edit ]A bill introduced into Congress this month would end U.S. membership in the United Nations.
According to WMAZ, the American Sovereignty Restoration Act (H.R. 193), sponsored by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., would also end the 1947 agreement that houses the U.N. headquarters in New York City, end U.S. funding for U.N. peacekeeping operations and end U.S. participation in the World Health Organization, among other measures.
If the bill should pass, it would go into effect two years after being signed.
H.R. 193 is separate from legislation introduced last month by Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that would halt U.S. funding to the U.N. until the Security Council repeals its resolution that called Israel’s building of settlements in disputed areas a violation of international law.
No matter what its ideals were when it was founded, the United Nations for most of its history has been largely anti-democratic, anti-Western and anti-liberty. The anti-Israel Security Council resolution that passed in December with the acquiescence of the Obama administration is just the latest example.
Moreover, the U.S. gives the organization billions of dollars a year and gets very little in return. In fact, the U.S. would likely get more out of the U.N. if it converted its Manhattan headquarters into condominiums, as commentator Charles Krauthammer jokingly suggested on Fox News last month.
While Krauthammer was kidding, the idea highlights just how much, or how little, the U.N. does for the U.S.
After the Security Council vote, then President-elect Donald Trump indicated that things would be different with the U.N. after he took office, and that’s good news.
As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2016
The idea of the U.S. withdrawing from the U.N. will no doubt send liberals into hysterics, but we are learning that is generally an indicator of a good idea.
In this case, it’s a great idea. The sooner we can free ourselves from the U.N., the better. Like us on Facebook – USA Liberty News Share this story on Facebook and Twitter and let us know if you think the U.S. should leave the U.N.
What do you think of this legislation? Scroll down to comment below!
Source: conservativetribune.com
H/T KSDKEnder Inciarte flexed some muscle and hit the ground running against the Colorado Rockies.
In Thursday's 10-4 victory at Coors Field, the Atlanta Braves outfielder cracked a pair of home runs while also stealing two bases. In doing so, Inciarte became only the seventh player to do it since the year 2000.
2 HR, 2 SB games since 2000:@enderinciartem (Today)
Phillips, Machado (‘15)
Spilborghs (‘09)
Chris Duffy (‘06)
Furcal (‘05)
Beltran (‘04) pic.twitter.com/RSBMNEm4o2 — MLB Stat of the Day (@MLBStatoftheDay) August 17, 2017
That's some pretty solid - and, in the case of Duffy and Spilborghs, surprising - company there.
Acquired alongside shortstop Dansby Swanson and pitcher Aaron Blair from the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2015, Inciarte has been one of the team's best batters since.
Having already showcased a consistent ability to hit around.300, he's added a little pop in his bat in 2017. With his performance Thursday, the 26-year-old is batting.300/.346/.408 with 10 home runs and 17 stolen bases.
Inciarte was perhaps making up for lost time, as he had only registered one long ball over 29 games since the All-Star break. The two-hit affair also extended his modest hitting streak to six games.Argentina's senate has approved the forced takeover of the country's biggest oil company, underscoring broad domestic support that has caused outrage among foreign investors.
The expropriation bill passed easily in the elected body after midnight on Thursday morning, with 63 senators voting in favour of the expropriation, only three voting against the bill and four abstentions.
The early morning vote was held after a marathon debate that started around midday on Wednesday.
The bill now has a clear path for likely approval by the country's lower house sometime next week.
President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who is allied with both houses of congress, unveiled plans last week to seize a 51 per cent stake of YPF from Spain's Repsol.
Kirchner accused Repsol of draining YPF since gaining control in the 1990s, under-investing in its oil and gas fields and failing to keep pace with the needs of Argentina's growing economy even as it paid huge dividends to shareholders.
Repsol blames Argentina's ever-changing mix of subsidies, price caps and export taxes for depressing production as the country's demand for energy soared since 2003, when her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, came to power.
Only two months ago, Repsol YPF upped its estimate for the shale oil and gas it found in Argentina to nearly 23 billion barrels, enough to double the country's output in a decade.
But the Spanish company said it would cost $25bn a year to develop, and warned that Argentina would need to overhaul its energy policy to attract the necessary investment.
Hugely popular decision
Taking back Argentina's largest company from Spain's biggest company has proven hugely popular in the South American country, despite threats of retaliation from the Europe Union and fears of unintended consequences in the years ahead.
Most Argentines support the move to renationalise YPF, which was privatised in the 1990's after 70 years under full state control.
Many blame the privatisations and other free-market reforms of that decade for provoking Argentina's 2001/02 financial meltdown.
The senate session started late morning Wednesday and was continuing 14 hours later as 62 of the Senate's 72 members asked to speak about the proposal.
"The government's bill doesn't reflect a capricious or random decision," Marcelo Fuentes, a ruling party senator, said during the debate.
"It's a logical result stemming from the need to reverse free-market thinking in energy policy."
Once the takeover becomes law, attention will turn to the compensation Argentina will pay Repsol for its majority stake in YPF.
Officials have already said it will be far lower than the $9.3bn the company has requested.
But by re-nationalizing YPF - and not paying Repsol until international courts resolve the case years from now, if ever - Argentina can reinvest profits to develop new reserves and use the fuel Repsol was exporting to save consumers from price shocks as it weans them off the subsidies.Expansion must include new protected bike lanes, respondents say in TransAlt survey
Citi Bike should expand to more neighborhoods and become a five-borough bike share system, New Yorkers say overwhelmingly in a new public opinion survey.
In the poll of nearly 900 likely voters conducted by Penn Schoen Berland Research and commissioned by Transportation Alternatives, nearly three quarters of respondents say they support bringing Citi Bike to more neighborhoods -- in all five boroughs.
“Citi Bike has been a big success everywhere it’s been rolled out, but most New Yorkers still don’t have bike share in their communities,” said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of the bike and street safety advocacy group Transportation Alternatives. “Now that Citi Bike has become firmly established as part of the city’s transportation system, it’s essential that we guarantee access for every New Yorker, and that we invest more in street redesigns, so our network of protected bike lanes will keep pace with the expansion of bike share."
Significant majorities of New Yorkers polled agree that street safety improvements need to keep pace with the growth of Citi Bike. 69 percent of likely voters citywide think the expansion of bike share should include the addition of protected bike lanes. Support is especially high among respondents under 35 (77 percent were in favor of adding protected bike lanes) and women (72 percent in favor), along with respondents who identified as Latino (73 percent support for new lanes) and Black (70 percent in favor).
"These poll numbers make it clear that the growth of Citi Bike and our lifesaving network of protected bike lanes is an equity issue,” White said. “We renew our call on Mayor de Blasio, the City Council and Citi Bike operator Motivate to make a public investment in station expansion and membership options for all low-income New Yorkers.”
Penn Schoen Berland conducted live telephone interviews from November 16-28, 2016 among 880 New York City likely voters, with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent.
In the coming weeks, Transportation Alternatives will be releasing more responses from the Penn Schoen Berland poll, which examines New Yorkers’ views on a wide range of street safety issues, including Vision Zero street redesign elements like protected bike lanes, and traffic enforcement tools like speed safety cameras.First of all, a big thank you to all of you who checked out my post last week and gave feedback! I had no idea that so many other programming languages used dynamic typing – I always thought it was just GML which did that. Oh well, the more you know. The funny thing about GML in general is that it seems to be a big mish-mash of lots of different programming languages, and as such it’s a little tricky to categorize and explain at times, but anyway.
Last Screenshot Saturday, I posted this screenshot on my Twitter:
Notice that pretty, colourful text in the textbox. For many gamers, this seems like a staple of RPG textbox systems. But in terms of game development, getting this to work can be really quite difficult, and I was very happy I finally got this up and running. So this week, I thought I’d share the strategy I used to make this (eventually) work.
Starting From Scratch
Part of the problem is with the way good old GameMaker: Studio works. Essentially, GM:S gives you the bare bones needed to make a game – things like sprites, sounds, fonts and so on. But anything beyond that is up to you to design and implement – including things like textbox systems, RPG movement, battle systems, and so on.
In one way, that’s actually a really good thing. It gives game developers a lot of flexibility as to how they design their games: not being automatically lumped into a single style by a bunch of templates. But on the other hand, building almost everything from the ground-up can get tedious and complex – as well as making sure all these custom-made elements of your game work together properly.
So without further ado – keeping in mind that we’re building a textbox system totally from scratch – here’s the problem in a nutshell…
The Problem
Obviously a textbox has to have certain functions, like displaying text, showing different texts, and so on. Which means we need to think up some general implementation strategies for making these work. For example:
Displaying text and a background. Well, that’s easy in GM:S. Just get the textbox object to draw the current text string and a background. Easy.
Well, that’s easy in GM:S. Just get the textbox object to draw the current text string and a background. Easy. Displaying the text incrementally – in other words, that scrolling text effect you see in most RPGs, where the letters are revealed sequentially. Again, easy. Just set a variable for the number of characters to show, which increments every step of the game.
– in other words, that scrolling text effect you see in most RPGs, where the letters are revealed sequentially. Again, easy. Just set a variable for the number of characters to show, which increments every step of the game. Advancing to the next text. Store the list of texts to reveal in an array or data structure, then once one text finishes, when the player presses a key start displaying the next one. Done – next.
Store the list of texts to reveal in an array or data structure, then once one text finishes, when the player presses a key start displaying the next one. Done – next. Pauses, slow text, and other fancy effects. Hmm, this seems a bit tricky… how about having an annotated text system, where the text string going into the textbox has certain “keys” to tell the textbox when to do what? Then, when the textbox is revealing text and recognizes a key, just perform the action at that point and delete the key from the text (so the player doesn’t see it)!
Hmm, this seems a bit tricky… how about having an annotated text system, where the text string going into the textbox has certain “keys” to tell the textbox when to do what? Then, when the textbox is revealing text and recognizes a key, just perform the action at that point and delete the key from the text (so the player doesn’t see it)! Mugshots. These need to zoom in and out, and change expression when need be. Again, a bit tricky. You could either get the textbox object to just draw the mugshot as well as the text – or you could make a separate mugshot object which interacts with the textbox. (I went for the latter option.)
These need to zoom in and out, and change expression when need be. Again, a bit tricky. You could either get the textbox object to just draw the mugshot as well as the text – or you could make a separate mugshot object which interacts with the textbox. (I went for the latter option.) Coloured text. This isn’t just a case of colouring the whole string of text at once. This is a case of colouring specific sections of text in the overall string, while keeping the rest the default colour. Oh, and it should also permit different colours to be drawn in the same bunch of text, if need be.
The reason why this one’s so difficult is because it actually impacts on the very first requirement – how the text is displayed in the first place! GM:S has a simple draw_text function, which most people would use to draw the entire text string all in one go. But the draw_text function can only draw a string in a single colour. That means that if we’re going to draw a single string in different colours, we’ll need to call the draw_text function more than once. But how?
Let’s consider, for example, how we might go about drawing this text, formatted as shown:
The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog.
There are two main strategies I’ve found for doing this…
Option 1: The Indent Method
This basically involves drawing segments of normal and coloured text separately, by calling separate draw_text functions for each segment. This means that each new segment has to be indented by the right amount to ensure it’s drawn in the right place. (It’s the system used in this GameMaker textbox engine.)
This method still has some problems, though. For example, we’d have to calculate the physical length by which each segment needs to be indented. For monospace fonts that’s easy – it’s just the number of characters times the width of each character – but for a non-monospaced font like I’m using in Ambience, that’s not so simple. Using this method also means you’d have to keep track of where the new lines are, to ensure the correct indentation length is used. (We want the word “over” to be indented by the length of the word “jumps”, not by the length of “The quick brown fox jumps”.)
Also, dealing with new lines could present a problem – for example, if the sentence continued after “the lazy dog”, how would we make sure the new line didn’t align with the start of that segment, but rather the edge of the textbox? We could make each line its own segment, then draw the segments with the correct alignment, but that still seems a little fiddly. Or, we could continue that theme and keep splitting the text into finer and finer segments until we get…
Option 2: The “Every Letter” Method
This is the more “brute-force” method of the two – it involves drawing each letter individually, with its own colour. (From what I can gather, it’s used in Undertale‘s textbox system.) Effectively, each segment is now only one character long, and can be any colour it likes.
At first glance, that makes things much easier – no more worrying about where the coloured text is, or the position of indents, or the printed length of multi-character segments! However, this method is, as you can probably imagine, a bit more CPU-intensive. In particular, it involves using a “for” loop (to cycle through and draw each printed character) in GM:S’s Draw event, which isn’t optimized to deal with that kind of computational load.
Also, multi-line text still isn’t just drawn “as-is”, but needs to be dealt with manually to ensure all the characters aren’t just drawn on one line. New lines also need to be added automatically, without the need for a new line symbol.
The Solution:
I went with the second option, mostly because I didn’t want to deal with the potential problems that indents might also cause for multi-line text. In particular, if push came to shove and I couldn’t find a way of dealing with pesky multi-line text, I really didn’t want to have to go through all my writing and change the formatting – for example, by adding new-line characters in each and every place where a new line was required. It also meant I could make use of the “annotated text system” I talked about earlier to easily control text colours.
To deal with the “new line” problem, I modified the text annotation system (which monitors the text as it’s being revealed) and made it add a new line character “#” whenever it detected the next word would run over the end of the textbox. These new line symbols were then detected by the text drawer, which incremented the drawing y-coordinate each time a symbol was detected (that still had to be done manually, unfortunately).
Some preliminary testing in a few different areas worked fine, and despite what I thought might happen, there was pretty much no observable decrease in performance. Looks good!… for now. Like many of these things, we’ll have to see how it works out long-term.A statue of The Thing from Josh Trank's upcoming Fantastic Four reboot has been spotted, and if his appearance here is anything to go by, the character won't be wearing any pants in the movie! Click on to check it out, and don't worry - there's nothing to see... there!
FANTASTIC FOUR, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended |
and should be rejected. Cohen (1977)[2] recommends using power equal to 0.80 or 80%, for a β = 0.20.
The sample size or number of cases required is reported for two standard levels of statistical significance (α = 0.01 or 0.05). The value of α is the probability of making a Type I error. A Type I error is rejecting the statistical null hypothesis (i.e., claiming that either ρ or δ is zero), when in fact it is true (the value is zero) in the population and should not be rejected. The most commonly used values of α are 0.05 or 0.01.
To find the sample size requirements for a given statistical analysis, estimate the effect size expected in the population (ρ or δ) on the left hand axis, select the desired level of power on the right hand axis, and draw a line between the two values.
Where the line intersects with either the α = 0.05 or α = 0.01 middle axis will indicate the sample size required to achieve statistical significance of α less than 0.05 or 0.01, respectively (for the previously given parameters).
For instance, if one estimates the population correlation (ρ) to be 0.30, and desires statistical power equal to 0.80, then to obtain a significance level of α less than 0.05, the sample size requirement would be N = 70 cases rounded up (more precisely approximately 68 cases using interpolation).
Other quick nomograms [ edit ]
Nomogram for the Law of sines
Nomogram for solving the quadratric x^2+px+q=0
Nomogram for solving the cubic x^3+px+q=0
Using a ruler, one can readily read the missing term of the Law of sines or the roots of the Quadratic- and Cubic- equation.[3]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Two top Clinton aides, Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan, will appear before the House Select Committee on Benghazi next month, but when will the committee interview several other top Obama administration officials and Clinton allies?
House Benghazi Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., described how the committee intends to finish its work before the calendar year 2015 ends, in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner. Gowdy discussed his desire to interview key Obama and Clinton operatives, including former State Department deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, State Department undersecretary for management Patrick Kennedy, and State Department chief of staff Jon Finer. He also indicated his frustration at the lack of information former State Department policy planning director Jake Sullivan has produced.
Sullivan now serves as a top foreign policy adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Abedin is a top aide and confidant of Clinton, and Kennedy and Finer remain at the State Department.
Gowdy said he wants all of the documents relating to these individuals before interviewing them, but continues to face an uphill battle.
"What can I do to make the Department of State produce Jake Sullivan's emails to me? I've asked. I've sent a subpoena. I don't know what else I can do. I can't send the FBI to get him," Gowdy said. "I have a freshman in college who could go pull up all of her emails and have them printed off by this afternoon. I don't know what takes so long, but it's been months and months and months. And we still don't have all the documents we've asked for."
Sullivan will appear before the committee during the first week of September, as the Examiner previously reported. The committee expects to interview Clinton on Oct. 22, and her right hand woman, Abedin, should come soon too.
"When is Huma? I know for a fact that Dana is negotiating that date with her attorney [right now] and with respect to Patrick Kennedy, he would be towards the end of the folks that we wanted to interview in a natural chronology," Gowdy said. "My goal is still to have this investigation completed before the end of 2015. So the best answer I can give you is before the end of 2015."
Dana is Lt. Gen. Dana K. Chipman, who Roll Call profiled as the senior military lawyer for the Army for four years as judge advocate general at the Pentagon.
Gowdy said Finer, Kerry's chief of staff, will appear "sooner rather than later," and Finer's intransigence has worn on Gowdy's patience.
"Very few things make me mad with impatience, but listening to House Democrats complain about the pace of the investigation while Jon Finer and others refuse to give me documents is one of those things," he said. "So they're going to have to pick their complaint. You can't complain about the pace of an investigation when your Democrat executive branch entities are the sole reason you're going at a slower pace than you want."
Gowdy emphasized that his committee's work has much to do beyond meeting with Clinton in October. He said the committee has interviewed 40 people, many of whom had never spoken with other committees investigating the facts surrounding Benghazi, and that "probably 50" interviews remain yet to be completed. The House formed the Benghazi Committee in May 2014, with the support of seven Democratic members and 225 Republican representatives.
UPDATE: Alec Gerlach, State Department spokesman, issued the following statement in response to Gowdy:
"Claims that we have been slow to respond to the increasing demands of the Benghazi Select Committee are neither true nor reflective of the effort being expended by an entire team of professionals at the State Department. Since April, the Department has produced more than 24,000 pages of documents to the Benghazi Committee, bringing to 66,000 pages the total produced to the committee since it was formed. The Department has also made 31 witnesses available to the committee for interviews, including five this month. We will continue to respond to the Benghazi Committee's requests, but as they mount and modify over time, so too must we plan accordingly for the time and resources they consume."Who will be the Dak Prescott of the 2017 NFL Draft?
The Dallas Cowboys made easily the best selection of the 2016 NFL Draft when they landed quarterback Dak Prescott in the fourth-round (135th overall). Prescott has come in and become an over-night sensation for the Cowboys, leading them to a dominant 11-1 record. Prescott is a major reason for the Cowboys’ 2016 success and is undoubtedly a major threat to take home the NFL MVP award as a rookie quarterback. Last season, when the Cowboys lost Tony Romo to injury, their season was over. This year, their season got better.
Romo is undoubtedly a high-level NFL quarterback, but Prescott has immediately taken the league by storm. He is an incredibly gifted player who rarely makes a bad decision on the football field. Nobody really saw this coming, but the Cowboys could not be happier about their selection.
Who will be the next Dak Prescott? That is obviously not an easy question to answer. Prescott has come in and is playing better than any fourth-round rookie quarterback who we have seen before. Expecting someone to repeat that success next year would be foolish. Moreover, he’s a player who came into a fantastic situation.
That being said, there is always potential value at the position. Expecting any of these guys to be league MVP candidates next season would be crazy, but I think there is some nice under-valued talent at the quarterback position in the 2017 NFL Draft.
As Prescott has shown us this season, anything can happen. Here are five quarterbacks in the 2017 NFL Draft who will likely go in the middle-to-late rounds and could potentially have a Prescott-like impact.The 'app slicing' feature in iOS 9 that enabled developers to send optimally-sized variants of their apps to different devices is unavailable because of a bug in iCloud, Apple's cloud service for its devices.
Slicing is one of three components of Apple's app-thinning process that enables developers to install iOS apps by matching app delivery to the capabilities of the user’s particular device, with a resultant smaller footprint.
App variants created by slicing the app contain only the executable architecture and resources that the target device needs. Thus code designed for devices running 64-bit processors would not download to those running 32-bit processors. Image resources are also sliced by their resolution and device family.
The slicing feature for iOS is supported on the latest iTunes and on devices running iOS 9.0 and later, according to an Apple developer page. Otherwise, the App Store delivers universal apps to customers.
But on Thursday, Apple informed developers that app slicing is currently not available for iOS 9 apps because of an issue affecting iCloud backups created from iOS 9 where some apps from the App Store would only restore to the same model of iOS device.
"When a customer downloads your iOS 9 app, they will get the Universal version of your app, rather than the variant specific for their device type," it told developers.
Apple informed developers that app slicing will be re-enabled with a future software update. Apple's testing platform for developers, called TestFlight, will continue to deliver variants for internal testers.
The company rolled out iOS 9 about a week ago.In 2016, a bright yellow robot began moving up and down the Great Barrier Reef, hunting down a particular type of starfish and moving in for the kill: After the robot injects the animal with poison, it dies within a day.
The starfish feeds on coral, and even though the animal is native to the reef, an out-of-control population has made it a threat to the reef’s survival. In theory, the robot, which is still in development but has been successful in pilot tests, can help solve the problem. It’s one example a growing number of bots designed to reshape ecology.
An upcoming journal article asks how automation might ultimately go further: A “wildness creator” might create and maintain “wild” places without any human intervention.
[Photo: bennymarty/iStock]
“We focused on this idea of wildness because it seems like it’s an interesting way of, in a way, poking back at what we think nature is,” Bradley Cantrell, an associate professor of landscape architectural technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design and TED fellow, who worked on the research with ecologist Erle Ellis and environmental historian Laura Martin, tells Co.Exist. “Could there be wildness that’s highly managed through technology?”
Because of the scale of human impacts on ecology–from building cities and razing forests for agriculture to pollution and climate change–ecological restoration and conservation is also becoming increasingly difficult to manage. Automation might help.
The paper looks at several examples of semi-autonomous ecological projects that are already happening or in development. One startup is using drones to replant trees at rates faster than humans could. A “virtual fence” along Australian roads automatically warns wildlife when a car is coming. MIT is developing swarming robots that could clean up oil spills.
Other projects are using technology to monitor wilderness and human impacts; drones can detect early-stage wildfires, track wildlife populations or pollution, or catch poachers. Satellites can track illegal fishing boats and illegal deforestation.Los Angeles (CNN) -- A California judge ruled Friday that a woman who suffered severe brain damage during the birth of her triplets must be granted visitation rights to see them.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Frederick C. Shaller rejected the contention of Abbie Dorn's former husband that it is not in his children's best interest to see their "unfit" mother now.
Shaller said in his temporary order that Dorn, who lives with her parents in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, must be able to see the triplets, who turn 5 in June, over five consecutive days each summer. The order also provides for a monthly online visit via Skype.
"This is a precedent-setting case," said attorney Lisa Helfend Meyer, who represented Dorn's parents. "This is only a win-win for everybody."
The ruling is technically considered temporary, pending a full trial in the case.
Abbie Dorn suffered severe brain damage during childbirth in 2006.
Her parents and former husband, Daniel Dorn, become locked in a legal battle over whether Abbie is capable of interacting with her children, and whether they should visit her.
Daniel Dorn stated in court documents he wants the children to see their mother when they are older, perhaps 6 or 7 -- if he receives medical evidence that she will be able to communicate with them.
But Shaller ruled Friday that Abbie Dorn poses no threat to the children and smiles at times.
After a visit the children made to South Carolina, Daniel Dorn gave them a photo of their mother.
"They held onto the photograph for a prolonged time," the judge wrote. "It appears that even though the children were with their mother only a short period of time, they bonded with her."
Abbie Dorn had contact with triplets Esti, Reuvi and Yossi in December 2010. They visited her a total of four times that week. Before that week, she was last with them in October 2007.
Paul and Susan Cohen, a physician and former nurse, are conservators of Abbie Dorn's estate and care for their daughter full time at their home in South Carolina.
Susan Cohen told CNN last year that her daughter has made considerable progress after intensive rehabilitation and now communicates by blinking her eyes.
"One slow blink means 'yes.' No response means 'no,'" said Cohen, adding that her daughter smiled Friday when hearing the judge's decision.
Daniel Dorn, who lives in Los Angeles with the children, maintains that his former wife remains in a vegetative state. She is more than physically disabled, he contended in court papers, she is "neurologically incapacitated" and legally incompetent to make decisions involving her children.
Visiting brain-damaged mom: A collision of instincts
Shaller ruled that Daniel Dorn be granted sole custody of the triplets and must be present during the visits. The former husband also must place photographs of Abbie in his home so that the children can see them, the judge ruled.
"The court finds that even though Abbie cannot interact with the children, the children can interact with Abbie -- and that the interaction is beneficial for the children," Shaller ruled. "They can touch her, see her, bond with her, and can carry these memories with them."
With his wife's parents overseeing her medical care, Daniel Dorn found himself a young father raising triplets. He believed Abbie's prospects of recovery were faint. One year to the day after the triplets were born, he notified the Cohens that he was ready to move on.
"I still love Abbie very much, but I am trying to move on and have been and will continue to parent our children, who are happy and are thriving," Dorn told CNN in an e-mail last year.
At Dorn's request, the Cohens initiated divorce proceedings on Abbie's behalf. The divorce was finalized in the fall of 2008.
CNN's Stan Wilson contributed to this report.SHIVAMOGGA/BENGALURU: Politics over beef plumbed new depths on Tuesday when a BJP functionary from Shivamogga threatened to “behead” Karnataka’s Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah and “play football with his severed head” if he ate cow meat. S N Channabasappa, Shivamogga BJP secretary and a former municipal councilor, was promptly arrested.He made the remarks on Monday in reaction to the CM’s statement that no one can stop him “from eating beef, pork or any other meat”. A red-faced BJP sought to play down his statement saying Channabasappa was an “inconsequential” figure. Instead, it targeted Siddaramaiah for “endorsing” beef-eating.Channabasappa was arrested following complaints by Shivamogga Congress chief R Prasanna Kumar and youth wing chief K Ranganath. Doddapet police arrested Channabasappa and charged him under sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC.Channabasappa had made the statement at a protest organized by BJP on Monday night daring Siddaramaiah to come to Shivamogga and eat beef. “I will behead him and play football with his severed head,” he had threatened.BJP state chief and Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi said, “BJP condemns the statement made by our leader from Shivamogga. We also condemn the CM’s provocative statement. Statements from people like Channabasappa are deplorable and the party disowns such utterances. That said, the CM’s public statement of planning to eat beef or pork is also condemnable. It has hurt the feelings of lakhs of people.”A week ago, Siddaramaiah had said no one can stop him from eating beef, pork or any other meat. “Till date, I have not eaten beef. If it suits me, I’ll do so. Nobody can stop me. I am not one to be cowed down by BJP’s protests,” he had said.On Tuesday, the CM stood by his statement. “I have not seen the video (of Channabasappa making the statement). If he has said this, I will mull legal proceedings,” Siddaramaiah said. “I never said I eat beef or pork. I have never eaten till now. I had said no one can stop me if I want to eat meat.”Siddaramaiah accused the BJP of attempting to rake up communal tension through such issues.City BJP chief M Shankar questioned the CM’s statement. “If Siddaramaiah starts eating beef, then other Congress leaders will start consuming dogs, rats and other animals to please their leader. Don’t allow these Congress leaders to enter your house for committing this unpardonable sin,” he said. No complaint was filed against him.Asked if Channabasappa’s statement ran counter to Union minister Arun Jaitley’s statement that there was no intolerance in the country, Prahlad Joshi said, “If that’s the case, the CM’s statement, too, reeks of intolerance. When he knows beef is an emotive issue for Hindus, making a provocative statement from a public forum is also a sign of intolerance.”This is yet another collection of Disney Princess-inspired art that reimagines the princesses as different fighting warrior women. This is fun idea for an art series that was executed by DeviantArt artist joshwmc. Check out the collection of art below and tell us what you think.
Cinderella. This was a lot of fun to do coz it gave me an excuse to redo her backstory to turn her into a ninja warrior. I looked at all the promo artwork for Street Fighter 4 and tried to emulate the style of the illustrations whilst also trying to keep the look of the Disney character. I've never really tried doing Manga style artwork before so this was a bit challenging at first but I think it's not too bad for a first effort. Done in Painter and Photoshop in about 6-7 hours.
Rapunzel's new back story is that she's an imprisoned sorceress who manages to escape her solitary confinement. I'm much happier with this one compared to the last one, in fact I think I might go back and fix Mulan coz I wasn't in the right mood when designing that one. I desperately wanted to find a way to add her frying pan but numerous attempts failed to find a solution.
Snow White, possibly the sweetest and most innocent of Disney's leading ladies, so lets give her a complete 180 degree make over. Now she a Lisbeth Salander inspired tough girl who learned her street fighting skills growing up in the decaying suburbs of a desolate city overrun by the Seven Drug Lords.
Ariel. This went through a couple of variations before I finally settled for a sort of coral armour look. Her altered back story is now that Ariel sold her voice to the sea witch to become a fierce human warrior in order to participate in a global fighting tournament.
Jasmine. Her new back story is Jasmine enters a fighting tournament in order to avoid an arranged marriage and prove to her father the Sultan she herself is capable of leading her kingdom. Took a bit of fiddling around to get this one looking right, got all the way to the end before realizing I made her outfit far too green compared to her animated costume which is more cyan, so had to do some colour correcting with Photoshop.
Belle who I've turned into a Muay Thai kick-boxer. Her new back story is Belle turned to self defense after being kidnapped and held hostage when she was younger, she's now a world champion kick-boxer. I actually used a shot of Gina Carano as reference for this which had the right kind of energy I was looking for in a pose.
Pocahontas. In her new back story Pocahontas is an environmental activist and the descendant of a great Powhatan warrior, she enters the fighting tournament to literally fight for nature. This was a bit tricky to get right, spent a while just trying to get the right pose, eventually settling for this stance which i think works well.
Tiana from Princess and the Frog, who altered back story is now she's a military soldier who's entered the fighting tournament to prove she is capable of commanding her own unit. This was the trickiest of the characters so far mostly due to her original dress colour (light green and pale yellow, eeck). Went through 3 alteration and character designs before settling on this military look.
Aurora. Her back story is now she's a professional wrestler called Briar Rose who goes by the in ring name of Aurora. Took me a while to figure out what to do with the character, had ideas for all other characters except her for the longest time. It wasn't until I noticed a resemblance between the character and WWE wrestler Michelle McCool when the idea finally came, so I referenced Michelle for this.CJ Hampton
Meridian, Mississippi star C.J. Hampton is rated among the nation's top safety prospects. (Photo courtesy of 247Sports)
After losing a commitment from highly-rated safety
on Wednesday, Alabama may have a strong chance of picking up a replacement later this week.
Meridian, Mississippi star
announced on Twitter on Wednesday night that he is no longer committed to Ole Miss. Hampton committed to the Rebels in June of 2012, the summer before his junior year of high school.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound star is rated the No. 5 safety prospect in the nation by 247Sports and is scheduled to announce his college decision on Friday. Hampton's finalists include Alabama, Arkansas and the Rebels.
Hampton, who also played wide receiver for Meridian, racked up 48 tackles and three interceptions on his way to earning an invitation to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Hampton will announce his decision at 5:30 p.m. Central on Friday.Poison Treatments
POISON TREATMENTS
by
Gary L. Smith
Extension Agricultural Engineer
University of Maryland
Everyone who works with pesticides should have a well thought out plan of action to follow in the event of an accident. It should include basic knowledge of first aid as it relates to pesticide poisoning and a prepared kit.
Call a Doctor or a Poison Control Center
First aid is the initial effort to help a victim while medical help is on the way. Step one in any poisoning emergency is to call an ambulance or doctor. The only exception is when you are all alone with the victim. Then you must see that he is breathing, and out of further exposure to the pesticide before leaving him to make a phone call. Always save the pesticide and the label for the doctor.
Poison on the Skin
The sooner the poison is washed off the patient, the less the injury.
Remove clothing and drench skin with water (shower, hose, faucet, pond, ditch).
Cleanse skin and hair thoroughly with soap and water. (Don't abrade or injure the skin while washing.)
Dry and wrap in a blanket
Warning: Do not allow any of the pesticide to get on you while you are helping the victim.
Chemical Burns of the Skin
Remove contaminated clothing.
Wash the skin with large quantities of cold running water.
Immediately cover loosely with a clean, soft cloth.
Avoid use of ointments, greases, powders, and other drugs in the first aid treatment of chemical burns.
Poison in the Eye
It is very important to wash the eye as quickly, but as gently, as possible.
Hold eyelids open, wash eyes with a gentle stream of clean running water at body temperature.
Continue washing for 15 minutes or more.
Do not use chemicals or drugs in wash water. They may increase the extent of injury.
Inhaled Poisons (Dust, Vapors, Gases)
If victim is in an enclosed area use an air-supplied respirator to get to him.
Carry patient (do not let him walk) to fresh air immediately.
Open all doors and windows.
Loosen all tight clothing.
Apply artificial respiration if breathing has stopped or is irregular.
Keep patient as quiet as possible.
If patient is convulsing, watch his breathing and protect him from falling and striking his head. Pull his chin forward so his tongue does not block his air passage.
Do not give alcohol in any form.
Swallowed Poisons
The most important decision you have to make when aiding a person who has swallowed a pesticide is whether to induce vomiting or not. The decision must be made quickly and accurately; the victim's life may depend on it. Usually it is best to get rid of the swallowed poison fast. But: NEVER induce vomiting if the victim is unconscious or is in convulsions. The victim could choke to death on vomitus.
Find out what poison has been ingested. NEVER induce vomiting if the victim has swallowed a corrosive poison. A corrosive poison is a strong acid or alkali (base) such as dinoseb (DN Compounds). The victim will complain of severe pain and have signs of severe mouth and throat burns. A corrosive poison wil burn the throat and mouth as severely coming up as it did going down.
Most labels on emulsifiable concentrate and solution formulations suggest the victim should not have vomiting induced. However, when the toxicity of the pesticide is marked, its removal may be essential.
To Induce Vomiting
Give one (1) tablespoon (1/2 ounce) of syrup of ipecac to a child over one (1) year of age or one (1) fluid ounce (2 tablespoons) to an adult, followed by a glass of water. If vomiting does not occur in 15 minutes, the dose may be repeated. Do not waste a lot of time waiting for the vomiting. Get the victim to a hospital.
Make sure the victim is kneeling forward or lying on his right side while retching or vomiting. Do not let him lie on his back because vomitus could enter the lungs and do more damage. Catch the vomitus in a container and save for the doctor. He may need it for chemical tests.
An ounce of syrup of ipecac may be obtained without prescription from your pharmacist.
If you do not have syrup of ipecac, give 1 cup of milk or water for victims up to five (5) years and older. Induce vomiting by putting your finger or the blunt end of a spoon on the very back of his tongue. Do not use anything which is sharp or pointed.
A glass of soapy water (such as Ivory soap from a bar dissolved in water) may also cause the victim to vomit.
Corrosive Poisons
The best first aid is to dilute the poison as quickly as possible. For acids or alkalis (bases), give the patient water or preferably milk or ice cream - one (1) cup for victims under five (5) years; or one (1) to two (2) glasses for patients over five (5) years. Milk or ice cream is better than water because it dilutes and helps neutralize the poison. Water only diluteas the poison.
It is very important that the victim get to a hospital without delay. DO NOT INDUCE OR ENCOURAGE VOMITING FOR CORROSIVE POISONS!
Activated Charcoal
After first-aid suggestions for noncorrosive poisons have been followed and medical help is delayed due to travel or other reasons, activated charcoal may be administered to hopefully absorb the remaining poison. It does not absorb all poisons and a rather large amount may be required for it to be effective. For example: it takes 1-1/2 ounces of charcoal powder (about 10 grams) to bind 3 adult aspirin. Mix the charcoal with water into a thick soup for the victim to drink.
Individuals who work with insecticides should purchase from their pharmacist a sealed pint jar of activated charcoal to have available in the event of an accident. The most favorable experience has been with the following products: (1) Norit A (American Norit Co., Jacksonville, FL) (2) Darco G 760 (Atlas Powder Co., Wilmington, DE), but other products may be available locally. Remember that the activated charcoal poison mixture must be removed from the body and medical help is required more than ever.
When syrup of ipecac has been given, do not use activated charcoal until after vomiting has occurred. The charcoal can inactivate the emetic principle in the syrup of ipecac.
Shock
Sometimes poisoning victims go into shock. If untreated or ignored, the victim can die from shock even if the poisoning injuries would not be fatal.
Symptoms of Shock
The skin will be pale, moist, cold and clammy. The eyes are vacant and lack luster with dilated pupils. The breathing will be shallow and irregular. The pulse is very weak, rapid and irregular. The victim may be unconscious or in a faint.
First Aid for Shock
Unless he is vomiting, keep the victim flat on his back with the legs 1 to 1-1/2 feet higher than the head. Keep the victim warm enough to prevent shivering. Do not overheat.
If the victim is conscious and has not swallowed any poison, give small amounts of milk, water or if it is an adult, a dilute salt solution (1/2 teaspoon of table salt to 1 quart of water). Give as often as the victim will accept it. Keep the victim quiet and reassure him often.
WARNING: Never try to give anything by mouth to an unconscious victim.
First Aid Equipment
A well equipped first-aid kit, which is always readily available, can be important in a pesticide emergency. Make up your own Pesticide First-Aid Kit from a lunch pail, tool box, or a sturdy wooden box. It should have a tight fitting cover with a latch so that it won't come open or allow pesticides to leak inside. Label it clearly with paint or a waterproof marker.
Contents
One ounce bottle of syrup of ipecac.
Small plastic bottle of soap solution to quickly wash pesticides off the skin.
Small plastic container of salt. Salt is used with water (1/2 teaspoon salt to 1 quart water) to aid an adult in shock if medical care will be delayed hours.
Pint jar of activated charcoal. Mixed with water and swallowed, activated charcoal acts as an absorber of many pesticides.
Shaped plastic airway for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Two, one-quart containers of clean water. If there is no clean water, in any emergency use any available pond or stream water.
Simple band aids, bandages, and tape. All cuts and scrapes should be covered to prevent pesticides from easily entering the body.
One teaspoon.
A blanket kept in a place where it will not be contaminated by pesticides.
Two quarters, taped to the inside cover of the first-aid kit for emergency phone calls.
Tongue blades (wooden sticks) - one to mix charcoal, another to prevent biting tongue if convulsing.
Two small, plastic empty jars with tight fitting lids; one for a drinking glass or mixing activated charcoal. The other can be used for collecting vomitus to take to the doctor.
Can of evaporated milk (with can opener).
Warn Doctor Ahead of Time
Doctors generally may not be well informed of the symptoms and treatments of pesticide poisoning. This is due to the few cases they treat. Pesticide poisoning symptoms are similar to those of other illnesses and poisonings. The pesticide applicator should tell his doctor which chemicals he will use. Then the doctor can review the symptoms and treatments and have the antidotes on hand.
It is strongly recommended that those with above average use of pesticides establish a regular health surveillance program with their physician.
NFPA Placarding
You may have noticed red, blue and yellow diamond shaped emblems with numbers and letters posted on doors or buildings. These emblems are National Fire Protection Association (NFPD 704) placards. The colors, numbers and their positions on the placards are codes which warn firefighters and other personnel what sort of hazards to expect in that room in case of fire or similar emergency. These placards are used in industrial and institutional facilities which are involved in the manufacture, storage, or use of hazardous materials.
This system identifies the hazards inside the room by three categories. The number inside the left section of the placard with the blue background is associated with health hazards; the top section and red backround is associated with the flammability; and yellow backround on the right side, with "reactivity." The higher the number, the more severe the potential hazard. The highest number used is 4 and the lowest is 0. A 4 for health indicates the presence of a material which could make it too dangerous to enter the area in a fire emergency without special protective equipment. A 4 for flammability indicates an extremely flammable material. A 4 for reactivity indicates a substance which in itself may detonate a normal temperature and pressure. The bottom, white portion of the placard is a space for special information such as the presence of radioactive materials, or to alert the fire fighting personnel to the possible hazard of using water, symbolized by a "w" with a line through it.
SMV Emblem
With spring comes the rush of planting season. A few years ago we experienced a sharp increase in the number of highway collisions involving farm equipment. A major campaign was mounted both to encourage farmers to use Slow Moving Vehicle Emblems correctly and to reeducate the general public to recognizing the SMV Emblem and acting accordingly.
The result of this program was a 35% reduction in the number of accidents. Let's see if we can't continue that trend this year. Replace your worn or faded SMV Emblems. You just might save a life!
* * * *From The Man Who Trolled The World
Editorial by Maxwell N, Posted on November 3, 2015
NOTE: The following may contain spoilers for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
After years of hype, anticipation and worries, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain has come and gone, in the same kind of flash that most games these days seem to. There was more interest in The Phantom Pain than possibly any other Metal Gear, with fresh new players jumping in for a taste of Hideo Kojima’s Tactical Espionage Action/Operations than ever before. This can be thanked to the fact that there are simply a lot more people playing video games than they were when Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriot came out, as well as the press, whether positive or negative, as the days led up to the release of The Phantom Pain. Kojima leaving Konami might have one of the best things that happened to the series, from a marketing point of view.
However, a good number of us grew up with Hideo Kojima’s long-winded storyline, or “saga” as the marketers at Konami like to call it. Metal Gear brought us many years of joy, and depending on the game, sorrow. Still, for some of us, it was just a game series with a goofy yet charming over-arching storyline, and most importantly fun gameplay, while for others it seemed to have been the most important piece of work since the Bible, with every single piece of plot and dialogue forming a sort of canon only understood by a few.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that the first-rumors-then-news about Kojima leaving Konami, the Metal Gear franchise and the Silent Hills project (a collaboration with film director Guillermo Del Toro, for the uninitiated) caused an uproar, with or without all the facts available to the general public—but that’s another subject for another time. This uproar was to be expected, but what many did not expect, though I dare say some did, was that letting go of Metal Gear would be harder for some than for others.
Since when have we started taking Liquid’s advice?
Try to have a conversation or look up anything about Metal Gear, and The Phantom Pain in particular, and you are likely come across several nutty, totally-out-there conspiracy theories that’re grasping at straws and making all kinds of unfounded, silly associations about how there is something more to the game than the obvious, more than what meets the eye, and that the truth is out there, or in the game, or wherever. That the game isn’t “over” yet, that there is hidden content within the game ranging from a secret mission to a whole “act” of the game, depending on which conspiracy theory you prescribe to. Some would even argue that the cut content within the game is intentionally supposed to give you some sort of “phantom” feeling, a feeling that would usually and rationally be reserved for “disappointment”.
CUT AT WILL
Kingdom of the Flies: YouTube Exclusive Mission
Yes, it’s very true that there is more than what the naked eye sees when it comes to The Phantom Pain. This is because the game’s overall story, and arguably certain elements of the gameplay, were left incomplete upon the game’s release.
We don’t know why, but one can assume that this game had a troubled development, especially with the supposed but possibly, very likely, stressful conditions that Kojima and his team had to work under as a result of Konami’s actions. Or maybe the game just had a troubled development because the team was spread too thin trying to come up with too many different and diverse ideas that couldn’t fit the overall game that they were trying to piece together.
The sinking Tanker gameplay sequence that was never meant to be.
Content is cut all the time during video game development; it’s standard practice, a part of really any creative process. Rarely, though, is to the degree seen in The Phantom Pain, where a whole segment of the story is left untold and simply hanging (or levitating), at least within the game itself. This piece of the story was later revealed to be part of a cut mission, Kingdom of the Flies, assumed by some fans to be part of a missing “third” chapter of the game, and the rough CG and concept art of the game was released as a way to provide closure |
in the total population as per the 2011 census were Kerala (from 24.7% to 26.6%), Goa (6.8% to 8.4%), Jammu & Kashmir (67% to 68.3%), Haryana (5.8% to 7%) and Delhi (11.7% to 12.9%).The census office had compiled this data by March last year, but the UPA government held back the release, perhaps fearing political repercussions of the findings on the eve of Lok Sabha elections. Union home minister Rajnath Singh last week gave his go-ahead when Registrar General of India and Census Commissioner C Chandramouli asked whether the “sensitiive' figures should be released.Singh on Wednesday confirmed that the data would be made public soon.Interestingly, Manipur was the only state to show a fall in Muslim population as a percentage of its total population (a fall of 0.4 percentage points).The high growth of Muslim population in Assam has been intensely debated and has been a source of political confrontation. In fact, a report prepared on the issue in 1998 by the then governor of Assam, Lt Gen (Retd) S K Sinha, had warned that illegal immigration was slowly changing the demographic profile in several districts. The Supreme Court has on more than one occasion expressed concern over the change in demography and chided the government for not stopping infiltration from Bangladesh.With the release of our embeddable Python Trinkets that Brian announced a few days ago, I got thinking: where else does this let us teach programming concepts? Google Apps is huge in the education market (and we use it here at Trinket), so I wondered how Trinket worked with Google Sites. Turns out they work great together! Trinket turns a static Google site into an interactive teaching platform requiring no installation at all. Check it out:
This means that the millions of teachers and thousands of districts using Google Apps for Education can now teach the basics of programming without installing software! What’s more, the Chromebooks that are now 1 in 5 education computer purchases are first class citizens in this universe. Fire up a browser and you’re ready to go.
Update: I wrote a Step-by-Step Guide to Putting a Trinket on Google Sites. I hope you find it useful! Tweet me if you have any questions.
This will be super convenient for those already using Google Sites.
Ready to get started? Sign up and get going! Already a trinket user? Log in to start putting your trinkets onto your Google Site!
Tweet at me if you’ve got questions or examples of cool Google Sites with Trinkets in them!package pgmigrate
import "github.com/felixge/pgmigrate"
Package pgmigrate implements a minimalistic migration library for postgres. See README for more information.
pgmigrate.go
❖ var DefaultConfig = Config{ Schema: "migrations", Table: "migrations", }
DefaultConfig should be used by most users.
❖ type Config struct { // Schema is the name of the postgres schema the migrations table is stored in. Schema string // Table is the name of the migrations table. Table string }
Config allows to customize pgmigrate. However, most users should use the DefaultConfig.
❖ func (c *Config) Migrate(db *sql.DB, ms Migrations) (Migrations, error)
Migrate validates ms, and on success applies any ms that has not already been executed. The return value is either an error, or a list of all migrations that were applied.
❖ type Migration struct { ID int Description string SQL string }
Migration holds a migration
Valid returns an error if the migration is invalid.
❖ type Migrations []Migration
Migrations holds a list of migrations sorted by id. The first migration needs to have ID 1, and each following ID has to be incremented by 1.
LoadMigrations loads all migration files named {{id}}_{{description}}.sql inside dirFS and returns them or an error. The returned Migrations are guaranteed to be sorted, but no validated.
Len is part of the sort.Interface.
❖ func (m Migrations) Less(i, j int) bool
Less is part of the sort.Interface.
❖ func (m Migrations) Swap(i, j int)
Swap is part of the sort.Interface.
Valid returns an error if m holds an invalid migration list.According to Sen. John McCain, a member of the Senate’s Gang of Eight, criminals will not be legalized under the proposed bipartisan immigration bill.
“Anyone who has committed crimes in this country is going to be deported,” the Arizona Republican declared on the Senate floor last week.
However, as Washington Examiner columnist Byron York recently reported, “the bottom line is an immigrant could have more than three misdemeanor convictions in his background check and still qualify for legalization.”
Furthermore, the following chart published June 21 by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a nonprofit organization that opposes liberalization of immigration law, compares the consequences for an array of crimes and discovered that while illegal immigrants might be exonerated and legalized, U.S. citizens and legal immigrants face years of incarceration or temporary expulsion from the country.
The Gang of Eight’s bill would allow illegal immigrants who entered the country before Dec. 31, 2011, and committed up to three misdemeanor offenses including but not limited to assault, battery, identity or document fraud, tax evasion, to remain eligible for Registered Provisional Status. Meanwhile, U.S. citizens and persons who entered the country legally could incur up to $100,000 in fines,15 years of imprisonment, or be prohibited to reenter the country for up to 10 years.
“What it [the Gang of Eight bill] indicates is this is more than just an amnesty, it’s an amnesty for all kinds of violations,” said FAIR’s media director, Ira Mehlman. “We say nobody is above the law, but apparently illegal immigrants are.”Sometimes, solving one problem only creates another.
Millions of Americans take proton pump inhibitors to treat acid reflux and heartburn. Known as PPIs, they are among the most prescribed drugs in the United States and are widely available over the counter.
But according to preliminary research presented today at an American Heart Association conference in New Orleans, these medications may also increase the risk of ischemic stroke.
Ischemic strokes are the most common type of stroke, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They occur when a blood clot cuts off blood flow to the brain.
“PPIs have been associated with unhealthy vascular function, including heart attacks, kidney disease and dementia,” said Dr. Thomas Sehested, the study’s lead author and a researcher at the Danish Heart Foundation. “We wanted to see if PPIs also posed a risk for ischemic stroke, especially given their increasing use in the general population.”
Most serious warning yet
The research was conducted in Denmark among a quarter-million patients who suffered from stomach pain and indigestion, and were taking one of four PPIs: Prilosec, Protonix, Prevacid or Nexium.
Overall stroke risk increased 21% among patients who were taking a PPI, according to the study. At the lowest doses, the authors found either no or minimal increased risk of stroke. At the highest doses, they found that stroke risk increased 33% for Prilosec and Prevacid patients, 50% for Nexium patients and 79% for Protonix patients.
In an email to CNN, P&G, the company that makes Prilosec, said the drug is an “FDA approved, safe and effective remedy to relieve frequent heartburn symptoms. Prilosec OTC has the longest history of safe and effective consumer use of any [over the counter] PPI.”
AstraZeneca, the maker of Nexium, said, “Patient safety is an important priority … and we believe all of our PPI medicines are generally safe and effective when used in accordance with the label.” A spokeswoman said the company was not consulted during the research, so it could not comment on the data.
Pfizer, the maker of Protonix, and Takeda, the maker of Prevacid, did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
“At one time, PPIs were thought to be safe, without major side effects,” Sehested said. “This study further questions the cardiovascular safety of these drugs.”
For years, doctors have questioned whether too many people are taking heartburn drugs.
A pair of 2010 studies found that PPIs were associated with an increased risk of a serious bacterial infection. Stomach acid seems to play a role in killing off both good and bad bacteria in our gut. When someone is taking PPIs, their amount of stomach acid is reduced, and it creates an environment in which bacteria can flourish.
“As a culture, we tend to want a pill to deal with our problems, when a lot of people could reduce their heartburn by eating smaller meals, drinking less alcohol or not smoking,” Dr. Michael Katz, who wrote an editorial accompanying the studies, told CNN in 2010.
In April, another study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that patients who took PPIs had a 96% increased risk of kidney failure and a 28% increased risk of kidney disease, compared with those who were prescribed alternative medications.
What are the alternatives?
Medical professionals estimate that the majority of people who suffer from acid reflux or heartburn could drastically or completely reduce their discomfort by making a few lifestyle changes: quit smoking, lose weight and cut back on spicy and fatty foods.
If your doctor determines that you do need pills for your problem, pharmacist NaaDede Badger-Plange suggests starting with an antacid, such as Tums, Rolaids or Maalox.
“Antacids usually would help if you have less than one incident a week,” Badger-Plange said. “So, if you have heartburn very rarely — especially people who have heartburn associated with certain foods — they could take antacids.”
Antacids provide quick relief, but only for a short amount of time, said Badger-Plange, and consumers should pay close attention to the ingredients on the label. If you’re pregnant, you should avoid sodium bicarbonate and magnesium trisilicate. Patients with kidney disease should avoid antacids that contain aluminum.
For longer-lasting relief, H2 antagonist medications (also called H2 blockers) are also an option, but they can take a few hours to kick in.
“One thing to keep in mind is, certain products that are in the H2 receptor antagonist class have drug interactions,” Badger-Plange said. “So, if you have a lot of medications, you probably want to check with your pharmacist at the counter to make sure it’s OK to take those medications.”
As always, you should talk to your doctor before starting or stopping any medication — prescribed or over the counter.
For years, Katz has been worried that PPIs “reinforce the idea that the solution to behavioral health issues is to take a pill, and that’s just not how we’re going to get healthier,” he said in 2010. “Consumers need to ask their doctors, ‘Why am I taking this? Do I still need this? Do I have an alternative?’ ”As the Lisbon daily Público reported, the Portuguese Navy’s fledgling drone program attracted international attention last week because of footage of the failed maiden voyage of a new reconnaissance craft that was quickly viewed hundreds of thousands of times online.
The less-than-triumphant first flight of the small AR4 Light Ray, which lasted just seconds before the craft plunged nosefirst into the water just off the edge of the dock from which it was launched, was witnessed by the nation’s defense minister and naval chief of staff and recorded from at least three angles by crews from the state broadcaster other journalists.
Before a second, far more successful takeoff, Defense Minister José Pedro Aguiar-Branco told reporters at the Lisbon Navy Base that the crash, which was apparently caused by the craft’s hitting the shoulder of the marine who tossed it into the air, just bolstered his case that the government needs to invest in training for the military. (A promotional video for the drone posted online by Tekever, the company that developed it in collaboration with Portugal’s Navy, demonstrates the proper technique for hurling it into the air.)
Portugal’s defense department later released surveillance video recorded during the longer test flight, and the navy’s own Facebook report on the test made no mention of the halting start.However, in Pakistan, in Canada (where he is now based), and within some Muslim communities elsewhere around the world, people know all about Tahir-ul Qadri.
Additionally, Qadri – who likes to keep a low profile in Canada – is frequently associated with big-ticket happenings. The sit-in that his young and fervent supporters staged with Khan's supporters in Islamabad this past summer represented a major threat to Sharif's rule, and brought Pakistan perilously close to a takeover by the military, which has ruled the country for nearly half its existence.
In Pakistan, whenever someone enjoys relationships with high-profile people, is associated with seminal political events, and boasts the ability to mobilize scores of people on the streets – all while being based abroad – there is a tendency to suspect some level of support, if not sponsorship, from Pakistan's powerful security establishment.
However, the idea of the Pakistani military latching onto the frail preacher seems a bit far-fetched, not to mention unfeasible.
What's more likely is that Pakistan's security establishment views Qadri (who often praises the military in his speeches) as a useful if indirect proxy who can pressure and weaken a Pakistani government that the military cannot stand.
Qadri doesn't seem terribly invested in deep and long-term political relationships.
...How to Fix the Postal Service?
This week, Bloomberg BusinessWeek put the financial woes of the U.S. Postal Service on its cover with a story titled “The End of Mail.” The dire plight of the USPS isn’t exactly news — it’s been losing money since 2006, including nearly $20 billion since 2007. But the cliff the agency has been driving toward is fast approaching. The agency is now almost $15 billion in debt. Unless the government steps in, it will default on $5.5 billion of retiree health-care costs in September. By October it will reach its legal debt limit, and by the end of the year, the USPS will be out of cash — insolvent and unable to operate.
So what to do? How do you fix a federal agency that, if private, would rank as the 29th largest company on the Fortune 500 list? It can’t just go away, can it? Consider a few stats from the BusinessWeek story:
Total mail volume decreased 20 percent from 2006 to 2010.
With 571,566 full-time workers, the USPS is the country’s second-largest civilian employer after Wal-Mart.
It operates 31,871 post offices, more than the combined domestic retail outlets of Wal-Mart, Starbucks and McDonald’s.
80 percent of the USPS budget goes to salaries and benefits.
Whatever the fix, saving the post office is going to take a dramatic overhaul, likely a combination of layoffs, closing locations and possibly changing its pricing model. Here are some solutions that are on the table, and one that isn’t really, but might be worth asking:
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src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253867"> style="width: 620px; height: 388px;" alt=""src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253867">
The
concept of meaningful travel is something that is
argued to death on the forums of any MMO during its creation and launch
infancy. Without fail, there are two camps of players that join in this
ever-revolving argument. There are those that want travel to take a
very long
time, and those that want to be able to port their way around the world
instantly. Both sides have legitimate reasons for desiring travel act
in the
manner they wish, but I think a happy medium can be found. Or to be
more
accurate, I think the idea for a perfect system was created years ago,
but due
to technical difficulties at the time, it was never fully realized nor
implemented.
When
EverQuest
launched, travel between areas was an adventure in and of itself.
Getting
between continents required taking a 30 minute trip on a boat. During
the
course of the ride, there was little more to do than chat with your
fellow
passengers and watch the water go by. As an added hazard, players would
regularly get bumped off the boat in the middle of the Timorous ocean
and then
be required to swim for an ungodly amount of time until they either
died (which
was an incredibly cruel fate anywhere in an ocean) or managed to make
their way
to the single island in the zone. Even if a player were able to make it
to
land, getting off the island often proved to be a nightmare in and of
itself.
Overland
travel in EverQuest
was also no picnic in the early days. Depending on where you were when
you
decided it was time to go sell your wares, the trip back to town or the
tunnel
in East Commons could easily involve a trip through numerous zones that
took an
hour or more. As a result, players would normally enlist the assistance
of a
friendly Wizard or Druid that was willing to port them to a small
selection of
strategically placed zones that were scattered throughout the world. It
may not
have gotten players to their final destination, but it would get them
pretty
close.
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style="width: 620px; height: 388px;" alt=""
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253868">
Travelling
in such a manner may not have been the
speediest method developers could have given players access to, but it
did
ensure that those players understood the layout of the land. They knew
where
zones and cities were in relation to each other. They knew when they
were on a
different continent, knew when it was shorter to just run to the next
zone than
it was to get a teleport to a different zone that ended up being three
zones
aware.
When
the Planes of Power expansion went live, all this
changed. All of a sudden, there were tons of new players that had no
idea how
the world was put together. The expansion introduced a central plane
that had
gateway stones to a large number of zones scattered throughout the
world. While
it may have allowed friends that were in different zones the means to
gather
together quickly and exploring new zones with little difficulty, it
instantly
destroyed any sense of geography. It also put Wizards and Druids out of
business in the blink of an eye.
As
time went on, an entire new generation of players
became “spoiled” by near-instant travel to wherever
they wanted to go. This
idea of travel also became a staple moving forward in many games and as
I
mentioned earlier, has become a point of contention between players
ever since.
Some games have made an effort to give players the best of both worlds,
but
none have found the perfect mix… yet. There is one that if
the plan had been
implemented as intended, would have revolutionized in-game travel as we
know
it.
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src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/253869">
style="">Vanguard: Saga of
Heroes may have had a dizzying
array of technical issues when the game was
released (and if we’re being honest, probably for a good year
or two
afterwards), but it introduced some new concepts to the MMO genre that
have
become staples since. One idea that was never fully implemented was a
combination of Rift Stones (teleport points) and something called
Caravans.
Rift Stones were a different take on teleport stones. Blue stones were
scattered throughout the continents and allowed travel between multiple
points
of a single continent. If you wanted to hop between continents, you
needed to
find a red stone. These were normally placed at major hubs such as
capital
cities. Arguments can always be made as to whether there were too many
or too
few stones, but it was a system that still allowed players to keep a
sense of
geography of the land and I was a fan.
The
major idea that I think should become a staple though
is Caravans. The concept of Caravans always seemed to be changing and
being
tweaked and were even very briefly in the game, though they were
horrifically
bugged. The basic thought behind them though was pretty simple though.
Imagine
you and our friends find this game and fall in love with it. You each
start
characters of different races, play through your initial starting area,
and
then realize you’re all hundreds of miles away from each
other. You could
create a caravan. This was something akin to a permanent group and
allowed you
to travel to the location of one player.
For
example, if Player A is in outside a dungeon, Player
B is sailing on a ship in the ocean, and Player C is doing some
travelling the
open road between cities, any of them could be used as the focal point
of where
the others could instantly travel (for a cost). This would allow groups
of
friends to play wherever they wanted on their own and then pick whoever
was
closest to where they wanted to go to hunt that night, and all be there
in a
moment. Before you think that made things too easy, keep in mind it
allowed
players to group together instantly but it didn’t send them
back to where they
were when they were done. That still needed to be handled the
old-fashioned
way. It was a brilliant idea and I think it needs to be revisited by
other
companies for sure.WASHINGTON — Drug addicts have inherited abnormalities in some parts of the brain which interfere with impulse control, said a British study published in the United States on Thursday.
Previous research has pointed to these differences, but it was unclear if they resulted from the ravages of addiction or if they were there beforehand to predispose a person to drug abuse.
Scientists at the University of Cambridge compared the brains of addicts to their non-addicted siblings as well as to healthy, unrelated volunteers and found that the siblings shared many of the same weaknesses in their brains.
That indicates that the brain vulnerabilities had a family origin, though somehow the siblings of addicts — either due to environmental factors or other differences in brain structure — were able to resist addiction.
“Presumably, the siblings must have some other resilience factors that counteract the familial vulnerability to drug dependence,” said the study led by Karen Ersche of the University of Cambridge, published in the journal Science.
“An individual’s predisposition to become addicted to stimulant drugs may be mediated by brain abnormalities linked to impaired self-control.”
Researchers tested 50 biological sibling pairs, in which one was addicted to drugs and the other one had no history of chronic drug abuse. They also tested 50 healthy, unrelated pairs of people as a control group.
The tests involved measuring how well they could control their impulses in a stop-signal reaction time test that assesses how quickly a person can switch from following one set of instructions to another.
Addicts are known to have poor impulse control.
The researchers found that the sibling pairs — even the non-addicts — fared significantly worse on the test than the healthy volunteers.
Brain scans showed that the siblings shared some of the same weaknesses in the frontal lobe and its connections to the basal ganglia, which mediates motor, cognition and behavior.
In an accompanying Perspective article, Nora Volkow and Ruben Baler of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse said that knowing more about brain circuitry could help understand and treat other “impaired control” disorders, like obesity, pathological gambling, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.
“Several childhood and adolescent interventions can improve executive function and self-control,” though more study is needed to see how such work may or may not impact the brain, they wrote.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Mohammed Badie has led the Muslim Brotherhood since 2010
An Egyptian court has confirmed the death sentence on Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and 13 others for planning attacks against the state.
The court also jailed a US-Egyptian citizen and 36 others for life.
Badie was sentenced in March and is embroiled in some 40 other trials. The sentences are subject to appeal.
Hundreds of people have been sentenced to death in a crackdown on the Brotherhood following the removal of President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.
However, so far only one death sentence has been carried out.
The court session was broadcast live on TV.
The sentences are the final phase in the trial which saw Muslim Brotherhood leaders charged with encouraging members of the group to confront the state and spread chaos following the dispersal of protests in 2013.
They were handed down following advice from Egypt's highest Islamic legal official, the grand mufti.
Two of the defendants were sentenced to death in absentia.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Egyptian trials have been criticised as political, but the government insists the judiciary is independent
Badie was already sentenced to death in a case last year related to attacks on police stations in the southern province of Minya. But the ruling was later overturned and a retrial was ordered.
US-Egyptian citizen Mohamed Soltan was sentenced to life imprisonment for supporting the Brotherhood and transmitting false news.
The son of Brotherhood preacher Salah Soltan, he has been on hunger strike for months and has received attention from local and international human rights organisations.
Critics describe the trials against Brotherhood members as politicised, but the government insists on the transparency and independence of the judiciary.
The August 2013 dispersal of the Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camps in Cairo led to the deaths of more than 600 protesters and several police and provoked international condemnation.
Many more died in subsequent demonstrations across the country.• Protester accuses Blair of being war criminal • Tony Blair: no pre-election 'deal' with Rupert Murdoch • Ex-PM says 'we weren't friends until after I left office' • Blair: I chose to avoid'major' battle over media law • Former PM says wife subjected to personal vendetta • Blair told Rebekah Brooks he was'sorry' after arrest
<noframe>Twitter: Dan Sabbagh - Leveson just read out a 'first draft' of his report to Blair - setting out the key issues</noframe>
15.00 Lord Leveson indicates that he envisages following his report the creation of a regulatory system that is independent of the Government, Parliament and the press, and which "has to have expertise upon it or available to it but must command the respect of the press but equally the respect of the public".
He said he wanted a system that was able to provide swift redress "particularly to those who can't afford to litigate".
Leveson added:
I have absolutely no interest in imperilling freedom of expression or our free press.
14.50 Political blogger Paul Waugh tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: Paul Waugh - Blair says a lot of social media is "deeply opinionated and pretty factually inaccurate". That's YOU told, Twitter...</noframe>
14.45 Telegraph blogger Iain Martin says Mr Blair appears to have the court "eating out of his hand".
14.40 The Telegraph's Rowena Mason tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: Rowena Mason - Blair says he 'doesn't know' whether Campbell or Mandelson were doing all 'this stuff with black arts'</noframe>
14.30 Reports that Mr Blair was "very angry" at Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam because she got a standing ovation at the Labour party conference and that his team had been "briefing against her" were "completely wrong", he said.
14.25 Mr Blair said "most people in public life" felt that if they got into a "tangle with the police" it would "get out".
14.15 The former Prime Minister says his wife Cherie had been the subject of a "personal vendetta" from some newspapers. He said her solicitors had calculated there were "30 different letters before action or legal actions started".
I thought and do think the attacks on her and my children were unnecessary and wrong. If we were operating in a proper system, after intervention number ten, I would expect someone to be saying, 'hang on, is this right?'
14.10 Mr Blair says The Sun's criticism of his successor Gordon Brown over his letter to the mother of a soldier was "out of order and I said so at the time".
14.05 The inquiry resumes after lunch with a statement from Lord Leveson about the intrusion by a protester, saying that it is being taken "extremely seriously". He adds: "I very much regret what has happened."
13.35 The Telegraph's Rowena Mason writes:
Tony Blair has admitted “intervening” on Rupert Murdoch’s behalf with the Italian Prime Minister when the media tycoon was trying to buy a multi-billion pound business.
The former Prime Minister said he took his Cabinet Secretary’s advice on “propriety” before raising the issue of whether Mr Murdoch would be allowed to acquire part of the Mediaset Group.
At the time in 1998, Downing Street furiously denied media reports that Mr Blair had brought the deal up during a telephone call with Romano Prodi, the Italian leader.
In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry, Mr Blair said there was nothing wrong with asking his Italian counterpart about the possibility of a deal and betrayed frustration at the furore about the call at the time.
“What was an intervention that I think was perfectly justified and lasted about two minutes ended up occupying days and weeks of time,” he said.
“All I was doing was finding out whether a foreign owner would be welcome or not welcome. I don’t think that’s, you know, unreasonable for that to be asked as if another media group had been interested in a possible acquisition I would have done the same.”
The deal never went through after it emerged the Italians would have been hostile to Mr Murdoch owning the company.
13.25 The Guardian's Dan Sabbagh tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: Dan Sabbagh - Blair lists 6 anti murdoch decs: eg manU, bbc dig channels + lic fee increases, creation of ofcom, listed events for sport, stopped itv buy</noframe>
13.20 Video: Tony Blair responds to Iraq allegations
13.00 Inquiry has adjourned for lunch.
Mr Blair has poured cold water on claims by former Labour spin doctor Lance Price that Rupert Murdoch was effectively the "24th member of the Cabinet". He said:
I don't know a policy that we changed as a result of Rupert Murdoch.
He admitted that he and Mr Murdoch used to "row" over Europe.
12.55 Mr Blair said the "strongest lobbying" he received from the media was the BBC over the licence fee. He added that there was a "severe falling out" with the corporation over Iraq.
12.35 Video: Tony Blair's evidence is interrupted by a protester at the Leveson Inquiry.
12.25 Paul Waugh tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: Paul Waugh - Drama at Leveson at last. White shirted protestor yells "War criminal!" at Blair. Blair not flustered, Leveson is.</noframe>
12.20 The inquiry was interrupted when a protester stormed in through a door reserved for a judge, saying "this man should be arrested for war crimes - JP Morgan paid him off for the Iraq war" - before being bundled off.
Lord Leveson apologised to Mr Blair and ordered an investigation into how the man had been able to access the courtroom "through what is supposed to be a secure corridor".
The former Prime Minister seemed unfazed, saying "that's fine" and adding that what the protester had said was "completely and utterly untrue". The protester was later named as film maker David Lawley Wakelin.
12.10 Mr Blair says he offered his support to Rebekah Brooks in July last year, when she quit as News International chief executive and was arrested over phone hacking - as he did not believe in being a "fairweather" friend. He told the inquiry:
I said I was very sorry for what had happened to her.
12.05 Mr Blair makes clear that Rupert Murdoch was the "key decision maker" rather than Rebekah Brooks, and adds that he does not think there were "many" social occasions on which he saw her.
The former Prime Minister says he and Mrs Brooks were "probably closer" after he left office.
He adds that he had never asked her or anybody else to make "attacks on individuals", adding: "I absolutely hate that type of politics."
12.00 On his personal relationship with Rupert Murdoch, Mr Blair says:
I would describe my relationship with him as a working relationship until after I left office. There has been all this stuff about me being godfather to one of his children.
After I left I got to know him better and frankly, the relationship can be a lot easier.
11.55 Mr Blair is asked about his discussions with Rupert Murdoch:
In general terms, I can't recall conversations about media regulations per se. He didn't lobby me on media stuff.
11.50 Paul Waugh tweets this on Mr Blair's account of 1995 Murdoch meeting:
<noframe>Twitter: Paul Waugh - Blair re Hayman Island trip: "Min objective was to try to stop them tearing us to pieces.. max objective was to get support"</noframe>
11.45 Mr Blair denies hatching a deal with Rupert Murdoch on his 1995 visit to Hayman Island:
There was no deal on issues to do with the media with Rupert Murdoch or with anybody else, either expressly or implied, and to be fair he never sought such a thing.
11.40 This from the Telegraph's Michael Deacon:
<noframe>Twitter: Michael Deacon - On way out of courtroom for break, Blair flashed a brief smile at public gallery as if they were a gathering of loyal fans</noframe>
11.30 Telegraph's Sarah Knapton tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: Sarah Knapton - Tony Blair tells Leveson Inquiry Labour still would have won election without Murdoch support - it wasn't The Sun Wot Won It <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=leveson" target="_blank">#leveson</a></noframe>
11.25 Mr Blair acknowledges an account recorded in the diaries of Labour MP Chris Mullin in November 1994 about what he had said then about his relationship with Rupert Murdoch. He told the inquiry:
If I'd ended up in a situation where they'd turned on me, I would have had to fight back. That would be the only recourse.
He said his attitude was "if Rupert Murdoch's going to wage war on us we're going to stand up to them".
11.20 Daily Telegraph's James Kirkup tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: James Kirkup - Blair: nothing unusual about 3 calls to R Murdoch in 8 days before Iraq invasion. Says tone of coverage not discussed. <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=leveson" target="_blank">#leveson</a></noframe>
11.15 Mr Blair tells inquiry his pre-Iraq war conversations with Rupert Murdoch were not about "tone of the coverage" and that his newspapers were already backing the action.
11.10 ITV News political editor Tom Bradby tweets:
<noframe>Twitter: tom bradby - Like him or loathe him, Blair is a brilliant performer. There is just no one anywhere near as good on the scene these days.</noframe>
11.05 Mr Blair said he could not "specifically remember" when asked about a conversation with Rupert Murdoch over media ownership, but admitted: "I would have said that's not an issue we are going to take on."
11.00 The Daily Telegraph's James Kirkup tweets
<noframe>Twitter: James Kirkup - Blair: never felt pressure re Murdoch's commercial interests. 'The pressure for me was more political'. V important, v v useful for KRM</noframe>
10.55 Mr Blair says his relationship with Rupert Murdoch and his family is now "completely different" from what it was when he was in office.
He describes the media tycoon as "not actually an identikit right-wing person" or "tribal Tory", describing him as somewhat "anti-establishment, meritocratic".
10.50 Mr Blair tells the inquiry:
I didn't feel under pressure in relation to commercial interests from the Murdoch people or anyone else. The pressure for me was more political. We decided more stuff against the Murdoch interest in favour of it.
10.40 The former Prime Minister appeared irritated when confronted by coverage of his speech about the "feral beasts" of the media - in which his tone was described as "religiose" by one newspaper and he was compared to a "preacher" by another. Mr Blair said he had not mentioned religion in the speech.
10.30 Mr Blair was critical of the lack of "accountability" provided by the Press Complaints Commission.
10.25 The former Prime Minister said that if he had tried to change the law in relation to the media it would have resulted in a "major confrontation" and a "long protracted battle that will shove everything else to one side".
10.20 Mr Blair said falling out with some media proprietors could result in bad news coverage.
I think you certainly do fear the power being directed at you.
10.15 Mr Blair said he was "absolutely determined" Labour would not again face the "onslaught" it received from the media in the 1992 General Election. He said he "disputed" some of the claims that had been made about his Government's spinning operation.
Blair rejected a suggestion by inquiry counsel Robert Jay that there had been a "disposition to be malleable with the truth", defending his Government's media operation by saying administrations throughout history would want to put "the best possible gloss" on what they were doing.
10.05 Mr Blair said it was "inevitable" that there would be a "close interaction" between senior politicians and senior media figures. But he said it became "uncomfortable and unhealthy" when it felt "essential and crucial" to maintain such a relationship.
I decided as a political leader, and it was a strategic decision, that I was going to manage that |
years that it would make billing easier, give the city more choices and leave the vetting of providers up to an outside company.
"They would be professionally screened, deemed they are qualified in their area of expertise and set fees would be negotiated," Velasco-Thomson wrote in a 2006 email to leaders in the police and human resources department. "Quality & cost issues are screened and billing is made much easier."
But hiring Gratzer has been expensive. His company, EvaluMed, charged $1,300 per screening — double what his predecessor, DRI Consulting, received for its work. And EvaluMed's fee was three times what DRI's predecessor, Campion Barrow and Associates, charged.
Because numerous companies are involved in the billing process for Gratzer's services, Minneapolis has been unable to determine how much it has paid to EvaluMed in recent years.
After an open records request from APM Reports, the city took three months to produce 98 invoices amounting to $82,750, a fraction of the 371 evaluations Gratzer conducted on applicants for police and community service officer positions in Minneapolis.
Assuming those screenings were billed at the same rate that appeared on the invoices Minneapolis was able to locate, the city would have paid more than $480,000 over the past five years to EvaluMed for psychological screenings. City spokesman Casper Hill acknowledged that figure was likely accurate.
In August, the police department began soliciting bids for a new vendor, and in October it made a verbal job offer to a psychologist named Jan Tyson Roberts. No contract has been finalized, however.
Protests, firings and law suits
The decision to replace Gratzer came after activists raised concerns that he was screening out too many people of color, a replay of the way two of his predecessors were removed.
It's a controversial history that includes a lawsuit and the firing of two of the most qualified police psychologists working in the state, leaving Minneapolis few experienced screeners to choose from.
Dr. Gary Fischler Nikki Tundel for APM Reports
It started with Gary Fischler, whose widely cited research while working for the police department showed his screenings were effective.
His work came under fire from a group called the Police Community Relations Council, which was formed in 2003 as part of an agreement between activists and the police department. Members of the group claimed his screenings were discriminatory, though Fischler's statistics showed white and minority applicants passed at almost identical rates.
Fischler, whose firm remains one of the leading providers of law enforcement screenings in the state, says he understands why some people of color view his work with skepticism.
"People who have been discriminated against, and people who have been mistreated by the system, have good reason to not trust the system, including psychological testing," he said. "I don't blame them. I don't blame anybody who feels that this is just another example of the system mistreating me."
By 2005, the political pressure to get rid of Fischler became irresistible and the psychologist was out.
But it wasn't long before the Police Community Relations Council leveled similar allegations against the firm hired to replace him, Campion Barrow and Associates.
The co-chair of the council, Ron Edwards, said the new company was a "threat to the diversity of the MPD," according to minutes from a 2006 meeting.
In response to the criticism, Minneapolis commissioned an independent review that found the company's screenings were not biased. The report showed that in one police recruit class, Campion Barrow screened out three of the nine black applicants, but with numbers that small, it could've easily been a statistical blip. Minneapolis even had those applicants re-tested by another psychologist, who concurred they were unfit for police work.
Campion Barrow uses a human resources consultancy called the DeGarmo Group to monitor its compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. A 2014 review covering thousands of the firm's police screenings shows white applicants passed at slightly higher rate than people of color, but the difference was relatively small, with 88 percent of whites passing compared to 85 percent of minorities. The report concludes the disparity is well within the legally allowed range.
Running out of qualified evaluators
Tom Campion, who runs the firm today, says diversity is important, but relaxing psychological standards to achieve it is dangerous. "We want officers who reflect our community. That's critical. But here's the thing: At what cost?" Campion said. "If we don't have the right person in the position, it's not fair to them, because their life's in danger. It's very difficult for fellow officers and also for the community."
Dr. John Fennig Curtis Gilbert | APM Reports
Campion's firm might have survived the allegations of racial bias, but the scrutiny of its work brought to light the conservative religious views of founder Michael Campion, Tom's father. City leaders were aghast at an article the elder Campion wrote in 1977 about treating and preventing homosexuality. They immediately stopped sending recruits to his firm.
Campion sued, claiming Minneapolis violated his First Amendment rights. The city eventually paid him a $210,000 settlement.
"The community group has assassinated one capable vendor and has put another one on ice," psychologist John Fennig wrote in a 2006 email brought to light by the lawsuit. Fennig took over the screenings that year, although he acknowledged his firm had no experience in police psychology and urged the city to stick with Campion.
But with Campion and Fischler out, the city was running out of qualified vendors who specialized in police screenings.
A psychologist who works with other Minnesota police departments and who asked not to be identified said their firm has not bid on work for the Minneapolis Police Department because of its history of second-guessing the psychological recommendations.
Edwards, the former co-chair of the now-defunct Police Community Relations Council, has been in integral to that culture and, to no surprise, has played a key role in prompting Minneapolis to re-examine Gratzer's work.
Today, Edwards, 78, lives in a retirement community northwest of the city and continues his crusade to increase the diversity of the Minneapolis Police Department. "I've been here a long, long time, carrying this battle out," he said. "I'm blessed that I'm still here, still able to do it."
Ron Edwards Nikki Tundel for APM Reports
Slowing down efforts to diversify
Last year while Edwards was serving on another police reform task force he learned about two minority candidates who had failed Gratzer's exam. He says that's when he raised questions with police department leaders about Gratzer's work.
That sparked a department review, though it confirmed Gratzer's determination that the two applicants Edwards had flagged were unfit. "They had been screened out for a reason," said Kris Arneson, who was assistant chief at the time.
The department's leaders, however, used the occasion to look more broadly at Gratzer's testing numbers and leaders grew concerned.
Gratzer's screening numbers Dr. Thomas Gratzer screened out 21 percent of minority applicants for police and community service officer jobs during the five years he conducted the evaluations for the Minneapolis Police Department. He screened out 13 percent of white applicants. RACE HIRED NOT HIRED White 207 30 Minority 102 27 Unknown 5 0 Source: City of Minneapolis
"Why is it that consistently, white males passed more frequently?" Harteau, who was chief at the time, asked in an interview. "It was very consistent when you looked at the data. The percentages were always there."
Gratzer screened out 21 percent of minority applicants, but only 13 percent of white applicants, according to city data.
By comparison nationally, about 16 percent of all police applicants fail their psychological exams, according to a survey of 57 law enforcement psychologists that Corey, the Oregon police psychologist, conducted last year. [4]
Like many big-city law enforcement agencies, the Minneapolis police force is less diverse than the population it polices. Non-whites make up about 22 percent of the department, according to a report from 2015, but they made up 36 percent of the city's population in the last census. Many large police departments have far larger gaps, according to 2015 reports from Governing Magazine and the New York Times, but Minneapolis has had a long-standing goal of bringing those numbers into alignment.
The disparity in Gratzer's numbers wasn't large enough to raise red flags under federal anti-discrimination guidelines, but it was certainly large enough to slow the city's progress toward achieving its diversity goals.
Harteau decided it was time to look for a new firm to screen recruits. The goal was to find a psychologist of color to take over the process, according to Arneson.
"I wanted to make sure our hiring was fair. And I think the best way to be fair, is to have non-whites in the group that evaluates these candidates," Arneson said. "Why not have diversity in our hiring as much as we can? We do that everywhere else in the city. So let's do it here."
By the time the city put out an official call for bids on Aug. 1, 2017, Arneson had retired, and Harteau was forced to resign following the shooting of Ruszczyk.
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo attends the Minneapolis Police Academy graduation ceremony on Nov. 1, 2017. Nikki Tundel for APM Reports
Arradondo took over as chief, and he was personally involved in the process of hiring a new firm to conduct the screenings. In interviewing candidates for Gratzer's replacement, he was well aware of the city's fraught history with the screening process.
In 2006, Arradondo sued the police department he would go on to lead, along with four other black officers. Among other things, the lawsuit claimed the department's psychological screenings contributed to an unfair hiring process.
The suit accused the city of "biased psychological testing of officer candidates which resulted in a higher percentage of African American candidates being screened out than white candidates," and singled out Fischler, even though his data showed no such bias.
Minneapolis denied the claims, but settled the suit for $740,000. Arradondo received $187,666.
Another evaluator who's never screened cops
The city's request for proposals, published in August, said successful applicants "must be trained and experienced specifically in the provision of pre-placement and fitness for duty psychological evaluations for public safety positions."
But, as it did when it hired Gratzer and Fennig before him, the city offered the job to a provider with no experience in the specialized field of police and public safety psychology, one of only 16 certifications recognized by the American Board of Professional Psychology.
Dr. Jan Tyson Roberts is a licensed psychologist, but she acknowledges she has never screened aspiring police officers. She has mostly worked as a counselor at Hennepin County Medical Center and in private practice.
She recognizes the learning curve, but predicts her experience conducting assessments will transfer easily. "Whether it's a widget here or a widget there, it's still a widget," Tyson Roberts said.
She hasn't decided what tests she'll administer, but she says there will be more than the one used by Gratzer. "It's never a good idea to only use one test," she said. "You always want to use collateral information when you're making a decision as important as that."
In her job interview with Arradondo, Tyson Roberts says she emphasized her "cultural competency," which she says means that she has worked extensively with minority communities and understands "different is not always deficient."
"I'm an African-American, female psychologist," said Tyson Roberts, 52. "It's no secret that there are oftentimes conflicts between the police department and communities of color, and even the Minneapolis community in general. And so if I could utilize my skills and abilities to be able to help the police department screen applicants so that they're choosing applicants that are suited and well-formed for the job, why not do that?"
Dr. Jan Tyson Roberts Nikki Tundel for APM Reports
In an interview with APM Reports, Arradondo said he couldn't confirm that he'd offered the job to Tyson Roberts because no contract had been finalized. Then he smiled and winked at a reporter. He said he wasn't concerned about Tyson Roberts' lack of experience.
He said diversifying the department is important, but not as important as hiring the best, most psychologically suited officers. "In the peace officer profession, the stakes are incredibly high," Arradondo said. "And while I absolutely want to see our diversity increase, because the stakes are so high, that can't be the only thing."
And yet, over the past 15 years, Minneapolis has fired some of the most qualified police psychologists in the state, and then turned to a succession of mental health professionals with little or no experience in the field.
Correction: Dec. 15, 2017 The population figures in the The population figures in the chart of Minneapolis' peer cities has been updated to reflect 2016 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
David Clarey and Josie Fan contributed to this report.
This report was done as part of a collaboration among four public radio stations and APM Reports. The stations include WABE in Atlanta; WNYC in New York; KPCC in Los Angeles and KCUR in Kansas City. The journalism is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This report was done as part of a collaboration among four public radio stations and APM Reports. The stations include WABE in Atlanta; WNYC in New York; KPCC in Los Angeles and KCUR in Kansas City. The journalism is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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Enter your email below to receive notifications of new stories.International soccer clubs spent a record high of $4.18 billion in player transfers in 2015, according to world soccer’s premier governing body FIFA. With television and sponsorship money rocketing, the number of players transferred from one club to another was up to an all time high, according to FIFA's Global Transfer Market report, which monitored 6,500 clubs around the world.
England, home to the Premier League, was responsible for more than 30 percent of the total outlay, the statement released Thursday showed.
The reports showed that 13,558 transfers took place last year, of which only 13.7 percent had a fee involved. Transfer fees have ballooned in the past few years, with the amount spent on player transfers rising by 44 percent since 2011.
In discussing the transfer market, FIFA chief of transfer compliance Mark Goddard gave credit for the data to Football Leaks, a controversial website that published confidential financial details of player trades.
“"Obviously, the Football Leaks guys have gone rogue," Goddard said. "For us, all streams of information are very, very useful and that one has been as well,” Goddard said.
The report also showed salary data for the first time. Soccer players received $6.6 billion in wages as part of transfer deals in 2015. As domestic transfers are not overseen by FIFA, Godard estimated that the total transfer market could be worth more than the $4.2 billion reported.
The FIFA transfer market report also called on the teams around the world to provide greater clarity in how they operate in the transfer market. Spain’s three biggest clubs — Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid — have all been hit with transfer bans by FIFA in 2015 after they breached regulations related to signing foreign players under 18.
"It would be really good if we could have a verifiable transparent credible source as opposed to back pages of football magazines and soccer leak websites and these kind of things,” Goddard said, according to Bloomberg.Arsene Wenger saw his side beat West Brom on Thursday
Arsene Wenger says the atmosphere at the Emirates on Thursday was the most downbeat he has witnessed in his 20 years with Arsenal.
There were a number of empty seats for the Gunners' clash with West Brom as fans showed their frustration with recent results.
While the hosts were comfortable 2-0 winners against the Baggies thanks to Alexis Sanchez's double, they are competing only for a top-four spot rather than the Premier League title after an inconsistent run of results.
Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports' Geoff Shreeves, Wenger said he can understand why fans are frustrated, but was "very disappointed" by the atmosphere at the ground.
"You want your fans to be enthusiastic, and we are not playing to avoid relegation," he said.
"Ideally you want fans to be happy and I think they can be very proud of a lot at this club.
"We want them to be behind the team, to be proud of the club and the values and consistent achievement of the club.
Thierry Henry believes Arsenal could have a busy transfer window this summer with departures as well as new arrivals Thierry Henry believes Arsenal could have a busy transfer window this summer with departures as well as new arrivals
"It is not enough, and we can understand that, but that doesn't stop us from performing, the top level of sport is to master all situations."
Former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry thinks fans should continue to attend games, even if they are not happy with the way the season has panned out.
Many Arsenal fans stayed away from the Emirates while others made they feelings known
"Some of the fans didn't go to show that they are not happy," said Henry on Sky Sports Now.
"Now Arsene is saying they should come to the stadium and support the team and I'm going to have to agree with that because you have to support your team all the way even if you think they are not performing at the level that you want them to.
"You can always express what you feel about your team after the game but come to the game and support your team.
"It's up also to the players to bring them to the stadium and to have something to look forward to. But again, I'm more of a believer of come and then if you're not happy with the team, you can say something at the end of the game."
Look out for the extended interview with Arsene Wenger on www.skysports.com on Sunday, with the Arsenal manager giving his thoughts on Leicester, why he thinks they could struggle next season and how the Gunners need to improve.It’s been four decades since the end of the Vietnam War, but the conflict has gotten renewed attention in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the Institute of Medicine released its final research study into the long-term effects of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans, concluding that we still have no clear understanding of what the health consequences have been. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs also recently turned down an effort by Navy veterans – who contend their ships sucked in water contaminated by Agent Orange and used it for cooking and drinking – to get compensation for possible exposure to the chemical. The VA continues to limit benefits to sailors who can prove that they visited Vietnamese land or that their ships operated in inland rivers, even for just a day.
The lack of solid research is one reason why ProPublica and the Virginian-Pilot launched a joint investigation last summer on the generational impact of Agent Orange – an ongoing crowdsourced effort that has received a tremendous response from thousands of veterans and their family members.
On this week’s podcast, ProPublica senior reporter Charles Ornstein talks with ProPublica community editor Terry Parris Jr. and the Virginian-Pilot reporter Mike Hixenbaugh about what they’ve learned from speaking with thousands of veterans affected by Agent Orange and the new digital tools aiding them in their fight for benefits.
Courtesy of Blue Water Navy sailor Dan Oughterson
Highlights from their conversation:
Without comprehensive data on the locations of Navy ships during the Vietnam War, aging veterans are doing the research themselves.
Hixenbaugh: Although there's been this need to understand where ships went in order to satisfy the Department of Veteran Affairs’ policy [of only allowing benefits for Navy Vietnam veterans from ships that crossed into inland waters], there's been no comprehensive effort by the government to locate these ships. Instead the veterans themselves are digging through the National Archives. They're leaving posts in online forums, reaching out to old shipmates. Some of them are traveling personally to Washington to go to the Navy's historic archives, and told us they’re digging through dusty boxes and climbing over stacks of records looking for the right three pages of paper that says, "My frigate traveled into Vietnam's inland waters, up the Saigon River for an afternoon." … It's been a remarkable effort by aging, some of them sick, veterans to do some pretty comprehensive research.
Although there's been this need to understand where ships went in order to satisfy the Department of Veteran Affairs’ policy [of only allowing benefits for Navy Vietnam veterans from ships that crossed into inland waters], there's been no comprehensive effort by the government to locate these ships. Instead the veterans themselves are digging through the National Archives. They're leaving posts in online forums, reaching out to old shipmates. Some of them are traveling personally to Washington to go to the Navy's historic archives, and told us they’re digging through dusty boxes and climbing over stacks of records looking for the right three pages of paper that says, "My frigate traveled into Vietnam's inland waters, up the Saigon River for an afternoon." … It's been a remarkable effort by aging, some of them sick, veterans to do some pretty comprehensive research.
ProPublica and the Virginian-Pilot have launched a crowdsourcing effort to help identify more ships.
Parris: We have a list of about 780 ships that served in the Vietnam theater of combat. … We thought it might be an interesting idea to put this list on the site and use annotation software called Genius to invite the community [of Navy Vietnam veterans] to share any information, or invite the sailors to share any information that they have about the ship that they served on. … It's been two weeks now, and we've had something like 70 sailors make notes – dropping in information from reunion information, crew rosters, some anecdotes about their service on the ship, and some Command Officer histories.
We have a list of about 780 ships that served in the Vietnam theater of combat. … We thought it might be an interesting idea to put this list on the site and use annotation software called Genius to invite the community [of Navy Vietnam veterans] to share any information, or invite the sailors to share any information that they have about the ship that they served on. … It's been two weeks now, and we've had something like 70 sailors make notes – dropping in information from reunion information, crew rosters, some anecdotes about their service on the ship, and some Command Officer histories.
The fight for VA benefits raises big-picture questions that go beyond Vietnam veterans.
Hixenbaugh: If a veteran’s exposure to chemicals during the war has adverse health consequences for him or her later in life, or if it has consequences for their children…that kind of forces an uncomfortable conversation about how we calculate the cost of a war. Does it end when we're done tabulating all the physical wounds and the amount we spent on bullets and equipment? Or does our obligation to veterans and their families extend for generations?
Listen to this podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher. For more, read Researchers Call for More Study of Agent Orange Effects on Vets and Their Kids and Help ProPublica Research More Than 700 Navy Ships That Served in Vietnam.Paul Russell says it was like a scene out of the movie Alien.
When he went to check in on the cat of a distant 82-year-old relative who recently moved into a nursing home, he had no idea there was a second animal living under the same roof — “animal” being the operative word, because he couldn’t determine what exactly it was.
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“Out from under a bed it darted,” he tells PEOPLE. “At first I thought it was a cat that had a blanket on top of it. The next day I went into the creepy old cellar and it was hunkered in a corner. I thought, ‘My god this is a cat.’ “
The animal-lover and his wife Jill of Churchill, Pennsylvania, took both cats in and made an appointment at the Animal Rescue League Shelter & Wildlife Center, which eventually removed years’ worth of matted fur from 14-year-old Hidey’s body (the other cat, Siam, is about 17 years old and is doing just fine).
Since her discovery, Hidey, who was named for her penchant for hiding, has become a symbol for how important it is to check on the elderly and their pets. The Russells — who say the cat’s previous owner suffers from Alzheimer’s and “doesn’t know anybody anymore” — believe the mats formed partly because the neglected, morbidly obese feline was too large to groom herself properly.
“The companionship of a pet can bring many positive benefits to the elderly, however, owning a pet is a large responsibility,” said Dan Rossi, CEO of the Animal Rescue League Shelter and the Western PA Humane Society. “If a family member, friend or neighbor owns a pet, please help them to make sure there is a support system in place if/when mental faculties begin diminishing. Also, open door shelters such as Animal Rescue League Shelter and the Western PA Humane Society do not turn any animal away if there are no other options for the pet.”
Western PA Humane Society
Both felines now have a forever home with the Russells, and instant siblings in the couple’s three other cats and two dogs. It will take more time to see who Hidey really is, but she’s slowly adjusting to life without pounds of overgrown fur.
“For the first couple of days she hid under the bed,” Russell says. “When you hold her, she’s clearly shivering and nervous. She’s just starting to come out on her own now.”
This holiday will no doubt be brighter for Hidey, who will meet the couple’s other cats on Thursday after receiving her vaccinations. “Other than being standoffish, you hold her and she starts purring,” Russell adds.
Jill thinks there’s much more in store for Hidey in 2017. “In six months she’ll be running the house,” she says. “And hopefully she’ll be a little trimmer.”Science Guy! NASA machine! Heart drug! Rapid feedback! Skinny death! Meteor shower! And fake exercise myths from fake exercise scientists! It's your Wednesday Science Watch, where we watch science—pseudoscientifically!
Not to alarm the world, but Bill Nye, Science Guy "collapsed on stage in Los Angeles Tuesday night in front of hundreds of audience members during a presentation at USC." He's feeling better now reportedly, but we must ask, is this the end of science? We must ask.
Will NASA's $1.5 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer really answer the question of what the universe is made of? Or will it turn out to just be a big expensive pile of metal and junk? Neither of us are qualified to know, so we'll just believe whatever they scientists tell us, so there's no point worrying about it.
A new drug may turn back the clock on heart disease, but then again, it may not.
What will make you perform your best in this fast-paced modern world? Rapid feedback will. Psychologists say that expecting rapid feedback will keep you prepared for the worst, but performing your best. As a blogger, this is the opposite of my experience with rapid feedback.
Weight loss is good sometimes but not worth dying for. Believe me, I'm a science.
The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight! If you don't watch it you are a loser, science-wise. Or live in an urban area, same thing.
Listen to this absolute crapola: the NYT and its science conspirators would have us believe that some people don't even get any benefits from exercise, just because some jerks did a study that's like, "the researchers enrolled 175 sedentary adults in a 21-week exercise program. Some lifted weights twice a week. Others jogged or walked. Some did both." Oh, breaking, *walking twice a week* doesn't make you fit. Why doesn't the so-called "science community of fitness things" try this one on for size?
[Pic: FB]ESL has revealed the details of its anti-doping policy for the upcoming ESL One Cologne tournament, which for the first time ever will see players subjected to randomized testing for a wide variety of substances proscribed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
"Our main goal is and always will be to maintain the fair play spirit and the integrity of our competitions, and we’re confident that the anti-doping policy is an important improvement that will help us advance as a sport," ESL Head of Communications Anna Rozwandowicz wrote on the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive subreddit. "It is a small, but in our eyes essential and meaningful step forward for professional gamers across all games, ESL as an event organizer, and the esports industry as a whole."
ESL originally announced that skin tests would be used to detect banned substances, but it has determined that saliva tests, conducted at random throughout the duration of the tournament, are a "better fit." The list of prohibited drugs is based on WADA's own 2015 List of Prohibited Substances and Methods, but players with a legitimate prescription for medication, including Adderall—which is what started this whole business—may avoid penalties if they provide proof that the medication in question is actually required prior to the start of the first scheduled match.
Interestingly (and I won't say tellingly but we're all thinking it), the restriction on marijuana use is centered out to be somewhat more specific. "Marijuana is on the list of prohibited substances for [use] during the competition. This means that recreational use of it outside (before) the event days will not be punished," Rozwandowicz wrote. "Using it during the tournament—from the start of the first day until the end of the last day of competition—is strictly prohibited."
Players caught juicing will face sanctions ranging from deductions from their prize money or tournament points, to outright disqualification and a ban from ESL events for up to two years, depending on the circumstances of each individual case. In all cases, ESL said it will take steps to ensure the full privacy of all players involved.NEW YORK, NY JULY 9, 2014 New York Liberty Head Coach and General Manager Bill Laimbeer announced today that the team has acquired forward Swin Cash in a trade with the Atlanta Dream, in exchange for forward Delisha Milton-Jones.
We have been able to identify our style of play for now and in the future, and Swin fits that style, said Laimbeer. Delisha has been a solid player for us, and we think this is a move that benefits both teams.
Cash, a three-time WNBA Champion (2003, 2006, 2010) and four-time All-Star (2003, 2005, 2009, 2011), was the second overall pick of the Detroit Shock in 2002. The 12-year WNBA veteran reunites with Laimbeer who she was with for six seasons and won two WNBA Championships as a member of the Shock. Cash has appeared in 399 career games, averaging 11.9 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. In 49 WNBA playoff games, she has posted 10.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest.
Cash was also a two-time All-WNBA selection (2003, 2004) and All-Defensive Team honoree in 2011. She played for four other teams during her illustrious career -- the Detroit Shock, Seattle Storm, Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream.
Milton-Jones joined the Liberty in 2013 and appeared in 18 games this season, averaging 5.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per game. In 16 seasons in the WNBA, Milton-Jones won back-to-back WNBA Championships with the Los Angeles Sparks (2001, 2002) and was a two-time WNBA All-Star (2000, 2007). She has career averages of 11.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
The Liberty return to Madison Square Garden to host the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday, July 11 at 7:30 p.m.Kevin Cerino says he'd gladly pay more toll money for the I-95 express lane in order to spend more time with with daughter Scarlett. - Lisa Walkowitz-Cerino
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Here's how dynamic tolling, the so-called 'Lexus lane,' is supposed to work: You raise the price of admission during peak periods, and fewer drivers will ride in that lane.
"That day you paid $7, we're trying to get you not to go there," says traffic engineer Rory Santana, who's been running the I-95 express lanes in Miami since they opened five years ago.
But some unforeseen driver behavior has slightly complicated that model. Over the last several months, record numbers of drivers have been willing to shell out the maximum toll of seven bucks. And that's been a problem for Santana.
"If it's $7 and everybody piles in," he says, "we lost our opportunity to try and keep the speed up and keep the flow going."
The relationship between prices and congestion on Miami's I-95. - Raghu Manavalan/Marketplace
Part of the problem appears to be a phenomenon documented on Minnesota's MnPASS system, after which Florida's I-95 Express plan is modeled. Engineers found that, up to a point, drivers are actually drawn to higher tolls.
"And that's surprising," said David Levinson a professor of civil engineering at University of Minnesota and a study author. "Our expectation was that when we raised the price, that fewer people would consume the good... which is what you typically find."
He says you don't normally think about driving on high-occupancy toll lanes as a prestige good, where people perceive more value as the price goes up.
On the other hand, Levinson says, maybe there is a real value. "So if you're a 'type-A' person you might get some sort of psychological benefit from passing 20 other cars on your way to work. Even if by passing 20 cars you've only saved yourself a minute or two, you're ahead in the race, so as a positional good you think it's better."
And for the record, express lanes may or may not be "better" as the price goes up. Dynamic tolling changes to ensure free-flowing traffic in the express lanes — it has nothing to do with what's going on in the not-so-express lanes.
Economist Tony Villamil with the Washington Economics Group says there's now a willingness to pay, he says, is a refusal to wait. "Maybe 20 years ago people would say 'Why not take the more congested route?' Time was not of essence like it is today in the business world."
Villamil says it's further evidence that the value of a second is higher than ever.
Take Kevin Cerino, whose daily mission is to get home as quickly as possible. Cerino. At 4 PM on the nose, Cerino leaves his job at the University of Miami medical school to start the journey home to see his wife, 3-month old son, and 18-month old daughter.
Every minute Cerino wastes in traffic cuts into that precious family time. But when he reaches the I-95 onramp today, an electronic sign tells Cerino his fate.
"It looks like the toll is $7, so I'm not taking the express lanes today."
Instead, it takes him an extra 30 minutes to get home. And the thing is, it wasn't the money that scared him off from the express lanes. Cerino learned that when the 95 Express lanes were at their $7.00 max, authorities had clearly lost control of congestion.
"The one thing I wish I had more of was time," he says. "It's not money, it's not a better job or a better car. It's just I wish I had more time."
It's something Cerino hopes will improve once the top rate goes to $10.50.TOKYO, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- China and Japan announced Friday they had reached a four-part agreement to move forward with diplomatic and security talks after two years of strained relations.
Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Japanese National Security Adviser Shotaro Yachi hashed out the four-part agreement during a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. The two countries said they had agreed to overcome "political obstacles" with the hope of "facing history squarely and looking forward to the future."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry laid out the four points agreed to on Friday.
"First, the two sides have affirmed that they will follow the principles and spirit of the four political documents between China and Japan and continue to develop the China-Japan strategic relationship of mutual benefit. RELATED Current state of U.S.-China relations "Second, in the spirit of 'facing history squarely and looking forward to the future,' the two sides have reached some agreement on overcoming political obstacles in the bilateral relations. "Third, the two sides have acknowledged that different positions exist between them regarding the tensions which have emerged in recent years over the Diaoyu Islands and some waters in the East China Sea, and agreed to prevent the situation from aggravating through dialogue and consultation and establish crisis management mechanisms to avoid contingencies. "Fourth, the two sides have agreed to gradually resume political, diplomatic and security dialogue through various multilateral and bilateral channels and to make efforts to build political mutual trust."
"The four-point consensus basically sets up a platform for the two leaders to meet next week" at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing, said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Peking University.
"A bilateral meeting would be a useful, positive gesture -- it would remove certain diplomatic barriers and provide a platform for future talks."(Newser) – A whole lot of firepower is headed to the Persian Gulf today as Israel and Iran pound their war drums and Benjamin Netanyahu urges Washington not to let Tehran score a nuclear "touchdown." The US, Britain, France, and 22 other countries are sending a naval armada to the Strait of Hormuz for a 12-day "war games" exercise to practice tactics in case of war with Iran, the Telegraph reports. The force includes three of the four active US aircraft carriers and at least a thousand US Marines and special forces, reports RT.
Backing up the carriers are 12 or more vessels, including frigates, destroyers, ballistic missile cruisers, and assault ships. During the annual exercise—the biggest one to date—naval forces will practice counter-mining drills and ways of breaching an Iranian blockade should Tehran try to stop the flow of oil tankers through the strait. Iran plans to stage its own massive military exercise next month to warn the US and Israel against a strike on its nuclear facilities. |
all the frustrations and embarrassments he has to endure, however, Adler's story turns out surprisingly well: he even manages to find true love. The heart of the novel, however, lies with its other returning exiles. Theophil von Kanakis, a rich Viennese from a Greek family who grew even richer in America during the war, comes back home intent on a life of pleasure. A connoisseur of people no less than art, he fulfills his dream of finding an eighteenth-century townhouse and turning it into a sybaritic den, where young people come for a never-ending party.
One of those young people, fatefully, is Maria Theres, known as Resi. Born in America, she has come to her ancestral homeland for the first time, visiting the family her mother left behind. Resi knew that her mother was born a princess, but only now does she realize just what this means in the Old World, where titles and ranks and ancient ways of life still cling to relevance. Out of step in America, with its relentless busyness, Resi finds herself born for the lazy country life of the aristocracy: "How the hours passed she hardly knew. In the mornings she would lie in the grass where an angle of the castle wall made a square of shade for her head and her long bare legs were stretched out to the warm caress of the sun; lying with her eyes half-closed, she would watch the butterflies fluttering between the tall grasses."
The main interest of both these characters lies in the windows they open onto Austrian ways of life. Something of de Waal's own connoisseur relatives must have gone into the drawing of Kanakis, and she must have had her share of the country pleasures—hunting, mountain climbing—that she gives to Resi. However, it is not long before the reader realizes that each of these characters is borrowed, more or less wholesale, from the classic novels Elisabeth de Waal loved. Resi is Isabel Archer from Portrait of a Lady, the innocent American who must navigate the deep waters of European society; and Kanakis is the Baron de Charlus from In Search of Lost Time, a closeted gay aristocrat whose extreme refinement masks his sexual predatoriness.One of the most frustrating and confusing events that occurs when smoking meat products is the time period when the meat seems to just quit cooking. The temperature levels off and will not elevate regardless of how hot the pit temperature (which is the first thing that most inexperienced barbecuers will do).
During our recent Camp Brisket, we were able to demonstrate the “stall” that larger meat cuts go through during smoking. Actually, the stall has been scientifically documented to be evaporative cooling that is occurring around the surface of the meat. Since meat is approximately 70% water, it stands to reason that moisture will be released during cooking. Briskets commonly “shrink” approximately 50% during cooking, so as water evaporates at the surface, the surface cools – much like when we sweat and the sweat cools our skin. Many barbecue enthusiasts have reported this phenomena at an internal temperature of 140º – 160ºF.
To demonstrate the stall, two similar sized beef briskets were placed side-by-side (point end toward the heat) on a pit maintained at a temperature of 225º – 250ºF. We used hickory wood for a heat source. One probe from an iGrill® was placed in the center of each brisket after the initial two hours. At the end of four hours, one of the briskets was wrapped in aluminum foil with the iGrill® probe still inserted. The wrapped brisket continued the climb it began during the first four hours (see graph – red line) and reached the target 195ºF in approximately 9 hours. The brisket then was moved to a vertical holding chamber (160ºF). The unwrapped brisket (see graph – white line) leveled off at approximately 140ºF for two hours, then increased gradually to approximately 150ºF for two more hours before resuming a climb to 195ºF for a total cook time of 13+ hours. This was a very graphic demonstration of the stall and how if affects cooking time.
Holding the wrapped brisket in the original aluminum foil while waiting on the unwrapped brisket to finish cooking resulted in a more “roast-beefy” flavor. Removing the foil and allowing the surface bark to dry out would have resulted in a more traditional flavor and texture.
Understanding the stall and planning/managing for it will result in briskets and other larger cuts that finish in a more predictable time frame and reduce the panic that many experience when it occurs! Cooking Wrapped versus Unwrapped BrisketsOnce a process of economic polarization begins, it is very hard to turn it around. Attitudes harden, fear grows on fear; as people polarize geographically, they begin to know less and less of each other, and become more fearful and more distrusting of each other. Free market rhetoric stops being ridiculed as it was in the 1950s, when economists described events in the late 1920s as free market madness. It is only under rising prejudice that it becomes acceptable again to have many people looking for work all the time, and changing jobs frequently, as the workless become seen as part of the ‘oil’ that makes the whole machine work smoothly. It takes a long time again for people to realize that jobs being lost and gained around the world, or relocated, results in huge gross turnover of human lives for small net increases in apparent productivity.
The turnover change and precarity is what most affects individual lives: insecurity, feeling worthless, being made redundant, being made redundant again and again, having to take whatever work is on offer. In 2011, Guy Standing published The precariat:The new dangerous class. He argued that this group were invariably working below their capabilities precisely because they have no other option. And they are dangerous because they know they have no other option as things stand. Standing himself cites graffiti written on a wall in Madrid in recent years as indicative of how this group thinks about transformation. The graffiti read: ‘The worst thing would be to return to the old normal.’
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The precariat do not celebrate the net increases in numbers of people in paid employment, which is how government economists measure success when selfishness has become the norm.More people in paid work than ever before occurs when there is coercion for everyone who can work to have to do that work. Despite the prevailing rhetoric, it is not necessary that we all labour. Much non-renumerated work is valuable. Neither do we live in a zero-sum world, where jobs have to be lost in rich countries for them to be gained in poor ones and consequently that exchange will somehow make the world a more equitable place. If that were the case, globally, we would be so much more equal by now. Instead, areas are abandoned, other places become overcrowded, labour is casualized and spaces congested; the poorer people are, the more they are exploited. But economic statistics do not usually assess exploitation; just aggregate measures like growth.
During the 1980s in Britain, the motorway system was greatly extended, which allowed people to commute much further and more frequently by car than before.This aided spatial polarization between areas, as you could live further away from the city centers in which you worked. Seen more widely, road building was part of a longer-term change in transportation to encourage individualism, although different affluent countries chose to undertake different levels of road building and of more collectivist and efficient railway building.
Road building and social polarization in Britain led to more road use. The motorways became even more congested than before, despite more being built and more lanes added to the existing roads. It was because more cars were on the road due to more motorways having been built, and more people choosing to live in the suburbs, that the roads actually became even more congested. Conversely, while trams and urban railways had created the outer suburbs as residential possibilities, the car made commuter villages attractive.
Now in many cities, the rich have returned to the very center to avoid congestion and the nearby initially affluent inner suburbs have been suffering decline. This pattern is found in many European cities, across the US and in Australasia – recent changes in the larger cities, such as Sydney, typify this pattern. There are, however, some huge differences between what is normal in different rich countries in terms of how people travel and arrange their housing. In general, the more economically equal people are within a country, the more often they have engineered their public transport systems to work well, and have arranged workplaces to be near enough to homes to avoid having to use cars all the time. Between 2005 and 2009 in the US,only 3.5 per cent of all journeys to work were by cycling or walking; in Australia, that proportion was 6 per cent, in Canada, 12 per cent, in France, 25 per cent, in Finland, 31 per cent, in Sweden, 32 per cent, in Denmark, 34 per cent and in the Netherlands, 51 per cent. Australia and the US chose to build sprawling car-dependent cities, they did not have to, but now their population have problems exercising as they spend many more hours getting to work behind a wheel rather than in healthy exercise.
In different parts of the world, at different times, different parts of cities fare better than others.When in Europe and North America the poor became concentrated in the centers and the rich were spun out to the suburbs, the opposite pattern was found in poorer countries. There, the rich were initially spun into the center. In poorer countries local taxes tend to be low or non-existent. In rich countries the affluent often initially moved out of city centers to avoid being taxed at city rates, thus avoiding having to help support the poor within their city, and avoiding having to live too near them. In richer countries they moved further out to create an outer ring of commuter towns. In the most unequal of all rich countries, the most affluent ensure that local taxes are low and they have at least two homes, one in the city center and one often even further out, so maybe one in Chelsea and the Cotswolds, or one in Manhattan and Maine.
And some of those with homes in more than one community complain of a general lack of community cohesion! Both the Conservative leader, and later Prime Minister, David Cameron and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain were unsure when asked on the campaign trail how many homes they owned. It isn’t possible to know all your neighbors when you own three, four, five, six or more homes. While community cohesion might be low where the most affluent live, these uncohesive areas tend not to experience many riots.
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The phrase ‘community cohesion’ was not used before 2001. It is a strangely manufactured lament reflecting some old concerns associated with city living and migration, but perhaps also a new fear of the affluent who do not want to be blamed for causing others’ woes by their own accumulation of riches. It is in the countries that have become more split apart by greed,in which the richest live as far away from the poor as they can, that you most often hear the lament that in poor areas people occasionally riot.Although the areas where the riots occur are almost always poor, reports on riots in recent years have not made the links between rioting and poverty made by earlier reports. Compare official reports on riots in places like Bradford in 2001 or London in 2011 with reports in the 1980s, including the Scarman report on the Brixton riots in London, or the 1960s California gubernatorial commission’s findings on the Watts riots in Los Angeles.
It is now more common to hear that poverty is ‘not an excuse’, that the fact that those areas have been disinvested in should not have led to disturbance (as so much has somehow been ‘invested’ through ‘regeneration’ schemes). But in the areas in which most rioters live, young people are given so little compared with most young people that they know they have little to lose. Instead of rioting, minor public order offenses and what is called general anti-social behavior are now more often blamed on supposed racial tension and on different groups of people labelled by skin color and religion apparently not mixing much.Almost always these are groups that have mixed well in poor areas, as compared with the way the rich, despite flocking together, do not mix well with each other, let alone with the poor. The segregation and lack of community cohesion of the affluent is ignored, as is their lack of general community spirit, which harms the majority so much. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s The Spirit Level depressingly documents the decline in trust that occurs as inequality increases, encouraging the people with most to try to acquire yet more to protect themselves from those they then trust less and less, and consequently impoverish.
Until recently in the US, the myth that all could become rich was so strong that even a majority of the very poorest voters were in favor of abolishing inheritance tax, called ‘estate tax’. This was despite the fact that less than 1 per cent ever pay such taxes. With US wealth falling after the economic crash it is becoming harder to sell the American dream as something to hang on to, and more and more vital to find sources of income to simply maintain the basic running of the US. Taxing the inheritance of the rich is the most obvious source of that income. Even Bill Gates, the richest single American in 2014 with $81 billion at stake, is in favor of it. However, the greatest obstacle to keeping, expanding and raising inheritance tax is racism. Inheritance tax is now seen as transferring money from white to black Americans, but it was not always so.Andrew Carnegie argued that inheritance tax was the only way to prevent a permanent aristocracy of the wealthy, which could have been prevented had the tax been maintained; instead, North America got that aristocracy, the aristocracy of the descendants of robber barons and bloated bankers.And the social group who take kinship and inheritance most seriously are the very richest of all, where even those who marry into the family can be described as ‘outsiders’.
The human failing most closely associated with the injustice of prejudice is racism. It is racist to believe that we are inherently different. The idea that mental ability and other ‘gifts’ are inherited, and the concept of giving material and social advantage to your offspring, coupled with preventing them from apparently squandering their inheritances by urging them to marry from among a narrow class of partners, are the mechanisms through which prejudice is maintained over time. Where such behaviors over inheritance remain powerful, social inequalities remain high, and social solidarity tends to be low. A belief in inheritance both creates and maintains the ideas of racial groups and racial difference. What separates white and black people most in the US is wealth. When people are free to consort with whomever they wish in a society, that society quickly becomes seen as racially homogeneous.This occurred in Iceland as it came out of abject poverty and almost all were seen as alike, or in Japan, following land reform that made all more equal and hence more alike. As a result, most people in Japan and Iceland are viewed as being of the same race.
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The creation of race
We have not always belonged, and do not always belong, to particular ethnic groups. When there are restrictions on mixing, either legally imposed or through the creation of a tradition, then races become created and begin to take on huge importance in connection with life chances. A race can be made in a flicker of time, and one such flicker occurred in 1770.
On 22 April 1770 there were no indigenous Australians, no natives, no black people in Australia, there was no Australia; there were just a great many people who had lived in a very large land for a very long time. They belonged to many groupings, although these were constantly reforming and far from all-encompassing.
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Of the people spread all across that huge continent, not one of them was called ‘aboriginal’. In a flicker of time all that changed; all the nuances of kin groups, kingdoms and respect went when James Cook, initially apprenticed by Quakers in the Yorkshire seaside village of Whitby, claimed Australia for the English Crown.
If it hadn’t been James Cook, it would have quickly been another sea captain who would have, at a stroke, turned the oldest great collection of continuously surviving human civilizations in the world into what within a few years would become one of the poorest racial minorities on the planet. He did this simply by claiming that Australia was, from then on, part of the inheritance of the British. The British themselves were a manufactured race, who, from 1603 to 1714, had mostly been subjects of a Scottish monarchy, the Stuarts.
There were no British people in 1700; they were only ‘made’ to exist long after the successors of another James, King of Scotland from 1567, inherited the crowns of both Ireland and England in 1603. These were times when the nationalities that people were given, their religions, and the languages they were expected to speak, depended greatly on the whims of princes and kings.And the prince or king you got depended entirely on when and where you were born.
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Like nations, religions and ethnicities, races are created. They are manufactured from acts of royal marriage and infertility, exploration, discovery, colonization, imperialism and expropriation. And races can also be dissolved. They are dissolved by inter-marriage and when no one considers them any longer as a race. Often religious groups are synonymous with racial groups, especially when persecuted, as in the cases of Jews, the Huguenots and Rastafarians.
The Quakers were one such group that was greatly persecuted, much as more accepted races were, and that could easily have become a mainstream race. There was a time when Quakers mostly married other Quakers, gave birth to children who in turn became Quakers, and were seen in countries like Britain as a group apart. When barred from the few universities that existed, a few of their oldest sons instead established what would later become great industries, and they were given a little space to allow that. In England in 1753, the Marriage Act of Parliament contained an exception to allow Quakers and Jews to follow their own traditions.
Just 17 years before James Cook landed on the Australian East coast, English law depicted Quakers on a par with Jews, and also as a ‘race’/ religion to be respected and tolerated. If respect and toleration last long enough, however, a race disappears. The Quakers received respect and toleration in most of the places where they lived, although the Jews often did not. When respect and tolerance are absent, race is all-pervasive, and races are maintained through oppression and persecution. Oppression and persecution occur most frequently where there is great economic inequality.
Race is often proposed as the reason ‘... for the absence of an American welfare state’. The US does have a cut-down version of a welfare state, but properly functioning welfare states require a degree of mutual trust and understanding, greater than that which has been common in the US. When trust is absent, it is very hard to establish widespread support for a system where those who have fallen on hard times through sickness or worklessness will be supported until they are better, or back in work, or both.You have to see your fellow humans as like you in order to support such a system.
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If you see other people around you as a different kind of human being, following different kinds of motivation, perhaps as lazier than you, not as clever as you think you are, or as upright or as moral, then you may be less likely to back systems of mutual support. Seeing groups of others as generally lazy, immoral and stupid is usually social status-related – it is part of seeing them as beneath you. The great injustice of the lack of a well-functioning welfare state in the US is the direct result of the tolerance, maintenance and even encouragement of racism.
Racism is everywhere, but found in each place to differing degrees. In most of Western Europe racism has been kept subservient enough to permit the establishment of a series of welfare states. These welfare states were brought in most solidly after the Second World War, partly to curtail dissent among poor people over continued social inequalities, but also because social solidarity and equality were then high enough to make welfare possible. It was possible even earlier in New Zealand, as the welfare state there was established in the 1930s.
Not all people in Western European countries have been subject to the protection of welfare states – the reasons for excluding a group are usually racist. Guest workers, non-EU tourists, illegal immigrants – these are all groups who can be excluded from medical care and rights to social security that would protect them during times of worklessness. In Japan, for example, guest workers are encouraged to leave when they fall ill or out of employment. In the UK in early 2015, the Prime Minister advocated restrictions on tax credits being available to some European migrants.
Within Europe the right to move freely for those with citizenship is yet another example of races dissolving, as Europeans come to be seen to have more in common with each other, to have common rights and expectations to be treated similarly – a common European inheritance. This is a constructed, not a natural, pan-European inheritance. How it is constructed is well illustrated by recent tensions over migration from Eastern Europe. This common inheritance and the fights on citizenship within Europe are also used, like the ideas of US citizenship and Japanese nationality, as a reason to exclude others, others not fortunate enough to have inherited through accident of birthplace the right to a protected life.
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If you are born in one of the three rich regions of the world you should never go really hungry, never expect to fall ill and die on the street without healthcare; your children will have a right to education; your basic dignity will be respected. These are all things you have inherited because they are your inheritance as a citizen, through the accident of your birth. However, rather than admit this, it can be easier to suggest that in the past, people in these areas were specially endowed to become richer,and that superiority both existed and somehow justifies the current fortunes of their descendants, including almost everyone reading this book. Did the ‘British race’ come to rule an empire of many other ‘races’ that had its greatest extent in 1919 because ‘the British’ were especially able? This would be both a justification based on an identification of races and a racist argument.
It is hard to overplay the importance of how just being born in a wealthy country provides you with an inheritance that ends up marking you as different from others.This inheritance is not simply of systems of social organizations that are efficient at keeping people healthy and (usually) well fed, occupied and educated. It is also of the physical infrastructure that makes all this possible, of roads and railways built decades ago from profits often made from trade – trade that was often imposed on others.
Good health is maintained partly by the inheritance of sewer systems and health systems, and partly the product of being born to parents who, in their turn, will have been better fed and cared for than most other people in the world. However, being born in an affluent country also results in inheriting the right to have payments made indirectly to you in the form of interest on the loans your forefathers made to people in poorer countries. More generally, you inherit being at the right end of a mechanism that ensures that over time, you pay less and less for what is made and grown elsewhere, while those in poorer countries pay more and more.
By 2006, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs valued that transfer at $500 billion (net) moving from poor to rich countries annually. All you need do to qualify for a share in these profits is simply ensure that you are born to the right parents in the right place at the right time. This is luck, not skill. Thus most of your pay packet, if you live and work in a rich country,reflects your luck in having been born there, not your skill at work. By 2014, that same department had identified that it was the rich within the most inequitable of the richest countries of the world who were polluting the most through carbon emissions, to the detriment of everyone else.
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Privilege and prejudice
Taxes, including inheritance tax, should be transfers of wealth from rich to poor. Protecting inheritance is all about maintaining unfairness. Inheritance preserves privilege and prejudice, and without it there would be precious little privilege or prejudice based simply on accruing power from accumulating money. No doubt new forms of privilege and prejudice would emerge, but they could not be based on looking down at others whose parents, for instance, could not afford, due to the cost of the school fees or of living in the right locality, to send their children to similar schools as yours, if you were more wealthy.
When someone says they have been privileged to have had a good education, that often means that they think that they were lucky because others were not given what they preserve as their social advantages. No one in a country where state schools were as well equipped as private schools would say that they had been privileged to have been educated privately; they would say they had been duped if someone had made a charge for what was theirs of right. Rarely are those who mention privilege talking about an education where they were actually taught well, extensively or widely. It is fear of losing these inheritances, these advantages that have little to do with useful learning, that keeps people behaving in particular ways.Often private schools have (privately marked) entrance exams so that only those children who are likely to find the next set of public exams relatively easy are allowed in, giving a false sense of the quality of the education they provide. These schools also teach children to conform and not to question their parents’ choices for them.
Rights to pensions in old age, healthcare then and before, out-of-work and educational benefits, all help keep a population pliant and reduce the incentive for emigration. The recent experiences of people leaving Eastern Europe for Western Europe, or leaving Mexico for the US, or of some Koreans moving to Japan, all show how easily places can lose their people when there appears less and less to inherit at home, and more of a chance for a better life abroad. These included some 68,631 unaccompanied children who were apprehended trying to cross from Mexico to the US in the financial year to 2014. Passports and border controls were only necessary once it began to be appreciated that much inheritance was simply the result of being in a place. Emigration controls, having to apply for permission to leave many countries in Western Europe and a few other jurisdictions, only ended just over a century ago, when enough reasons to stay had begun to be put in place.
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Unless you are seen as highly skilled, one of the few legal ways to move from the poor world to the rich world now,without relatives in the latter, is to gain rich relatives, by marrying. Immigration through marriage is permitted partly because the unwritten rules on marriage are so well adhered to that marriage across social classes remains rare. If people married whoever they wished to marry, their choices not influenced by tradition or another social direction, the world would become a dramatically more equitable place within just a few generations. However, recently in the UK, in a bid to keep poorer people out, prospective immigrants who are the spouses of people who are not well off may now not be allowed to join their husband or wife within the UK.
It is only through the most careful selection of who we marry that inequality is maintained over time, and this careful selection is largely carried out unconsciously.Geographical proximity to potential partners is not just controlled by practical considerations of travel, but also closely curtailed through monitoring by family and society over where young people travel and when. The extent of that control is reflected by the rates at which people marry those from families not like themselves, poorer or richer, black or white, not by what clothes young people are allowed to wear or by what time they have to be home.
Two centuries ago, the question of whom to marry became the staple of contemporary fiction in the English novel,dominating the market from shortly after James Cook returned to England and Jane Austen’s writing gained favor,through to Catherine Cookson becoming the most widely read novelist in England by the time of her death in 1998. We now use terms like ‘gender’ and ‘ethnicity’ to refer to when people choose their partner’s sex or race, but the extent of our actual choices is remarkably limited by how others view us.At the same time as there has been an increased freedom to be gay and much less tolerance of explicit racism, freedom to mix with those who have more or less has been curtailed.
‘Assortative mating’is just one of the terms used to describe the myriad processes employed by varying human societies to ensure that like marry like.‘Homogamy’ is another obscure word for the same thing. The fact that these terms are so obscure illustrates just how embedded the process is. It is not that some people practice assortative mating and others do not, or that a very sizeable majority follow homogamy; it is that these behaviors are so much the norm that these terms are not needed. When people married out of their economic class, it used to be a great scandal.
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It was a scandal in 1960 when the prosecuting counsel in a well-known English obscenity trial asked the jury, ‘Is it a book you would wish your wife or servants to read?’ Because the prosecuting counsel was a man from the upper classes who had married a woman from the upper classes, inherited property and employed servants, he had assumed the jurors were in the same position and that they all had servants! Homogamy promotes and maintains such prejudices.
The subject of the infamous 1960 trial, Lady Chatterley’s lover, was a book written by D.H. Lawrence in 1928 about a woman who had sex with her gamekeeper, a servant. It was immediately banned from publication until the trial collapsed in 1960, which was indicative of how prejudice had been reduced between 1928 and 1960.The trial had been held in order to try to stop the publisher (Penguin) in its attempt to produce a cheap paperback copy.
Although banning books on subjects such as sex between social classes became seen as absurdly old-fashioned by 1960,marriage (if not so much sex) beneath one’s station, especially for a woman, still carried great stigma; it still does, as evidenced by its continued rarity and patriarchy’s continued dominance (at least at older ages). That stigma may be rising in countries where social mobility is falling. And social mobility falls when income inequality rises.
Reprinted with permission from "Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists" by Danny Dorling, published by Policy Press at the University of Bristol. © 2015 by Policy Press at the University of Bristol. All rights reserved.Determined to get answers from the Snow Queen, Emma interrogated her privately after finally capturing the Snow Queen with Elsa’s aid. But before she could even make dairy queen spill, the Snow Queen showed her instead that every family has their ups and downs and that both of them just might feel the same—different, misunderstood, alone. Meanwhile, Robin Hood forgot how truthful, righteous and good he was despite Regina constantly reminding him that he should forget about her and find a way to fall in love with his wife again. In Arendelle of the past, however, Ingrid gave up the silly little things she and her sisters wore since they were children as an exchange of goods, not realizing that the fail safe will be her worst nightmare.
Keep in mind that the next episode, “Smash the Mirror” is going to be a two-hour long episode at 8–10 pm (7–9 pm Central), while there will a break on November 23.
Arendelle (Past)
Looking out at the different sisters, it seems that Gerda was more optimist than the other two. They picked the perfect actress to play young Ingrid. It felt like Elizabeth Mitchell made some faces for the girl as they film the episodes. Surely, the creators are doing a great job casting the younger counterparts for the characters.
Did the Snow Queen (and Elsa) felt being inside the urn? Were they aware of what was going in despite being inside the urn?
It seems that the magic affects only the firstborn—Ingrid, Emma and Elsa—and quite incidentally, Rumplestiltskin has always been after the first born; even Zelena, who was clearly more powerful than Regina, was a firstborn. Are firstborns only the ones who get magic?
At their father’s 70th birthday party, there’s a band there where the camera panned to the guy holding the tuba, which looked exactly like the ones showed in the movie, Frozen. And although we found some of the repeated lines nice, some are a little bit forced. But we got the Duke of Weaselton, as well as his dancing. That, fortunately, didn’t feel forced; it worked well with the story.
After the party, one of the things that we were surprised about was that there weren’t too many snowflakes and flurries around Ingrid. Did it only appear when they were feeling specific emotions, like when Elsa was mourning for their parents, while Ingrid was yearning for a normal life?
We love how they keep calling the Enchanted Forest “Misthaven”, giving it a proper name. But again, with the whispers, how did Gerda hear the whispers but not her other sisters? Did the tentativeness lead her to hearing the whispers about the Dark One?
In the Enchanted Forest, when the Arendelle sisters met Rumplestiltskin, Rumple said that “True love comes in many forms. But the sisterly bond—worth its weight in magic.” Whenever Rumplestiltskin makes deals, he seemed to always want something of value. Did Rumple just take the ribbons just to give them back in the future? This particular scene looked like it happened way before Snow White and Charming. Was Rumplestiltskin simply looking for a symbol of true love, thinking that it could work with the Dark Curse? If this wasn’t before Snow White and Charming, was this also before or after either Regina or Zelena? Check out the show’s timeline if you’re just as curious as us about piecing all these together.
We take a look at the glove that Rumplestiltskin handed Ingrid in the Enchanted Forest and compared it with Elsa’s in the movie counterpart and true enough, it looked like it was the same gloves. Elsa’s father said that the gloves will help, but will it really help block her powers?
The duke of Weaselton is such a creep; referring to Arendelle as a mysterious flower, obsessed with mysteries and seems to always want what he can’t have. Why didn’t the first blast kill him? Why didn’t Ingrid hurt the duke more? On the other hand, we love how Helga wasn’t easily swayed by the duke’s lies, although it was sad to see her go so fast when the duke basically ran towards her and pulled her to shield himself against Ingrid’s icy blast. Why did she die so quickly? Is it because it was a direct attack at the heart? Is Ingrid simply more powerful than Elsa?
Looking back from the last episode, Helga doesn’t look a lot like Emma, unlike Hook said. However, Ingrid is dressed the same as when she was freed from the urn. How did Ingrid learn to control of her powers if she seemed too afraid when Gerda opened the urn’s lid? How can she train Elsa when she herself hasn’t learned to control of her own powers when she get sucked inside the urn?
When the three sisters were still young, they all said that they will never look at Ingrid as the monster, so how can Gerda give into fear so easily? Maybe she wanted to be queen? She was the most optimistic in the beginning, even the one to tell them that they’d never see her as a monster so to turn so fast against her sister was rather odd.
Grand Pabbie told Gerda that all magic comes with a price. What was the price for taking away everyone’s memories away in Arendelle? Why would Arendelle not survive the tragedy? Why was making everyone forget the Ingrid and Helga even existed necessary? Is Gerda worried that the entire kingdom will revolt against them?
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Storybrooke (Present)
When we first Ingrid inside the clock tower, we thought that she was going to see Maleficent underground, but she was just going up in the elevator. It was confusing because until this episode, the elevator was only used to be lowered down.
Robin Hood’s struggle when he went into Regina’s vault was a realistic struggle. Trying to love one woman while the other one is still out there, but clearly someone needs to go before they can continue on with their relationship. Then again, we love how the creators were not making it about the audience’s morals, but only Robin’s, making it blatantly that it was his morals alone that he was struggling it; we can all have the black, white and gray area and that all our actions will have consequences to everyone around you.
The whole “forget me” thing that Regina keeps telling Robin Hood, is this a foretelling that she was going to make a forgetful potion to make Robin forget that he ever loved her?
We looked closely at the sheriff’s office and noticed an interview transcript of a guy named “Cyril Keep”, a homeless guy who was a former teacher, accused of taking a boy. Probably nothing significant, but still had us wonder if we will get to hear about him in the future episodes.
We were still a bit confused about how the candle works other than that it has a flame switch at the bottom and it can constrict the person from using magic. Although, Ingrid did look a bit surprise when Emma captured her. Or was she just acting and it was all really part of her plans? But aside from the candle, we thought that the icicle bullet was so cool!
Down at Granny’s with the young mother’s support group with Ashley, Mary Margaret, Aurora and the other first time mothers and their babies, we noticed a major continuity error when Ashley introduced Alex as a boy. Unless they had a second baby, Alexandra in the episode, “The Price of Gold,” was a girl and should have been at least about three years old. And if Ashley and Sean had a second baby, they shouldn’t have named the baby boy the same name as his sister.
Has anyone noticed that one of the babies was dressed as Mickey Mouse?
Interrogating Dairy Queen
As Emma was interrogating the Snow Queen, Ingrid told Emma to use her superpower. Did Emma’s superpower develop when she was with Sarah Fisher? Snow Queen told |
library:
type Probability = Double data P m a = P { runP :: m ( Probability, a) } instance Monad m => Functor ( P m) where fmap f ( P m) = P $ fmap (fmap f) m -- 2nd fmap is tuples type PP m = Free ( P m)
There are just two important ones:
P (for “probabilistic”): A functor representing randomly-sampled values with an associated probability. PP (for “probabilistic program”): the free monad over the functor P.
Note that each is parameterised by a “sampling monad”, m - this is where the actual random generation is taking place. Currently, I’m using random-fu to fill this role. To demonstrate what this means, here’s an implementation of eval. It takes a probabilistic program PP m a, and builds a monadic value of type a by summing log-probabilities at each step, to yield a final sample along with the summed log-probabilities.
eval :: Monad m => PP m a -> m ( Probability, a) eval prog = go 0 prog where go p ( Pure x) = return (p, x) go p ( Free ( P m)) = m >>= (\(p', x) -> go (p + p') x)
At last! Below is the bootstrap particle filter. I’ve left out implementations for the following functions in the interests of conciseness:
terminated : true if a program has finished
: true if a program has finished stepAll : advance a list of probabilistic programs one step
: advance a list of probabilistic programs one step resample : resample a list of probabilistic programs
bootstrap :: MonadRandom m => Int -> PP m a -> PP m [( Double, a)] bootstrap n prog = loop (replicate n ( 0.0, prog)) where loop ps | all (terminated. snd) ps = return. map f $ ps | otherwise = stepAll ps >>= resample n >>= loop f (p, x) = (p, getPure x)
Hopefully the core idea is clear: we simply repeatedly step the programs (or particles, or ps ), resample them, and repeat until all have terminated.
Acknowledgements and Improvements
Hopefully that was an illuminating glance into what probabilistic programming is about. As mentioned, this library is in a very early state, and there are a few shortcomings with the code right now. Here’s a list of things I’m aware of and working on:
Parametrising P and PP by a monad m might be better done using FreeT.
and by a monad might be better done using. WriterT might be used instead of summing probabilities
might be used instead of summing probabilities Performance is bad: The Metropolis-Hastings implementation takes a very long time, and seems to have a space leak.
The “StickyState” example doesn’t seem to converge properly, although hidden states are correctly inferred.
I also like to list the resources I found useful in writing this:
And last but certainly not least, it seems that I’ve been beaten to the punch by a talk and paper from ICFP 2015: Practical Probabilistic Programming with Monads.
I’ve only skimmed this paper, but I believe it’s a similar idea- it also seems like it’s a pretty great explanation (and possibly a more solid implementation) so I definitely recommend reading it.FILE - In this July 30, 2009 file photo, Joel Tenenbaum, from Providence, R.I., poses outside federal court in Boston, after taking the stand in his defense in his copyright-infringement trial. On Monday, May 21, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Tenenbaum, who was successfully sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally sharing music on peer-to-peer networks. In 2009, a jury ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 for each song he illegally downloaded and shared.(AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye, File)
BOSTON (AP) -- A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court's refusal Monday to hear his appeal.
Joel Tenenbaum, 28, of Providence, R.I., said he's hoping a federal judge will reduce the amount.
"I can't believe the system would uphold a six-figure damages amount for downloading 30 songs on a file-sharing system that everybody used," Tenenbaum said. "I can't believe the court would uphold something that ludicrous."
A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 per song, after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him on behalf of four record labels, including Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Brothers Records Inc. A federal judge called the penalty unconstitutionally excessive and reduced the award to $67,500, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated it.
The 1st Circuit said a new judge assigned to the case could reduce the award again, but the record labels would then be entitled to a new trial.
Tenenbaum, who said he just graduated Sunday from the university with a doctorate in statistical physics, said he doesn't have the money to pay the judgment.
"I've been working on a graduate student's stipend for six years now and I have no such money," he said.
Tenenbaum argued that the U.S. Copyright Act is unconstitutional and that Congress did not intend the law to impose liability or damages when the copyright infringements amount to "consumer copying."
During the trial, Tenenbaum admitted he downloaded and shared hundreds of songs by Green Day, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins and others. His lawyer suggested the damages should be as little as 99 cents per song, about the same amount Tenenbaum would have to pay for a legal online song purchase.
Lawyers for the recording industry argued that illegal downloading hurt the recording industry by reducing income and profits. A lawyer for the recording labels described Tenenbaum as a "hardcore" copyright infringer. The association said it offered to settle the case for $5,000 early on, but Tenenbaum declined.
"We're pleased with this decision," RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said after the Supreme Court's announcement Monday.
In the only other music-downloading case against an individual to go to trial, a judge last year reduced the penalty imposed on a Minnesota woman from $1.5 million to $54,000. An appeals court has scheduled arguments for next month in the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset.
.MLB Commissioner Bud Selig announced Wednesday that his office will assume control of the Dodgers' operations. Owner Frank McCourt needed a personal loan from Fox in order to meet the Dodgers' payroll last week.
The official statement from Commissioner Bud Selig:
"Pursuant to my authority as Commissioner, I informed Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt today that I will appoint a representative to oversee all aspects of the business and the day-to-day operations of the Club. I have taken this action because of my deep concerns regarding the finances and operations of the Dodgers and to protect the best interests of the Club, its great fans and all of Major League Baseball. My office will continue its thorough investigation into the operations and finances of the Dodgers and related entities during the period of Mr. McCourt's ownership. I will announce the name of my representative in the next several days. The Dodgers have been one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports, and we owe it to their legion of loyal fans to ensure that this club is being operated properly now and will be guided appropriately in the future."
ALSO:
Selig expected to take over Dodgers' financial operations
Dodgers hire developer Steve Soboroff as vice chairman
If the fans don't come, does that really mean Frank McCourt goes?
-- Bill Shaikin
Photo: Commissioner of major league baseball, Bud Selig. Credit: Chris Morrison / US Presswire[Ahmadiyya Khalifa in a file photo]
Hyderabad: Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for wishing success to 'Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya Centenary' celebrations, Jamiat Ulama Telangana and Andhra Pradesh said patronising a small group of community which does not have any relationship with Islam while ignoring the Muslims is unfair and not good for the country.
"This is strange. In the last two years Prime Minister Modi has never issued any congratulatory message to Muslims on the occasion of Eid and other Muslim festivals. But, he has sent a letter wishing success to Ahmadiyya community", Hafiz Peer Shabbir Ahmed, MLC and President of Jamiat Ulama Telangana and Andhra Pradesh said in a statement.
"This has hurth the sentiments of Indian Muslims. If Modi thinks Ahmadiyyas are Muslims then he has to correct himself. Ahmadiyyas are not Muslims and it is the decision of Muslims world over", he added.
Hafiz Peer Shabbir was commenting on a letter issued by Prime Minister to Ahmadiyya community on December 21, 2015.
"Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is known for its religious tolerance, universal brotherhood and these qualities of the community have been instrumental in strengthening the unity of the nations", Modi said in his letter.
"It is a matter of pleasure to know that Khilafat-e-Ahmadiyya Centenary will be celebrated at its headquarters Qadian Dist. Gurdaspur, Punjab and a souvenir is being published to mark the occasion. I wish success to the centenary celebration", he added.
Hafiz Peer Shabbir in his statement condemning the prime minister further said that Modi should work with Muslims for harmony in the country.
"Instead of working with a vast majority of Muslims, Modi is encouraging a small group which has nothing to do with Islam and Muslim. It does not fit the integrity of the union government", he said.
India has a good Ahmadiyya population, and most of them live in Kerala, Rajasthan, Odisha, Haryana, Bihar, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and a few in Punjab in the area of Qadian.
Though Muslims consider Ahmadiyyas non-Muslims and apostates, Indiam law regards them as Muslims.DISGUSTING RACE ATTACK! Elderly Woman with 2 Dogs Assaulted at Pool Party (VIDEO) –UPDATE
Elderly woman with 2 dogs assaulted at pool party—
An elderly woman with two little dogs confronted a loud and boisterous crowd at a pool party — likely a community pool.
One black kid lifted her up and body slammed her.
Then they dragged her and her two dogs and tossed her in the pool.
Then all the black kids scattered.
What an awful attack!
Don’t expect this to get any headlines.
This video needs to go viral and this guy should be arrested. Shocking & sad this happens in America https://t.co/MUZZFdA0uK — Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 7, 2017
UPDATE: MTO has more on the assault:
The party – which was being held by a group of promoters called the Block Boyz – was held at one of the teenagers residence – inside a private house just outside of Miami, Florida. The woman – who is seen in the below video was dropped on her head – suffered serious head trauma. She was then almost DROWN – when she was tossed into the pool. Luckily MediaTakeOut.com confirmed that the woman managed to leave the residence – with her dogs – on her own, after the video cut off. MediaTakeOut.com also confirmed that the woman was later rushed to the hospital and is currently in STABLE condition. Police are still investigating the incident.Evening folks!
When Starbound’s overall balance structure was first established, humanoid NPCs weren’t really a primary consideration at the time, nor was PVP, so the game was largely balanced based around the damage between players and the monsters. While this system was fine at first, it has been the root cause of much difficulty in balancing humanoid NPCs who were primarily balanced to fight against the player and got absolutely trashed by monsters, which was a problem, especially with our growing focus on missions. This necessitated a rethink of how everything was balanced.
To that end, Tiyuri and I, have gone over almost everything with a fine-tooth comb. Here’s a brief overview of the biggest changes.
– NPCs now use armor, so damage inflicted on them is reflective of their armor. Additionally their health now scales on a curve similar to the player’s.
– Damage values across the board have risen. Monsters now die more easily, but they can also kill the player faster too. Fight carefully!
– The energy scaling curve on guns has been completely reworked for a more gradual and consistent climb.
– Tiered armors have been completely rebalanced to suit the new armor and energy scaling levels.
– Players now start off with access to two weapons from the offset, with most races gaining a one-handed shortsword in addition to their broadsword. The novakids gain a two-handed rifle.
– Generated weapon values now typically sit somewhere between the tiered weapons. Rare weapons may still potentially be more damaging, but this should help to keep tiered weapons useful all throughout the game’s progression.
It might not seem like much but these changes have involved a frankly exhausting amount of configuration, but it has transformed the game feel quite significantly. A pleasant side effect of this humanoid-centric rebalancing is that the game is largely balanced for PVP too, provided all parties have suitably leveled equipment.
Guns are more dependable weapons overall, but melee inflicts monstrous damage for those willing to take the risk. In our testing, we found ourselves having heated 1-on-1 exchanges, rapidly alternating between ranged sniping and clashing swords when our energy reserves were locked away. It was both frantic and fun! I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys make of it.Something new - for me - happened today.(Sorry, didn't make a note of the version, but it updated itself a few days ago.) I was once again briefly using AP2 since I was driving alone and wanted to test it.
Clear conditions, divided motorway, right-hand lane, left-lane empty, clear white lane markings, lead car ahead, slight curvature towards the left, nothing major, this is a motorway after all. Then the lead car moves over to the lane on the left. When the lead car changes lanes, AP2 actually starts to follow it to the other lane. Never mind these clear white markings on the road and the fact that I'm not touching the blinker stalk...
There was nobody around, so I let it do its thing. Halfway through following the lead car (somewhere on top of the lane markings), AP2 kind of fidgets and doesn't seem to think this is a good idea after all (really!?!) and turns back a bit, then back left a bit, and back right one more time, fidgeting smack in the middle of two lanes, before calling it quits and disabling itself with a bong.
That was interesting. I guess the algorithm really, really likes its lead car. The road marking were clear, the weather and light was good, there was no sun facing us, it was suitably overcast. AP2 just decided to abandon the gently curving lane markings and follow the sideways moving lead car instead.
While new in detail, this, generally speaking, is really typical of AP2. It just does not default to following the logical road markings and makes no "safe bet" assumptions about what's likely to come next, it seems. It seems it has no "smarts" about what the road likely might contain.
Someone noted that the older AP1 will happily follow road markings to a concrete divider if they lead there and judging by the infamous video that is true. AP1, while this is counter-intuitive in a way, is actually very logical and smart here. If the system is limited (as both AP1 and AP2 are) and does not know better, it is better to follow a lane to a divider, if the lane actually leads to a divider, than to make something up. Of course disabling the system and making an evasive maneuver while/before doing so would be even better, but what would not be good is deciding to "invent" virtual lanes (like a human can e.g. in a non-painted roadworks area), unless the system can really understand how to invent them...
Neither AP1 or AP2 can understand the road beyond road markings or sides, no that kind of NN magic is not there yet. AP1 assumes road markings more often than not make sense, so it defaults to following them in a way that makes sense, instead of picking up on some stray tar-line and twisting towards that like AP2 does at times... Unlike AP1, AP2 will happily not follow any such logic, but do something quite different instead - nobody just knows what and when. I'd rather take the tame AP1 logic at this stage of development.
It is better to have a predictable system that is limited, than an unpredictable system that is just as limited.
Click to expand...It's 40 years since Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope came out. Do you remember when you saw it for the first time?
I can't remember, it's too far gone! I was just leaving boarding school - '77 was my last year of school, way back then. I don't think Star Wars was anywhere in my peripheral. I did eventually see it somewhere because I love going to the movies. I was a big fan of all the old westerns and Bruce Lee [laughs], I was brought up on those ones, coming out of the little town Rotorua in New Zealand.
It's also been 15 years since Stars Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones was released in 2002. How is it to look back on the experience of playing Jango Fett in that film?
Fifteen years ago... I remember when we were filming it in in 2000, and they were building the circles for the Olympic Games in Sydney. I could see them from my hotel room – the circles going up on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I wasn't doing much [in the film], I was waiting for my helmet to come off! What an experience. I still go to conventions – I got a phone call today to see if I want to go to a convention in Perth, one in Sydney. Life goes on after that galaxy.
Do you remember your audition process for Jango Fett? Were you up against other people?
It was actually a process because I happened to be in Los Angeles and I was in the Bel Age Hotel. I used to pay for myself to go to LA and stay in a hotel, try and get a meeting or two, try to break in.
I was coming out of Shortland Street, armed with my doctor photos from the series [Morrison played Dr. Hone Ropata on the New Zealand soap]. I had a letter asking me to meet with the Star Wars casting lady, Robin Gurland. The funny thing was she was on the floor above me at the Bel Age Hotel! I looked up and thought, "she's right there, that's the floor above me!" So that was a buzz. It was just funny [the audition location] happened to be in the same hotel I was in. So I just went up one floor, sat down with her. She had a video camera on me and we had a nice chat – that's all it was. No lines, no dialogue – we were just having a chat about me, what I liked and where I was from, my family and she would've just shown George [Lucas] that. I'm sure [being in] Once Were Warriors helped, that one made some noise. [My character] was an abusive, raw husband who drank too much – that obviously helped.
How did it feel once you learned you'd won the role?
It was fantastic, great. It was a fantastic feeling. I had to brush up on my Fett homework though – I didn't know who the hell Jango Fett was! People were like, "Yeaaaah, you're Jango Fett!" And I was like, "who the hell's Jango Fett?!" [laughs]Military fanatic Shaun Mitchell, who has an eight-tonne tank in his garden, says he is on the lookout for a new girlfriend he can relate to.
Shaun Mitchell with his US military Jeep and a 1972 Sabre tank (Masons)
When Shaun’s previous girlfriend left him, it wasn’t exactly a bombshell. As you can see, he’s is pretty passionate about military hardware and, after 12 years, she probably deserved a medal.
His cottage garden in West Lynn, Norfolk, contains a fleet of military vehicles including a Sabre tank, a World War II truck, a Jeep, scout cars and an anti-aircraft gun.
‘I would like to find a girl who likes tanks, too,’ he admits.
‘So many people conform, but why not own something a bit different?’
He’s honest, too.
‘I don’t drink or smoke, I have no bad habits – apart from the compulsion to buy military vehicles,’ adds Shaun, 44.
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‘My friends and family are happy because they love coming out in the tanks with me, although my last girlfriend didn’t really understand it.’
One can sympathise with her. The newspaper delivery man has a half-share in an armoured personnel carrier which is parked in the garden from time to time.
Communication is vital in any relationship, as Shaun knows: ‘I have all the stuff, uniforms, proper crew helmets with the intercom – so you can talk to each other.’The Kansas Republican Party is distancing itself from its Kansas Republican 3rd Congressional District Committee vice chairman after he tweeted that Americans had a “duty” to use firearms to “offend” Muslims.
Gavin Ellzey admitted to the Kansas City Star that he had tweeted: “Offending Muslims is the duty of any civilized person. Especially with a.45.”
He said the sentiment was in response to reports that Christians were being “crucified” in the Middle East. But he later deleted the Twitter message after he began receiving phone calls about it.
“Sometimes you overreact,” Ellzey explained. “I’m not trying to offend anybody. I sure wouldn’t shoot anybody. I don’t even own a gun.”
In a statement obtained by KSHB, Kansas Republican Party Executive Director Clay Barker disavowed Ellzey’s remarks.
“The Kansas Republican Party has no responsibility for or connection to the public statements of private citizens who perform occasional volunteer work for the Party,” the statement read. “The Republican Party in no way shares Mr. Ellzey’s sentiment.”
Ahsan Latif, who is president of the interfaith Crescent Peace Society, told KSHB that he was disturbed that someone “who has a role in the Republican Party would say something like that.”
“This is something that is published by a respected member of that community, the GOP, who has found himself in a leadership position and if he is advocating for violence against Muslims, it really, really makes me wonder what could happen,” Latif pointed out.
Watch the video below from KSHB, broadcast Aug. 7, 2014.
(h/t: Political Wire)LONDON (Reuters) - Can man’s best friend be replaced by a prickly pal the size of your palm?
Children stroke a Madagascan hedgehog during their visit to Ljubljana's zoo, Slovenia September 30, 2004. REUTERS/Srdjan Zivulovic
Busy British pet lovers have been buying hedgehogs, whose nocturnal habits make them appealing to the modern worker because they wake in the evening when their owners arrive home after a day in the office.
Although Britain has its own wild breed of hedgehogs, the latest pet craze focuses on African pygmy hedgehogs — a cross between Algerian and white-bellied hedgehogs.
“They are unbelievably pretty little creatures, the way they bumble along, the way they poke their noses into everything,” British hedgehog breeder Bonnie Martin told Reuters.
Initial costs for the animal and accompanying equipment can run to 300 pounds ($591). But hedgehogs, who can survive on cat food, are cheaper to feed because they eat a third of the household cat’s daily diet, Martin said.
“People will travel vast distances to get them in order to get them from reputable breeders...there’s about eight to 10 serious breeders in the UK. It takes a lot of traveling in order to get a good hog,” said Martin, who has sold two litters already and has a waiting list for the rest of the year.
But animal conservationists said the trend poses a serious threat to the declining population of Britain’s native wild hedgehogs, which last year made the government’s species protection list.
British Hedgehog Preservation Society trustee Kay Bullen said the expense of buying rare types of hedgehog could tempt people to lure a cuddly British cousin in from the garden.
“Why buy that when you can get one for nothing from the wild?” she told Reuters.
The impact from poaching on the wild hedgehog population could be greater in the next month if mothers are removed from their litters during the Spring breeding season, Bullen said.
“The babies will die without their mum,” she said. “They’re completely dependent for four weeks.”
Bullen also said that the introduction of a foreign species could cause a secondary wildlife problem if pet owners who tire of their hedgehogs attempt to release them into the wild.
“People will probably think they can exist in our country, but I don’t know if they can.”
($1=.5075 Pound)22 August 2012 / 19:08:29 GRReporter
4079 reads
Victoria Mindova
Greece is once again preparing for another austerity package before the arrival of the supervisory Troika of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. A new reduction of pensions by at least 20% will be introduced for the next two years, 40,000 public sector employees will enter the labour reserve, and military and police officers will receive salaries cut by 12%. The end of the 13th and 14th salaries for employees in the public administration and the elderly is coming and those employed in state enterprises will receive 35% lower wages. The single payment for retirement will be reduced by 40%.
These are just some of the measures that the Ministry of Finance will present to the European creditors in its attempt to convince them that Greece is ready to make efforts to remain a full member of the euro zone. At the same time, the country is on the verge of disaster. This year, the recession is expected to exceed 7% and despite the debt restructuring in early 2012, Greece is experiencing serious difficulties in fulfilling its obligations to creditors. The financial aid is insufficient, the debt is growing and the future is unclear.
GRReporter turned to Dionisis Hionis, Professor of Economics at the Democritus University of Thrace to present his views on the developments in the Greek economy.
Do you expect a second haircut of the Greek debt?
Yes, I firmly believe that there will be a reduction of the debt held by the official sector - OSI (Official Sector Involvement). I think there will be a haircut of Greek bonds held by central banks, mainly by the European Central Bank. This debt should be reduced, so that the obligations of Greece become executable. I think the face value of bonds held by the official sector could be reduced by 30% -35%. This will reduce the debt burden of Greece with another 50-70 billion euro.
The process is not difficult. Let me give you an example. The European Central Bank has bought Greek government bonds from the secondary financial market, paying 60% -65% of the nominal value of the bonds. Currently, the Bank is accounting for 100% of their value. The maturity of such a bond is in the next days. Its face value is 3.2 billion euro but the European Central Bank paid for it only 60% of its original price. Therefore, what should be done is to align the accounting value of the Greek bonds held by the official sector at their real market values.
The Greek government is planning severe austerity measures, which include cuts in the budget of almost 14 billion euro in order for the country to continue to receive aid from the European countries and the International Monetary Fund. Do you think this programme is feasible?
First, we must say that it is imperative for Greece to align its budget. The country faces serious difficulties in financing its budget deficit from international markets, so it must reduce its costs to its revenues. It would be easier to Greece if it were granted more time to implement its programme. The aggressive implementation of the specific measures in a short time results in major social and socio-political consequences.
It is very difficult to cut the public administration and drastically reduce the number of civil servants in a country where 60% of GDP is the result of the activities of the public sector. On the one hand, it is required but it is difficult to implement it on the other. The situation gets even harder because no one lends the country to enable it to compensate the gaps in the process of change.
The recovery programme, which includes fiscal consolidation and structural reforms in the country, is part of the bailout agreement. I hope that the creditors of Greece will give the country extra time to meet the fiscal targets so that the implementation of these measures will have a slight effect on the real economy and households. The effect will be on employment, social policy, quality of life, healthcare, public administration activities and other sectors.
The problem with Greece in the last two and a half years was that it often made promises in order to have more time and resources, but it did not keep them later. Do you think the government of Antonis Samaras will act differently this time?
Greece no longer can allow itself to not keep the arrangements. The signals the government has sent so far are very positive, both for the privatization and the reform and for the restructuring of the state system. The measures to improve these sectors will increase the confidence in Greece.
As you noted, the biggest problem in the last two years was the lack of confidence. The Greek government made big promises, which it failed to keep in practice. Given the situation in Europe and the world, I do not think there is a great opportunity for omissions hereafter.
What do you think will be the conclusions of the supervisory Troika in its next report, which is to be released this autumn assuming that Greece has learned its lesson?
The report the Troika is currently preparing will assess a dead period for the Greek economy - from February to July 2012. There were two parliamentary election rounds in the country during this period and the state administration was literally paralyzed. It is logical to not have achieved budget targets. The report expected in September will describe the results of this unfruitful period. This does not mean that the next report will have the same characteristics, as it will focus on the current activities of the government, which is already actively following the planned programme.In order to appear on the georgeous http://stats.ethdev.com monitor (AKA 'netstats'), you need to set yourself - it's a voluntary process.You'll need to go through the documentation, there are two documents:The README.md of the repo: https://github.com/cubedro/eth-net-intelligence-api And the wiki: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Network-Status Follow these instructions and the centralized netstats will have access to your info.Note there is also a secret key to input and be accepted by netstat at the moment, called. We're thinking of a public version, but right now, we're keeping the number of nodes pushing data to the monitoring server reasonnable - if you want to give it a shot and get the key, join the skype channel for netstats.Note: The monitor was build by @cubedro (Marian Oancea) - I think it's fair to say he's done an amazing job!15/05/2015 - updated screenshot23/05/2015 - minor update28/07/2015 - updated to reflect the new key distribution process3/07/2015 - updated for FrontierGet the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
An axe-man who stormed a passenger train and hacked at terrified passengers while shouting "Allahu Akbar" has been identified as a 17-year-old Afghan who entered Germany as a lone refugee.
The attacker was identified by stunned government officials after a huge investigation was launched just hours after the bloody attack exploded.
The horror began at around 9mpm local time when the teenager stormed a train that was travelling close to Wurzburg in southern Germany.
He then shouted "Allahu Akbar" - which means God is greatest - before launching into the terrifying attack on innocent passengers and then attempted to flee.
News outlets in Germany have claimed the crazed attacker was shot dead by armed police as he tried to escape.
(Image: EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand)
(Image: EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand)
(Image: EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand)
Early reports claim he has left at least three people fighting for their lives, and a fourth with minor injuries.
At least 14 other passengers were being treated for shock.
The attacker has been identified as a 17-year-old Afghan man who was a refugee to Germany, according to reports in Germany.
Bavarian Interior Ministry Joachim Hermann confirmed the news in an interview in which he added the teen had been staying in Ochsenfurt where he boarded the train.
Police have confirmed that at least four people, three of who feared to be fighting for their lives, have been injured in the horrifying attack - which began this evening. Another 14 are being treated for shock.
Eye-witnesses say the man went on the rampage with an axe before attempting to flee from the scene.
The incident is understood to have taken place at the station in Heidingsfeld, a part of the city of Wurzburg in southern Germany.
The train line between Wurzburg-Heidingsfeld and Ochsenfurt is closed as investigators scour the area for clues.
(Image: EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand)
(Image: EPA/Karl-Josef Hildenbrand)
(Image: Ullstein bild / Contributor)
According to sources, he had an axe and a knife on him - both of which he is alleged to have been using in the brutal assault.
Helicopters were seen swirling over head as the area was flooded with emergency services who raced to treat those injured.
There has not yet been any word on whether or not the attack is linked to extremism of any kind, but Europe has been on major alert since a terrorist killed more than 80 people with a massive lorry in Nice last week.
Twisted killer Mohamed Louhouaiej Bouhlel zigzagged along the Promenade des Anglais smashing into terrified pedestrians as thousands gathered in Nice last Thursday.
Large swathes of Europe is on major alert from the threat of terrorism - with many traditional holiday hotspots now being declared as "high risk" by the Foreign Office.When members of an autism support group saw that the Ombudsman for Children’s Office was advertising a free family event in Dublin in November, they thought it would make an enjoyable Saturday outing.
But the OCO Universal Children’s Day Event didn’t quite live up to its inclusive-sounding title. On checking in advance that it was going to be autism-friendly, Wicklow Triple A Alliance was disappointed to be told it wasn’t.
“I kind of assumed it would be,” says one member of the group, who has a seven-year-old son with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
It’s not difficult to make autism-friendly arrangements, she explains – such as having a quiet room, putting up photographs and descriptive text online to help parents show children what to expect, and, perhaps, allowing them in early so they get a chance to settle before the crowds arrive.
This Greystones mother was annoyed they were told nothing could be done about the event in Wolfe Tone Square this year, but, on the positive side, the OCO told her they would work on it for next year.
In response to a query from The Irish Times, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) said that as part of the celebrations of Universal Children’s Day in November, it organised an open-air concert featuring the National Children’s Choir and Ma Samba Youth Band, to which all children of every background and ability were welcome.
“However, it was not possible on this occasion to make specific provisions for children with autism. Providing a quiet room and autism-friendly atmosphere is something we will include as part of our Disability Summit, which will take place in 2018, and as part of next year’s Universal Children’s Day event.”
Greater understanding about what can be done to make activities and venues more autism friendly is slowly seeping into mainstream events and businesses. It may require physical adaptations and restricted sessions, but also a change of attitudes, through increased awareness and staff training.
Parents of children with ASD are used to judgmental looks when their child is having a meltdown in public, but they could still do without the smug assumptions. It would be even better if, with a little more consideration and planning by others, that meltdown could be avoided in the first place.
Some 300,000 people in Ireland wake up every morning knowing that autism will be part of their day, says Niall Murphy, acting head of operations at Autism Ireland (which is in the process of changing its name from Irish Autism Action). That figure is based on at least 1 per cent of the population having ASD, plus those who live with them.
More businesses and institutions are beginning to take the needs of this constituency on board and trying to make their life a little easier.
For instance, in this the season of pantomimes, The Helix in Dublin has led the way. For its “sensory-friendly” performance of “The Beauty and the Beast on Tuesday, December 19th, the auditorium lights will stay on, the cast will hold back on their louder shrieks and nobody will bat an eyelid at a child or three rolling in the aisles.
For several years now, the Helix has staged sensory-friendly shows. “It is a show we look forward to every year,” says Claire Tighe, producer of the Helix panto and chief executive of TheatreWorkX Productions, who came up with the idea six years ago. The first time she made the adaptations she was just hoping they had got it right, but was reassured by the feedback, including one family who told her how they could never have done an outing together like that before, having one child with ASD and one without.
The technical changes required are not huge and what’s probably most important, Tighe adds, is |
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Zach Zenner
Zig Zag Zenner isn’t leaving Detroit. The only way Zenner leaves is if he asks for too much money, but I doubt that happens. Zenner saw an increase in the workload with Riddick and Abdullah out and he proved his worth on the team. He ended up getting 334 yards on 88 carries with four touchdowns, while getting 18 catches for 196 yards. He locked in that third string role on the team, and unless Detroit drafts a running back early, Zenner isn’t moving.
Decision: Stay
Dwayne Washington
Tough one to figure out here. Washington had an impressive pre-season that locked him up on the 53 man roster, and while he started off strong his carries and on the field time decreased as the season went on. He ended up with 265 yards on 90 carries and one touchdown, along with 10 catches for 62 yards. He never fumbled, so that wasn’t the issue with the decrease in playing time, it was just that Zach Zenner was playing better and he was finding the right lanes. Washington struggles with finding the hole, sometimes avoiding the big hole for a gain of five or more and running into the offensive line and getting one yard. He is a 50/50 player if Detroit drafts a running back, no matter the round. If that rookie can outplay Washington, expect him to fall to the practice squad.
Decision: Stay
http://gty.im/492300368
Michael Burton
The man with no stats. Burton had one pass attempted to go to him, but it was picked off. Burton never carried the ball and you can’t blame him for that. He was a healthy scratch for majority of the season, which begs the question why is he even on the team? Detroit needs a fullback to help block and get the tough one to two yards on third down or on the goal line. Instead, Detroit tried doing that with Zach Zenner, Dwayne Washington and Theo Riddick. While Zenner could do it time to time, every team needs a fullback and for us not to use him is crazy. I will give him this decision because we NEED a fullback, if we use him correctly our offense could become better on short yardage plays and big goal line stances. If we don’t need him for our offense then let him go, but if we can use him keep him.
Decision: Stay
Joique Bell
Easiest one to point out the door. Joique Bell came back to Detroit due to injuries and while active in the last three games, he never played. Joique Bell only had one catch for -2 yards, and never ran it once. He just isn’t the same player he once was and we have better backs on the team now than we did when he was in Detroit. Re-signing him would be a mistake.
Decision: Go
Possible Replacements
Justin Forsett
Brandon Bolden
Chris Johnson
Eddie Lacy
Dalvin Cook, Florida State
D’Onta Foreman, Texas
Wayne Gallman, Clemson
De’Veon Smith, Michigan
Kareem Hunt, Toledo
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @BKnappBlogs, find me on Reddit at /u/sportsguy4life and share your thoughts on the Detroit Lions subreddit.There's a great line in The Big Lebowski where the otherwise chill main character says, "I hate the f–in' Eagles, man." It's one of the infinitely quotable movie's most quotable lines. And not so surprisingly, Glenn Frey wasn't too pleased with the slam on his band.
In the scene, after a particularly rough night, Bridges' the Dude hops in a cab, where the Eagles' "Peaceful Easy Feeling" is playing. That's when he utters the line. He's promptly thrown out of the cab by the irate driver (presumably a huge Eagles fan). Back in 2012, Rolling Stone interviewed Jeff Bridges, the star of the 1998 film, and he recalled that the Eagles' co-founder, who died yesterday at the age of 67, hated it.
"I love Creedence," said Bridges, echoing his character's listening tastes. "As far as the Eagles, I don't hate the Eagles like the Dude hates them. I remember I ran into Glenn Frey, he gave me some s–. I can't remember what he said exactly, but you know, my anus tightened a bit."
Bridges also told radio.com (via The Telegraph ) that Frey's Eagles bandmate Don Henley was a little cooler about his Lebowski character's attitude toward the band. "I wouldn’t say I'm a good friend of Don’s, but we know each other," he said. "Glenn Frey, I run into him at parties, he’ll always bust my chops and make me squirm a little bit. That was my character that hated the Eagles, not me."
As The Telegraph notes, the Eagles had "a punch-'em-on-sight list of critics who hated us," which was probably quite huge back in their '70s heyday. The Eagles were never a favorite among music writers of the era, and the members' animosity toward the press – which continues to this day – has been well-documented.
You can see The Big Lebowski clip below.Editor’s Note: This article is one of the top 10 Leadership stories of 2015. See the full list here.
As the days get darker and colder in much of the northern hemisphere, it’s easy to indulge in gloom. For the next few months, you’ll be shivering. You’ll be battling foul weather. Thanks to daylight saving time there will be no chance to see the sun after work.
The gloom leads to a common question: What can I do to cope with the dark and cold?
If you truly want to be happy during winter, though, this is the wrong approach to the season. Changing your mindset can do more than distracting yourself from the weather.
That’s the takeaway from research done by Kari Leibowitz, currently a PhD student at Stanford University, who spent August 2014 to June 2015 on a Fulbright scholarship in Tromsø in northern Norway. Tromsø is so far north that from late November to late January, the sun never climbs above the horizon. Leibowitz went to study the residents’ overall mental health, because rates of seasonal depression were lower than one might expect.
At first, she was asking “Why aren’t people here more depressed?” and if there were lessons that could be taken elsewhere. But once she was there, “I sort of realized that that was the wrong question to be asking,” she says. When she asked people “Why don’t you have seasonal depression?” the answer was “Why would we?”
It turns out that in northern Norway, “people view winter as something to be enjoyed, not something to be endured,” says Leibowitz, and that makes all the difference.About
When planning my first non $0 budget film I knew it would have to be something awe inspiring. So i took my two loves of film and history and combined them, showing a historically accurate portrayal of the 19th century as the American landscape was torn in two. The film follows Charlie Thomas, a 16 year old from New Jersey. Upon the outbreak of the war Charlie's father and older brother enlist for the Union Army, leaving the boy alone to tend for his sick mother. Upon her death he is left alone, and decides to join the Union in hopes of finding his family.
Risks and challenges
We are shooting this film in the true Pennsylvania wilderness. Around the Pine Creek Gorge area, otherwise known as Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon. The location, while being visually stunning, is not an easy one to shoot a film in. And the crew is working on this film out of passion for the project and not a financial reward. So we need all the help we can get to secure the final funding of this movie which would allow VFX artists to be hired and add finishing touches, as well as to show our gratitude to the cast and crew.
Now I have already secured over $1000 of my own investment. To finalize the film we are truly only about half way there in financial terms. That is why I come to you, in hope that you can help bring my dream to fruition.On November 26, 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law H.R. 1233, The Presidential and Federal Records Act Amendments of 2014. This law modernizes records management by focusing more directly on electronic records and complements our efforts to implement the President’s 2011 Memorandum on Managing Government Records. The law also represents the first significant changes to the Federal Records Act of 1950. The major points of this legislation are as follows:
Strengthening the Federal Records Act by expanding the definition of Federal records to clearly include electronic records.
Confirming that Federal electronic records will be transferred to the National Archives in electronic form.
Granting the Archivist of the United States final determination as to what constitutes a Federal record.
Authorizing the early transfer of permanent electronic Federal and Presidential records to the National Archives, while legal custody remains with the agency or the President.
Clarifying the responsibilities of Federal government officials when using non-government email systems.
Passage and enactment of this law marks a significant moment in the history of Federal Records Management. We are in the process of reviewing our existing regulations in light of these new provisions and will have much more to say about changes to our regulations and policies in the future.
For additional information, please see the press release that was issued yesterday. Stay tuned to the blog for further updates. Do not hesitate to leave a comment if you have a question and we will do our best to respond.
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FacebookDemocrats have long since realized that people who are poor and dependent on the government will vote for them, even if it is their liberal policies that created the poverty and dependency. That's why every ghetto in America is controlled lock, stock, and barrel by liberal Democrats. Unfortunately, so many destitute Americans have yet to realize that liberal policies don't fight poverty; they maintain it.
Perhaps the worst thing about that is the betrayal of the poor people involved. Most of them are just having a hard time and looking for a little help to make life easier for themselves and their families. Little do they realize that the "help" the liberals are offering is akin to a drug dealer offering them a free sample. Not every liberal intends to "hook" the people they're "helping" on poverty, but they're certainly not very upset when it happens. The more poor dependent Americans there are, the more votes liberals get; the more needed they feel, the larger the budget becomes for the non-functional, big government programs they support.
Liberals have a lot of perverse incentives to keep as many Americans poor as possible and they respond to those incentives in a big way.
1) Overuse Of Welfare Programs: Americans are a generous people and most of us are fine with having a safety net that helps people who get down on their luck. The problem with liberals is that they do everything humanly possible to turn that safety net into a hammock. They oppose limiting the amount of time people can be on the programs along with drug testing and work requirements. Obviously, encouraging people to get comfortable on the dole is bad for the country, but it's even worse for the people involved. It's one thing to get in a tough spot, take assistance for a few months, and then get back on your feet. But, spending years or even decades on the dole? It's a trap that will make you dependent on the government while utterly ruining you as a human being. There was a time when even the staunchest liberals agreed with this sentiment. Conservatives disagree with Franklin D. Roosevelt on a lot of things, but he was absolutely right when he said,
The lessons of history, confirmed by the evidence immediately before me, show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole our relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit. It is inimical to the dictates of a sound policy. It is in violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for able-bodied but destitute workers.
2) Supporting Illegal Immigrants Instead Of American Workers: While there are certainly Republicans who've been paid off by the business lobby to support illegal immigration, Democrats almost across the board are in favor of allowing as many illegal immigrants as possible into the country. If illegals were primarily taking jobs as reporters, college professors, and lawyers, liberals would ferociously oppose illegal immigration. But, since they're taking jobs that would otherwise go to poor Americans, liberals don't care. There are millions of poor Americans who are out of work simply because they can't work as cheaply as an illegal immigrant who doesn't have health care, doesn't pay car insurance, and who can lie on his taxes with impunity. Moreover, there are millions of other poor Americans who are making a few dollars less per hour because they're in a field full of illegal aliens who can work for less per hour because they don't have the same costs. Few policies would do more to put poor Americans back to work than getting rid of the foreigners who are breaking the law and cheating the system in order to steal their jobs away.
3) Fighting FOR Criminals, Not Victims: It's a disgrace that there are Americans who can't let their kids play in the yard out of fear of drug dealers on the corner, drive by shootings, and roaming gangs. Crime makes it harder to raise your kids, decreases property values, and stops people from moving freely around their neighborhoods. Rich and middle class Americans generally don't have big problems with crime because they don't have liberals "helping" them and so, they simply won't tolerate it. So, it's the poor Americans saddled with liberal "helpers" who suffer the most because of crime. Yet, liberals seem to spend all of their time worrying about THE CRIMINALS, not the people they're robbing, raping, and murdering. Liberals are always fighting to get criminals out of jail, looking to change the laws to make it harder to convict people of crimes, and trying to play up conflicts between poor communities and the police. Meanwhile, the poor Americans being menaced by these criminals are living in fear and desperately searching for jobs because businesses don't want to move into crime-ridden areas. It's not the gang bangers, drug dealers, and cop killers who deserve sympathy from liberals; it's the people they're victimizing. If only liberals could understand that.
4) Fighting To Keep Poor Americans Out Of Good Schools: Liberals have fought hard to keep poor Americans in lousy, failing schools. It certainly doesn't have to be that way. It was George W. Bush who greatly expanded access to charter schools via No Child Left Behind, a policy that has in practice mostly benefitted poor Americans. Furthermore, it's conservatives who support school vouchers that would enable poor Americans to send their kids to many of the same elite, private schools rich Americans choose today. On the other hand, liberals want poor kids trapped in failing schools because giving them the option to flee would take money out of the pockets of their teachers’ union allies. Liberals also fight tooth and nail to kill testing standards and keep lousy teachers in schools. Nobody who places a high value on educating our kids would do that. That's why If you're a poor American with a kid stuck in a terrible school system, the biggest hindrance you have to getting your child a better education is the American Left.
5) Killing Job Opportunities For The Poor: Ronald Reagan was spot-on when he said, "The best social program is a productive job for anyone who’s willing to work." Yet, liberals work incessantly to make it harder for poor Americans to find jobs. As the CBO confirmed, Barack Obama's proposal to increase the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would cost 500,000 jobs. In D.C. big box stores like Wal-Mart were targeted with a new law that would force the companies to pay 50% above the minimum wage. As a result, Wal-Mart decided not to build six stores in an area which cost thousands of people much needed jobs. Because of Barack Obama's liberal policies, there are actually a million less Americans working today than there were the day he took office even though our nation's population has grown by almost six million people. Since the poor have less experience and fewer job skills, Obama's job-killing policies are tougher on them than any other group of Americans. We need to do everything possible to make it easier and more likely that businesses will hire poor Americans, not set up even more policies that keep them from getting jobs.Unlike Facebook, Twitter does not let you specifiy your callback url when you are initiating Twitter’s Oauth procedure. The default Callback Url is the one specified when you registered your application here https://dev.twitter.com/apps/new. If you wanted to change your callback url, you would have to manually log in to your app settings in https://dev.twitter.com/apps and edit them. This is annoying for various reasons.Suppose you have a single twitter application, that you want to use on multiple sites. For example, let us say Groupon, has two sites. One for its customers and one for its clients,customer.groupon.com and clients.groupon.com. When a customer clicks on ‘Connect to Twitter’ in the customer website, let’s say it uses the default callback url in the twitter website, customer.groupon.com. But when a client clicks the 'Connect to Twitter’ to link the clients account with twitter, so it can tweet new deals everytime it makes a deal on groupon, the default callback needs to be overriden so it becomes clients.groupon.com instead of customer.groupon.com.
Turns out the default callback url can be overriden very easily, though not straighforward at first.
If you wanted to use the default callback url, you just send a HTTP GET request to 'http://twitter.com/oauth/request_token’ and 'http://twitter.com/oauth/access_token’.
If you wanted to override the default callback URL, you would send a HTTP POST request to the request token url and access token url with
body= urllib.urlencode('oauth_callback’:'site-you-want-to-redirect-to’).
Now, you can override, twitter’s default callback url, depending on which site you are using your 'Connect to Twitter’ feature.• Czech Republic shooting: 8 dead in Uhersky Brod attack • The gunman reportedly turned the gun on himself • The attack took place in the town of Uhersky Brod
17.58 Thank you for following our live coverage. You can find the latest story here which we will update when there is more information.
17.42 The interior minister has said the shooter had a gun licence.
Associated Press report on the mayor who has said: "Nobody believed anything like that could happen in such a small town. I can hardly imagine what consequences it will have for the future life in this town."
The country's chief police officer, Tomas Tuhy, said authorities would not reveal more information in the coming hours because of the continuing investigation.
17.40 More information coming out including about the man who was in the bathroom when it happened.
Petr Gabriel was in the restaurant's bathroom when the shooting began and said: "That saved my life," Mr Gabriel told the Czech public television. He spent two hours in the bathroom until he was found by police.
17.14 "We can say this was not a terrorist act. The person who committed this was a local citizen over 60 years of age," the interior minister said in a live television broadcast from the scene.
17.01 Tomas Prouza, Czech Republic's European affairs minister, offered his condolences.
Up?ímnou soustrast rodinám t?ch, kte?í p?išli o?ivot p?i st?elb? v Uherském Brod?. — Tomas Prouza (@CZSecStateEU) February 24, 2015
The prime minister also expressed his shock on Twitter: "I am like most people shocked by the tragic attack which took place today in Uherske Brod."
Premiér Sobotka: Jsem stejn? jako v?tšina ob?an? šokován tragickým útokem, který se dnes odehrál v Uherském Brod?. http://t.co/xRs5mRUWCR — Ú?ad vlády?R (@strakovka) February 24, 2015
16.45 It was mentioned earlier that a woman was injured in the incident and Reuters reported that she was admitted to hospital in the nearby town of Uherske Hradiste, a hospital spokesman said.
An witness told the broadcaster he had seen around 10 police cars arrive and police putting on bulletproof vests.
This is where the attack happened
16.29 Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, offered his sympathy to those affected and in a statement said: "I am like most people shocked by the tragic attack."
A rescue helicopter stands at the site of a shooting at a restaurant in Uherksy Brod
16.26 Czech media reports that the prosecutor said the gunman did not have a previous criminal history.
16.02 The owner of the restaurant told idnes.cz (a news website): "An unknown person came in, took out a short weapon and started firing on people.
"I, along with the other guests, who later called the police, immediately fled out the back exit. At first we thought it was a pistol until we saw an injured woman running out, and then it was clear."
16.00 Czech television said the attacker fired about 25 rounds. An eyewitness told the channel he had seen around 10 police cars arrive and police putting on bulletproof vests, Reuters reports.
Such shooting incidents are very rare in the central European country of 10.5 million. Uhersky Brod is a town of 17,000 in the Moravia region, near the border with Slovakia.
The shooting took place at around lunchtime in the Druzba restaurant in the southern part of the town, a residential area.
15.57 AP reports that the Czech Republic has strict gun control laws but hunting is popular.
The interior minister is also due to hold a conference upon arrival in the eastern town.
15.55 Douglas Arellanes, a DJ on Radio 1 Prague says on Twitter the gunman said "they're bullying me".
Uhersky Brod shooter's call to TV Prima: They're bullying me. I'm going to take care of this myself. http://t.co/sqFuFLhCO0 — Douglas Arellanes (@dougiegyro) February 24, 2015
A resident in the republic has told the Telegraph that a spokesman for TV Prima said the assailant called their crime news line.
15.50 The mayor sought to reassure the people of Uhersky Brod and says they believe it was an isolated act.
15.47 Terrorism as motive appears to be ruled out, reports Matthew Day, as he confirms that the gunman called a journalist.
The man also called a TV reporter who hosts a crime show (something like BBC Watchdog). Unsettled by the call, she phoned the police.
15.44 Czech media is reporting that the gunman called a local TV station and that the journalist who spoke to the gunman called the police.
The Czech interior minister said the shooting was not a terrorist incident but the actions of a "crazed individual".
15.41 Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, offered his condolences.
Horrified at reports of #UherskyBrod shooting. An act of unspeakable violence. Our thoughts are with the victims, families and Czech people — Thorbjørn Jagland (@TJagland) February 24, 2015
15.39 AFP say the venue was the "Friendship" restaurant in the town of Uhersky Brod.
Mr Kuncar said he had committed suicide.
The mayor described the gunman as a resident of the town aged in his 60s, saying he had possible mental health issues.
Kuncar said around 25 shots were heard in the in the Droujba ("Friendship") restaurant in the town centre while around 20 customers were inside.
Police said several people had also been wounded, including a woman hospitalised in a critical condition.
"I'm rattled by this event. I never would have imagined something like this happening here, in a restaurant that I know well," Mr Kuncar told state television Ceska Televize (CT).
15.33 The BBC report that the gunman was described as "mindless shooting".
15.30 Milan Chovanec, the interior minister, said on Twitter he is on his way to the scene.
Jsem s policejním prezidentem na cest? do Uherského Brodu. Podle dostupných zpráv nejde o teroristický útok, ale o?in vyšinutého jedince. — Milan Chovanec (@Milan_Chovanec) February 24, 2015
15.26 The Czech prime minister, Bohuslav Sobotka, has said he is shocked by the attack, according to local media.
15.19 Apparently the shooter was 60-year-old local man, and described by local mayor as "unstable", Matthew Day reports.
One witness survived by hiding in the toilet, while others managed to flee through the kitchen.
15.18 There are reports - unconfirmed - that the shooter had been carrying two weapons, including a shotgun.
15.16 Patrik Kuncar, mayor of the southeastern town of UherskY Brod, also said the shooter, a man around 60, was among the dead.
15.09 These are some images via Channel 4's Ed Fraser
Via @r0eland pic.twitter.com/2rM5EzysYh outside the Czech restaurant in Uhersky Brod where at least 9 killed in shooting — Ed Fraser (@frasereC4) February 24, 2015
15.08 There are suggestions - unconfirmed - that the shooter turned the gun on himself.
"It's an unusual incident for the Czech Republic. It's very peaceful and hasn't witnessed mass shootings.
"There are no indications yet this is terrorist-related."
The BBC said there were local reports the gunman was a 60-year-old man.
15.06 Rob Cameron in Prague for the BBC confirms that the interior minister says eight people are killed and "looks more like a pub from images".
According to Mr Cameron, there were up to 25 individuals on the premises.
14.59 Matthew Day in Warsaw reports that what we know so far from reports is that eight are dead, and the gunman too. One woman is seriously wounded.
The shooter burst into the restuarant around noon, firing randomly. Fired about 25 rounds. There may have been about 30 people in the restaurant at the time.
Motive, weapon or details of the shooter unclear at the moment.
14.50 The news agency CTK reported that Milan Chovanec, the interior minister, said he was informed of eight victims.
The shooter is dead, according to CTK.
Uhersky Brod is 180 miles, southeast of Prague.
14.45 More information from AFP on the incident. The news agency says an armed man burst into a restaurant, citing state television as their source.
"According to our information, there are nine dead on the spot," Czech television channel Ceska Televize (CT) said. Pavel Benedikt Stransky, a police spokesman, refused to confirm the information but said the gunman "has already been subdued".
14.43 According to Reuters, the number killed is eight in the eastern Czech town. They say the figure comes from the country's interior minister. The ninth dead is believed to be the gunman.
14.39 Hello and welcome to the Telegraph's live coverage of the shooting in the Czech republic. What we know so far is that nine people have been killed in shooting in a restaurant in the Czech Republic.
According to Sky News, it took place in Uhersky Brod, which has a population of 17,000.Controversial remark made by John Lennon
"Bigger than Jesus" redirects here. For the Warrick Sony album, see Bigger than Jesus (album)
"More popular than Jesus"[a] was part of a longer remark made by John Lennon during a 1966 interview in which he argued that the public was more infatuated with the Beatles than with Jesus, and that rock music might outlast Christianity. His opinions drew no controversy when originally published in the United Kingdom, but when republished in the United States a few months later, angry reactions flared up in Christian communities. The full quotation was:
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
The statement originates from a March 1966 article for the London newspaper the Evening Standard. When Datebook, a US teen magazine, quoted Lennon's comments in July, extensive protests broke out in the US, particularly throughout the Bible Belt. Some radio stations stopped playing Beatles songs, their records were publicly burned, press conferences were cancelled, and threats were made. The controversy coincided with the group's US tour in August 1966, and Lennon and Brian Epstein attempted to quell the dispute at a series of press conferences. Some tour events experienced disruption and intimidation, including a picketing by the Ku Klux Klan. Press coverage of their just-released album Revolver was also overshadowed by the controversy.
Shortly after the controversy broke, Lennon apologised for the comment, saying "if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it". He explained that he was simply remarking on how other people viewed and popularised the band. The events contributed to the Beatles' lack of interest in public live performances, and the US tour was the last they undertook, after which they became a studio-only band.
In 1969, the Beatles released "The Ballad of John and Yoko", a non-album single in which Lennon sings the line "The way things are going, They're gonna crucify me." Lennon's solo career included further references to religion in his songs "God" (1970) and "Imagine" (1971). He was murdered in December 1980 by Mark David Chapman, a born-again Christian who was incensed by the "more popular than Jesus" remark.
Background [ edit ]
In March 1966, London's Evening Standard ran a weekly series of articles titled "How Does a Beatle Live?" that featured, in chronological order, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and Paul McCartney. The articles were written by journalist Maureen Cleave, who knew the group well and had interviewed them regularly since the start of Beatlemania in the UK. Three years previously she had described them as "the darlings of Merseyside", and had accompanied them on the plane on the group's first US tour in February 1964. For her lifestyle series in March 1966, she chose to interview the group individually, rather than all together, as was the norm.
Lennon at a press conference, June 1964
Cleave interviewed Lennon on 4 March 1966. At his home, Kenwood, in Weybridge, she found a full-size crucifix, a gorilla costume, a medieval suit of armour and a well-organised library, with works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield, which had influenced Lennon's ideas about Christianity. Cleave's article mentioned that Lennon was "reading extensively about religion", and quoted a comment he made:
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn't argue about that; I'm right and I'll be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.[8]
Cleave's interview with Lennon was published in the Evening Standard in March 1966 and provoked no public reaction in the UK. Church attendance there was in decline and the Christian churches were making no secret of the need to transform their image into something more relevant to modern times. Music historian Jonathan Gould wrote, "The satire comedians had had a field day with the increasingly desperate attempts of the Church to make itself seem more relevant ('Don't call me vicar, call me Dick...')." In 1963, the Anglican Bishop of Woolwich, John A.T. Robinson, published a controversial but popular book, Honest to God, urging the nation to reject traditional church teachings on morality and the concept of God as an "old man in the sky", and instead embrace a universal ethic of love. Bryan R. Wilson's 1966 text Religion in Secular Society explained that increasing secularisation led to British churches being abandoned. However, in the US, churches remained popular.[10]
Both McCartney and Harrison had been baptised in the Roman Catholic Church, but neither of them followed Christianity.[11] At the start of Beatlemania, the group came into contact with the Revd Ronald Gibbons, who told reporters that a Beatles version of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" might provide the Church of England with "the very shot in the arm it needs".
Response in the US [ edit ]
The day after Cleave's article appeared in the Evening Standard, Beatles press officer Tony Barrow offered Datebook, a US teen magazine, rights to all four interviews. Barrow believed the pieces were important to show fans that the Beatles were progressing beyond simple pop music and producing more intellectually challenging work. As Datebook was a socially progressive magazine that addressed subjects such as interracial dating and legalisation of marijuana, it seemed like a suitable vehicle to carry this information.
Lennon's quote was featured in a 3 July article in The New York Times Magazine and provoked no reaction.[13] In late July, when Datebook republished the interviews, editor Art Unger put Lennon's quote "I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity!" on the cover.[15] Also on the cover was a quote from Paul McCartney regarding America: "It's a lousy country where anyone black is a dirty nigger!"[16] In Birmingham, Alabama, WAQY DJ Tommy Charles heard about Lennon's remarks from his coworker Doug Layton, and was immediately incensed, saying, "That does it for me. I am not going to play the Beatles any more". Charles and Layton asked for listeners' views on Lennon's comment and the response was overwhelmingly negative. Charles later stated, "We just felt it was so absurd and sacrilegious that something ought to be done to show them that they can't get away with this sort of thing". Al Benn, who was the bureau manager for United Press International News, heard the WAQY show and immediately filed a news report in New York City, culminating in a major news story in The New York Times on 5 August. Over twenty other stations followed WAQY's lead with similar announcements. Some stations in the Deep South went further, organising demonstrations with bonfires, drawing hordes of teenagers to publicly burn their Beatles records and other memorabilia.
Epstein was so concerned by the reaction that he considered cancelling the group's upcoming US tour, believing they would be seriously harmed in some way. He then flew to the US and held a press conference in New York City, where he publicly criticised Datebook, saying the magazine had taken Lennon's words out of context, and expressed regret on behalf of the group that "people with certain religious beliefs should have been offended in any way". Epstein's efforts had little effect, as the controversy quickly spread beyond the borders of the US. In Mexico City there were demonstrations against the group, and a number of countries, including South Africa and Spain,[20] made the decision to ban the Beatles' music on national radio stations. The Vatican issued a public denouncement of Lennon's comments.[11]
The group, with disc jockey Jimmy Staggs, while on their final tour in August 1966
The Beatles left for their US tour on 11 August 1966. According to Lennon's wife, Cynthia, he was nervous and upset that he had made people angry simply by expressing his opinion. The Beatles attended a press conference in Chicago, Illinois; Lennon did not want to apologise but was advised by Epstein and Barrow that he should. Lennon said that "if I had said television was more popular than Jesus, I might have got away with it" but stressed that he was simply remarking on how other people viewed and popularised the band. He described his own belief in God by quoting the Bishop of Woolwich, saying, "not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us." Adamant that he was not comparing himself with Christ, he tried to explain the decline of Christianity in the UK. Pressed for an apology by a reporter, he said: "if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry." Journalists gave a sympathetic response, and told Lennon that the Bible Belt were "quite notorious for their Christian attitude".
When the tour began, it was marred by protests and disturbances. Telephone threats were received, and concerts were picketed by the Ku Klux Klan. Daily Express writer Robert Pitman, responding to the US outcry, wrote, "It seems a nerve for Americans to hold up shocked hands, when week in, week out, America is exporting to us a subculture that makes the Beatles seem like four stern old churchwardens." The reaction was also criticised in the US; a Kentucky radio station announced that it would give the Beatles' music airplay to show its "contempt for hypocrisy personified", and the Jesuit magazine America wrote: "Lennon was simply stating what many a Christian educator would readily admit".
The Memphis city council, aware that a Beatles concert was scheduled at the Mid-South Coliseum during the tour, voted to cancel it rather than have "municipal facilities be used as a forum to ridicule anyone's religion", and also saying, "the Beatles are not welcome in Memphis". The Ku Klux Klan nailed a Beatles album to a wooden cross, vowing "vengeance", with conservative groups staging further public burnings of Beatles records. The Reverend Jimmy Stroad stated that a Christian rally in Memphis "would give the youth of the mid-South an opportunity to show Jesus Christ is more popular than the Beatles". The Memphis shows did take place, on 19 August; the afternoon show went as |
never achieved the ultimate success.
“Our sports society, we put such incredible value on winning championships, and that seems to be how we separate the really good from the truly great,” Blinebury said.
There’s something about Sampson that seems to make him an easy target. Best-selling author Chuck Klosterman examined this phenomenon in his 2009 essay “What We Talk About When We Talk About Ralph Sampson.”
Klosterman called Sampson “the best basketball player who ever lived,” then labeled him a bust because his career didn’t match his astounding athletic gifts: “Sampson busted big by succeeding mildly.” According to Klosterman, Sampson’s less-than-stellar NBA career serves to comfort the rest of us with the idea that our “self-imposed mediocrity is better than choking on transcendence.”
Sampson at home in Sacramento with then-wife Aleize and daughter Rachel in the 1980s. (FOCUS ON SPORT/GETTY IMAGES)
Ralph Sampson applauds son Robert as he plays for the Bullis School in Potomac in 2010. (Jonathan Newton/WASHINGTON POST)
The thing about being 7-foot-4 is all anyone expects you to do is play basketball, even if you have other ideas about the direction of your life. Former Virginia assistant coach Dave Odom, who later became head coach at Wake Forest University, recalled a conversation with Sampson about the player’s bright future in basketball in which Sampson seemed downcast.
“I said to him, ‘You’re not excited about it?’ He said, ‘Coach, I love the game, but there are other things in life I like, as well, and I’d like to at some time experience them.’... I looked at him and I said, ‘Ralph, how many 7-4 black bankers do you know?’ ”
And that became the problem when Sampson could no longer play. He had spent his life enveloped in the cocoon of basketball. Now that was gone.
Despite making reportedly close to $17 million during his career, Sampson was not set financially. He lost some of his wealth to agent Tom Collins, who allegedly squandered the money of several NBA players, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The payout of Sampson’s final NBA contract left him with a six-figure income until 2000. But in 2001, according to court records, he reported an income of $11,207.
After leaving the NBA, he joined Lefty Driesell’s coaching staff at James Madison University for one season. He became general manager and coach of the Richmond Rhythm of the now-defunct International Basketball League. He gave business a go, opening the Ralph Sampson Basketball School, Sampson Marketing and Sampson Sportswear. He started a foundation, Winner’s Circle, aimed at helping young athletes obtain college scholarships, and though there wasn’t much money in it, he learned that what he enjoyed most was working with young athletes.
Then, in 2003, one of those sports stars, Krista Watson, was killed in a car crash. Her death sent him reeling.
Sampson leaves federal court in Richmond during a child support case in 2003. (RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH/AP) (LINDY KEAST RODMAN/LINDY KEAST RODMAN/RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH/AP)
That year brought more turmoil. Sampson and his wife, Aleize, ended their tumultuous 17-year marriage, which had produced four children: Rachel, a Stanford graduate who works at ESPN; Ralph III, who played basketball at Minnesota; Robert, who started for East Carolina last season; and Anna, a teenager.
Also two child support cases were brought against him, one involving a daughter he fathered in 1985 and another involving a daughter he fathered in 1988. Sampson, who has six girls and two boys ranging from 10 to 28, pleaded guilty and paid the back child support.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Two years later, federal agents arrived at his suburban Atlanta home and arrested him on two more counts of failure to pay child support. The first involved a daughter born in 1986, who Sampson says he believed had been adopted by her stepfather. The second involved the daughter born in 1988.
Sampson pleaded guilty and agreed to pay nearly $290,000. Before sentencing, however, he was indicted on charges stemming from allegedly false statements he made during his arraignment about his finances. He pleaded guilty to one felony count of mail fraud involving the titling of a $43,000 SUV and served 60 days in a prison camp near Atlanta in 2007.
Sampson’s ex-wife, children and the mothers of the children involved in the child support cases either could not be reached or declined to comment.
Although Sampson’s child support problems seem to have been resolved, he hasn’t stayed out of legal trouble. He spent a night in jail in 2011 after being arrested for having a suspended license and for an open arrest warrant on charges of failing to appear in court on a 2008 auto insurance violation.
Sampson declined to discuss his legal issues.
“Everything is settled. All my kids that I have are in great places,” he said. “When you write about this, it’s not going to affect my kids at all. We’re at a level right now where everybody is prospering and doing extremely well. It’s not for my past history to bring negative into their world and bring them down at any level. It’s in the past and it’s a beautiful thing. I learned a lot from it, what to do and what not to do.... My kids know me well enough to know that Dad is Dad, and Dad is trying to be the best he can be every day.”
Sampson talks to a player it the NBA Top 100 Camp held in Richmond in June 2006. (STEVE HELBER/STEVE HELBER/AP)
Sampson shakes hands with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, and Charles Barkley during the Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony in September 2012. (Jim Rogash/JIM ROGASH/GETTY IMAGES)
Bust or best? Deadbeat dad or loving father? His friends make a case for the latter.
“The Ralph Sampson I know, if he wasn’t paying child support it’s because he didn’t have the money. It’s not because he didn’t believe in supporting his kids or his family,” said Roanoke Times sports reporter Doug Doughty, who has covered U-Va. for nearly 40 years and has become friendly with Sampson. “He’s a good person, kind of a tragic hero of sorts, although no one died.”
Added Odom: “Whatever happened, if he was wrong, he didn’t do it because he’s a bad person — that I know.”
Best-selling novelist Emily Giffin is one of Sampson’s closest friends. The niece of former Virginia sports information director Doug Elgin, Giffin met Sampson when she was in elementary school and reconnected with him when they both lived in Atlanta. She laughs recounting how Sampson plays hide-and-seek with her 5-year-old daughter.
“He’s such a sweet guy,” she said. “I know it seems like an odd word to use about a 7-foot-4 NBA Hall of Famer, but it’s really true. He’s just a sweet, gentle, really good guy.”
Sampson’s habit of mostly keeping to himself means he usually refuses to tell his side of the story. That drives his friends crazy.
“I’ll sometimes get upset with him when something unjust is said about him and he won’t defend himself,” Giffin said. “But he just shrugs and tells me, ‘It is what it is. You can’t control all that.’ It’s as if he’s accepted life in the spotlight and all that comes with it, and has learned to tune out the background noise that bothers so many of us.”
In 2011, Sampson was elected into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. Last year, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, an honor that, as typical with Sampson, divided the basketball community.
“I don’t know exactly how [the Hall of Fame process] works, because it is byzantine and shrouded in secrecy,” Blinebury said. “I was as surprised as anybody. When he made it, I thought, ‘Good; he deserved it for the body of his career.’ ”
In September, while playing in a golf tournament in Phoenix, then-Suns general manager Lance Blanks asked Sampson if he’d be interested in a player-development job with the team. “I said, ‘Okay, I’ll come see if I like it,’ ” Sampson said, adding that he is “having a lot of fun.”
One of his roles is to mentor post players such as 6-foot-11 center Marcin Gortat.
“I can say 100 percent he’s the best thing that happened to me this year, and quite honestly I never had a better coach,” Gortat said. “If I get traded, I’m definitely going to take him with me. I’m ready to pay him from my own salary, actually.”
Suns President Lon Babby said: “He has tremendous credibility with these guys because he is a Hall of Famer. Part of it is he’s lived a lot of life... going through life the way he has with his size and his fame.”
Sampson’s friends are hopeful that good things are ahead for him, but they are careful not to make outsize predictions.
“He’s on the right track now, I think,” Odom said. “Those of us who know him and love him and still talk to him, we’ve got to be careful that we don’t rush him at this time. Let him just continue at his own pace, as long as he’s happy. You don’t want to weigh him down with too many expectations now.”
Although Sampson prefers to look ahead, not back — “I’ve kind of buried all my past, good or bad things” — he has found himself reminiscing.
“This has been a year for me,” he said. “When you start looking back at things, you really see the impact that my career, my life had on the game of basketball, and not just basketball, but kids and people around the world.”
It’s difficult to see what lies ahead for Sampson. He’d like to continue working in the NBA. He has started writing a motivational book and plans an autobiography. And while his future may seem uncertain, perhaps that’s better than 30 years ago, when everyone was so sure they knew how wonderfully it would turn out.
Looking back on the past three decades, you might think he’s the greatest ever to play the game. Or you might think he’s a bust. It doesn’t really matter to him what you think.
“Nothing has really gotten me down in life, good nor bad. I’m always happy. I’m always in a peaceful place,” he said. “I think great things are about to happen. I can’t complain at all.”
Kathy Orton is a Washington Post staff writer. To comment on this story, e-mail wpmagazine@washpost.com.If you want to see the spanish translation click here.
Back in 1998. I was doing my Residence in General Medicine in Santa Clara. Villa Clara. Cuba, it was noon and I was set out to see my last patient. He was a 10-year-old boy brought to the clinic by his mother. He looked like a bit overweight and reported intermittent headache for more than two days. Upon taking medical history, the only positive complain was a frontal headache lasting about an hour with no other accompanying symptom.
At physical examination, there was nothing relevant, in my opinion, to point out. I must confess that I was somewhat bewildered about the cause of the headache. However, I explained to the mother that this pain could be the result of multiple causes while I was ordering a routine checkup. The patient was prescribed pain killers and I advised the mother that if something new raised to go the nearest health center. At the stage, the patient was ready to leave the office I came up with the idea to measure his blood pressure (BP) and to my surprise, he had 140 mmHg of systolic blood pressure with 95 mmHg of diastolic blood pressure. Undoubtedly, that was the cause of the persistent headache. I said to myself: “this patient is hypertensive and he is only 11 years old, what should I do?”
I must confess that the desperation of the mother when I told her son’s BP was visible, and she said: “Doctor, what do we do? It’s just a child, can I give him a captopril at that age?” I have always regard sincerity as a fundamental attribute in the human being and as the first commandment of the Hippocratic Oath is: “Do no harm”; I told the mother “I’ll come back right now,” I crossed the street, went to a phone booth and called to the pediatric hospital and they told me how to proceed.
In Cuba, in the 90s, talking about hypertension in children and adolescents was something totally unusual for the medical community, especially at the level of Primary Health System of Care. For most, hypertension in children and adolescents could exist but mainly because of a kidney disease. Really, the perception on HBP at early ages of life was almost null. Likewise, telling a father or mother that their child was a hypertensive kid might be a very difficult issue since HTN was considered by the general population to be an adult disease. After almost two decades of this, I thank life for having been engaged in the previous story, which “slapped” me about my ignorance.
As a result of the above mentioned, I began to “explore” the exciting world of cardiovascular risk and hypertension from the pediatric age. I do not rule out that facts similar to my story can still occur, although at present it seems unlikely if we take into account the number of books, monographs, specialized scientific journals and events that are carried out on HTA. Even though, the medical community has become more aware of the problem, hypertension continues to grow steadily from childhood and beyond with its deadly consequences looming around as time goes on in life. Why? What are we doing wrong? What future perspectives do we have?
To answer these questions has been created this blog, aimed at the general practitioner and other specialties from the conviction that we can improve what we do, but acting from the autochthonous and with intelligence.
Thanks.
Note. This editorial has been written by Dr. Guillermo Alberto Perez Fernandez, author of this blog, and reflects his personal opinion about the topic.
Please rate this postThe FBI is reportedly reviewing the spate of harassing emails and tweets that have slammed residents of the small town of Whitefish, Mont., after the neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer put out a cyberhit on several members of the Jewish community there last week.
The call to “take action” against Jews in the small ski resort town was issued after Whitefish resident and property owner Sherry Spencer, mother of prominent white nationalist figure Richard Spencer, told the local ABC News affiliate earlier this month that mounting backlash over her son’s controversial political views had forced her to consider selling her property downtown. According to Spencer, pressure from Whitefish real estate agent Tanya Gersh and members of the local human rights group Love Lives Here caused her “financial harm.”
Last week, the story was picked up by the Daily Mail, drawing the attention of neo-Nazi blogger Andrew Anglin among others. In a post on the white supremacist Daily Stormer website Friday, Anglin urged readers to “TAKE ACTION!” against “Jews targeting Richard Spencer’s mother.”
Richard Spencer speaking at Texas A&M earlier this month. (Photo: David J. Phillip/AP) More
The post, which is filled with anti-Semitic and sexist language, lists the names and contact information for people either mentioned in the Daily Mail story or associated with Love Lives Here — which Anglin falsely calls a “Jew terrorist group” — as well as members of their families. He also posted photos of some of them, along with a gold Star of David, the symbol of Judaism the Nazis forced Jews to wear as a badge of identification and of stigma.
After publishing the phone numbers, emails, Twitter handles and even home and work addresses of people in the group — whom he described as part of “a vicious, evil race of hate-filled psychopaths” — Anglin warned against any violent actions or threats of violence.
“Just make your opinions known,” he wrote. “Tell them you are sickened by their Jew agenda to attack and harm the mother of someone whom they disagree with.”
The local ABC News affiliate, KFBB, reported late Monday that the Whitefish police said they “are not aware of any local threats being made to people called out in the article, but there have been many harassing emails and social posts from outside of the state,” which they are forwarding to the FBI. According to KFBB, a spokesperson for the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office (whose jurisdiction includes Montana) said “the FBI is aware of the issue, and is reviewing to determine if there’s a violation of federal law.”
Calls from Yahoo News to the Whitefish Police Department and the FBI office for comment on this story were not returned.
Those named in the Daily Stormer post were also reluctant to speak, with some citing concerns for the safety of their family. But a review of some of their recent Twitter mentions offers a sense of the kinds of messages being received.
Tanya Gersh, the realtor who, according to Sherry Spencer, urged her to sell her building in downtown Whitefish and donate the proceeds — or risk drawing hundreds of protesters and national media attention — received a flood of hate-filled and angry tweets. Told to “move back to Israel” by one tweeter, another promised “I AM GOING TO MAKE IT MY LIFE’S MISSION TO TURN WHITEFISH, MT INTO A HAVEN FOR WHITE PEOPLE ONLY!” Still another told Gersh she belonged in jail.
Nasty tweets also were directed at Gersh’s minor son, whose Twitter account appears to have recently been deactivated. And Ina Albert, the Jewish 81-year-old co-founder of Love Lives Here, came in for a particularly vicious anti-Semitic online backlash. “Filthy Jews! Get out of America!” tweeted one angry Twitter account holder. Another made a Holocaust reference: “sounds like you need to soften the reading light. TRY A LAMPSHADE.” And another, in an increasingly common tactic among white nationalists, sought to turn the criticism of Spencer’s views on its head, asking “Why are Jews so hateful and racist?”A Kankakee woman who has spent nearly 30 years in prison for a high-profile kidnapping and murder that she insists she did not commit is expected to appear in court Friday in hopes of getting a new trial.
Nancy Rish's lawyers plan to argue that evidence acquired last year — including affidavits declaring her innocence from her ex-boyfriend, Danny Edwards, who was convicted as the mastermind behind the killing — should be grounds for a new trial in the 1987 case.
"This woman has spent over 10,000 days in prison for a crime she didn't commit," said Margaret Byrne, one of Rish's attorneys. "Every day is a crime in itself."
Rish, 53, is serving a life sentence without parole at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
But prosecutors want Iroquois County Circuit Judge Gordon Lustfeldt to dismiss the post-conviction petition, contending that Edwards' recent statements "contain few specific facts" and come at a time when he faces no conceivable consequence for lying because he is no longer trying to appeal his case. Edwards is serving a life sentence at Pontiac Correctional Center.
Because Edwards' statements are coming decades after the trial, "and because Edwards' affidavits do not provide conclusive proof of... innocence, this Court should dismiss" the petition, Assistant Attorney General Erin O'Connell wrote in a motion filed for the hearing.
Nancy Rish was convicted in the 1987 kidnapping and murder of a Kankakee businessman. Rish now seeks a new trial after recent evidence emerged from her ex-boyfriend, Danny Edwards. The Judge did not set the next court date as of July 17, 2015. (WGN-TV) Nancy Rish was convicted in the 1987 kidnapping and murder of a Kankakee businessman. Rish now seeks a new trial after recent evidence emerged from her ex-boyfriend, Danny Edwards. The Judge did not set the next court date as of July 17, 2015. (WGN-TV) SEE MORE VIDEOS
Rish was convicted of murder and aggravated kidnapping for her role in the 1987 abduction and death of Stephen Small, heir to a Kankakee family's media fortune.
The grisly kidnapping and murder went on to become the subject of a true crime novel, dozens of news articles and a Tribune investigation in the 1990s that explored whether Rish was guilty.
Edwards, a small-time drug dealer, was convicted of luring Small, a married father of three young boys, from his home and burying him alive inside a plywood box as part of a bizarre plot to force ransom money from one of Kankakee's wealthiest and most well-connected families.
Edwards had tossed a few candy bars into the box and used a narrow pipe for air vents as he made calls to Small's family from pay phones demanding $1 million. But the air vents proved inadequate and Small suffocated to death shortly after the box was buried.
Edwards was convicted and sentenced to death for murder and kidnapping but was moved off death row in 2003 when then-Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of all Illinois death row inmates to life in prison.
Though Rish was not tied directly to the kidnapping or burial, she was convicted on evidence that she helped Edwards get materials for the box and drove him to the kidnapping and burial sites.
Friday's hearing marks Rish's latest attempt to argue her innocence after multiple unsuccessful tries over the last three decades. Lawyers on her behalf have filed previous appeals on the conviction and asked for a new trial, citing what they call questionable tactics and evidence used by the prosecution.
Last year, her attorneys presented a petition to the Illinois Prisoner Review Board to ask its members to recommend clemency. That petition was denied in January, Byrne said.
After hearing from both sides at the 1:30 p.m. hearing Friday, the judge will decide whether to allow Edwards to present testimony that could ultimately lead to a new trial, lawyers said. Edwards is not expected to be appear in court Friday.
Ramsey Small, one of Stephen Small's now-grown sons speaking on behalf of his family, declined to comment on the court proceedings.
Since the initial trial, Rish has maintained that she never knew what Edwards was doing as he plotted the scheme, even as she drove him home from near the wooded burial site and to pay phones he used for ransom calls.
Edwards also has maintained that Rish knew nothing of the crime, but for years his case was tied up in appeals as he tried to stave off a death sentence. In the last decade though, Edwards said he found God, dropped his legal appeals and battled severe heart problems, according to his signed affidavits.
For those reasons, he agreed to sign the affidavits when approached by Rish's attorneys, Byrne said.
Several of Rish's family members and friends are expected in the courtroom Friday to show their unwavering belief in her innocence, Byrne said. All are hoping the judge will allow Edwards' new statements to lead to a new trial, Byrne said.
"A judge needs to hear from Edwards, hear what he has to say, look at him and decide whether he's telling the truth or not," Byrne said.
vortiz@tribpub.com
Twitter @vikkiortizLast year around this time, with the help of some smart people, I posted a series of articles ranking the top 20 NHL players at each position over the previous three seasons. We’re going to do the same thing this year, but change it up fairly significantly as well.
Like last year, the list will be limited to players who have participated in 2000-plus 5-on-5 minutes over the past three seasons in order to get an adequate sample size of play to draw from.
This is a complicated task that requires outside input, and whenever I take on a project this large I like to rely a little on people smarter than myself. The framework of the rankings is built on the input I got last year from Dom Luszczyszyn, Steve Burtch, and Jonathan Willis, while this year I received additional input from Luszczyszyn again and Dominic Galamini, as well as the ideas of smart people like Manny Perry and Tyler Dellow.
Statistics for this project were collected from Sportlogiq, Natural Stat Trick, Puck IQ, Hockey Reference, NHL.com, and Luszczyszyn’s Game Score database. Each statistic was individually weighted in categories, scored as a percentile from the highest score at the position in order to award an overall to each player.
This year for all forward positions I adjusted the categories slightly, taking five points from transition play and adding it to offence, while adding a new category for difficulty of minutes played that is applied as a multiplier to all categories. As such, the highest theoretical score would now be 125 points instead of 100 if a player were to be the best in the NHL at every single statistic, while playing the toughest minutes in every category in the difficulty matrix. But since no one scores that high, practically we’ll keep the numbers out of 100 even after the adjustment. Because wingers have less defensive responsibility than centres, the breakdown is 60 points for offence, 25 for transition play, and 15 for defensive play.
Also new this year is weighting season scores by how recent they are, using the same breakdown as Galamini does with his HERO charts; 22.2 per cent for 2014-15, 33.3 per cent for 2015-16, and 44.5 per cent for 2016-17.
Here are the statistics used in each category:
For offence: 5-on-5 and power play goals, primary assists, secondary assists, scoring chances, high-danger scoring chances, scoring chances generated for teammates, shot attempts, passes to the slot completed, penalties drawn, and on-ice goals for relative to teammates per 60 minutes, and offensive zone pass completion rate.
For transition play: 5-on-5 outlet passes, stretch passes, controlled carries out of the defensive zone, neutral zone passes, controlled entries into the offensive zone per 60 minutes, Corsi, and Corsi relative to teammates, and pass completion rates relative to teammates in the defensive and neutral zones.
For defence: 5-on-5 and shorthanded loose puck recoveries by zone, pass blocks, stick checks, body checks, penalties taken, on-ice goals-against relative to teammates, on-ice shot attempts against relative to teammates per 60 minutes, and turnover rates relative to teammates by zone.
For difficulty of minutes played: Puck IQ’s competition-faced percentages, Game Score’s quality of competition, Game Score’s quality of teammates, PDO, offensive zone starts percentage, 5-on-5 time-on-ice, and overall time-on-ice.
With all that information out of the way, let’s get to the rankings. This year we’re adding a few extra, doing the top 23 at each position. For the left wing position, 80 players qualified.
23. Gabriel Landeskog
Difficulty Matrix: 1.17/1.25
Offence: 28.35/60 | Transition: 17.45/25 | Defence: 10.74/15
Total: 56.54/100
Landeskog’s offensive numbers declined for a third-straight season, which lead many to believe he’s no longer the player he looked like he would be when he broke into the league. But how much of that decline is on him is debatable when you look at the gloomy situation the Colorado Avalanche are in.
Even with his offensive game disappearing, Landeskog remains an extremely strong transition and defensive player, one of the best wingers in the NHL without the puck. It’s tough to see sometimes because the Avs have been such a mess, but Landeskog is a puck recovery demon, and relative to his teammates he’s incredibly safe with the puck on his stick. If Colorado ever improves, he’s going to be a big part of it.
22. Andre Burakovsky
Difficulty Matrix: 1.10/1.25
Offence: 31.60/60 | Transition: 16.80/25 | Defence: 8.45/15
Total: 56.85/100
Everyone seems to be predicting a big offensive breakout for Burakovsky, and if that’s the case he’s going to be shooting up the rankings next year, because he’s already a legitimately great player. He may not have the eye-popping raw numbers yet, but he’s been consistently strong offensively in a limited role, while his transition and defensive games take leaps each year.
Burakovsky’s lone weakness seems to be a high turnover rate in the neutral zone, which may be a result of him trying to do a little too much at times, but that’s also a product of being young. If he can simplify his game just a little bit while maintaining his creativity, Washington will have yet another dynamite young player.
21. James Neal
Difficulty Matrix: 1.14/1.25
Offence: 36.64/60 | Transition: 13.25/25 | Defence: 8.39/15
Total: 58.27/100
James Neal has the reputation of a fairly one-dimensional sniper, but he’s surprisingly strong on the defensive side of the puck — his biggest strength is rarely turning the puck over in the defensive zone. The first Vegas Golden Knight to make the rankings, Neal should be the cornerstone of their attack.
There are a few worrying things about Neal, as year-over-year he’s been declining in each area of the game, but he remains a wicked finisher when the puck gets to him in the right spots, and although his shot attempts have been falling off, his scoring chances haven’t. Neal remains most deadly on the power play, where the Predators will likely miss him the most.
20. Ondrej Palat
Difficulty Matrix: 1.14/1.25
Offence: 34.61/60 | Transition: 15.40/25 | Defence: 8.49/15
Total: 58.50/100
Palat dropped a bit from last year’s ranking, but part of the reason for that is competition among left wingers is very strong. Palat is a do-everything sort of player: he can play shutdown minutes against top lines, he can run your transition game, and he can punish opposing teams with slick skill in the offensive zone.
With all the injuries and changes in Tampa Bay the past couple years, Palat has stayed very consistent. He hasn’t cracked 20 goals in the past three years, but his impact on goals for his team is very strong.
19. Jaden Schwartz
Difficulty Matrix: 1.16/1.25
Offence: 32.63/60 | Transition: 17.46/25 | Defence: 9.71/15
Total: 59.81/100
Schwartz is another player who dropped considerably from last year’s rankings, mostly due to greater focus on awarding points for direct offence instead of transition play for forwards. That slight alteration mixed with a slight drop in his goal totals the past couple years was enough to drop him down 10 spots.
Schwartz has seen a big increase in his defensive impact recently, becoming more aggressive defending opposing puck carriers and stripping the puck off them more effectively to send play the other direction.
18. Daniel Sedin
Difficulty Matrix: 1.18/1.25
Offence: 33.95/60 | Transition: 16.67/25 | Defence: 9.52/15
Total: 60.14/100
The Sedins aren’t what they were, but you’re fooling yourself if you don’t think these guys are still great. Even with all the turmoil in Vancouver the twins keep playing their own way and getting results.
What’s most impressive to me about Daniel are his defensive numbers, which are spectacular without playing enough shorthanded to get any credit for it. As you might expect from a Sedin, the biggest impact he has on his team’s defensive results is when he has the puck on his stick, as he’s among the league’s safest passers, and very rarely turns the puck over in his own zone.
17. Henrik Zetterberg
Difficulty Matrix: 1.20/1.25
Offence: 33.45/60 | Transition: 18.73/25 | Defence: 9.49/15
Total: 61.67/100
A year ago Zetterberg looked like he might be in steep decline, and his goal scoring has been for several years now, but a bounce-back season of high-level playmaking and 200-foot play has him looking like a younger player.
Zetterberg improved in all areas of the game year-over-year despite the Red Wings taking a step back, perhaps a sign of a healthy season that has been eluding him for a while. Intelligence is what drives his game these days, making smart decisions at the blue lines and through the neutral zone, paired with high pass success rates and low turnover rates despite playing the second-toughest minutes of any winger in the game over the past three years. Hank’s job ain’t easy.
16. Nikolaj Ehlers
Difficulty Matrix: 1.14/1.25
Offence: 37.23/60 | Transition: 17.63/25 | Defence: 7.37/15
Total: 62.23/100
Maybe he’s in the shadow of his incredible linemates in Winnipeg, but don’t sleep on Nikolaj Ehlers, who has quickly become an excellent player in his own right. Ehlers is one of the most effective wingers in the game at bringing the puck up the ice with control, and once he gets there he’s nearly equally talented at putting the puck in the net, or on a teammate’s stick in scoring position.
Young players often leave a bit to be desired on defence, but Ehlers is already very strong without the puck, using his speed to chase down loose pucks, and he’s a great passer in all zones once he has it.
15. James van Riemsdyk
Difficulty Matrix: 1.13/1.25
Offence: 42.36/60 | Transition: 11.58/25 | Defence: 8.74/15
Total: 62.68/100
Lots of people consider James van Riemsdyk a defensive liability, but without the puck he’s actually quite strong, using his size and physicality to win battles in all three zones. Where he really struggles is transitioning the puck out of the defensive zone, which can lead to a lot of time hemmed in defending. He doesn’t turn the puck over much in the defensive zone, because he prefers to just lob it into the neutral zone, which opponents then recover and resume the attack more often than not.
Whatever his struggles in transition, though, a bit of support from teammates goes a long way to help take advantage of where van Riemsdyk does most of his damage: the net-front. Whether it’s roofing pucks from in tight, banging home rebounds, or smart little passes to open teammates around the crease, he’s a goal machine.
14. Tomas Tatar
Difficulty Matrix: 1.15/1.25
Offence: 34.80/60 | Transition: 18.38/25 | Defence: 9.96/15
Total: 63.14/100
A big drop for Tatar in the rankings has more to do with other players excelling than him struggling. His offensive numbers have fallen a little bit the past two seasons, but Detroit as a team has fallen off too, so I doubt he shares much of the blame there. Even still, he recorded his third-straight 20-goal season last year, and remains an excellent two-way player.
A strong passing game and balanced defensive style with strong positioning allows Tatar to put up stellar defensive results relative to his teammates and limits the amount of time he spends defending.
13. Alex Ovechkin
Difficulty Matrix: 1.14/1.25
Offence: 47.34/60 | Transition: 12.86/25 | Defence: 4.10/15
Total: 64.31/100
There was a time when Ovechkin was an amazing transition player, but his game seems to be declining there. Add to that the fact he’s really rough around the edges defensively, and you get a player who is among the elite of the elite offensively, but no longer what he was at his peak.
Everyone knows what Ovechkin’s strengths are, where he’s going to shoot from, and how often his team will look to find him, but he still gets open almost every time. That’s probably a more important talent than even his shot is, and he’s got an elite one of those too.
12. Chris Kreider
Difficulty Matrix: 1.15/1.25
Offence: 37.31/60 | Transition: 17.89/25 | Defence: 9.89/15
Total: 65.09/100
Last season was a big step forward for Kreider, as he established himself as much more than a second line option for the Rangers by focusing on getting into scoring positions far more often, leading to a huge increase in even-strength scoring.
At the same time, Kreider took steps in his defensive and transition games, using his size and speed more to his advantage than any other time in his career. After some inconsistency early on, Kreider seems to have developed into what the Rangers always envisioned he would become: a dominant power forward.
11. Jeff Skinner
Difficulty Matrix: 1.18/1.25
Offence: 49.08/60 | Transition: 11.56/25 | Defence: 4.48/15
Total: 65.12/100
Skinner is the ultimate in elite, one-dimensional players. He struggles to get to the offensive zone, but once he’s there he’s an offensive wizard. Because Skinner’s Hurricanes have struggled to score so much the past few years, I don’t think many people recognize just how dangerous he’s been on offence.
His career-high 37 goals last season didn’t lead the league, but considering how little help he got on offence, you really have to be impressed by him. Skinner is a high |
a desktop environment on top of Ubuntu, making it effectively a skin and not having a meaningful impact on the usage of the operating system as compared to Ubuntu. But elementary OS is far from a skin.
We maintain over 90 distinct open source projects. These include our desktop environment Pantheon and its components like the panel, window manager, app launcher, settings app and plugs, and system indicators; over a dozen apps like AppCenter, Music, Calendar, Calculator, Camera, Photos, Videos, Code, and Terminal; libraries like Granite; daemons and agents for services like Parental Controls and Polkit; patches for upstream projects including unique configurations; code that puts all of that together into the final disk image; and then of course our system stylesheet and icons which extend past the freedesktop.org specification and provide 3rd party developers with a more expansive set of assets than what comes with Ubuntu.
But it doesn’t stop with providing things on top of Ubuntu. elementary OS is not a remixed Ubuntu disk image. Instead, we build elementary OS images from metapackage seeds, just like Debian. This gives us the ability to tailor an experience that not only changes little things like showing password feedback asterisks in Terminal, but big things like using LibInput instead of xinput for better touchpad support.
“elementary OS is made to look like macOS”
It’s no secret that macOS has been a champion of design on the desktop for nearly 15 years now. Steve Jobs is quoted as saying, “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them”. So we can see where people are coming from. We’re also very careful and put a lot of effort into having great design in elementary OS. But you might be surprised to know that we have less in common with OS X than others would have you believe.
A Typical GNOME 2 desktop
Pantheon was originally developed to be a successor to GNOME 2, the desktop environment that we shipped in the first version of elementary OS. Many of the decisions about the layout of the desktop come from that heritage, including an applications menu at the top left, indicators with a session menu at the top right, and a place to switch between apps and workspaces at the bottom of the display. The first few iterations of our desktop included multiple docks or panels in different styles, sizes, and positions, but in the end we kept a single dock at the bottom of the screen. While at first glance it might look similar to the one found in OS X, the behavior of our dock is quite different, especially with regards to our hide mode which doesn’t steal screen real estate away from apps while you’re working.
Some things you won’t find in elementary OS are the iconic “traffic light” window buttons or a global menu. We also have chosen to make much wider use of colorful iconography in a style derived from Tango!, which is quite different from both the hyper-real app icons and the flat symbolic toolbar icons you’ll see in macOS. We’ve avoided trends like translucency, extra gloss, and over-flatness and instead have opted to take a number of more timeless notes from things like Material design, emphasizing the use of light, shadow, and color to help break up an application’s layout and provide clarity.
“elementary just forks other apps and doesn’t write their own”
This myth is ever-so-partially based in truth; elementary does maintain two forked apps: Photos and Mail. However both of these apps were originally developed by Yorba (who has unfortunately closed up shop and ceased development) and Mail was designed in heavy collaboration with elementary. After some discussion with Jim Nelson, head of Yorba at the time, we felt it was better to continue developing these apps under a new name and vision. We’ve heard that recently some other developers have also adopted the original codebases and we can only remark that this means more choice for our users.
There are two other apps that might loosely qualify as forks: Files and Music. Both of these were originally developed for elementary OS, but the development team split over technical disagreements. In both cases, elementary gave up the original names to the developers who left.
On to the misconceptions! Switchboard (aka System Settings) is not a fork of GNOME Control Center. elementary maintains a compatibility layer that allows Control Center panes to be displayed, and we currently only ship 4 out of 22 of these by default. The major difference being that Switchboard is designed from the beginning to be extensible and modular, making it easier to reuse and re-mix in new fledgling desktop environments, but also that our Switchboard panes contain settings that are unique to our desktop environment and applications. We don’t need to carry extra external apps to supplement or deal with settings that don’t apply.
“elementary writes their own apps for no good reason”
We have a number of our own apps including: AppCenter, Calculator, Calendar, Camera, Scratch, Screenshot, Terminal, and Videos. For each of these apps, there are comparable solutions from other developers. We could just ship a collection of other folks’ apps with elementary OS. However, we have some pretty good reasons for not doing so.
Pantheon Files’ column view
First and foremost and most important to our users, elementary apps have features that the other apps don’t. Files has the column view and our smart pathbar. Terminal has backlog search, smart copy/paste, and until recently was the only Terminal app to support notifications. Scratch is built around auto saving. And, all of the aforementioned apps make use of Granite’s tab bar widget which gives them some free extra features like Undo Close Tab, Close Other Tab, and Duplicate Tab. Building our own apps using complex widgets from a common library means that our users can expect features to translate across all of our apps. Every app is also built to adhere to our Human Interface Guidelines. Using common design patterns means you can learn one app and that knowledge applies to other apps as well. It’s part of what makes elementary OS so easy to pick up for people new to it. Building our own apps also gives us the ability to create unique system features like Privacy Mode and gives us special insight into how to make a desktop environment and platform that makes it easier for third parties to develop powerful and feature-full apps.
But it’s also important to bear in mind that we don’t go our own way unless necessary. We make it a point to use and contribute back to standard libraries and avoid writing things that have already been written. And if one of our upstreams comes up with a better solution, we’re happy to retire our code in favor of it, a prime example being the several utilities and widgets that we’ve retired from Granite. We believe that having multiple implementations of a library makes sure that interests are diverse and the library will remain useful to more than just the original authors. We also recognize that development resources are scarce and precious. Focus is the key to success and it means saying “no” to time sinks.
“elementary OS is for noobs or dumbs down their apps”
I think this stems from the idea that features require complexity. It’s a cultural belief in poor design. But we think that clear, easy-to-use apps are good for both new users and pros. Usability is for everyone and truly usable apps help, not hinder. Keyboard navigation is an example of something that is a priority both for pro users and users with special accessibility needs. An interface works best when it is transparent and empowers users to get things done.
It’s worth mentioning that elementary OS itself is developed with elementary apps. Scratch, Files, and Terminal need to be good development tools, because they’re the ones that we use every day. The people that develop elementary apps are using them for pro user cases and we think about how to make the system more powerful out of the box by including useful tools like Parental Controls and Firewall settings. But we also think about how to make the system more lean and usable by removing clutter and distractions that get in the way of doing meaningful things.
“elementary doesn’t allow other distros to use Pantheon or their apps”
Pantheon running on Manjaro
This is patently false. All of our desktop code is licensed under the terms of the GPL. That means that we explicitly allow anyone to reuse, remix, and redistribute this code. We also work directly with developers who are interested in porting our code to run on other distros. There are preliminary working versions of Pantheon available on Arch and Fedora, with efforts underway to port to Gentoo and Suse among others. Also of note, several of our apps are currently available in upstream Debian.
“elementary OS holds back updates”
In elementary OS, patched packages are built with launchpad recipes, so when an upstream codebase is changed, a new build is automatically triggered and our patch is applied on top. We also make sure to avoid things like namespace collisions in packages. We take full advantage of the knowledgeable and hard-working security teams at Debian and Canonical, and we make sure our users are getting those updates as quickly as possible.
“elementary doesn’t contribute to upstream projects”
Our upstream code contributions include the likes of Evolution Data Server, Gstreamer, GSSO, Gtk+, Vala, and more. We’ve also contributed funds to events like Inkscape Toronto and Debconf. We’ve donated to FontAwesome and OpenStreetMap and even to projects that our users make use of like rEFInd. And of course there’s the several thousand dollars in bounties that we’ve placed on upstream projects, particularly Gtk+.
We also have several downstreams and we work with them regularly, for example Xubuntu who uses a derivative of elementary icons. In fact, Humanity (the Ubuntu icon set), is derived from elementary icons and many downstreams use derivatives of those icons like Mint. We’re also happy to see that other distros have started picking up useful tools like our Captive Network Assistant.
Something else we’ve done pretty recently is to revitalize the development of valadoc.org. We fixed broken features, gave it a massive visual overhaul, and now serve the site over HTTPS. We’ve also joined the Snap Format technical oversight board. So we’re very interested in participating in technologies that benefit the wider open source ecosystem.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯Getty Images
Last Sunday’s game against the Cowboys found Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith in vintage form.
Smith caught eight passes for 99 yards, scored a touchdown, made a highlight-worthy catch down the sideline and talked enough to Cowboys rookie cornerback Anthony Brown that Brown was left talking about his lack of respect for Smith after the game. The only reminder that it was 2016 might have been the fact that Smith caught the 1000th pass of his career during the proceedings.
That milestone became a reminder as well. Smith is playing this season because last year’s plan to retire was dashed when Smith tore his Achilles and decided he didn’t want to go out as an injured player. The retirement is now set for the conclusion of this season, although coach John Harbaugh admitted that trying to convince Smith to stick around “has crossed my mind.”
“If he wants to come back, he’s welcome. Absolutely,” Harbaugh said, via the Baltimore Sun. “You’d like every good football player you can get. But I don’t want to speak for Steve. He’s had an unbelievably awesome career. He got his 1,000th catch so he should be commended for that. Congratulations to Steve on that accomplishment. We look for many more this year.”
Smith hasn’t shared any thoughts about an adjustment to his plans and there might not be one if one of Smith’s hopes is to walk away before the game forces him out for good.The Vancouver Canucks were one of the busiest teams during the 2014 NHL Draft, selecting seven players, while moving disgruntled center Ryan Kesler to Anaheim and defenseman Jason Garrison to Tampa Bay.
New General Manager Jim Benning made four different moves at the NHL draft that will significantly impact the organization for years to come. Benning selected a winger, two centers, a goaltender, and three defensemen with their picks. Right wing Linden Vey was acquired in exchange for Vancouver’s 50th selection in the draft.
Of note, Benning placed the onus on improving the size of the team, particularly with the defensemen they acquired with their picks. Canucks fans have clamored for an improvement in this area, particularly since they lost in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in seven games to the Boston Bruins.
Jake Virtanen, LW, Calgary Hitmen (WHL)
1st round, 6th overall
Height: 6-1 Weight: 210
Although a lot of fans may not be thrilled with the Canucks’ first selection of the draft, Jake Virtanen brings a wealth of talent to the table. Two of his greatest attributes are his excellent skating skills and his superb ability to finish. In fact, some feel he was the top finisher available in the draft. Still, the opinion remains that perhaps Nikolaj Ehlers (WPG, 9th overall) or William Nylander (TOR, 8th overall) had higher upside, and that there is the potential Virtanen could be a bust, in the mold of Kyle Beach. The highest compliments he has been paid were comparisons to Jeff Carter and Ryan Johansen.
With an August birthday, Virtanen was one of the youngest players drafted at 17 years of age. He possesses excellent size and has the ability to play a power forward style of game. Virtanen scored 45 goals in 71 games for the Calgary Hitmen last season, ranking him sixth in the WHL. His relatively low assist totals have created some concern, however, regarding his hockey IQ and on-ice vision. He was tied for second with St. Louis pick Robby Fabbri, behind Ehlers, in goal scoring among draft-eligible prospects in the CHL. He was also tied with Fabbri for the most even-strength goals among draft-eligible skaters with 30.
Another concern was that Virtanen had strong linemates in Brady Brassart (MIN) and Greg Chase (EDM), who both had 35 goals each, and finished with 85 points. It begs the question: Did Virtanen make his linemates better, and if so, why did he manage only 26 assists? Virtanen will most likely miss the Canucks’ training camp and prospect tournament due to shoulder surgery. It is unlikely that Virtanen gets into the Canucks lineup this season. Still, his raw potential, combined with his excellent skating and ability to finish, are irrefutable.
Virtanen spoke with the media following his selection by the Canucks, with some of his comments captured in this HF video.
Jared McCann, C, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL)
1st round, 24th overall
Height: 6-0 Weight: 179
With their second selection in the first round, the Canucks added a playmaking center. Jared McCann finished the 2013-14 season third on the Soo Greyhounds in goals (27) and points (62). Considered a gifted playmaker, McCann’s skating ability shines through with good acceleration and strong lateral mobility. He has a long reach and utilizes it well throughout all three zones.
A two-way center, McCann has an outstanding hockey IQ and his on-ice vision and decision-making are exceptional. The Canucks like his consistency as well as his determination and his competitive edge. Some fans were a little jolted by his comments on being selected by Vancouver, but it is likely he was disappointed to not be taken higher in the draft.
McCann will spend another year in Sault Ste. Marie fine-tuning his game, with the goal of turning pro after that. His faceoff skills are good, but there are concerns about his weight and injury history. Like many newly drafted players, these concerns are usually put to rest during the rest of their developmental period. He is projected to be a second or third line center with some offensive upside. The pick came via the Ryan Kesler trade to the Anaheim Ducks.
Following his selection by the Canucks, McCann met with the media, with some of that conversation being captured in this HF video.
Thatcher Demko, G, Boston College Eagles (NCAA)
2nd round, 36th overall
Height: 6-3 Weight: 190
General Manager Jim Benning made no secret of the amount of value he places on the goaltending position. He and the Canucks are willing to gamble on the Boston College star, who will likely require surgery on both hips. Demko helped guide the Eagles to a Frozen Four appearance in his freshman year, an achievement rarely heard of. He stopped 29 shots against UMass-Lowell to earn a 4-3 victory during the NCAA Northeast Regional Final.
In his freshman year, he was the youngest player in College Hockey at 17 years old. He spent some time waiting for his shot behind Brian Billett in Chestnut Hill, as well as behind Jon Gillies (CGY) when he represented Team USA at the 2014 World Junior Championships. But shortly after his 18th birthday in December, he became the starter for Boston College and ran with it all they way to the Frozen Four.
He uses his 6’3” frame effectively, and is an athletic goaltender who focuses on staying square to the shooter. Being able to read the play and anticipate are also considered strengths for Demko. With his teammate Johnny Gaudreau (CGY) winning the 2014 Hobey Baker Award, some feel that he lost some of the spotlight. He quietly recorded a 19 game unbeaten streak with 17 wins and two ties.
Demko spoke with the media after being chosen by the Canucks, with some of his comments being captured in this HF video.
Nikita Tryamkin, D, Yekaterinburg Automobilist (KHL)
3rd round, 66th overall
Height: 6-7 Weight: 230
Oddly passed over in two NHL drafts, this Zdeno Chara-esque behemoth blueliner immediately gives the Canucks something they have never had before. Though he still has two years remaining on his KHL contract, the Canucks will try to get him to Vancouver for training camp to examine what they have. He is the first Russian-born player the Canucks have selected since Ilya Kablukov was selected in the fifth round in 2007.
Tryamkin has, as you can imagine, an incredible reach and is a unique player. He has the defenseman’s mindset, is very responsible defensively, and skates well for a man his size. While he does not have fantastic puck handling skills, he was still used on Russia’s second power-play unit at the World Junior Championships. He has solid skating ability and is not afraid to mix it up and use his imposing size to his advantage. He will be 20 years old by the start of the 2014-15 season, putting him somewhat ahead of the developmental curve than most of his fellow draftees.
Through an interpreter, Tryamkin spoke with the media, with some of his comments included in this HF video.
Gustav Forsling, D, Linkoping J20 (Sweden SuperElit)
5th round, 126th overall
Height: 5-11 Weight: 175
Having dealt their fourth round pick to Carolina in the Zac Dalpe trade, the Canucks had to wait to until the fifth round to nab this offensive-minded defenseman. While he will never be a shutdown defenseman, he has made strides in his defensive zone coverage. He has also improved his defensive zone awareness and ability to make the safe play.
Where Forsling excels is in the creative aspects of the game, controlling tempo and flow, particularly on the power play. He has excellent puck control and distributes it well and in a timely fashion. Some feel that he was overlooked somewhat because of his diminutive frame, but he is still very young and has time to develop even further. While the Canucks have a couple of offensive minded defenders in their system, Forsling looks to bring a couple of elements to the table that have been lacking. He obviously exudes some qualities the Canucks desire, as physically he was not the stereotypical large, brawny prospect they targeted in the draft.
Kyle Pettit, C, Erie Otters (OHL)
6th round, 156th overall
Height: 6-4 Weight: 200
Lost amidst the wave of big names the Erie Otters possess – Connor McDavid, Andre Burakovsky (WAS), Connor Brown (TOR), and Canucks free agent signing Dane Fox – Kyle Pettit went about his business with little fanfare. No stranger to hard work and determination, Pettit is a team-first kind of player, and though he will never put up points like some of the afore-mentioned Otters, he is integral to his team’s success.
Pettit does a lot of the little things that win hockey games. He is strong in the faceoff circle and is called upon for defensive zone faceoffs quite often. He has good size, but does not look for hits and only mixes it up every so often. If he uses his height for anything, it is to lean on players while in the defensive zone. The offensive side of his game and puck possession will always be a work in progress, and his skating stride still needs some attention, though he is by no means a poor skater. He is a good shot-blocker, and despite missing 15 games this season due to a shoulder injury, is quite rugged. Pettit is a player that you never have to worry about from one shift to another; he always leaves it all out on the ice for your team.
Mackenze Stewart, D, Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)
7th round, 186th overall
Height: 6-5 Weight: 237
As previously mentioned, the Canucks prospect stable grew, not just in quantity, but also in average height/weight after the 2014 draft. Stewart has actually defied the odds to make it this far. He was born deaf; only surgeries gave him the ability to hear at 12 years of age.
Stewart will never be confused with an offensively gifted defenseman; in 55 games with the Prince Albert Raiders he had five goals and nine points. But he loves playing the game, and certainly has some tools that can be worked with. He will not shy away from the physical stuff either as he dropped the gloves 10 times this past season.
To be certain, players drafted in the later rounds in the draft are often a crapshoot, and Stewart is no exception. He is an intriguing pickup though, and with some work and attention to detail, could be molded into an imposing defenseman. Fans that have been hoping for the Canucks to get bigger certainly had those wishes granted during the 2014 draft.
Following the first round of the 2014 NHL Draft, Canucks’ general manager Jim Benning met with the media, with some of his comments included in this HF video.The babysitter accused of starving and beating to death a toddler whined about how bad the little boy was behaving the day after the child died in the hospital.
In a videotaped interview played in court Tuesday, Kryzie King, 28, described how little Myls Dobson, 4, cut up her bedsheets, destroyed a PlayStation game system and even forced her to cancel a vacation to Jamaica.
“I was mad but what can I do but make the best of it,” she complained of the canceled trip during the Jan. 9, 2014 interview with prosecutors.
Dobson’s father, Okee Wade, was in a relationship with King and left his son in her care after he was locked up in New Jersey in early December.
“What am I supposed to do?” she griped to prosecutors in the interview played in Manhattan Supreme Court. “I’m trying to accommodate him, and he’s being unruly and disrespectful.”
She admitted that she beat Dobson with a belt, burned him and even locked him outside on an 11th-floor terrace in his underwear for nearly an hour in freezing temperatures because he was misbehaving.
The transgender beautician even blamed the child for his dramatic weight loss. “I tried to feed him, he didn’t want the food,” she insisted. “He’d drink something and spit it back out.”
The emaciated child was found unconscious on Jan. 8, 2014 covered with bruises and severe burn marks in King’s Midtown luxury high rise and was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The hearing will determine whether the statements King made while in custody but before she was formally arrested can be admitted at her upcoming murder trial.Authorities in Egypt have extended the detention of Tarek Loubani and John Greyson, two Canadians imprisoned there since Aug. 16.
“We have heard from our lawyers in Cairo and can confirm that Tarek and John’s detention has been extended by the prosecutor for another 45 days,” according to an update on Sunday by Justin Podur, a friend involved in ongoing efforts to free the two men.
The news was broken earlier in the day by Sharif Kouddous, a Cairo-based correspondent for Democracy Now.
BREAKING: Prosecutor orders an additional 45 days detention for Canadians John Greyson and Tarek Loubani, imprisoned since Aug. 16 #Egypt — Sharif Kouddous (@sharifkouddous) September 29, 2013
Loubani and Greyson were arrested during the wave of protest that swept Egypt in the summer, with supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi clashing with security forces in the streets. The two Canadians were headed for the Gaza Strip when they were detained. Loubani, a doctor, was to work at the Al Shifa Hospital and filmmaker Greyson hoped to document his work there for a possible documentary.
Loubani and Greyson are both Canadian citizens and have not been charged by prosecutors.
News of the 45-day extension came only a day after Loubani and Greyson relayed, through their lawyer, the “ridiculous conditions” they have been subjected to in their imprisonment.
“No phone calls, little to no exercise, sharing a 3m x 10m cell with 36 other political prisoners, sleeping like sardines on concrete with the cockroaches; sharing a single tap of earthy Nile water,” read a letter from Loubani and Greyson, who are in the midst of a hunger strike to protest their detention.
In their letter, the two men describe how they were waylaid from their trip to Gaza due to the unreliability of the border crossing into the coastal territory. While waiting in Cairo for their next opportunity, the men witnessed a violent protest in which Loubani tried to treat the injured and Greyson documented the carnage using his HD camera.
“That’s when we were: arrested, searched, caged, questioned, interrogated, videotaped with a ‘Syrian terrorist,’ slapped, beaten, ridiculed, hot-boxed, refused phone calls, stripped, shaved bald, accused of being foreign mercenaries.
“Was it our Canadian passports, or the footage of Tarek performing CPR, or our ice cream wrappers that set them off? They screamed ‘Canadian’ as they kicked and hit us. John had a precisely etched boot print bruise on his back for a week.”
According to Cecilia Greyson, John’s sister, the two Canadians are not the only ones to have had their imprisonment prolonged. Everyone arrested on Aug. 16 similarly received a 45-day extension.
Lynne Yelich, minister of state for foreign and consular affairs, issued a statement on Sunday expressing her disappointment in the continued detention of the Canadians.
“Canada continues to press for a timely and positive resolution to this situation and, in the absence of confirmation of the charges, once again calls for their release,” said Yelich.
The Saskatchewan MP also said she and Foreign Minister John Baird had spoken repeatedly with Egyptian officials to press for Loubani and Greyson’s release and that consular staff were in regular contact with the men’s lawyers and family.While Republicans were throwing their silly tantrum, Obamacare became a fact. There is no turning back.
The point of no return was reached when millions of people crashed the Web sites of the new Affordable Care Act exchanges while trying to buy health insurance. Republicans can fight rear-guard battles if they want, but last Tuesday they lost the war. All they can do at this point is harm the nation — and their political prospects.
Someday, if the GOP captures the presidency and both houses of Congress, President Obama’s health-care law could be altered or even repealed. But it would be replaced by some new program that does the same thing, because there is no politically viable way to snatch away the medical insurance that customers are buying through the exchanges.
Quite the opposite: As soon as the glitches are cleared up and everyone becomes a bit less hysterical, the question will be how to obtain coverage for as many as 30 million people who will still be uninsured — including upwards of 8 million ineligible for Obamacare because of a sabotage campaign by Republican governors.
Look at Texas, which the state medical association calls “the uninsured capital of the United States.” An estimated 22.5 percent of the population lacks health insurance, a higher percentage than in any other state. Many will remain uninsured because Gov. Rick Perry — a once and perhaps future GOP candidate for president — refused to set up a state insurance exchange and turned down billions in federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage.
1 of 11 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 10 myths about Obama (that people actually believe) View Photos We’ve all heard them: Misinformation about President Obama has a penchant for spreading like wildfire. The Post’s Swati Sharma attempts to set a few matters straight. Caption We’ve all heard them: Misinformation about President Obama has a penchant for spreading like wildfire. The Post’s Swati Sharma attempts to set a few matters straight. We’ve all heard them: Misinformation about President Obama has a penchant for spreading like wildfire. Dana Milbank offers a few answers for the reasons, as he characterizes it, that the Kenyan born Muslim raised in a madrassa president somehow attracts lies and rumors that are far from the truth. As for the rumors themselves, we have compiled a list that aren't the most outrageous but have a surprising base of believers. Win McNamee/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Rejection of Obamacare may be popular in Texas now. But demographic trends are making the Lone Star State’s electorate more diverse, as the Latino population grows, and less reliably Republican. Small businesses that cannot afford to offer health insurance may soon worry about losing employees to states offering better coverage for the working poor through local exchanges and expanded Medicaid. Time is on the side of those who want to expand coverage, not those who want to restrict it.
I trust that conservative leaders will continue riling up the base with the untrue charge that Obamacare is “government health care.” It is nothing of the sort. Obama decided at the outset not to push for a government-run health system, such as those in Britain and Canada, or a single-payer system of any kind.
Instead, all of Obamacare’s insurance plans are offered by private firms — the same companies that also provide employer-sponsored insurance. Disappointing his liberal supporters, Obama declined to include even a single public, government-run health plan. All the apocalyptic right-wing rhetoric about socialism and the end of freedom is nothing but hot air. Soon, no one will take it seriously.
Those who are genuinely worried about the cost of a new entitlement should have their concerns taken seriously. But if money is the overriding issue, the obvious thing to do is go further and adopt a truly universal system like those in other industrialized countries.
The United States spends nearly 18 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, more than any other nation. France, Germany and Japan, to cite three countries with universal health care, spend between 9 percent and 12 percent of GDP on health — and obtain health outcomes at least as good as ours.
Someday, fiscal conservatives will acknowledge those numbers. For now, we are stuck with a fee-for-service health-care system that is perhaps the most wasteful in the world. Critics of Obamacare seem not to understand that the vast numbers of uninsured Americans — about 15 percent of the population — contribute heavily to the system’s inefficiencies.
We provide care for these people, but we do it in the dumbest way imaginable. Since they can’t afford to see a doctor regularly, treatable health problems and chronic conditions worsen. When ailments become acute, the uninsured go to hospital emergency rooms — the most expensive way to receive care.
The uninsured cannot pay their bills — medical costs are the biggest single cause of personal bankruptcy — so they are passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher health insurance premiums. Families USA, a nonpartisan health care advocacy group, estimated that in 2010 an average family in Texas paid an extra $2,786 in premiums to cover care for the uninsured. Are you listening, Gov. Perry?
Medicare guaranteed health care for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor. Obamacare begins to fill the remaining gaps. It will get better over time, but already — crashing Web sites and all — it’s a beautiful thing.
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America can be a strange place. Tuesday night, after learning that President Obama had won Ohio and thus (what a relief!) secured re-election, many of us went to sleep without knowing which candidate more Americans had voted for. Ad Policy
It turns out Obama won the popular vote too, averting a much-predicted electoral college/popular vote split. Some will argue that winning the popular vote as well as the electoral college gives Obama more of a mandate to govern—and it should. But this election—the latest to be fought out over a dozen counties rather than fifty states—should still offer an inspiration to fix how we pick our presidents.
Some argued in recent weeks that Obama wouldn’t score a “real” win if he secured the electoral college alone. But the real issue wasn’t the legitimacy of a victory—it was the integrity of our democracy. After all, this election was governed by the archaic rules we still use. Both campaigns knew this, and essentially wrote off efforts to win the popular vote for its own sake. A popular vote election would have been a very different election in all kinds of respects (consider the drop-off in Obama’s support in deep-blue states, which neither side had reason to care about).
(Facile comparisons to 2000 were inevitable, and of course that election also illustrated the inanity of the electoral college. But liberal rejection of that election’s legitimacy was based in other outrages: names expunged; voters intimidated; translators denied; recounts halted; malfunctioning machines.)
But what we do know is that every American would have had the chance to participate on an equal basis, in sharp contrast to our current system in which four out of five are absolutely ignored by both campaigns.
Electoral college defenders offer a range of arguments, from the openly anti-democratic (direct election equals mob rule), to the nostalgic (we’ve always done it this way), to the opportunistic (your little state will get ignored! More vote-counting means more controversies! The Electoral College protects hurricane victims!). But none of those arguments overcome this one: One person, one vote.
Our current system has a different pedigree: the “three-fifths compromise” between slave states and free states. As Yale constitutional law expert Akhil Amar has pointed out, James Madison wrote in his diary that the question of counting slaves posed a challenge “of a serious nature.… The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections.”
The American electorate has been transformed since then. But not the Electoral College. In a 2000 editorial, we called our system “a drafty old house.” Perhaps we were being too generous.
As Harvard historian Alexander Keyssar observed, “It is hardly an accident that no other country in the world has imitated our Electoral College.” Imagine, for a moment, trying to convince constitution-writers in any newly democratic nation that there are more prudent alternatives to one person, one vote. Or proposing that California, which is large and diverse in its own right, assign votes to its various regions rather than to its citizens. Or suggesting that the US choose its president by tabulating who won the battleground age groups, or classes or religions.
So what can be done? Congress could get the ball rolling but, with Republicans holding the House, we shouldn’t hold our breath. Fortunately, we don’t have to. Thanks to Amar’s clever strategy and advocates’ savvy organizing, there’s an alternative, with momentum: state-by-state National Popular Vote (NPV).
The concept is simple: individual state legislatures pledge that they’ll assign all of their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote—conditional on enough other states following suit. Once a majority of the nation’s electoral votes rest in states that have passed NPV measures, the laws go into effect and winning the popular vote becomes the only way to win. This elegantly exploits one of the perversities of our current system—there’s no individual, federal right to have your ballot counted—and turns it against the system itself. It’s a state-based solution that could finally force a federal popular-vote election.
And it’s gaining steam. In fact, it’s almost halfway there. Nine states with 132 electoral votes have already passed NPV (that’s 49 percent of the necessary 270 electoral votes). While opponents claim that popular vote elections (read: democracy) would doom small states to irrelevance, some small states aren’t convinced. NPV supporters include not just California (fifty-five electoral votes), but states like Maryland (ten), Hawaii (four), and Vermont (three). After another election |
a little breathing room between launches, so each title can have a chance to shine.Story highlights Two Australian Olympic swimmers ordered to take down controversial gun photo from Facebook
Photo shows Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk each holding two guns in a U.S. gun shop
Swimming Australia said it does not condone the posting of inappropriate photos online
Two Australian Olympic swimmers who posted pictures on Facebook of themselves brandishing weapons have been ordered to take them down by the country's swimming authorities.
The image, taken in a gun shop in Santa Clara, California, showed Nick D'Arcy with two pistols standing next to Kenrick Monk who is holding two shotguns across his chest, according to a Friday report in Australia's Herald Sun. The swimmers were training in the U.S. ahead of the Olympic Games in London later this year.
Swimming Australia said in a statement that it does not condone "the posting of inappropriate content on Facebook, Twitter or any social media platform."
As of Friday morning, neither of the swimmers' Facebook pages or Twitter accounts contained the photo.
"It was all just meant to be a bit of fun, the photos were just a bit of fun," D'Arcy told local media after returning to Australia. "If anyone's been offended I deeply apologize. It was never the intent; it was never supposed to be offensive."
Dozens of fans have posted on Monk's public Facebook page saying they support the athletes and that Swimming Australia had blown the photo out of proportion.
Swimming Australia said they will be speaking with both athletes regarding the incident.
While the pair faces possible Olympic sanctions, D'Arcy has been embroiled in controversy in the past.
In 2008, he was dropped from the Beijing Olympic team following an assault charge for hitting teammate Simon Cowley and breaking his jaw, the Australian Daily Telegraph reported at the time.
Both swimmers were named in Australia's team in March.Modernist foams come in many varieties. They can be made by blending, in a whipping siphon, or even using an aquarium bubbler. This recipe focuses on a different type: whipped foams, specifically whipped Methocel foams.
Methocel F50 is a variety of methylcellulose and we use it to stabilize and strengthen foams. The foaming process is very easy. The Methocel F50 is mixed into a flavorful liquid and then, using a standing mixer with a whisk attachment, it is whipped into soft peaks. The foam can then be spooned out, put in a pastry bag, or dehydrated. Xanthan gum is also commonly used to add more stability to the foam.
This is a standard foam recipe using Methocel F50 and xanthan gum. You can vary the liquid to be whatever you need for your dish. The cherry foam is awesome with a seared duck breast and pecans, or even on chocolate cake or cherry pie.
If you like this recipe you can get more than 80 other recipes from my book Modernist Cooking Made Easy: Getting Started. The book covers many of the popular modernist techniques such as gelling, spherification, and foams. It also explores modernist ingredients like agar, sodium alginate, tapioca maltodextrin, and xanthan gum. It is all presented in an easy to understand format and I think it's the best way to learn about modernist cooking.
Also, if you are just getting started experimenting with molecular gastronomy and modernist cuisine then I highly recommend one of these molecular gastronomy kits. They have everything you need to do many different dishes.0 of 10
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Without their big two centers in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins have still managed to open up a 3-2 series lead over the high-scoring Tampa Bay Lightning.
Before the postseason, many selected the Penguins to move at least into the second round on the strength of their goaltending, defense and coaching.
Pittsburgh is in position to eliminate Tampa Bay with a win Monday evening in Florida. While the team has looked mostly good in its victories, a pair of uncharacteristic blowout losses have shown Pittsburgh is still operating at less than 100 percent.
Tampa Bay is a good team with a few excellent scorers, but Pittsburgh's postseason experience is far greater. That experience has helped them to take a few games against an inferior and less experienced opponent.
That won't be the case if the Penguins grind their way into the semifinal round. Pittsburgh's possible opponents for a second round match include Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia and Washington. Each of those four teams is playoff experienced, and three would hold a home-ice series advantage over the Penguins.
The games only figure to get tougher. Dan Bylsma's club has done a fine job of maintaining a winning pace since January, but they may not have the gamebreaker they need to take a series from the Eastern Conference's elite teams.
Ten arguments for Pittsburgh's vulnerability with their captain in the quiet room:NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, celebrated in the West for championing democracy and helping end the Cold War, sees little chance Russia will turn from czarist-reminiscent, strongman government anytime in coming decades, the U.S. author of a new biography said on Monday.
FILE PHOTO: Moscow - Russia - 09/05/2017 - Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev attends the parade marking the World War II anniversary in Moscow. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo
Pulitzer Prize-winning William Taubman interviewed Gorbachev, now 86, eight times for his “Gorbachev: His Life and Times” and said in the Reuters Global Markets Forum online chat room that Gorbachev was widely disliked in Russia.
Here are edited excerpts:
Question: How do Russians now see Gorbachev, who was popular in the 1980s?
Answer: He is widely despised in Russia. People blame him for the collapse of the USSR, loss of its empire, the economic crash that accompanied the collapse, and also for seeming to be (to them, at any rate) a weak, indecisive leader.
Q: Why does Russian President Vladimir Putin ignore Gorbachev, even as he memorializes much Russian history?
A: Putin has only gained by ignoring or criticizing Gorbachev. In many ways, Putin’s program is the opposite of Gorbachev’s. It is as if Gorbachev has bequeathed the program, namely, the reverse of his own. As for Russia’s dissatisfaction today, it is apparently growing as economic conditions worsen. But Putin has rallied support by annexing the Crimea, by depicting the West as Russia’s enemy, by invoking the old czarist Trinity of principles: autocracy, nationality, and Orthodox religion.
Q: Does Gorbachev have much hope of seeing a more democratic government?
A: Gorbachev himself says it might take decades to democratize Russia, “even the whole 21st century.” This from a man who had hoped to see democracy come to the USSR in a few short years.
Q: Is Gorbachev content in his late life?
A: He insists he is. But I can’t imagine he really is. His innate optimism may sustain him. But in addition to all the political attacks on him that continue, he now lives largely alone (except for bodyguards, chefs and chauffeurs) in a big house in the suburbs.
((This interview was conducted in the Reuters Global Markets Forum, a chat room hosted on the Eikon platform.))Street artist donates funds raised from auction of latest work to Campaign Against Arms Trade and Reprieve
The street artist Banksy has given a financial boost to peace campaigners by donating the £205,000 raised from the sale of his latest work to Reprieve and Campaign Against Arms Trade.
Civilian Drone Strike, which depicts a trio of Predator drones bombing a children’s picture of a house, was auctioned at Art The Arms Fair, a five-day exhibition coinciding the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair in east London this week.
The exhibition was the second half of a two-week festival of protest against the DSEI, the world’s biggest arms fair, which brought together delegations from what activists say are some of the worst human rights-abusing regimes with 1,600 makers and sellers of weapons and military equipment.
More than 100 people were arrested in the first week of protests as they attempted to block exhibitors from delivering their equipment to set up stands at the arms fair, according to the Metropolitan police. The force said it would provide an update on the number of arrests later on Saturday.
Andrew Smith, of Campaign Against Arms Trade, said the money from the sale of Civilian Drone Strike would help the group to mobilise more protests against arms companies, and against the next DSEI in two years time.
“The arms fair is a moral abomination,” he said.
Banksy has a track record of supporting political causes with his art. In March he showcased his Walled Off hotel, nestled against the barrier wall in Bethlehem that separates the West Bank from Israel, to highlight the hardships caused by Israeli occupation.
In June he risked falling foul of UK election law by offering voters in constituencies around Bristol a free print if they sent in photos of their ballot papers in the general election to prove they had voted for anyone other than the Conservatives.THE MORMON FACTOR
Doubts about Mitt Romney’s fitness for the White House disappear when skittish Republicans, conservatives and even evangelicals consider the alternative: another four years of President Obama and his evolving administration. The emotionally charged issue is revealed in stark numbers:
“As Republican and Republican-leaning voters evaluate Romney, very few say his faith is a factor. A majority of Republican and Republican-leaning voters (56 percent) know that Romney is a Mormon. But just 8 percent say Romney’s religion makes them less likely to vote for him; 44 percent say it would not make a difference,” says a comprehensive survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
Still, among white evangelical Republican voters, 15 percent say Mr. Romney’s religion would make them less likely to support him; among that group, Herman Cain remains the favorite. But there’s is a noteworthy dynamic at work should Mr. Romney — aka the “inevitable” candidate — face Mr. Obama in the 2012 race.
“There is no evidence that Romney’s Mormon faith would prevent rank-and-file Republicans, including white evangelicals, from coalescing around him if he wins the GOP nomination. Rather, the same Republicans who may have doubts about Romney’s faith are among the most vehement opponents of Barack Obama,” the Pew study says. “Fully 91 percent of white evangelical Republican voters say they would back Romney over Obama in a general election matchup.”
ROMNEYPHOBIA
Settle for Mitt Romney? Abandon the idea of a purist conservative standard-bearer? Aw, go ahead, says 2008 presidential contender Mike Huckabee, who has emerged on Republican radar after advising conservatives to get over their doubts about Mr. Romney and stop obsessing about perfection.
“Mitt Romney every day of the week and twice on Sunday is going to be a much more effective president for issues that they care about than Barack Obama. And I think sometimes there is this anxiety within the Republican Party of who is the perfect candidate. The answer is: There isn’t one,” Mr. Huckabee recently told WABC radio.
Contrary to persistent rumor, Mr. Huckabee is not ready to endorse Mr. Romney. He is ready to wrangle Mr. Romney, however — along with a quartet of Republican hopefuls.
In the oncoming rush of debates, Mr. Huckabee will moderate a live, 90-minute candidate forum for Fox News on Dec. 3, showcasing the former Massachusetts governor, along with Reps. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and former Sen. Rick Santorum.
Businessman Herman Cain, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. are undecided about joining the broadcast.
Joining Mr. Huckabee to pose questions to the hopefuls are three state attorneys general: Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II of Virginia, Pam Bondi of Florida and E. Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma.
CANDIDATE TRACKER
The Republican hopefuls are starting to get antsy, even as the holiday season sparkles ahead. The reason: the Iowa caucuses are just over a month away, generating a kind of Pavlovian response among the candidates, who may salivate and whine at the thought of the campaign trail. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appears to be the busiest at the moment; some of the candidates have taken the weekend off. Here’s where the intrepid few will be in the next 72 hours:
Florida: Mr. Gingrich, businessman Herman Cain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
New Hampshire: former Sen. Rick Santorum, Mr. Gingrich
South Carolina: Mr. Gingrich
OCCUPADO
Black Friday may be an Annoying Friday as well. The Occupy Wall Street crowd plans to “occupy” businesses as well during the pivotal shopping hours after Thanksgiving. They have a website (stopblackfriday.com), lots of Facebook and Twitter noise, and a strategy too.
Supporters are urged to “occupy large chains and publicly traded retailers — we are not occupying small businesses or hardworking people. We must make a distinction between the businesses that are in the pockets of Wall Street and the businesses that serve our local communities. We are not anti-capitalist. Just anti-crapitalist.”
Their targets for possible rallies, protests, boycotts or sit-ins: Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon.com, AT&T Wireless, Burlington Coat Factory, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar Tree, the Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, OfficeMax, Toys R Us, Verizon Wireless, Wal-Mart.
RETAIL ADVENTURE
The aforementioned Occupy Black Friday crowd may have a tough audience. Shopping apparently has become the newest source of family mythology.
“Consumers can find sales at just about any time of the year nowadays,” says Sheri Bridges a marketing professor at Wake Forest University. “For many people, it’s the retail adventure that they don’t want to miss — the novel experiences that make for stories to share with family and friends.”
Yeah, well. Ms. Bridges has suggestions on how to how to make “Black Friday shopping day share-worthy,” which include building memories by recording shopping finds with a smartphone and donning a specially designated sweater, shirt or jacket to build “positive feelings.”
POLL DU JOUR
• 73 percent of Americans say the U.S. is in a recession.
• 79 percent of conservatives, 83 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of Democrats and 67 percent of liberals agree.
• 53 percent of Americans overall say “the worst is yet to come” in the U.S. economy.
• 69 percent of conservatives, 67 percent of Republicans, 36 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of liberals agree.
• 41 percent of Americans overall say “the worst is behind us.”
• 26 percent of conservatives, 29 percent of Republicans, 59 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of liberals agree.
• 50 percent of Americans overall plan to spend the same amount on holiday shopping this year as they did last year.
• 42 percent say they will spend less; 7 percent say they will spend more.
Source: A Marist College poll of 1,026 U.S. adults conducted Nov. 8-10.
• Tipline always open at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Most people listening to libertarian ideas are thrown off by the thought that private charity, in absence of government programs, will handle problems involving truly helpless people. Charitable organizations are active but no one knows for sure how much donations would increase in a tax-free society.
When a person becomes old without savings, what is he or she supposed to do without socialist programs such as Social Security? The forgotten institution of charity here is the family. When libertarians talk of charity, we don't just mean the Salvation Army, but taking care of your relatives as well.
When my brother and I were babies, my grandparents stepped in to take care of us while my mother and father worked. My parents in turn provided for the whole household living under one roof to save money. When my father moved to the United States and made more money, he made sure that my grandparents would be taken care of.
During the Balkan War, members of my family were forcefully removed and became refugees due to the conflict. When they lost everything, guess who took care of them? The whole family together sent money and whatever supplies that they could.
So was the rule everywhere before the welfare state: your parents who took care of you financially as a child — you may need to help them in the future. This basic element of family life seems to be mind-boggling to supporters of the welfare state. Proponents of the welfare state constantly speak about our responsibility to society through redistributionist taxes.
I have no responsibility to society as a whole, to some stranger I've never met. I personally feel that I do have a responsibility toward my immediate family. Programs like TANF ("Temporary Assistance for Needy Families"), Social Security, and unemployment insurance take away our responsibility to the family and place it in the hands of the state. They crowd out our sense of moral responsibility.
Family was an integral way of caring for individuals as a whole for centuries. Supporters of the welfare state forget the past.
Before the advent of Social Security, what happened to people who lived past 65 years? Did these people just starve to death from hunger by the tens of thousands? No. Did a huge wave of charitable organizations come to their rescue? Not always. So, how did they survive? Everyone can agree that there were no mass deaths of 65-year-old people recorded in the Great Depression before Social Security took effect.
These people survived under a basic principle in life. You take care of your kids, and one day, they will take care of you. In the past, having children was an investment in your future. You knew that one day your children would take care of your needs as you took care of theirs.
This created many incentives that produced a healthy family. For one thing, you had to be somewhat nicer to your children and make sure that you instilled good values. Children without a good work ethic or good values are not likely to perform well in the job market. A parent would have to teach these values to children to insure his or her own needs at a later time. Responsibility to the family ranked highly. Without this ingrained in a child, he or she might grow up one day and never return the nurturing given by parents early in life.
With government attempting to smooth over every mistake in life, we get very different incentives. If your parents are entirely subsidized on welfare, how much do they really care about your future? Parents usually care for their children and want the best for them. But parents who know that they either raise their child right or don't eat in the future will try much times harder to make sure their child stays away from drugs, crime, and other bad decisions.
The standard abortion excuses also play a major role in the issue. The welfare state has destroyed the culture of hard work and family. I cringe every time I hear someone talk about poverty as an excuse for abortion.
I don't want to discuss here the rights and wrongs of abortion, but how can you make an excuse that you are too poor to have a child and you have to abort? During much harder economic times, families were having ten or twelve children. Huge families were not uncommon. Today, these abortionists want me to believe that with economic conditions a hundred times better than before, they can't afford to have a child. They're going to have to do better than that.
It's not easy to have a child whether you are rich or poor. At any point in life a baby is difficult to raise and deal with. Even with a college degree, a young mother will have just as much difficulty as a teenager. These are facts of life. Raising children is hard work! The welfare state has reinforced the idea that if anything is hard, it must be wrong.
Doing the right thing is not easy. Difficulty does not justify immoral actions. Sure, taking care of your elderly parents is harder on you than having the state do it. But is it your moral responsibility? Yes. It is not the responsibility of some other taxpayer who does not even know your parents. Anyone who would leave it to strangers to care for their elderly parents should be ashamed.
Before the welfare state, there existed incentives to have children and insure your own future. Now, we have incentives to break the family apart. TANF actually gives more money to single moms. This may seem like a great program to help single mothers in need, but in reality, the program makes it easier for the man in the family to leave. It reduces the man's practical responsibility to stay and raise the child. The program creates more single mothers!
And some day, it will be the government, not his offspring, who will provide for the man who left. This brings even fewer incentives to raise kids properly.
Unemployment insurance has also undermined society. During the Great Depression, there were great movements of people to find jobs. If there was a job somewhere, people went. Now, with unemployment and welfare people stay in the same city watching everything around them rot and decay. Government housing keeps them complacent as they beg for yet more assistance. When times get tough, people will move to get jobs. The Great Depression has already proved this. Did millions die without welfare or unemployment insurance? No. Does it improve people's lives to subsidize their staying in one place? No.
I can speak from experience. I've seen charity and love within my own family overcoming all obstacles in our times. Being born in former Yugoslavia, my family was accustomed to scarcity and socialist poverty. But I saw the family working together to achieve the greater ends of each member. This was not a socialist kind of responsibility. A family member cared for you at a point in time; later you cared for them.
My father's mother spent all her savings of thirty years to send my father to medical school. There was no government help there. When, years down the road, she had to retire because of breast cancer, guess who paid her bills and medical treatments. My aunt and uncle also assisted by living with her and taking care of her on a daily basis. There was no dependable national healthcare. There was no subsidized retirement home or social security. The children she gave birth to and raised responsibly made sure that she was well taken care off until her final days. Each was fulfilling his responsibility of a child to his mother.
The agenda of the state is to break up the family. The more you depend on the state, the more you justify its existence, and the larger it grows. The idea that people can provide things for themselves either individually or through the family frightens the state. It delegitimizes its role. The role of the family is dangerous to its survival.
Movement away from the welfare state is movement toward better family values and better family cohesiveness.
The death of the family is the life of the state.File: Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft and Portland Trail Blazers owner. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen is donating $100 million of his fortune to launch what he calls an “industrial-scale” effort to understand the basic building block of all living things: the cell.
The funds will go to the creation of a new institute based in Seattle that will construct a comprehensive visual database and predictive model of different types of cells, from cancer-ridden ones to neurons -- an effort that Allen said he hopes will help accelerate research into medical treatments and cures around the world.
In a phone interview prior to the announcement of the gift on Monday, Allen said that there has been much research in recent years on genes and how they influence disease, but there is a gap in knowledge of the intermediate step: How do those genes influence the composition, shape and functioning of cells – the smallest units of life with the ability to replicate independently -- and how do those variations affect disease?
"Cells are fundamental to every known human disease... If you can get a better understanding of how those cell processes come into focus that can give you further insight into normal cell functioning and disease states that everyone wants to attack,” Allen said.
Allen said that while someone who is well-versed in computer science has a pretty good sense of the internal workings of a computer, that's impossible for biological systems. "There is just so much happening that you have to model it to really understand it," he said.
The new cell research center will be led by Rick Horwitz, a former University of Virginia associate vice president for research, and will bring together biologists, microscopy experts, data scientists and others from a diverse set of fields under one roof. It will start with a group of around 20 scientists but has plans to hire up to 70 within the first three years.
The Allen Institute for Cell Science will initially focus on what are known as induced pluripotent stem or IPS cells. These cells, which are derived directly from adult tissue, are special because they are believed to have the ability to transform themselves into any other cell type in the body. IPS cells hold tremendous promise for drug discovery and regenerative medicine but while they have become a popular subject of study by scientists in recent years, there’s a lot we still don’t know about how they work.
The institute plans to start by creating computational models of the transition of IPS cells into heart muscle and epithelial cells that make up skin and line the inside of cavities in the human body. About 90 percent of cancers are believed to be related to issues with epithelial cells.
Horwitz, a cell biology professor who helped launch the University of Virginia's big data initiative, described a cell as "a system of molecular machines -- many, many machines and each of these machines is really complicated."
"People have studied individual systems but no one has tried to integrate it. It’s a huge project. It takes a multi-disciplinary team," he said.
With its “big science” approach, the new institute aims to replicate the success of another, more established philanthropic endeavor by Allen to reverse engineer the brain.
Founded in 2003, the Allen Institute for Brain Science was initially met with some skepticism and many questioned whether its mission – to map the mouse brain – was the right one. But now, 11 years later, the institute’s mouse brain atlas and human brain atlas are widely praised as some of the most critical work in the history of neuroscience and have been cited in hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles.
Allen’s initial investment of $100 milion in the brain institute has grown to $500 million and the institute is in the process of more than doubling its staff to 350 over the next few years.
Among the main reasons the brain institute is believed to be so successful is that it has made its findings free and openly available to the public. Horwitz said the new institute will do the same and hopes to be able to share "edited" cells for study, reagents it used to manipulate them, images that will tell the visual story of how the cells change at different stages and predictive models that can start to guess how cells might react to certain stimuli.
The latter goal is key, Horwiz said, to being able to develop tailored therapies for patients.
"If you look at cancer there are a tremendous number of genes turned on or off or mutated. This is also true for autism. What we don't know is which ones are important and which ones are not. The important ones are the ones that actually change how the cell grows and once we have a better understanding of how this works we'll have a much better idea of which potential targets for new drugs," he said.
Over the past decade, Allen, who is estimated to be worth $15.8 billion according to Forbes, has emerged as one of the most influential philanthropists in the field of biomedicine. He is one of nearly 130 billionaires who have signed The Giving Pledge, promising to give more than half his wealth away to charity. Earlier this year, Allen pledged $100 million to battle Ebola – a contribution that U.S. officials say has been critical to getting emergency operations centers up and running in west Africa.
Bruce Alberts, who was part of a group of about 15 scientists who participated in a brainstorming meeting about cell biology with Allen earlier this year, said he believes the work it will be doing will bring us “many surprises that makes us realize how little we really understand about the basic mechanisms by which cells operate.”
Alberts, a biochemistry professor at the University of California-San Francisco who served two terms as president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that in recent years the private sector has become critical to reversing the trend of reduced government investment in basic science.
“These longer-term kinds of investments tend to be neglected because everyone wants short-term outputs in this world of politics. So I am very pleased Paul Allen has a different vision,” Alberts said.Mr Macron said "it was indeed France that organised this," adding "not a single German" was directly involved, but French police collaborating with the Nazis.
Mr Macron, commemorating 75 years since a mass round-up of Jews, dismissed arguments by French far-right leaders that the collaborationist Vichy regime did not represent the French state, saying that is "convenient, but it is false."
At a ceremony attended by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Macron also pledged to fight continued anti-Semitism.
He called for a thorough investigation into the recent killing of a Parisian woman believed to be linked to anti-Jewish sentiment.
The emotional ceremony at the Vel d'Hiv stadium outside Paris included speeches by French Jewish leaders.
It was at this site during Nazi Germany's occupation of France in the Second World War that French police rounded up some 13,000 people on July 16-17 1942, before they were sent to camps. Fewer than 100 survived.
Pro-Palestinian and other activists protested against Mr Netanyahu's appearance, criticising Jewish settlement policy and the blockade of Gaza.
Mr Macron called it a "natural gesture" to invite Netanyahu.
But the president, who was due to hold separate talks with Mr Netanyahu, told the Journal Du Dimanche newspaper he is "not trying to confuse the subject of the commemoration and Franco-Israeli relations."“God,” the late columnist Robert Novak used to say, “put the Republican party on earth to cut taxes.”
If so, there is unlikely to be any theological crisis for Republicans anytime soon. All the GOP’s major 2016 candidates are expected to propose some reduction in taxes. But with tax cuts, perhaps even more than with other issues, the devil is in the details. What taxes do they proposed to cut and by how much? Are the cuts designed to increase economic growth? Are they accompanied by spending cuts, or will they increase the deficit? (No, not all tax cuts pay for themselves).
As with other issues, it is very early in the campaign, so we shouldn’t necessarily expect fully detailed plans yet. But we have more than enough clues to be able to discern the general outline of the candidates’ priorities.
As is the case with most issues, the two most detailed plans released so far belong to Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul. Rubio is the co-sponsor, with Senator Mike Lee, of the Economic Growth and Family Fairness Tax Reform Plan, which would reduce taxes by roughly $4 trillion over the next decade (on a static basis; dynamic scoring suggests the revenue loss would be somewhat less). The plan would reduce the number of tax brackets to just two, 15 and 35 percent, while eliminating nearly all itemized deductions and replacing the current standard deduction with a fully refundable personal credit, plus a new $2,500-per-child exemption. On the business side, the bill would reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent, again while eliminating most current deductions. It would, however, allow full deductibility for investments in the year in which they are expensed. It would also adopt a territorial tax system, exempting foreign income of U.S. corporations. The plan has been criticized by some supply-side and business-oriented economists for leaving marginal tax rates too high, and not being sufficiently growth-oriented. Rubio and others, notably reformicons, see it as a family-friendly and middle-class-oriented tax cut.
Rand Paul posted a detailed plan on his campaign website a couple of months ago, but he has since taken it down amid reports that he is revising it to lower rates even further. As originally posted, Paul’s plan would establish a 17 percent flat tax; however, he is reportedly working with Stephen Moore of the Heritage Foundation and others to bring that rate down to as low as 13 or 14 percent. The plan would also include a personal exemption, unlike most flat-tax plans, thereby lowering the effective tax rate still further. The size of the exemption was not spelled out, but according to some reports it could be as much as 20 percent. Capital gains, interest, and dividends would all be untaxed. The estate, gift, and alternative minimum taxes would all be eliminated. Paul also plans a payroll-tax exemption for low- and middle-income earners, though he has not provided details, and such a cut could complicate financing for Social Security. And Paul also proposes even larger tax cuts for high-poverty areas. Paul himself estimates that his plan would reduce revenue by about $700 billion per year, though he intends to propose spending cuts to offset the loss. Paul’s foreign policy came under attack recently as “Barack Obama’s third term,” but he certainly isn’t pursuing Obama’s tax policies.
All the 2016 candidates want to cut taxes - but which taxes, and how much?
Unlike Rubio and Paul, Ted Cruz has not yet released a full tax plan, though he frequently talks about wanting to abolish the IRS. He has hinted at support for some type of flat tax, saying he supports a tax code “that lets every American fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.” However, Cruz’s flat tax may not be completely flat. He has indicated a willingness to continue some popular deductions such as the write-off for charitable contributions and the mortgage-interest deduction.
Likewise, most of the governors and former governors running for the nomination have offered only a general idea of what they intend to propose on taxes. But, unlike the senators who are running, the governors have a track record that can tell us quite a bit.
Perhaps the most detailed plan put forward by any of the governors belongs to Chris Christie. Christie has called for simplifying the income-tax system to just three individual rates, with the top rate no higher than 28 percent and the bottom rate in the single digits. He also calls for cutting the corporate tax rate to 25 percent. To ensure that the overall plan is revenue neutral, he would radically reduce deductions, credits, and targeted provisions in the tax code — on both the personal and the corporate side. One way to do this, he has indicated, might be by capping the total amount of deductions and credits that an individual or married couple could take. And, as one piece of the entitlement reforms that Christie has proposed, he would eliminate payroll taxes for those over 62 or under 21. As governor, Christie has generally been strong on taxes, signing substantial business-tax cuts in 2011 and proposing a 10 percent across-the-board income-tax cut in 2012. He has repeatedly vetoed tax hikes on higher earners passed by the Garden State’s Democratic-controlled legislature.
During his eight years as governor of Florida, Jeb Bush was generally considered much more aggressive on cutting taxes than he was on reducing spending. Cato’s biannual fiscal report card from 2006 stated: “Jeb Bush leaves office with a well-deserved reputation as one of the most aggressive tax cutting governors in the nation. He has proposed and signed into law a tax cut virtually every year of his tenure, ranging from cuts in property taxes to a phase-out of the intangibles tax.” As a presidential contender, Bush says that he is considering some type of flat tax and “bigger and broader tax relief.” However, it should be noted that he is the only Republican candidate who has not signed Grover Norquist’s pledge to the American people not to raise taxes.
While Bush had a fairly good tax record as governor, Mike Huckabee had a dreadful one. Huckabee received a D on Cato’s report card for his entire tenure and an F for his final term, principally because of “his insistence on raising taxes at almost every turn throughout his final term.” The report card gives Huckabee credit for pushing, in his first term, for a sweeping $70 million tax-cut package. That was the first broad-based tax cut in Arkansas in more than 20 years. He even signed a bill to cut the state’s 6 percent capital-gains tax — a significant pro-growth accomplishment. But nine days after being reelected in 2002, he proposed a sales-tax increase to cover a budget deficit caused partly by large spending increases that he had proposed or approved, including an expansion in Medicaid eligibility that he had made a centerpiece of his agenda in 1997, his first full year in office. He also went along with a 3 percent income-tax “surcharge” and a 25-cent increase in the cigarette tax pushed through by Democrats in the legislature. Huckabee is currently an advocate of the Fair Tax, a form of national retail sales tax, although he has been vague about the rate. Lower-income Americans would receive a “prebate” payment to offset their tax liability.
Scott Walker may have the best record on taxes among the governors running. He cut income-tax rates in both 2013 and 2014, in the process reducing Wisconsin’s five income-tax rates to four lower rates. Those cuts are expected to save Wisconsin taxpayers more than $500 million annually. That helped earn Walker a B on Cato’s scorecard, though his overall grade was held down by some weakness on spending. In the current campaign, Walker says he would “slash the marginal tax rates for everyone across the board — go to a simpler, more flat tax.”
As good as Walker’s record on taxes is, Rick Perry could give him a run for his money. As governor, Perry approved a business-tax overhaul that replaced Texas’s corporate franchise tax with a modified-gross-receipts tax called the “margin tax.” The added revenues were used to reduce local property taxes, but critics said that the overall effect of the package was to centralize government power in Austin. Perry also signed bills providing more than $700 million annually in additional tax cuts, including an extension of a $1 million exemption for small business under the margin tax, a temporary cut to the margin-tax rate, and various sales-tax exemptions for business purchases. Like Walker, Perry earned a B on the Cato report card. Perry has not spelled out a tax plan for this campaign, but during his 2012 run he proposed a system whereby taxpayers could choose between the current tax system and a 20 percent flat rate, whichever was lower.
Finally, among those candidates without previous electoral experience, Ben Carson has been the most aggressive on taxes, calling for a flat tax |
deemed paid. This debt-based collusion between the state and private entities proved to be quite profitable to both. For instance, Alabama garnered $164,000 in revenue from leasing convicts by 1890 (a $4.1 million value today). Private entities, companies and individuals alike, were finally able to solve the labor shortage and revenue crises left in the wake of Emancipation.
More than a century later, one in fifteen African Americans have fallen victim to the same debt-based system of racial control that terrorized Green Cottenham and John Davis at the dawn of the 20th century.
Where once white landowners fueled the indebtedness of African Americans, that task has since been assumed by the state. Beginning in the early 2000s, many states attached hefty fees and fines to the same petty offenses criminalized by the Black Codes like vagrancy and more recent ones like unpaid parking tickets. These amplified laws exploited the economic vulnerability of African Americans like the Black Codes before them.
In early 2013, Clifford Hayes was homeless in Georgia and in need of a place to rest. Instead, he was arrested for failing to pay the more than $2000 he owed to cover the fines and probation fees associated with an arrest in 2007. A judge ordered Hayes to either pay up or risk being sentenced to eight months in jail. Hayes lamented that neither the court nor the private probation company would take his dire financial situation into account. Hayes was forced to decide between using his limited income from disability benefits to pay his debt and going to jail.
No longer abusing the labor of African Americans like John Davis, the state and private entities have instead turned their attention to nickel and diming those like Clifford Hayes as a more direct means of profit accumulation. In the midst of declining revenue and funding, the state has levied the burden of maintaining the criminal justice system on African American defendants. For example, Ferguson, Missouri utilized a barrage of fees, fines, and court costs to supply 20 percent of its budget, playing on the poverty of its 70 percent African American population. More than 8,000 state agencies received some share of the $4.5 billion obtained from civil asset forfeitures by the Department of Justice, a practice that has been shown to disparately target and impact poor African Americans. Sentinel, the private probation company monitoring Clifford Hayes in Georgia, made at least 40 percent of its profits in 2012 from charging defendants, preying on the many African American defendants who were unable to pay.
W.E.B. Dubois once observed that “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery,” referring in the latter part to the state-sanctioned racial oppression (among other atrocities) forced upon African Americans like Green Cottenham and John Davis post-Reconstruction. As Alana Cain and Clifford Hayes demonstrate today, many African Americans remain enslaved, having been criminalized and controlled by the criminal justice system because of their poverty.The Thick of It
I’m in the thick of it with The Magician’s Land.
The best description around of what it’s like to write a novel is Zadie Smith’s essay “That Crafty Feeling.” You can find bootleg copies of it on the Web, but if you want to read it you should really buy the book that it’s in.
Here’s a taste, from the section called “Middle-of-the-Novel Magical Thinking”:
By middle of the novel I mean whatever page you are on when you stop being part of your household and your family and your partner and children and food shopping and dog feeding and reading the post—I mean when there is nothing in the world except your book, and even as your wife tells you she’s sleeping aid order Ambien online with your brother her face is a gigantic semi-colon, her arms are parentheses and you are wondering whether rummage is a better verb than rifle. The middle of a novel is a state of mind. Strange things happen in it. Time collapses. You sit down to write at 9am, you blink, the evening news is on and 4,000 words are written, more words than you wrote in three long months, a year ago.
It’s hard to stop quoting, it’s all so true.
But that’s just one phase of writing a novel. A good phase. There are worse ones.
One of the weird things about novel-writing is how different it is from what cheap azithromycin online you’d think writing a novel is like, based on the experience of reading novels. When I read a novel the overwhelming impression I get is of how easy it must have been. I mean, come on, people: it’s obvious what comes next. It’s obvious what she would say in that situation — what else could she possibly have said? Sheezus. When you’re reading, writing doesn’t feel like writing, it feels more like transcribing.
Whereas: when you’re actually doing it, when you’re writing and you’re in the thick of it, it’s totally different. It’s like taking a drug, a relatively harmless hallucinogen, say, and discovering that you’ve been burned on the deal, and it’s been cut with some violently psychoactive shit. You ricochet from divine arrogance to crippling depression, from inspired certainty to total disintegrated confusion to listless boredom. It’s not obvious what happens next; in fact at every given moment you’re violently confronted by an infinite number of possibilities for what could happen next.
And strangely, despite their being infinite in number, every single one of these possibilities is wrong. The right possibility sits outside that infinite set, glaringly obvious to other people, but somehow unfindable by you, the writer.
Fortunately you won’t remember any of this later. Afterwards, when you’ve got the finished book in your hands, all you’ll be able to think is: “My goodness I’m clever!”
That and, “Let’s do that again!”Names of Allah Series: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI | Part XII | Part XIII | Part XIV | Part XV | Part XVI | Part XVII | Part XVIII | Part XIX | Part XX | Part XXI | Part XXII | Part XXIII | Part XXIV | Part XXV | Part XXVI | Part XXVII | Part XXVIII | Part XXIX | Part XXX | Part XXXI | Part XXXII | Part XXXIII | Part XXXIV | Part XXXV | Part XXXVI | Part XXXVII | Part XXXVIII | Part XXXIX | Part XL | Part XLI | Part XLII | Part XLIII | Part XLIV | Part XLV | Part XLVI | Part XLVII | Part XLVIII | Part XLIX | Part L | Part LI | Part LII | Part LIII | Part LIV | Part LV | Part LVI | Part LVII| Part LVIII | Part LIX | Part LX | Part LXI | Part LXII | Part LXIII | Part LXIV | Part LXV | Part LXVI | Part LXVII
Previously in this series, we discussed how Allah subhanahu wa ta`ala (exalted is He) is the First and the Last. This article will be a continuation of that as these four Names are mentioned together in the Qur’an:
“He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant (al-Ẓāhir) and the Intimate (al-Bāṭin), and He is, of all things, Knowing.” (Qur’an, 57:3)
This verse is so powerful because it comes in the context of telling you who Allah (swt) is. Imagine that you do not know who God is, or what His attributes are. This chapter starts by telling you that “Whatever is in the heavens and earth exalts Allah, and He is the Exalted in Might, the Wise. His is the dominion of the heavens and earth. He gives life and causes death, and He is over all things competent,” (Qur’an, 57:1-2).
Reciting this may make one feel that Allah (swt) is far. He is so Grand and Great, does He even understand us? Do we have a relationship with Him? Does He understand what goes on in our hearts and our world?
Then, in the following verse, Allah (swt) addresses these very thoughts: we are told that He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate. Seemingly divergent qualities come together in a beautiful way, as though Allah (swt) is telling you that there is nothing, not big nor small, that escapes His knowledge. He is the First and the Last, and thus He encompasses time, and He is the Ascendant and the Intimate, encompassing all forms of space.
These are the pillars of knowledge and knowing. These Names cover everything. He is First before everything, and the Last, after everything, the Manifest who is above everything and the Intimate who is close. They combine His attributes of greatness and closeness, cutting across time and space. In a du`a ‘ (supplication), the Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) says:
“He is the First, nothing is before Him, the Last, nothing is after Him, the Ascendant, nothing is above Him, and the Intimate, nothing is nearer than Him.” (Muslim)
When you worship Allah (swt) through His Names al-Ẓāhir al-Bāṭin, you become more conscious of both your internal and external. We fluctuate between two extremes: one that focuses solely on the external, where we forget the spirit of the law. On the other hand, there is the trend of “only Allah knows what is in my heart” and forfeiting all forms of the external. But Allah sees our external and our internal. They are both important, and both part of our submission to Him.
That is why, in one incident, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ pointed to a man three nights in a row saying that that person was of the people of Paradise. The companion Abdullah bin Amr, radi Allahu `anhu (may God be pleased with him), was adamant to find out what was so special about that man, so he stayed over at that man’s house for a few nights. Now, when we think of a pious person, we usually think only of extra prayers, fasts and charity, which are commendable. This is what Abdullah thought, and he did not see anything special about that man, so he decided finally to ask him. The man himself said that all he did was what Abdullah saw, then added that he never allowed himself to carry any grudge in his heart against anyone, and would empty it of envy every night. Abdullah bin ‘Amr said, “This is what you have achieved and it is something we have not accomplished.” (Ahmad)
Yet that does not mean that actions are not important. Allah (swt) praises those who do over those who do not do. The Prophet ﷺ would pray long devotional prayers in the night. Indeed, the Prophet ﷺ reminds us that the prayer is the foundation of every other deed. Moreover, we are told that actions are judged according to their intention, but an intention alone does not suffice. Sincerity is doing one’s utmost to fulfill that intention.
Ibn al-Qayyim stated that when one worships Allah by His Name al-Ẓāhir (the Ascendant), the person knows where to direct his prayers, because there is no one above Allah. Worshipping Allah while knowing that He is al-Bāṭin (the Intimate) is something that you have to taste, because it is something that words cannot describe. That is why Ibn Abbas (ra) advised someone who was inflicted with paranoia with regards to the prayer to recite the verse cited, because it reminds you that Allah (swt) is the Intimate. He knows what is in your heart, so let go of the anxiety that you feel.
Connecting to the Names of Allah
1—See how Allah manifests His attributes in everything
Sheikh Abdulrazzaq al-Badr said that in order to connect to Allah’s Name al-Ẓāhir, you have to see Allah’s attributes as they reflect in this world. Al-ẓāhir also means something that is manifest, so take the time to go out to nature to see how Allah (swt) is the Creator, while contemplating His beauty and the beauty of what He created. Remind yourself of the times Allah (swt) responded to you, because He is al-Mujeeb. Reflect on the times that something was denied to you, and then you actually saw the wisdom later on. Only once you realize that Allah (swt) is with you—He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate—can you actually gain closeness to Him (see point 3).
2—Direct everything to Him
Ibn al-Qayyim stated that knowing that Allah (swt) is above everything means that you know where to direct yourself—your prayers, your hopes, your goals and your fears. There is nothing above Him, so why turn to what is below Him?
3—Crave intimacy with Allah
Ibn al-Qayyim said that this attribute of Allah—al-Bāṭin—cannot be described, only felt. The interesting thing is that when you start to see Allah’s attributes as they manifest in the everyday and the mundane, as well as in the extraordinary, your heart naturally moves closer to Him. You realize how close He is, and the fruit of this realization is that you work to purify your heart, as well as praying more because you know that those are your moments with Allah (swt). That is why the Prophet ﷺ would pray in the night even though it was not obligatory: he loved doing so, because he loved being with Allah (swt).NYC resident Chris Kooluris has done something that most men can only dream of: he turned his old bedroom into a retro arcade. On one hand, it's the ultimate man-cave. On the other, he lost his fiancée for the sake of his vision. That's serious dedication.
As you can see from the pictures above, Kooluris took the bedroom of his old apartment and decided to make some drastic improvements to its design. He has retro game cabinets for titles like Punch-Out!, Tron, Ms. Pac-Man, and his personal favorite, Fix-It Felix, Jr. All told, Kooluris has spent $32K purchasing and restoring these vintage treasures.
According to a story from Wired about Kooluris' endeavor, the change initially began as a joint effort between him and his fiancée after Kooluris had moved into her apartment. However, as the project became larger and larger, his fun project began to take over their lives. Though they had been engaged for months, the couple broke off their engagement in March. Was it worth the sacrifice? Depends on whether you like Donkey Kong more than dating, but to each their own.
In any case, it appears that Kooluris now has plenty of time to spend with his machines. And it certainly doesn't sound like he'll have to worry about anyone topping his high score.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
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RELATED: The 50 Most Awful Retro Video Game Box Art CoversLocated in Aspen, Colorado, Lord is a spacious private residence created by Studio B Architects.
The home is surrounded by a stunning countryside, abundant and lushly green; the interior is, by contrast, stylishly contemporary, of a simple and lustrous elegance.
View in gallery
Lord by Studio B Architects:
“This muscular house with a rammed earth spine turns its back from the adjacent highway which lies at the entrance to the resort town of Aspen, Colorado. Because of this proximity, the posture of the building maintains a low-profile which allows views over it from incoming visitors and the thickened wall provides a barrier from highway noise and serves as a datum from which the plan is derived.
This low-rise residence embraces its immediate landscape and the courtyard plan frames neighboring views and is neatly organized between public, master and guest. The communal public rooms unite the guest and owners wings and are central to the plan diagram, views and courtyard. The interiors abound in natural light and all spaces enjoy direct access to exterior terraces, gardens and courtyards.
he exterior materials palate is earthy and employs textured rammed earth, vertical rusting Corten steel, board-formed dyed concrete and zinc roofing. Soil from the site is an ingredient to the rammed earth mixture and sets the materials and color palate for the project. The interior finishes are contrasting and offer a quiet resonance between the rough exteriors and the refined and elegant interiors.”
Photos courtesy of Studio B ArchitectsRobotech’s middle child, The Southern Cross, or, as it has now been rechristened, The Masters Saga has been reissued for your RPG enjoyment by Palladium Books.
For those of us who had the original run of Robotech books, The Southern Cross books was the absolute worst of the books that Palladium issued out of the entire series and it seemed strangely appropriate since it’s the least likable of the original TV run. But look closer at this part of the series, it contained most of the plot points that drove the plot for the entire run. Skip this part and you’ll end up asking yourself a bunch of questions after the series finale. It’s not as exciting as Macross or New Generation, but it’s the most important from a story standpoint.
That being said, I’m actually very happy with this update of the Robotech RPG. I won’t go as much into the system, because I covered that in the last review, so let’s get going!
First Impression:
The all new cover is drab, very drab, set during a battle at dusk it features a third stringer Veritech Helicopter, the Ajax. The color palate is dark and fails to get the potential buyer excited about it. The original cover, featuring a Veritech Hovertank, the featured mecha of that generation, duking it out with a Red Leader Bioroid was much more effective and exciting than the new unnecessarily dark one. The manga sized book is still here, and my complaints about the size remain.
Contents:
Once again everything has been rewritten, to fit in with the new Robotech continuity. Much more time is spent detailing the history of the Armies of the Southern Cross, why they exist and how they came to be the defacto defenders of the Earth. Each of the separate armies is giving a quote before their write up with is written in the style of a recruiter attempting to get potential players to join their particular branch. It’s a creative touch that I approve of and I have to hand it to Jason Marker, I really enjoyed reading them.
Stats again have been rewritten with no rhyme or reason.
Example: The original Hover Tank’s arm shields were rated at 600 MDC, they are now 500 MDC.
Strangely, most of the speed, and structural stats have remained virtually the same changing maybe an inch or two from the original write ups.
Mecha:
The Masters Saga is bursting at the seams with mecha. There are all new ones as well that either did not make the original book or have been recently added to the canon. There are three separate transformable Veritechs to choose from, compared to Macross’ lone VF fighter and its numerous variations. Although there are less non-transformable battloids than Macross Southern Cross makes up for it with a half dozen suits of power armor, something which doesn’t even figure into Macross.
Needless to say, the variety of the tools of war in this sourcebook has won me over.
The Masters Saga surpasses Macross again with the large amount of starships featured in it. In Macross, you really only have the choice of the SDF-1 or an ARMD Space Platform for space missions. Southern Cross is chock full of them, even though most of the action in the show focuses on ground missions.
Character Class Variety:
It’s a complete 180 from Macross. The story is about military characters this book delivers. You will find detailed write ups for each of the 15 Armies that are actually satisfying compared to the short paragraphs found in Macross. There are also some detailed write up for Tirolian characters so you can play for the Masters if you like, but thankfully Marker didn’t go hog wild with the aliens like he did in Macross.
Art:
The lightbox is back and I couldn’t be happier. The art in the original Southern Cross book was terrible. It was so bad that I could barely get friends to play that part of the series because the pictures turned them off that much. Those days are gone, gone my friend. Yes, the lightbox is back in some places, but instead of lifeless imitations of original art, these guys went out and IMPROVED on the originals.
It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the art department. Much of new art, while capturing the spirit of the television series was obviously done in color and then grey scaled to meet the black and white standards of Palladium Books. Why was this done? It destroys the art and makes me wish that they could have printed this in color so that I could enjoy the art as it was supposed to be intended. How much could color could have added to the cover price? A dollar or two? The grey scale really grinds my gears.
Join us on Friday for the final trilling conclusion of our Robotech RPG Review Extravaganza with The Shadow Chronicles.
[tags]Palladium Books, Robotech, Southern Cross, Macross Saga[/tags]Here lies John Locke, and in more ways than one. In fact, in last night’s Now the season has REALLY begun episode of Lost, ”The Substitute,” we were given three different John Lockes. (Maybe even four, if you believe my contention that Sawyer has become a surrogate Locke in the story. More on that later.) Officially, there was John Locke the Island adventurer, now a ripe, sun-bleached corpse buried six feet under on Boone Hill after Captain Frank Lapidus declared the impromptu graveside service ”the weirdest damn funeral” he’d ever been to. There was ”John Locke,” aka the Locke-ness Monster, the fearsome Island entity now wearing the Ben-murdered castaway’s visage, who oozed sincerity as he/it/whatever downloaded oodles of noodle-expanding mythology… although can we really trust him/it/whatever? And there was Sideways John Locke, a tough and tender man, so superior to his dead Island doppelganger in many ways, save possibly one. We met him as he fell flat on his face, yet another humiliation for a soul who seems to be destined to suffer a daily diet of humiliations no matter which ”island universe” he happens to reside upon. But this John Locke can laugh when the fates make fun of him. This John Locke has the self-awareness and strength to grow and change. And this John Locke is loved, and better, he knows it, and we were reminded last night how much we need that kind of love, both to flourish and survive. Especially if you have to spend long days at work enduring the prickly interoffice machinations — severe coffee making retinue — of Benjamin Linus. (Who would win in a sneer-off: Professor Snape or Professor Linus? Debate!)
Fittingly, ”The Substitute” came to us during Valentine’s Day week, and it played like a love letter to Locke. Allow me to give some love right back. Terry O’Quinn is the man, and big hugs to him and everyone who made ”The Substitute” the first truly great episode of the season, a moving mythapalooza that framed and galvanized the Island story line and proved that the Sideways storytelling device is capable of producing powerful, poignant yarns… even if we still have no freakin’ clue what the hell is going on over there in Otherworldland.
At the very least, it was totally better than last week’s episode.
The Other(s) World
A Serious Man, Part One: The Parable of the Parking Lot
”Can I share something with you? Because I too have had the feeling of losing track of Hashem, which is the problem here. I too have forgotten how to see Him in the world. And when that happens you think, well, if I can’t see Him, He isn’t there any more, He’s gone. But that’s not the case. You just need to remember how to see Him. Am I right? I mean, the parking lot here. Not much to see. It is a different angle on the same parking lot we saw from the Hebrew school window. But if you imagine yourself a visitor, somebody who isn’t familiar with these autos and such, somebody still with a capacity for wonder, someone with a fresh perspective? you can see Hashem, you know, reaching into the world.”
— Rabbi Scott, speaking to faith-challenged Larry about the existence of God/the divine (aka Hashem), A Serious Man
Who was the late John Locke? Who was he really? ”The Substitute” offered at least three opinions on the matter. One came from Sawyer, who drunkenly pissed on dead Locke’s memory: He remembered him as someone who was always scared even when he was pretending he wasn’t. (Personally, that sounds like a better description of? Sawyer himself. And, I suspect, this monstrous, little boy-spooked UnLocke thing.) Another interpretation came from his killer, Ben, who eulogized him with a speech that somehow mixed two unlikely sentiments: heartfelt appreciation and snarky glibness. ”John Locke was a believer, a man of faith, and a much better man than I will ever be,” Ben said adding, ”And I’m very sorry that I murdered him.” Classy, Ben. And a classic Lost moment.
A third point of view on John Locke came via the Sideways, and I would sum up the assessment by using a line from last night’s literary reference, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men: ”A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody.” Now, the Sideways story line didn’t actively portray its John Locke as destroyed by loneliness or abandonment. On the contrary: Sideways John Locke had self-confidence, self-awareness, and a genuine self. He also enjoyed the security of knowing he was loved by his soulmate, Helen. But I wonder if that’s part of the important point of these parallel world stories. Lost is creating the means for us to see these too-familiar people with fresh eyes. By presenting them as something profoundly different, as profoundly ”Other,” the castaways are revealed anew, or perhaps even for the first time, by the comparison.
”The Substitute” gave us one of the best cold opens of Lost ever. We saw Sideways John Locke pulling into the driveway of a house on a street that resembled one we saw in Season 2’s ”Lockdown,” when pre-wheelchair Locke was working as a house inspector and checking out a home in Irvine being purchased by Sayid’s lady love, Nadia. (Maybe Sideways Nadia is Sideways Locke’s neighbor. Might Sideways Sayid be on his way?) I loved the pensive look on Locke’s face as he rode the lift down from his van. Then the lift jammed, leaving Locke stuck. He fiddled with controls, then tried rolling off the platform, hoping to stick the landing like an Olympic ski jumper. Nope. Locke dropped from his place in the sky and belly-flopped onto his lawn — a mundane suburban analog to one of his several mythic Island falls, none more monumental than his plummet from the heavens in the pilot episode. Then, the insult to injury: the sprinkler system activated, dousing Locke in the face. Lost‘s perpetual Job figure responded by.. rending his hairshirt and cursing God? Nope. He laughed. This totally surprised me. I expected an explosion of ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” outrage. But this John Locke is a man who can roll with the joke when the cosmos decides to treat him like a punchline.
NEXT: Locke’s got love
My heart rejoiced when I saw Helen bound out the front door and rush to Locke’s side and laugh with him as she helped him to his figurative feet. I always liked their relationship, and I hated that Locke had squandered her love to chase after his bad dad’s affection, and I must admit I watched last night’s episode in a state of dread that this Locke was going to do something really stupid to scare this Helen away, too. We were told nothing about how this Locke and Helen met. But we were told they have an October wedding date, and given that it’s late September in the Sideways world, I’m predicting that their Big Day will serve as a key moment for the entire Sideways arc — perhaps the time and place when all the disparate story lines will converge. Does Sideways Locke have a better relationship with his father than Island Locke had? It’s possible. When Helen suggested they elope after a frustrating phone call with a caterer, she pitched him on the idea of bringing Papa Locke along for the ride. John didn’t respond to the mere mention of his existence by involuntarily punching her in the face, so I’m guessing Sideways Anthony Cooper had nothing to do with crippling his son. ARE YOU THINKING WHAT I’M THINKING? We know from season 1 that Boone Carlyle’s mother, Sabrina Carlyle, owned a massively successful wedding business, and that Boone served as the company’s chief operating officer. Methinks the Carlyle family biz will play a role in solving Helen’s catering crisis?.
I know a fair number of women who think John Locke is all kinds of hot, so I’m thinking they appreciated Locke’s bath, warmly flirting with Helen over color swatches, and then getting smooched on his bald head. Personally, I was more distracted by Locke’s reaction to Helen’s destiny talk. He told his fiancé that he encountered a certain spinal surgeon at the airport named Jack Shephard who offered him a free consult. Helen sparked to the story. ”What are the odds of you just running into a spinal surgeon?! Who knows? Maybe its destiny?” Locke was clearly intrigued by the prospect, but he didn’t seem all that dazzled by Helen’s semi-mystical mumbo jumbo. He parroted the word back to her with a hint of incredulity. He wasn’t rude about; I got the sense that part of being ”a sweet man” to Helen involves not crapping on her worldview, not to mention her curious ”Peace and Karma” shirts. But this was a clearly a Locke who didn’t believe in higher power-directed fate like his dead Island world counterpart. I thought it was interesting the way he described the walkabout later in the episode. He called it ”an adventure” about ”man versus nature.” By contrast, when Island Locke described the Walkabout in the classic season 1 episode of the same name, he called it ”a journey of spiritual renewal, where one derives strength from the earth and becomes inseparable from it.” Island Locke wanted to be feel connected to the world, to something bigger than himself; Sideways Locke wanted to feel his own strength, to feel whole again — to feel like a man.
How to account for the discrepancies between the two Lockes? There were a couple moments when I wondered if Sideways Locke had learned a thing or two from the experiences of his Island doppelganger via? quantum entanglement? Psychic connection? Past-life memories? (”When we’re puzzled we have all the stories that have been handed down from people who had the same problems.” — A Serious Man) Still, this matter of cross-universe connection was hard to say this week. For the third straight episode, the episode’s lead character was given a conspicuous moment in the bathroom, looking long and hard in the mirror. Where Jack saw an explicable (continuity) flaw on his skin and Kate watched herself flutter through the déjà vu blinky-blinkies, Locke struck a more conventional, contemplative pose, absent of any hint that he might be aware of his Island self. Which makes sense, given that Island Locke is, like, dead. But two simpler explanations for Locke’s apparent agnosticism/atheism are (1) It might be too painful for him to consider divine possibilities (If there really is a God or grand design to my life, why the hell did He/She/It cripple me?); or (2) this Locke is a product of different influences, none of which have produced a yearning for divine connection or eyes to see the divine in the world. Might his life be richer if he were to allow himself to reconsider his spiritual perspective? Or might his life become worse? Processing? processing?.
Like his Island alter-ego, Sideways Locke worked at a box company owned by Hurley. The pictures in Locke’s cubicle were interesting. There was a photo of Locke (with hair) with his father, Anthony Cooper; they looked to be hunting, as we saw them back in ”Deus Ex Macina.” There was also a photo of Locke with Helen in a tropical setting, presumably Hawaii. The curious thing about both photos: Locke appeared to be standing. When and how did Locke become dependent on a wheelchair for pedestrian perambulation? TBD. Island Locke didn’t get thrown out of that eighth-floor window by Bad Dad leaving him below-the-belt paralyzed until after Helen dumped his father-fixated ass. So it appears that Locke’s loss of lower legs was a trauma that he and his soul mate experienced together.
NEXT: Locke’s Hurley and Rose reunions
{C}
We were reintroduced to Locke’s jerk boss, Randy. He derisively called Locke ”colonel.” If that confused you, remember that Island Locke played a military strategy board game Axis and Allies during his lunch break with a friend/colleague (not seen last night) and liked to be called ”colonel.” In this world, Locke was supposed to have gone to Australia for a conference. According to Randy, Locke blew it off to attempt his walkabout. Oops. And Randy fired him with ice cold terseness. Locke’s face: priceless. Not just shock, but maybe? emasculation, too? That may sound heavy, but bear with me: I think it works with what followed.
We then got the very interesting scene in the parking lot. Locke rolled to his car and found his wheelchair-equipped van inaccessible because a very large hummer had parked much too close. Locke snapped. This time, the insult to injury was too painful to not ignore. He could have avoided the sitch had he parked in the handicapped stall, but as Locke would explain, he didn’t want to. Locke then had an encounter with Hurley, who in the Otherverse is large and in charge and not at all the fatalistic scaredy-cat Island dude we met in season 1. Was it just me, or did you get a Jacobesque vibe from Hurley, all empathetic benevolence as he responded to his ex-employee’s prickly anger with patience and grace and supreme knowingness and the hooked him up with a new job via his temp agency, another division of Hurley’s financial empire? Watching this scene, I couldn’t help but think about Helen’s earlier line about destiny. And I found myself flashing back to this scene later in the episode, when Helen challenged Locke’s incredulity about miracles. Was the Locke-Hurley crossing total coincidence, quantum synchronicity, or divinely orchestrated appointment? An elemental faith/reason debate worthy of old school Lost. But I am reminded of the old adage that our world is chockablock with everyday miracles — they just don’t look the way we expect them to. What we expect is something like, say, miraculous healing for crippled legs after falling from the sky. But a miracle could be other people, too — like meeting a guy who can give you a job after getting fired, and better than that, a guy who sets you upon your true destiny. But we’ll get to the school in a minute.
PS: Did you see what was in Locke’s box of stuff in his lap? Was that a polar bear figurine in there?
The Sideways scenes just rolled, one great scene after another. The moments in the temp agency hit me emotionally. It started funny-surreal, like a moment from a Coen brothers film, when Locke got processed by a decidedly quirky clerk who first tried to get into his mind and figure him out. But Sideways Locke is not a man who wants or needs to be cracked open and explained. But he did want a job, and he seemed to want something more than a good income from it, too. He wanted a job that made him feel strong again — that made him feel like a man. The posters on the wall bore slogans like ”Live your dream job!” The subtext: Your self-worth, your very identity, is measured by your profession, by what you produce….
And then Rose, beautiful Rose, the Island’s woman of faith, walked in and blew that bulls— up. Locke wanted a job as a construction site manager. He wanted be in charge. He wanted to build stuff. He wanted be a serious man, taken seriously. And Rose said: Really? Seriously? She said she’d be happy to give him the job but he’d only be back in her office looking for another job the next day. Why? Yes, because the wheelchair thing was going to be a problem. But after he pushed back on that, she told him about her cancer, a cancer that was killing her, and how she had to struggle to fight through her denial and embrace the brutal truth of her finitude — and how doing so had brought her peace. She encouraged him to do the same — to find meaning not in what he can or can’t do, but in who he is, and who he loves.
That last part was hammered home by Helen when Locke finally came clean with her about his Australian walkabout — or rather, his aborted Australian walkabout. Yep, he lied to Boone on the plane. Like his Island counterpart, Sideways Locke was denied his outback adventure. And like his Island counterpart, Sideways Locke raged in response: ”Don’t tell me what I can’t do!” But this John Locke is capable of reflecting upon moments and realizing: My god, I must have sounded like? a big douche! Interesting that in an episode that saw the Locke-ness Monster spout Locke’s famous catchphrase, Sideways Locke came to the same conclusion about his situation that Smokey articulated in the premiere. They were right to deny me the walkabout, because it’s true — there are things I simply can’t do. He told Helen he was sick of daydreaming about life |
juridiques, économiques et sociales[164]. Le français constitue donc une langue d'ouverture à l'international pour de nombreux étudiants marocains.
L'enseignement en primaire ayant été arabisé dans les années 1980, de nombreuses familles scolarisent leurs enfants dans le privé afin de leur faire donner une meilleure maîtrise du français. Des mesures sont prévues par le gouvernement pour permettre un plus grand accès aux écoles privées[165].
En mai 2014, 75 % des utilisateurs marocains de Facebook postent en langue française, contre 33 % en langue arabe et 13 % en langue anglaise ; la langue française progressant de 13 à 19 % dans les trois pays que sont le Maroc, l'Algérie et la Tunisie (pas de précision quant au pourcentage allant à tel ou tel pays) dans le nombre d'utilisateurs l'utilisant [ 166 ].
. Au Maroc, en 2011, 79 % des films produits sont tournés en arabe, 17 % en français et 4 % en anglais [ 167 ]. La prochaine mise à jour avec les données de 2012 et 2013 sera publiée en 2015 [ 168 ].
La Mauritanie est un membre de la Francophonie. Le rapport historique privilégié avec la France est toujours au goût du jour, même si la Mauritanie a fait le choix de l'arabisation et à institué l'arabe comme seule langue officielle dans sa constitution de 1991[169].
D'après des chiffres fournis par le gouvernement mauritanien à l'OIF, il y avait en 2003, et sur 3,1 millions de personnes, 167 399 (5,4 % de la population totale) francophones et 155 000 francophones partiels (5 %). De plus, d'après le dernier rapport de l'OIF sur la francophonie, on observe une très forte croissance du nombre d'apprenants du français en Mauritanie, suivant en cela une tendance générale du Maghreb. Actuellement, 300 000 élèves sont scolarisés dans une école bilingue (dont l'une des langues est le français) du primaire et 16 111 dans le secondaire, sans compter les élèves apprenant le français dans le cadre d'une scolarité normale[170].
Selon le rapport annuel de la Dubai School of Government daté de mai 2013[171], le français est la première langue d'interface la plus choisie par les utilisateurs mauritaniens de Facebook, le réseau social le plus utilisé dans le pays (bien qu'utilisé par seulement 3,5 % de la population, soit 110 000 personnes), avec 46 %, devant l'arabe (34 %) et l'anglais (6 %). Le pourcentage du français ayant toutefois régressé (70 % de part un an plus tôt) depuis l'ajout de nouvelles langues d'interface (14 % de part) et aussi face à la progression de l'arabe, le tout dans un contexte de désélitisation et de démocratisation de l'accès à l'Internet.
Durant le protectorat français de Tunisie, le français s’impose à travers les institutions, particulièrement l’éducation, qui deviennent un fort vecteur de diffusion. À partir de l’indépendance, le pays s’arabise peu à peu même si l’administration, la justice et l’enseignement restent longtemps bilingues[172] alors que la connaissance des langues européennes est renforcée par l’exposition de la Tunisie à ce continent par l’intermédiaire de la télévision et du tourisme[173]. Les gouvernorats de Béja, Gafsa, Médenine, Monastir, Sfax, Sousse et Tunis sont membres de l’Association internationale des régions francophones[174].
Les années 1990 marquent un tournant avec l’arabisation des cours de sciences jusqu’à la fin du collège, avec toutes les difficultés occasionnées par ce type de processus, afin de faciliter l’accès aux études supérieures et ce dans un contexte de réhabilitation du référent arabo-islamique dans l’espace public[172]. En, les établissements commerciaux se voient contraints d’accorder deux fois plus de place aux caractères arabes qu’aux caractères latins[172]. Dans le même temps, l’administration se voit contrainte de communiquer exclusivement en arabe mais seuls les ministères de la Défense et de la Justice et le Parlement sont totalement arabisés. Dans ce contexte, l’usage du français semble régresser malgré le nombre accru de diplômés du système d’enseignement, ce qui conduit au fait qu’une bonne pratique du français demeure un marqueur social important[172]. Puisqu’elle reste largement pratiquée dans les milieux d’affaires, l’univers médical et le monde culturel, on peut même considérer qu’elle s’est embourgeoisée[172]. En mai 2011 les utilisateurs tunisiens de Facebook montraient une préférence sans appel pour l'interface en français avec 94,60 %, suivie de l'anglais avec 2,72 % et un très faible choix de l’arabe avec 1,56 %[175].[non pertinent]
D’après les dernières estimations fournies par le gouvernement tunisien à l’Organisation internationale de la francophonie, le nombre de personnes ayant une certaine maîtrise du français est chiffré à 6,36 millions de personnes, soit 63,6 % de la population[170].
Tananarive, Madagascar. Journaux locaux en français et en malgache
La langue officielle du Bénin est le français. Il est parlé par 8,8 % de la population[176] essentiellement en ville. Le prestige de cette langue comme langue officielle, langue des médias et langue de communication entre les différentes ethnies pousse à son apprentissage notamment en milieu urbain. Le français est la seule langue dans l'enseignement primaire.
Une variété de français dénommée français d'Afrique s'est développée dans les rues et marchés de Cotonou. Il s'agit d'un parler presque argotique[177].
Le Burkina Faso a pour langue officielle le français.
Le français est la principale langue des institutions, des instances administratives, politiques et juridiques, des services publics, des textes et des communiqués de l’État, de la presse écrite, des écrivains. Il s'agit de la seule langue à l'écrit des lois, de l'administration et des tribunaux.
Selon une estimation de la CIA de 2003, 21,8 % de la population de 15 ans et plus sait lire et écrire[178], de plus le taux net (c'est-à-dire sur une classe d'âge donnée) de scolarisation, malgré une hausse constante depuis plusieurs années, n'est que de 47,70 % pour l'année scolaire 2005-2006[179] d'où le fait que le français ne soit compris que par environ 15 % de la population[180]. Malgré la supériorité numérique des langues nationales, le statut de langue officielle et celui de langue internationale font en sorte que le français pèse progressivement de plus en plus dans la vie sociale et économique du pays. Le français jouit, sur le plan social, d'un statut de prestige associé à une participation au monde moderne[181]. Il s'agit de la langue de la promotion sociale.
Selon André Magord et Rodrigue Landry, « Depuis quelques années, dans les villes principales telles que Ouagadougou, Bobo et Banfora, la langue française s'étend à d'autres situations de communication que celles juste décrites. Devant la dimension de plus en plus multilingue de ces villes, le français s'impose de façon croissante comme lingua franca chez les commerçants et lors des échanges liés à tous les petits métiers qui se multiplient dans ces grandes villes[182]. La langue française parlée n'est plus alors le français standard mais un français qui, sans la base de l'écrit, se transforme, se réinvente pour une part[183]. Cette expansion du français est relayée par l'affichage publicitaire très présent dans les villes et qui propose des slogans en français. Ces slogans deviennent vite populaires dans une société burkinabè à forte tradition orale. »[184] Cette variété de français endogène qui résulte d'une hybridation linguistique[185] est un pidgin en voie de créolisation[186].
Ainsi comme dans le pays voisin la Côte d'Ivoire est apparu un français populaire au Burkina Faso[187]. Dans ce français appelé parfois « français de Ouaga » et qui reste essentiellement une langue orale[188], s'est créé un certain nombre d'interférences entre le français standard et le français populaire du Burkina du fait de l'influence des langues africaines dans la pratique locale du français[189].
On assiste de plus en plus à des mariages mixtes constituant des familles dont la langue première est le français[190].
francophones
francophones anglophones
anglophones bilingue (hispanophones/francophones) Carte linguistique du Cameroun :
Les deux langues officielles du Cameroun sont le français et l'anglais. Le pays appartient à la fois à la Francophonie et au Commonwealth. Il s'agit d'un héritage du passé colonial, le Cameroun ayant été une colonie à la fois du Royaume-Uni et de la France.
En 2005 18 % de la population étaient des francophones « réels », alors que 26,8 % étaient des francophones « partiels ». Le français est en progression constante au Cameroun ; en 2010 plus de 60 % des Camerounais écrivent le français et plus de 80 % le parlent, et la plus grande ville Douala parle français à 99 %[192]. Le français progresse également comme langue maternelle ; une forte proportion de jeunes ne parlent aucune langue camerounaise et n'utilisent que le français[193].
Comme la plupart des autres pays d’Afrique, le Cameroun voit son nombre de francophones s'envoler passant de 46 % en 2005 à plus de 60 % en 2010. Encore plus frappant, la capitale économique Douala est quant à elle passée de 98 % de francophones en 2008 à 99 % en 2010[194].
République du Congo [ modifier | modifier le code ]
La langue officielle de la République du Congo est le français. Selon l'OIF, en 2010, cette langue est parlée par 78 % des Congolais de plus de 10 ans[195]. Selon une étude d'Omar Massoumou, 88 % des Brazzavillois de plus de 15 ans déclarent avoir une expression aisée à l'écrit en français[196].
Selon l'université Laval, « en raison des guerres civiles qui ont secoué le pays, la langue française est devenue une langue-refuge pour les différentes factions armées. Par exemple, les locuteurs incompétents en kituba (surtout au sud), en kikongo ou en lingala (surtout au nord) préfèrent s'exprimer en français pour des raisons de sécurité. De peur de révéler leur origine ethnique, les Congolais passent au français, ce qui permet de conserver l'incognito. »
République démocratique du Congo [ modifier | modifier le code ]
Rose : autres pays francophones. Rouge: variantes du français qui sont originaires de Belgique et utilisées en Afrique. C'est-à-dire en République démocratique du Congo, au Burundi et au Rwanda.Rose : autres pays francophones.
Héritage de la colonisation belge au XIXe siècle et XXe siècle, le français est la langue officielle de la République démocratique du Congo.
En 2005, le pays compte 6 millions de francophones et 18 millions de francophones partiels [ 197 ].
. En 2010 c’est plus de 31 millions de personnes qui savent écrire, lire et parler français [ 192 ].
À Kinshasa, la capitale, le pourcentage de francophones évolue aussi fortement : en 2008, 87 % de la capitale parlait français, alors qu’en 2009, 92 % parle le français[192].
Le français est la langue de l’administration, de l’enseignement à tous les niveaux, des médias, des élites et en partie du commerce et des affaires. À l’exception de la musique dominée par les langues congolaises, le français reste la référence en matière culturelle : cinéma, littérature, science etc. Il est également très employé par le monde religieux, en particulier par les pasteurs protestants[198].
Le français de la République démocratique du Congo emprunte beaucoup à celui de la Belgique mais a développé ses propres caractéristiques et particularités, avec de plus en plus de néologismes dans la langue parlée[199]. Ainsi, le français « gong unique » pour signifier la journée continue côtoie le portugais « matabiche » pour dire pourboire, l’anglais « wax » pour pagne et le kikongo « nganda » pour buvette.
Pharmacie dans la commune de Port-Bouët Abidjan en 2009.
Le français est la langue officielle de la Côte d’Ivoire et environ 70 % des habitants du pays le comprennent et le parlent[200].
Le français existe sous différentes variétés en Côte d'Ivoire. Il existe le français standard parlé par l'élite du pays et la partie de la population qui a fait des études.
Le français populaire ivoirien, variété parlée par la partie de la population n'ayant pas terminé sa scolarité et enfin le nouchi qui est un argot dérivé en partie du dioula, parlé à la base par des classes de jeunes marginalisés et qui est devenu par la suite à la mode parmi l'ensemble de la jeunesse ivoirienne.
Le français populaire ivoirien aussi appelé français de Moussa, désigne une variété du français parlé en Côte d'Ivoire et principalement dans la ville d'Abidjan.
Cette variété de français diffère du français parlé en France de par ses expressions et du fait qu'il a adapté dans son vocabulaire certains mots provenant d'un parler argotique local : le nouchi. Il s'agit d'un français employé par la partie de la population n'ayant pas terminé ses études et ayant appris le français dans la rue et sur le tard. Il tend à devenir le français véhiculaire d'Abidjan et du reste du pays.
Selon Jérémie Kouadio, « Le français populaire ivoirien est une espèce de sabir franco-ivoirien qui utilise des mots français (phonétiquement déformés) sur des structures syntaxiques des langues ivoiriennes ». Dans le français ivoirien, pour dire des mots finissant par -ir se dit -ie. Exemple : Je vais partir se dit : « Je vais patie. »
La langue officielle du Gabon est le français[201]. Elle est la langue d'enseignement et joue un rôle d'unification pour le pays. Il est estimé que 80 % de la population du pays est capable de s'exprimer en français. Il s'agit de la plus forte proportion de tous les pays du continent africain. Selon l'OIF en 2010, 99 % des habitants de la capitale Libreville savent lire, écrire et parler français[192].
Avant la Seconde Guerre Mondiale très peu de Gabonais avaient appris le français, presque tous travaillaient alors dans l'administration. Après la guerre, la France introduisit l'éducation primaire pour tous dans toutes ses colonies africaines et le recensement de 1960 montra que 47 % des Gabonais de plus de quatorze ans parlaient français alors que seulement 13 % savaient lire et écrire dans cette langue. Dans les années 1990, le taux d'alphabétisation avait atteint environ 60 %. Un tiers des Librevillois ont le français comme langue maternelle. Plus de 10 000 Français vivent au Gabon et la France prédomine dans les relations extérieures du Gabon économiquement et culturellement parlant.
Le français n'est ainsi plus seulement une langue d'origine étrangère mais est aussi devenue une langue pleinement gabonaise.
Le Gabon abrite la première station de radio internationale du continent africain, Africa no 1, qui diffuse ses émissions en français. Les émetteurs sont installés à Moyabi, à 600 km au sud de Libreville.
La langue officielle de la République de Guinée est le français. Il s'agit de la langue de l'État et des institutions officielles. À la fin du régime de Ahmed Sékou Touré, le français est redevenu la langue unique d'enseignement à l'école.
La langue française est une langue en forte expansion en Guinée d'après les derniers rapports. En 2002, le nombre de locuteurs de langue maternelle française était estimé à 2 % de la population totale[202]. D'après les autorités guinéennes, une nouvelle estimation de 2007 revoit ce chiffre fortement à la hausse par rapport à celle de 2002 : le nombre de francophones atteindrait 21,1 % et le nombre de francophones partiels 42,1 %. L'ensemble cumulé représente 6 millions de personnes, soit 63,2 % de la population totale ayant une maîtrise partielle ou complète de cette langue[203].
Le français est la deuxième langue officielle, parlée par environ 20 % des Malgaches[204] (maîtrisée essentiellement par les lettrés). Selon les statistiques de l'académie malgache, dans tout Madagascar, 0,57 % du peuple malgache parlent uniquement le français, 15,87 % le pratiquent occasionnellement et 83,61 % ne savent que le malgache[205]. L'anglais fut également langue officielle entre 2007 et 2010[206],[207]. Cependant, la nouvelle Constitution de novembre 2010 ne mentionne que le malgache (langue nationale) et le français comme langues officielles, l'anglais ayant disparu du texte[208].
La langue d'enseignement dans le système scolaire de Madagascar est le malgache au primaire, puis le français au secondaire[209].
Le français est la langue officielle, mais la plus utilisée est le bambara qui est parlé par 80 % de la population[210].
La connaissance du français a beaucoup progressé. En 1960, 66 000 Maliens savaient lire et écrire en français. En 1985, ils étaient 564 000. En 2009, ils sont 2,2 millions[211].
Connaissance de la langue française au Sénégal en 2005 selon l' OIF
Le français est parlé par 20 % à 30 % des Sénégalais et est la langue maternelle d'une élite constituant 2 % de la population du pays[212]. Fin 2007, 16 966 Français étaient inscrits dans les registres consulaires (y compris les binationaux)[213]. La grande majorité vit à Dakar, où une autre source chiffre le nombre de Français à environ 17 800[214].
Cela dit, le français au Sénégal n’est plus perçu comme la « langue du colonisateur », mais plutôt comme une « composante du patrimoine linguistique national ».
Le Nigeria qui est un État anglophone se trouve « enclavé » entre des pays francophones (le Bénin, le Niger, le Tchad et le Cameroun).
C'est donc vers la fin des années 1990 – début 2000 qu'il a été fait état de la volonté du gouvernement fédéral nigérian de franciser le pays en envisageant notamment un enseignement obligatoire du français comme langue vivante voire l'institution du français comme seconde langue officielle[215].
C'est donc dans ce contexte que le français devient progressivement langue officielle du Nigeria, comme le précise la section 1, no 10 de la Politique d'éducation nationale de 1998 : « L'enseignement du français a été déclaré obligatoire dans toutes les écoles ».
Le Nigeria a récemment fait preuve de son envie de francisation en appelant à un soutien accru à la formation de professeurs de français[215].
C'est en 1996 que le président nigérian Sani Abacha déclarait devant le Nigerian Institute for International Affairs que « le Nigeria est résolu à lancer un programme national d'apprentissage linguistique qui permettra, rapidement, à notre pays de devenir parfaitement bilingue[216] ».
Le gouvernement envisagea donc de créer des cours de français en accéléré, pour transformer 140 millions d'anglophones en francophones. Le projet fut expérimental dans certaines écoles (où plus de 90 % des étudiants apprenaient le français) mais a néanmoins été freiné ces dernières années, à la suite d'un nouveau rapprochement du Nigeria avec les États-Unis et face à la pénurie de professeurs de français.
Le Mozambique est un état officiellement lusophone mais pourtant depuis 1992 une forte progression du français est en cours dans ce territoire, alors que ce pays n'est même pas entouré de pays francophones des grandes mesures de francisation sont prises depuis les années 1990. Alors que le nombre d’étudiants du français n’était que de 5 000[217] dans les premières années après sa réintroduction il est de nos jours appris par plus de 50 % des 15 à 18 ans en plus d'être choisi comme option dans les départements universitaires des Sciences Sociales, Médecine, Droit mais encore par les cadres de la police et des finances[218]. En 1992 le français devient obligatoire pour les classes de lettres et dans certains secteurs de l'enseignement supérieur[219].
Le 29 septembre 2006 le Mozambique rejoint l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie[220].
En 2009 le français est introduit à des niveaux inférieurs ( 9e et 10e )[221]. Il est prévu que les effectifs doublent dans une période de 5 ans dans le circuit scolaire. Sont aussi prévus le lancement d’un mensuel français Flash Hebdo et l’élargissement du temps de diffusion du français sur les ondes radiophoniques, notamment grâce à Radio France Internationale[222].
De plus, il a été récemment annoncé que l'enseignement du français s’étendra aux classes scientifiques.
La langue officielle du Togo est le français.
Selon la Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France, 30 % de la population peut être qualifiée de réellement francophone, ce chiffre montant à 37 % selon le Ministère des Affaires étrangères français en 2007. Le français est la seule langue à l'écrit.[Quoi?]
Selon Couchoro : « Le fait notable de ces quinze dernières années, c’est, liée à tous les facteurs de développement et grâce à la scolarisation en particulier, la diffusion notablement en expansion de notre langue dans les masses populaires. La conséquence en est une appropriation du français par les peu ou pas lettrés, phénomène pratiquement inconnu autrefois[223]. »
Selon Isabelle Anzorge : « Celui-ci n’est plus seulement une langue “importée” mais prend peu à peu une identité togolaise, se libérant de toutes les contraintes normatives, intégrant par là même les réalités culturelles du pays. »
Cette dernière a relevé l'existence d'un français dialectal 1 : « (…) depuis la chute du taux de scolarisation due aux différents bouleversements économiques et politiques (effondrement des phosphates, dévaluation du Franc CFA, grèves universitaires faisant suite à la grève générale de 1992, climat de guerre civile depuis 1991), le français [est] devenu un outil, voire un moyen de communication privilégié de la plupart des Togolais scolarisés ou non. »
La Zambie, État anglophone, connaît ces dernières années une forte francisation, comme le titrait en 2002 le journal africain SYFIA Info : « L'étonnante progression du français en Zambie »[224].
Le français est introduit pour la première fois dans le système scolaire Zambien en 1954 avec une seule classe de français de 22 élèves, puis en 1964 l'enseignement s'étend à une douzaine d'écoles. Dans les années 1990 il y a déjà plus de 100 écoles publiques de français en Zambie[225]. Cependant, le plus étonnant est la multiplication fulgurante des écoles privées de français. Depuis les années 2000, le français devient une langue de plus en plus importante, et des quartiers riches jusqu'aux quartiers pauvres de Lusaka, la capitale zambienne, on peut voir des panneaux et pancartes incitant à apprendre le français qui fleurissent partout[224].
Les différentes raisons de cette francisation grandissante s'expliquent, en plus du rayonnement des pays francophones voisins, par la forte présence de réfugiés et commerçants congolais en Zambie.
Depuis les années 2000, il se produit en Asie une grande progression du français. Tout commence en septembre 2006[226], lorsque le programme VALOFRASE[227] (Valorisation du français en Asie du Sud-Est) a été lancé grâce à l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie, la Centrale des syndicats au Québec, la Wallonie-Bruxelles à Hanoï et la Coopération française. De 1994 à 2004, le nombre d'étudiants en français a ainsi augmenté de 48,8 % en Asie[228].
Avec un total d'environ 100 000 étudiants[229] apprenant le français en université, et un corps enseignant de plus de 700 professeurs chinois de français et 70 professeurs français, la population chinoise montre un certain intérêt pour la langue française[230]. Le réseau des 15 Alliances françaises en Chine accueille près de 28 000 étudiants chaque année alors que près de 24 000 Chinois étudiaient dans une université française en 2009[231]. L'attrait de la culture française, l'émigration au Canada ou les possibilités d'emploi en Afrique francophone sont les moteurs principaux de cette croissance de l'apprentissage du français en Chine.
La Télévision centrale de Chine a ouvert en 2007 une chaîne internationale entièrement en français, CCTV-F, visant particulièrement le marché de l'Afrique francophone. Son ouverture s'inscrit dans la politique de partenariat diplomatique et économique fort entre la République populaire de Chine et le continent africain. Cette chaîne diffuse par satellite et par câble des journaux télévisés, ainsi que des programmes éducatifs et des divertissements chinois traduits en français.
Les étudiants passant par le VALOFRASE ont un taux de réussite au concours d’entrée à l’université d'environ 70 % alors que la moyenne nationale est de 15 %[232]. Plus de 113 667 étudiants ont choisi le français comme langue d'étude en 2007. 40 provinces sur 64 proposent l'apprentissage du français à l'école[233].
Alors qu'avant le lancement du programme VALOFRASE les étudiants en français au Cambodge étaient peu nombreux, en 2007-2008 45 434 étudiants décident de choisir le français comme langue d'apprentissage, ce nombre passe à 98 184 durant l'année 2008-2009 et atteint 114 529 durant l'année 2009-2010[234]. De plus, le nombre de régions proposant le français passe de 16 sur 24 en 2006 à 21 sur 24 en 2009[234].
Le nombre d'étudiants diplômés du baccalauréat augmente de 400 % de 2004 à 2006 et de 935 % de 2004 à 2009[235].
En 2008, la Thaïlande a été admise comme État observateur de l'Organisation internationale de la francophonie[236], en raison de la francisation qui se produit en Asie mais aussi du fait que la Thaïlande partage des frontières avec deux anciens protectorats français, le Cambodge et le Laos. En 2009, le français est la deuxième langue étrangère étudiée dans le secondaire[237].
La signalisation bilingue à Pondichéry (Inde)
La langue française est apprise par près de 500 000 personnes, ce qui fait d'elle la première langue étrangère apprise dans le pays. Elle est surtout apprise dans le cadre de l'apprentissage en ligne et est considérée comme une langue d'avenir[238],[239].
Aujourd'hui en Inde il y a 16 Alliances françaises[réf. nécessaire].
Le français est l'une des deux langues de prestige du Liban[240], est souvent utilisé pour les affaires, la diplomatie, et le gouvernement, les écoles et les universités. Le français est à la fois langue de culture et de communication. 74 % de la population libanaise est entièrement ou partiellement francophone et 26 % des Libanais ignorent totalement cette langue[241]. Le Liban compte 40 % d’anglophones[241], donc le français a une longueur d’avance sur l’anglais car il est davantage pratiqué dans les classes aisées économiquement et, quand il touche toutes les classes de la population, il est généralement beaucoup plus présent chez les jeunes encore scolarisés et a tendance à décroître au fur et à mesure que l’on avance en âge. La connaissance et le niveau de français au Liban ne sont pas homogènes entre les différentes institutions scolaires. L’avenir de la langue française au Liban dépend du renforcement de beaucoup de facteurs plus particulièrement dans les domaines de l’audiovisuel.
Selon le recensement 2006, 43 217 personnes parlaient le plus souvent le français à la maison en Australie[242]. Un chiffre en augmentation de 9 % par rapport à 2001. Il s'agit pour la plupart d'émigrants belges[243], français[244], suisses[245] ou canadiens[246] mais également de Mauritiens[247] ou de Seychellois[248]. Avec 185 000 apprenants, tous secteurs et tous niveaux confondus dans le système scolaire australien, le français est la 4e langue apprise derrière le japonais, l'indonésien et l'italien. Les 31 Alliances françaises présentes dans ce pays recevaient environ 6 000 étudiants en 2003[249].
francs CFP (4,20 € ; 5,85 $CAN) utilisé en Polynésie française, en Nouvelle-Calédonie et à Wallis-et-Futuna. Une nouvelle gamme de billets en francs CFP destinée à remplacer la présente gamme doit être mise en circulation en 2014. Billet de 500(4,20; 5,85 $CAN) utilisé en Polynésie française, en Nouvelle-Calédonie et à Wallis-et-Futuna. Une nouvelle gamme de billets en francs CFP destinée à remplacer la présente gamme doit être mise en circulation en 2014.
Dans cette collectivité d'outre-mer française, le français est la langue officielle, mais il voisine avec 28 langues océaniennes. Lors du recensement de 2004, 95,6 % des personnes de 14 ans et plus ont déclaré savoir parler, lire et écrire le français, c'est la première langue utilisée au sein de 72,5 % des ménages. Toutefois 41,3 % des Néo-calédoniens ont indiqué être capable de parler ou de comprendre une langue océanienne en 2004[250].
Au recensement de 2006, 53 757 personnes ont indiqué le français comme leur 1re langue soit 1,4 % de la population[251], il s'agit de la 4e communauté linguistique du pays derrière l'anglais, le maori et le samoan. À Wellington, le français est parlé par 3,5 % de la population, il arrive en deuxième position après l'anglais[252]. Le français est la première langue étrangère apprise dans ce pays avec près de 56 000 étudiants tous niveaux confondus. Un chiffre qui a augmenté de près de 20 % entre 2004 et 2010[253].
Le français est la langue officielle de la Polynésie française, le tahitien et plusieurs autres langues polynésiennes ont un statut dans l'enseignement. Lors du recensement de 2007, 94,7 % des Polynésiens de plus de 15 ans ont affirmé avoir une maîtrise parfaite du français, seuls 2 % reconnaissant n'avoir aucune connaissance de cette langue. Le français est la langue principale de 68,5 % des ménages[254].
Le français est avec l'anglais et le bichlamar la langue officielle du Vanuatu.
37 % des ni-Vanuatu de plus de 5 ans ont affirmé avoir une compétence linguistique en français lors du recensement de 2009, soit 72 245 personnes[255]. Ce pourcentage varie toutefois suivant la zone. Ainsi, si en milieu urbain 50 % des habitants peuvent s'exprimer en français, ils ne sont que 32 % en milieu rural. Le plus fort taux de francophones est atteint dans la province de Shefa (42 %), le plus faible, dans celle de Torba (20 %). Les îles de Pentecost, Santo et Tanna abritent les plus fortes concentrations de francophones.
Il faut toutefois constater que le nombre de locuteurs |
and figures like Oscar DePriest, Emmett Till and Martin Luther King, Jr. Statewide surveys to find stories and sites that are not well known will be funded in Michigan, Rhode Island, Ohio, Maryland, Idaho, District of Columbia, California, and New York.
A 2008 National Park Service study, Civil Rights in America: A Framework for Identifying Significant Sites, served as the principal reference for determining the eligibility of proposed projects for the grant program.
The projects are:
Preservation Projects: Grantee State Award Preservation, Repair and Restoration of the Historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Alabama $500,000.00 Preserving Brown Chapel AME from electrical, roofing and structural needs Historic Brown Chapel AME Preservation Society Inc. Alabama $500,000.00 Anniston Freedom Riders Monument City of Anniston Alabama $496,375.00 Preserving Central High - A Civil Rights Monument City of Little Rock Arkansas $499,372.56 Restoration of the historic West Hunter Street Baptist Church Ralph David Abernathy III Foundation Inc. Georgia $451,571.15 Preservation of the Oscar Stanton De Priest House National Historic Landmark Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois Illinois $250,000.00 St. Mark's A.M.E. Church Rehabilitation Saint Marks AME Church of Topeka Kansas Inc. Kansas $231,804.00 Holy Rosary Institute Main Building Stabilization Holy Rosary Redevelopment Louisiana $450,000.00 Civil Rights Museum for the McDonogh 19 building Leona Tate Foundation For Change Inc. Louisiana $500,000.00 Hamtramck Stadium pre-development plan City of Hamtramck Michigan $50,000.00 Mitchell Hall Preservation and Rehabiliation Lincoln University of Missouri Missouri $500,000.00 Restoration of Tallahatchie Co. Courthouse first floor, to the period of significance Emmett Till Memorial Commission of Tallahatchie County Inc. Mississippi $500,000.00 Pauli Murray Family Home Interior Restoration Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice North Carolina $237,575.00 Rehabilitation of the Modjeska Monteith Simkins House Historic Columbia Foundation South Carolina $293,000.00 Sandy Island Cultural Initiative Coastal Carolina University South Carolina $104,798.06 City of Memphis - Clayborn Temple Preservation Project City Of Memphis, Div., Housing And Community Development Tennessee $400,000.00 Third Street Bethel AME Church Rehabilitation and NR Nomination Update Virginia Department of Historic Resources Virginia $404,821.04 Williams Community Resource Center City of Danville Virginia $413,269.05
History Projects: Grantee State Amount Preserving History, Building Community:
Preservation Leadership Training at the Gaston Motel in Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Alabama $47,003.00 City of Riverside African American Civil
Rights History The City of Riverside California $50,000.00 The Rosenwald Schools Mapping Project: Enhancing Understanding of Rosenwald Schools through Web GIS and Story Maps National Trust for Historic
Preservation in the U.S. District of Columbia $50,000.00 Civil Rights and Neighborhood Change in Washington DC Smithsonian Institution District of Columbia $49,616.00 African American 20th Century Civil Rights Heritage Trail District of Columbia Office of
Planning District of Columbia $37,000.00 Mapping Segregation in Washington DC:
The Legal Campaign to End Racially
Restrictive Covenants Historical Society of
Washington, D.C. District of Columbia $50,000.00 National Register Nomination and
Interpretive/Educational Materials for
Federation Home and Tate Arms African
American Student Dormitories City of Iowa City Iowa $16,052.38 Untold Stories: The African American
Civil Rights Movement in Idaho Idaho State Historical Society Idaho $50,000.00 The Kentucky Civil Rights Movement
Exhibition Kentucky Center for African American Heritage Kentucky $50,000.00 The New Orleans Civil Rights Movement
Oral History Project to preserve
first person testimony of the
New Orleans civil rights movement. Kemper and Lelia Williams
Foundation Inc. Louisiana $23,360.00 1320 Eutaw Place: Lillie Carroll Jackson's Home for Freedom Morgan State University Maryland $49,828.00 Beaches and Ballfields: Contested
Recreational Spaces and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Anne Arundel County, MD. Lost Towns Project, Inc. Maryland $48,000.00 Detroit's African American Civil Rights
History 1900-1970 Survey and Multiple
Resource Nomination Michigan Stae Housing
Development Authority Michigan $49,500.00 Research, Interpret, and Preserve the Civil Rights History of Natchez and Adams County, Mississippi Historic Natchez Foundation Mississippi $50,000.00 Project for the International Civil Rights
Center & Museum (Sit-In Movement, Inc.) Sit-In Movement Inc. North Carolina $50,000.00 Long Island Luminaries: Untold Stories of the Civil Rights Era Town of North Hempstead New York $50,000.00 Expanding and Enlivening the Archive
Through Community Curators: an Oral
History Project to archive witnesses to
social & economic justice issues of
Weeksville Society for the Preservation of
Weeksville New York $50,000.00 20th Century African American Civil Rights Movement in Ohio: Evaluating and Nominating Historic Properties Ohio Historical Society Ohio $50,000.00 African-American Struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island: The 20th Century Rhode Island Historical Society Rhode Island $49,557.76 South Carolina Civil Rights Teacher Institute University of South Carolina South Carolina $49,997.00 Give A Damn: Stax Records and Social
Justice Soulsville Foundation Tennessee $47,500.00
www.nps.gov
About the National Park Service. More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 414 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at www.nps.gov, on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice, Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice, and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.Sources say that neither Rooney Mara, who nabbed a best actress Oscar nomination for 'Dragon Tattoo,' nor Daniel Craig will be back, and the studio sees the new book as an opportunity to start the franchise over.
Lisbeth Salander will hack again on the big screen but not in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire.
Instead, Sony is putting its focus on book No. 4 in the Millennium series, The Girl in the Spider's Web, the first book famously not written by creator Stieg Larsson.
The studio is in early talks with Steven Knight (Burnt) to adapt the novel, which became an international best seller after it was published in September.
Sources say that neither Rooney Mara, who nabbed a best actress Oscar nomination for Dragon Tattoo, nor Daniel Craig will be back, and the studio sees the new book as an opportunity to start the franchise over. Ditto for Dragon Tattoo director David Fincher, who is not expected to return to Salander universe.
But Dragon Tattoo producer Scott Rudin is returning to produce alongside Amy Pascal, who negotiated the rights in her exit package from the studio, and Elizabeth Cantillon (Concussion). Yellow Bird, the production company that secured the rights to the Millennium books years ago and produced the Swedish-language trilogy as well as the English-language Dragon Tattoo, also is producing Spider's Web. (The company's Berna Levin, Soren Staermose and Ole Sondberg will act as producers.)
Written by David Lagercrantz — who was hired after Larsson passed away in 2004 — Spider's Web follows superhacker Salander and investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist as they find themselves at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals and corrupt governments.
Though 2011's Tattoo made $233 million worldwide, the film was deemed too expensive for a hard-R film thanks to a $90 million budget. The studio has options on Craig for two sequels, but the actor was said to want a pay raise, making his return impossible given the studio's mandate to make Spider's Web at a much lower budget.
The move doesn't mean Girl Who Played With Fire is altogether dead. After all, Sony paid mid-seven figures for Steven Zaillian's script for Girl Who Played With Fire, one of the most expensive adaptations to date. But the plan for now is for Spider's Web to precede Girl Who Played With Fire. And once again, the role of Salander will be hotly pursued by Hollywood's young actresses.
Lagercrantz’s take was met with resistance by Larsson’s longtime girlfriend Eva Gabrielsson and even fans initially. But since publication, the book has been embraced by critics and the fan base. In September, Lagercrantz told THR that he views Salander as a classic superhero. "I saw her like Spiderman or Batman," he said. "She was not just this great character. She also had this great background — this mythology — and I really felt that I wanted to develop it, dig into it."
Knight is an Oscar-nominated writer for his immigration drama Dirty Pretty Things. But he is also adept at bigger-budget studio fare, having written a draft of Paramount's World War Z sequel as well as Legendary's Seventh Son.
He is repped by CAA, United Artists in the U.K. and attorney George Davis.
Lagerkrantz is repped by Madgalena Hedlund at The Hedlund Agency and Yellow Bird is handled by UTA.Alex Jones' custody battle has turned into a circus this past week, in part because his attorney made national headlines by arguing that the Infowars founder was a "performance artist" who cannot be judged by the character or contents of his unhinged radio program.
Journalists Charlie Warzel and Ben Hartman provided up-to-date dispatches from Austin, Texas, where common citizens have rushed to the courthouse to watch Jones testify to his competency as a parent.
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Here is just a sample of the peculiar things Jones said on Thursday:
.@RealAlexJones AJ tells court he doesn't bring his bombascity and rage from Infowars home with him. Here's his response (wants to swim/eat burgers): pic.twitter.com/GrT9TnFsge — Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) April 20, 2017
UPDATE: @RealAlexJones cross examination going on now. LOTS going on. Accuses media of warping trial story and "mind games" — Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) April 20, 2017
.@RealAlexJones We learned after divorce @RealAlexJones had 3,000 sq foot penthouse apt downtown. That he likes zebra meat is "actually really good" — Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) April 20, 2017
UPDATE: Jones took stand again. mentioned kids watching him. "they're very proud of the comedy memes that i appear in; online i'm a #1 meme" — Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) April 20, 2017
.@RealAlexJones @StephenAtHome @glennbeck Jones talks about marijuana use says he tests it yearly to "monitor its strength" says it's too strong now, blames George Soros for that. — Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) April 20, 2017
During Jones' cross-examination, there were some seriously tense moments, with Kelly Jones' attorney berating the radio host on his drug use and sex life in an attempt to damage his credibility, or lack thereof. Jones was asked about comments he made on the Joe Rogan podcast, in which he notes that marijuana is legal in California where the show was taped and that "everybody smokes marijuana on that show."
As far as alcohol, Jones said that he is never intoxicated around his children or on his show. He was then shown a clip that looked to refute his claim. The video was of Jones on Inauguration Day where he's outside the Capital slurring his words and generally behaving drunk. Despite the clip, Jones was adamant that he never drinks when he is on Infowars, Warzel reported.
“Sometimes I’ll have a drink every day and then other times I’ll go without it for months,” he said.
At one point during the questioning, Jones was reportedly near tears as he accused the attorney of having no decency.
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.@RealAlexJones Nearly crying Jones said KJ's aty had no decency "i've never seen anything like this not in TV not in movies" accused atty of twisting words — Charlie Warzel (@cwarzel) April 20, 2017
Warzel, who wrote a full a rundown of Jones' testimony for BuzzFeed News, reported that Jones was frustrated in part because he could not react to reports in the news. All parties and attorneys in the case are under a gag order and are not allowed to speak to the press. Jones may have violated the gag order, Warzal wrote, by filming two live-stream videos the past couple of days in which he addresses the "performance art" claims at issue in the case. While Jones, a self-proclaimed journalist, is finding it hard not to comment on the media's interest in the case, his ex-wife has respectively asked for privacy.
In a statement to Salon, Kelly Jones said the custody battle was a "difficult situation for our family" and asked the media to "please respect the rulings of the Judge and refrain from relaying any private information about our children."
"This case is about our children's well-being and best interest. It is not in their best interest for either Alex or me to speak to the press during the proceedings," her statement said.
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[jwplayer file="http://media.salon.com/2017/04/e36926ca1421f90743cd704ee030151d.mp4" image="http://media.salon.com/2017/04/6a0caedfcfe44e39f7ab4123a0ce0bd7-1280x720.png"][/jwplayer]It's all too easy to poke fun at the excess, absurdity, and social ineptitude of the new tech boom -- and to be sure, many Silicon Valley types deserve to have a little shade thrown their way.
But there are deeper critiques of this increasingly pervasive -- and invasive -- technological revolution that often go unspoken. And while there's no shortage of Perez Hiltons delivering jabs to the tech elite, where are the Aldous Huxleys of our era? Or the Ray Bradburys? Why isn't more attention paid to the psychological and societal impacts of this new age of anxiety, where the lines between human/machine, private/public, and real/virtual continue to blur?
These are the kinds of inquiries posed by television's "Black Mirror," a brilliant six-episode science fiction series that is finally available to stream on Netflix. Each installment features a new story, setting, and characters. And while the show takes place in the future, most of the technology it depicts already exists -- it's just a matter of how far humanity has allowed it to dominate our lives.
Unlike in America, British television shows often bow out after only a couple seasons, and "Black Mirror" is no exception. Luckily, Brits are also fond of "Christmas specials," and on December 16th, "Black Mirror" will receive the holiday treatment.
Now Channel 4 has released a trailer for the episode, titled "White Christmas." It stars "Mad Men"'s unforgivably dashing Jon Hamm as some kind of digital dating consultant, and "Life of Pi"'s Rafe Spall as a guy who, at one point, gets "blocked" by a woman in real life -- the consequences of which appear far more dangerous than merely getting blocked on Twitter.
Watch the trailer above. Because "Black Mirror" is purely episodic, you won't need to watch the whole series first. But if you don't, you'll miss out not only on the best television show ever made about modern technology, but one of the best collections of science fiction stories produced in any medium.George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress
My auto-repair guy knows that I maintain my old minivan well and always ask for a discount. Because I'm a woman, I still may be paying too much for repairs, a new study suggests.
Researchers at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management teamed up with AutoMD to find out why customers receive different price quotes when they call an auto-repair shop. In 2012 Meghan Busse, Ayelet Israeli, and Florian Zettelmeyer conducted an experiment where AutoMD's agents called 4,603 auto-repair shops to price a radiator replacement for a 2003 Toyota Camry. The experiment compared three conditions: one where customers indicate they have done research online and know the market rate to replace the radiator; another where customers have no idea how much it should cost; and a third where customers have a too-high price in mind. Not surprisingly, those who thought the repair should cost more than the actual market rate were quoted higher prices than other people. But customers who had done their homework were not offered a lower price than customers who had no clue about what it should cost. Both were offered approximately the market price—at least when the customers were male.
When the researchers broke down their results by gender, they found that women are worse off if they indicate they have no idea what a radiator replacement should cost. Women were offered an average price of $406, while their male counterparts received a quote of $383. Why the difference? One of the study's authors explains:
Repair shops probably do not inherently dislike women or take pleasure in ripping them off. Instead, the data are more consistent with statistical discrimination. Shops believe, righty or wrongly, that women know less about cars and car repair. In the absence of information to the contrary, they will be offered a higher quote. "But when you show that stereotype is wrong"—because you reveal yourself to be an informed woman or an uninformed man—"you get treated the same way," says Busse.
The experiment revealed another gender difference, too. When women request a lower price, they receive a price cut from the repair shop more often than men do—35 percent of the time compared with 25 percent for men. This "pretty sizeable" difference, the authors say, is not explained by higher initial quotes women sometimes receive. Instead, repair shops are surprised perhaps when a woman customer defies the stereotype that women don't haggle and negotiate. They think she will walk out the door; hence, she gets a discount.
The best advice for females in need of a car repair? Do ask and do tell. Women who gather information about the repair's market rate, tell the repair shop they've done their research, and ask for a discount will likely get one. It's easy to imagine employees in male-dominated work environments like car-repair shops succumbing to gender stereotypes. Women who defy stereotype come out ahead.Chinese telecoms giant ZTE unveiled Sunday what it said is the world's first smartphone compatible with the lightening-fast 5G mobile internet service that networks expect to have up and running by 2020.
The company said the Gigabit Phone is the first smartphone capable of download speeds reaching up to 1 gigabit per second- up to 10 times faster than the first generation of 4G services widely in use today.
The device, unveiled in Barcelona in northeastern Spain on the eve of the start on Monday of the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest mobile fair, will allow for 360-degree panoramic Virtual Reality video and fast downloads of ultra Hi-Fi music and videos.
“With the new device, the way people stay connected will be changed forever. Focusing on 5G technologies will be one of the key priorities of ZTE's global development,” a ZTE spokesman said.
Tech firms are racing to develop products that will be compatible with 5G, shorthand for the fifth generation of networks, which promise blazing fast connectivity for a generation used to streaming movies and TV directly to phones.
South Korean carrier KT Corp aims to offer trial 5G services during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
The first large-scale commercial deployment of the technology is expected in 2020.
Forrester analyst Thomas Husson said ZTE was using the phone to “showcase innovation” and “offer a glimpse into the future when people will be able to download full movies in seconds” but it was not likely to be a big seller.
“The sad reality is that this smartphone will not end up in consumers' pockets because both 5G and Virtual Reality are still years away to be a mass-market consumer reality,” he added.
Founded in 1985, ZTE offers telecom equipment and services and has customers in more than 160 countries, according to the company.
It is the only Chinese smartphone vendor with a meaningful presence in the United States, where its 10 percent market share makes it the fourth-largest vendor.1. The New York Times writes that "after days of near silence," Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the murder of a Palestinian teenager on Sunday. But Netanyahu called the murder "reprehensible" on Wednesday, the day it occurred, and the next day, in his first public appearance since the murder, again forcefully condemned the killing on prime-time national television. Early July 4th weekend for the entire New York Times editorial board?
2. The New York Times omits that Prime Minister Netanyahu called the father of the murdered boy yesterday to personally express his outrage and condemnation. Maybe the New York Times didn't get that press release?
3. The New York Times gives numerous examples of hate rhetoric on the margins of Israeli society – rhetoric that has been strongly condemned and rejected by Israel's political leaders. The New York Times writes Palestinians have also been guilty of hate speech, but neglects to mention that Palestinian incitement is government backed, that Palestinian Authority leaders hail terrorists as heroes, name public squares after them and teach schoolchildren to emulate them. For daily dose of government-backed Palestinian incitement, check out – Palestinian Media Watch. No summer interns in the New York Times research department this year?
4. The New York Times omits the seemingly relevant matter of President Abbas forging a unity pact with Hamas, a terror organization whose charter calls for the murder of all Jews and whose leadership celebrated the kidnapping and murder of the three Israeli teens and called for more kidnappings. News not fit to print?DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, who is one of a handful of Senate Republicans working in small groups to craft the Senate’s version of the American Health Care Act, said Wednesday he has still not seen a text version of the bill just a week before the full chamber is set to vote on it.
FULL TRANSCRIPT: Denver7 interview with Sen. Cory Gardner on health care bill
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday the text of the Senate’s version of the bill will likely be released Thursday, and that a vote on the bill is likely to happen before Congress goes on its July 4 holiday recess.
Stories released late Wednesday, after this story was first published, by The Washington Post and The Associated Press showed some details of the bill expected to be made public Thursday.
Gardner confirmed that he knew only what McConnell has so far said about the timing of the bill’s release and a vote.
“I have not [seen the bill’s text],” he told Denver7. “And what I’ve been told is a discussion draft will be released tomorrow, but I’ve not seen language or finalized language.”
He added that we’d have to “check with [McConnell’s] office for further clarification” on whether the vote will happen next week, something McConnell confirmed was the case Wednesday morning when he said that the American people would have “plenty of time” to read the bill, then saying that “everybody pretty well understands it” and will have an “adequate time” to look at the bill.
“I think this will be about as transparent as it could be,” McConnell said Wednesday. “No transparency would have been added by having hearings in which Democrats offered endless single-payer system amendments.”
Gardner talks about transparency, working group process
The lack of transparency involved in the bill-crafting process for the Senate’s health care bill has been the prime subject of discussion for weeks, and it’s something Gardner told Denver7 he’s fought for in recent days—months after he called for an open and transparent process.
“We’re having those discussions on the bill. I think it ought to be an open process, and I’d like to see an open, transparent process,” Gardner said.
He says that he brought up the issue in a working group on Tuesday.
“Just yesterday at the conference meeting, it was talked about—the need to have more time and transparency,” he said.
But he, as have many Republicans, pointed to the process when Democrats led the crafting of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and 2010, bringing up the unforgettable line from Nancy Pelosi, who said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of controversy.”
While Republicans have long interpreted that as meaning the bill was being crafted in secret, others have argued that with the extra context, she was saying that the full benefits of the bill wouldn’t be realized until after it was passed.
“I’m reminded of Nancy Pelosi, when she said, ‘We have to pass a bill to know what’s in the bill,’” Gardner said. “And I think Democrats, instead of being obstructionists in this, I hope they’ll be able to find common ground with Republicans so we can find a bipartisan solution.”
But the bill text for the Affordable Care Act was introduced in September 2009, posted online in October, when it passed the House for the first time, and there were hundreds of open hearings and Republican amendments offered before the final version again passed the House in March 2010. President Obama even addressed the full Congress during the bill’s crafting.
When asked what the difference was, for Gardner, during the crafting of this bill, Gardner retorted that there was “not a single Republican vote” in favor of the ACA, and pointed to what he called Democratic “obstruction” during the crafting of the current bill, despite Republicans holding the White House and both chambers of Congress.
“The only proposal that we’ve seen offered by Democrats is the [Sen. Bernie] Sanders solution, which is universal health care. What we ought to be doing instead of trying to push every into Medicaid—what we ought to be doing is trying to create an economy that has better-paying jobs, that has jobs with great benefits,” Gardner said.
When pressed further on why there isn’t transparency this time around, Gardner said, “I’m not arguing. I agree with you. There should be more discussion. There should be an open [process] – that’s what you and I are agreeing on.”
Adam Fox, of the nonpartisan Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, said Wednesday, "They know if the public understands what this bill will do, they will run into very stiff opposition. They're trying to keep it secret as long as possible before they take a vote, so that they don't have to deal with that backlash."
Gardner says he’s trying to include protections for Medicaid
As for his input on the bill, Gardner says he’s been focused on getting the bill’s writers to include protections should high-risk pools be implemented, and more protections for Medicaid recipients and stability in the insurance marketplaces.
“Yesterday there was a lot of talk and focus on the risk pools—making sure that we understood that if that’s the direction the legislation goes, what that means and how that can help,” Gardner said. “And I’ve talked about my concerns over a Medicaid transition—that if they pursue a Medicaid transition where the states take over the Medicaid program, to make sure the states have the full functionality, flexibility that they need in a transition period that is long enough for them to do it seamlessly.”
Gardner hails from a state that opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but we asked if he had been able to get through to some of his more-conservative colleagues in trying to include Medicaid protections—something the House-passed version s lashed more than $800 billion from over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“Some are very, very open to it,” Gardner said. “Sen. [Rob] Portman, R-Ohio, and myself, we have our own little working group on Medicaid that we’ve been trying to help forge some policies and guide the discussion. So we’ll see as the bill progresses.”
Congressional Budget Office score expected by GOP ahead of vote
Gardner says that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is expected to score the Senate version before a vote, something McConnell has also said. But the CBO couldn’t score the House version in the two weeks the revised version was rushed through to a vote, so how would it score this version, we asked.
“So I think…what they’ve been doing—you’d have to ask McConnell’s office for that exact answer. What I think they’re doing is sending ideas or concepts to the Congressional Budget Office and getting a score as they send elements of the bill over. At least that’s what they said they’re doing,” Gardner said.
But is that enough time for Gardner to figure out what’s in the bill and support it, we asked.
“I mean we’ll obviously have to look at the Congressional Budget Office numbers. I want to talk to some of the private insurers to see what impact they believe it will have,” Gardner said. “Some of the ideas in the bill, the insurance companies believe they would be able to reduce their insurance rates as a result. But we have to have that information and need to have a better understanding of it.”
After the Wednesday morning interview, Gardner learned that the CBO score would likely be available "no later than Monday," a congressional staffer told Denver7.
Insurance rates have, on average, indeed risen nationally since the ACA was passed, and the promise that rates would be lower and that all people could keep their providers turned out to be misleading. Gardner says a lack of access is to blame, and says that’s what he hopes is fixed with the Senate bill.
“So what we have to address is the access, because you can have insurance but still not have access to utilize that insurance,” Gardner said, pointing out that hundreds of thousands of Coloradans lost insurance immediately after the ACA went into place.
However, at the same time, the uninsured rate in Colorado fell f rom about 15 percent to just over 6 percent in the six years since it took hold.
And on Wednesday, the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies confirmed that all of the insurance companies operating on Colorado’s marketplace in 2017 would again be operating in the state in 2018—quelling some fear that 14 western Colorado counties might lose their only insurance provider on the marketplace, Anthem.
What might force a ‘no’ vote on the bill from Gardner? What happens going forward?
Gardner has voted in line with President Donald Trump’s position 95 percent of the time so far, according to FiveThirtyEight, and as a “moderate” Republican, has the highest “Trump plus-minus” score of any member of Congress, meaning that he’s voted with the president more often that he was expected to.
So what might lead him to vote against the Senate’s bill, we asked.
“If it’s bad policy, I won’t support it. I need to see the legislation. I’m going to read the legislation and find out how it works,” Gardner said.
When pressed further on what he might consider “bad policy,” Gardner responded: “Well, if it’s something that doesn’t solve the problems of Obamacare.”
When asked to specify what that meant, Gardner said: “OK, so if it doesn’t work to reduce the cost of insurance; if it doesn’t create market stability; if it doesn’t create a sustainable path for Medicaid, that’s not going to be something that I can support.”
Gardner told The Denver Post Tuesday evening that Washington was “fundamentally broken” by partisanship, despite still laying blame on Democrats for the lack of hearings. He reiterated Wednesday that he’d like to work with Democrats.
“I hope that Democrats and Republicans can come together on health care, because right now you have a system in place that if the status quo of the Affordable Care Act is left in place, it will result in more people paying higher costs and fewer people having access to their insurance.”
But he also hinted that the Senate’s bill might not be the end-all for the Republican push to replace the Affordable Care Act.
“Because remember, even if the Senate passes a bill next week, there’s still the process of hammering out the difference between the House and the Senate, and then it comes back to the chambers for even more debate after that,” Gardner said.
He hinted that conference committees may have to end up finalizing the bill amid the back-and-forth structuring in the House and Senate.
“The other option is to see if the House will pass the Senate bill, and that can volley back and forth,” he said. “My guess is they’ll go to a conference committee, but I just don’t know.”
Gardner’s fellow senator from Colorado, Democrat Michael Bennet, has consistently slammed the Senate GOP’s process.
“Senate Republicans are so ashamed of health care bill, they won’t even share it with GOP colleagues—much less Dems or American people,” Bennet tweeted Tuesday night.
A day earlier, he said, “Even @POTUS said GOP health care bill is ‘mean.’ CO would be one of the states harmed most. So why are Republicans still trying to pass it.”
But despite the obvious antipathy for the bill from Democrats, Gardner said he will be committed to trying to get Democrats involved.
“So there’s even still more of this process,” he said. “So I hope in the meantime, there will be a decision to—instead of having just a partisan debate, that people will come together and work through these challenges.”My 1,700-mile hike across the XL Pipeline I wanted to learn everything about the environmental battle. I saw a country marked by apathy, and flickers of hope
I'd felt strangely drawn to the Keystone XL.
In the fall of 2011, when I fantasized about walking the length of the 1,700-mile proposed pipeline -- that, if approved, will carry oil from the Tar Sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast of Texas -- I was a lowly dishwasher at an oilman's camp in Deadhorse, Alaska.
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At the time, I was broke, just out of grad school, and demoralized with my situation. I had a miserable job that didn't require a high school diploma, let alone the liberal arts degree that had nearly bankrupted me, and I was living in quite possibly the coldest, darkest, dreariest place on earth. I was an adventurer at heart, burdened with the duties of making a living.
I can say, from experience, that when you find yourself washing spoon after spoon, in the middle of the night, in a silent kitchen, at a working camp 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle, you will begin to question the direction of your life. But I can say this also: The soul must first be caged before it can be freed. And when Liam, the cook I worked with, suggested we go on an adventure the next summer and hike the XL, I knew his idea was both crazy and brilliant. I looked at him and said, with what must have been an almost frightening excitement, "We must!"
More than just another pipeline, the XL, to me, is a historic battleground: the first-ever fight -- led by Bill McKibben and his organization 350.org -- over a project because of climate change. Even if its path would lead me through the "middle of nowhere," with the fate of a warming world at stake, I thought of the XL as the center of the universe. And I wanted to be there and learn everything I could about it.
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If President Obama approves the XL -- which he may or may not do in the next few months -- the Tar Sands of northern Alberta will continue to be developed (perhaps to the size of Florida), a prospect that one climate scientist has called "game over" for climate change. Obama has the final say, and while experts predict that he will grant his approval, environmentalists hope that a rejection of the XL might mark a turning point, one where we will begin to wean ourselves off fossil fuels and head toward a more sustainable future.
After I left Deadhorse later that autumn, I began preparing for the hike. I bought a software program so I could map out my route, as well as a new ultralight tent, a quality sleeping bag to endure shivering nights, and about $1,000 worth of food. I packaged the food -- mostly energy bars, granola and powdered potatoes -- in Priority Mail boxes, which a friend in Denver would mail to post offices along my path. I jogged five miles nearly every day to get myself in shape. Everything was coming together.
And then, in a flash, everything fell apart.
My hiking partner, Liam, bailed when he learned that he was still banned from Canada for an offense committed north of the border in his wayward youth. Meanwhile, an article I was writing for a magazine delayed my start by nearly a month. And -- perhaps worst of all -- while descending the stairs at my friend's house in Denver, I tripped and broke a pinkie toe.
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To take off to northern lands on the eve of winter with a purple toe and no trail to follow or guidebook to consult would be, to most rational thinkers, insane. Yet since everything about the Tar Sands and the XL and America's contempt for the reality of climate change struck me as insane, too, I thought it would be fitting to embrace this spirit of insanity, throw all caution to the wind, and embark on my adventure anyway.
And so: On a cool morning in September 2012, I strapped on my backpack, stuck out my thumb north of Denver, Colo., and hitchhiked 1,500 miles to the Alberta Tar Sands. After viewing the Tar Sands -- a horizon-to-horizon Ayn Rand wasteland of bulldozed Boreal Forest, eerie yellow sulfur pyramids, and Armageddon-black tailing ponds -- I hitchhiked south to Hardisty, Alberta, the northern terminus of the pipeline-to-be, where I'd begin my hike. My ultimate destination would be Port Arthur -- an oil refinery city on the Gulf Coast of Texas, which would be the southern terminus of the XL.
At first, I was daunted by all the unknowns. Where will I get my water? Where will I sleep? Will landowners shoot me for trespassing over their property? And what sort of terrain will I even be walking over? These were questions I had no answers to. The best plan, I figured, was to have no plan, except to adapt and improvise as conditions changed. And to walk every step of the way.
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The life of a hiker, I'd quickly learn, had its advantages. Each day was my own. I'd wake at sunrise, set up my tent at sunset, and walk as much as I could in |
and 1znm. “1xnm is anything between 16nm to 19nm,” said Er-Xuan Ping, managing director of memory and materials within the Silicon Systems Group at Applied Materials. “1ynm is defined as 14nm to 16nm. 1znm is defined by 12nm to 14nm.”
Scaling the DRAM to 1znm is possible, but going beyond that is unlikely. “The transition from 20nm to 1xnm in DRAM will involve several process and integration challenges,” said Yang Pan, chief technology officer for the Global Products Group at Lam Research.
Economics also plays a role in the equation. “There are one or two generations left, but it’s taking longer each time to go from step to step,” IHS’ Howard said. “As DRAM gets down below 20nm, and into the 15nm range, it starts to bring up some interesting economic questions. For example, when does it make economic sense to stop shrinking the cell? We are really running up to the physical limits of how far we can scale and maintain any signal integrity.”
So how far will DRAM scale? Jeongdong Choe, senior technical fellow at TechInsights, said: “One more scaled generation might be possible such as 18nm. 15nm will be a challenging node.”
All told, the DRAM will run out of steam and will stop scaling sometime within the next decade. “Ten years from now, people won’t invest in the DRAM for the next shrink,” Applied’s Ping said. Then, at that point, DRAM makers will continue to churn out DRAMs, but they will likely be legacy parts based on 1xnm and above geometries, he said.
3D DRAM
Given the uncertainties with planar DRAM, OEMs are also looking at other options, namely stacked memory or 3D DRAMs. 3D DRAM stacks memory on top of each other, which are connected using through-silicon vias (TSVs). 3D DRAM provides fast bandwidth, but the parts are somewhat expensive.
There are several types of 3D DRAMs. Samsung, for one, is selling a DDR4-based DRAM stack. The stack is connected using TSVs and sold in the form of a module.
Another company, Micron, is shipping a 3D DRAM called the Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC). Then, there is another 3D DRAM technology called High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). The first version, dubbed HBM1, is aimed for both high-end and portable systems. The next-generation HBM, called HBM2, initially is targeted for high-end systems.
Samsung recently introduced the world’s first device based on HBM2. Featuring 256-GB/s of bandwidth, Samsung’s 4-gigabyte device consists of four 8-gigabit dies. The dies are stacked and connected using more than 5,000 TSVs.
“By mass producing next-generation HBM2 DRAM, we can contribute much more to the rapid adoption of next-generation (high-performance systems),” said Sewon Chun, senior vice president of memory marketing at Samsung.
Both HMC and HBM are promising, but each technology isn’t exactly a direct replacement for planar DRAM. “You can’t do a direct replacement of a planar DRAM with HBM and HMC without re-architecting your CPU design,” Cisco’s Slayman said.
“HMC is more a serial channel. Now, you have to design your processor around serial (technology),” Slayman said. “It might have more bandwidth than a DRAM DIMM, but it has more latency.”
HMC has some advantages, however. “Any processor supplier, or systems company, could buy the HMC from Micron and put it on the board. Then they could buy the processor and put it on the PCB. So you are putting the DIMMs and the CPUs on the board. That’s the same model as we follow today,” he said.
In contrast, HBM also provides high bandwidth, but the supply chain is more complex. For example, AMD recently rolled out a graphics chip based on a 2.5D technology and HBM. To enable this product, SK Hynix provides the HBM memory. UMC is doing the front-end TSV work, while ASE provides the backend assembly services.
“(HBM) drives a different business model,” Slayman said. “It’s a solution where you kind of have to integrate the processor together with the DRAM in the same package. The question with HBM is who is really the supplier? Is it the DRAM companies that are supplying the HBM stack? Or is it the processor companies that integrate this HBM into their processor package? It gets the processor design companies engaged into more of the package, assembly and test process than what they are used to. But if this all happens, there are clear technical advantages to the HBM solution.”
Next-generation memories
Meanwhile, after numerous delays, a new wave of next-generation, nonvolatile memories are here. Two technologies have been touted as potential DRAM replacements–spin-transfer torque Magnetoresistive RAM (STT-MRAM) and ReRAM.
“(STT-MRAM is) fast and durable, but it has a long way to go,” Slayman said.
Then, there is 3D XPoint, a ReRAM-like device from Intel and Micron. “Potentially, it could be a replacement for flash, but we don’t know enough about it,” he said.
Of the two technologies, STT-MRAM is the leading candidate to replace DRAM one day. 3D XPoint can do some but not all DRAM functions, according to analysts. “From a physics point of view, STT-MRAM can do DRAM functions, because of its endurance. But the density and cost has to be on par (with DRAM),” Applied’s Ping said. “That will take time. I am confident that STT-MRAM will eventually compete with DRAM.”
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1xn DRAM Challenges
An Insider’s Guide To Planar And 3D DRAMDisappointed by slow progress at UN talks in Bonn, 50 organisations and individuals demand a fossil fuel levy to compensate victims of climate change impacts
By Abu Siddique
Global civil society organizations are calling for a tax on fossil fuel supplies to fund support to people hit by climate change impacts.
Polluters should pay for homes and livelihoods wrecked by rising seas and increasingly extreme weather, campaigners argued in a statement issued alongside UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany.
Expressing frustration with slow progress made on “loss and damage” in formal negotiations, more than 50 groups and individuals backed the “climate damages tax” idea.
“We need a solution to climate change damage for my island on the front line of sea level rise and for coastal cities and communities around the world,” said signatory and Seychelles ambassador Ronny Jumeau.
“A key part of the solution is loss and damage finance – we need new sources of finance to cope with the impacts. A climate damages tax could provide a new source of finance, at scale, and in a fair way. This concept deserves to be taken forward.”
Negotiators agreed in Bonn on Tuesday to hold an “expert dialogue” in 2018 on raising funds for climate change victims, deferring the contentious discussion for another year. Developed countries do not accept liability for damages caused by global warming.
The campaigners’ declaration says the fossil fuel industry is responsible for around 70% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but bears “none of the costs” of their effect on the climate.
Julie-Anne Richards of the Climate Justice Programme said “At Cop23 rich countries have done everything they can to stump discussion on ways to fund the poorest people on the frontline of climate impacts.
“A climate damages tax on the fossil fuel industry is one way to reverse the injustice of climate change, and ensure the fossil fuel industry pays for its damage – not poor people.”
Other signatories to the declaration included Canadian author Naomi Klein, British journalists George Monbiot and Maya Goodfellow, and NGOs Oxfam, Greenpeace, WWF and Care International.
Bangladeshi negotiator Ziaul Haque said vulnerable countries welcomed any source of funding, but expressed scepticism about the campaign.
He commented: “While the developed countries are not paying heed to the climatic damage, how can we expect that their polluting industries will raise funds to address the damage?”
Climate Home News’ reporting at Cop23 is supported in part by the European Climate Foundation.
Republish this articleMANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court en banc on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of the controversial online libel provision in Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act
SC spokesman Theodore Te said in a televised press briefing that posts and statements made online can be deemed malicious or libelous and subject to penalties.
"The court also ruled on the constitutionality of online libel when it further declares that Sec 4 C4 which penalizes online and cyber-libel is not unconstitutional with the respect to the original author of the post," Te announced.
The magistrates, however, deemed that the measure's provisions penalizing those who participate in the libelous statement or message after it is posted violating Constitutional principles.
"[The law's online libel clause] is unconstitutional only when it penalizes those who simply receive the post or react to it," Te said.
The high court said that such penalties are the same as those under the libel clauses in the Revised Penal Code and not the stricter penalties as stated in the new measure.
Libel offenders may be imprisoned for "minimum and medium periods" or fined from P200 to P6,000 under the Revised Penal Code.
The court further upheld the anti-cybercrime law's penalties to those who aid and abet cyber offenses, namely:
illegal access
illegal inteception
data interference
system interference
misuse of devices
cyber squatting
computer-related fraud
computer-related identity theft
cybersex
Meanwhile, aiding and abetting in child pornography, sending and creating unsolicited commercial communications or spam and online libel as punishable measures were said to be violating the Constitution.
The high tribunal explained that penalties for child pornography are already stated elsewhere, and those in the anti-cybercrime law prohibit "double jeopardy."Persona 5 Details To Come Shortly After New Year’s, Says Producer Hashino
By Sato. December 22, 2014. 7:21am
We didn’t get to see anything on Persona 5 at this year’s Jump Festa, but it looks like we won’t have to wait too long for more details, according to producer Katsura Hashino. Hashino shared a little message with Japanese videogame magazines this week. [Thanks, Game Jouhou]
“After the New Year, we’d like to reveal content with proper timing,” said Hashino.
While the producer didn’t specify when we’ll get more details on Persona 5, he mentioned “proper timing,” so there’s a chance we might see further information during the “Persona Super Live 2015” concert, which takes place not long after the New Year’s on February 5, 2015.
As previously reported, Atlus recently updated the website for the upcoming concert with the above image, showing what appears to be the back of the protagonist from Persona 5, among other teasers like the red background and the shaking 5’s on the concert date.
Persona 5 will release for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in 2015.Social Democrats select their Cork election candidates
THE Social Democrats have selected three candidates to represent the party at the next General Election.
Party members gathered in the Imperial Hotel recently where the candidates for the Cork North Central, Cork South Central and Cork North West constituencies were selected.
The party Social Democrats now have candidates running in 16 constituencies with more to be announced in the coming weeks and months.
Sinéad Halpin was selected in to represent Cork North Central. She said that once the public sees what her party has to offer their voices would be heard "loud and clear."
“The current government’s actions say that 'just about coping' is the best they have to offer. These actions tell us that a homeless family can cope being in one room for months or years on end. If you need a termination of pregnancy, you can cope by going on a plane. If you are a young working family, you can cope by just managing every month to pay all the bills, childcare and save for a home of your own becoming a distant dream with current house prices," she said.
"Coping should not be the pinnacle of achievement. We have an obligation to help everyone reach their full potential and live a full and healthy life."
Commenting on her selection as Social Democrats candidate for Cork South Central, Patricia O’Dwyer said: “I believe that the values of Cork and Ireland are fundamentally social democratic values: Universal Healthcare, Affordable Housing and Accessible Education for all. "
"A populist party may change its clothes depending on the direction of the wind but our values are clear: progress, equality, democracy and sustainability."
Ciarán McCarthy who was selected for Cork North West said: “My motivations is get involved with the Social Democrats are fairness and equality. Caring about the most vulnerable in our society forms the basis of our party. Universal healthcare in our communities, affordable housing, reducing the costs of living, an anti-corruption agency and empowering local business and communities are worth fighting for and why I’m running.”
Political parties across Ireland have been holding conventions in recent weeks. Despite the resignation of France Fitzgerald that prevented a snap election mosty commentators feel an election is likely in the short to medium term.October 8, 2013 at 2:05 PM
Here are the full offensive and defensive snap counts for the Seahawks-Indianapolis game.
One thing that stands out is how often Seattle was in 3- or 4-WR sets.
As you can see, Golden Tate played in 65 of 69 offensive snaps, Doug Baldwin 60, Sidney Rice 58 and Jermaine Kearse 25. Fullback Derrick Coleman, meanwhile, was out there for only eight.
Defensively, Bruce Irvin was out there for 37 snaps in his first game of the season, which limited Malcolm Smith to six and O’Brien Schofield to one.
And Kam Chancellor and J.R. Sweezy again played every snap, and remain the two who have played every snap of the season. There were 69 offensive snaps and 65 defensive.
OFFENSE
J Sweezy 69
P McQuistan 69
L Jeanpierre C 69
J Carpenter G 69
M Bowie T 69
R Wilson QB 69
G Tate WR 65
D Baldwin WR 60
S Rice WR 58
M Lynch RB 51
L Willson TE 48
J Kearse WR 25
K Davis TE 16
R Turbin RB 14
D Coleman FB 8
DEFENSE
K Chancellor SS
E Thomas FS 65
B Browner CB 65
R Sherman CB 64
K Wright LB 62
B Wagner LB 62
C Clemons DE 44
W Thurmond CB 40
M Bennett DE 39
C Avril DE 38
B Irvin DE 37
R Bryant DE 30
B Mebane DT 30
C McDonald DT 28
T McDaniel DT 20
J Hill DT 15
M Smith LB 6
H Farwell LB 3
O Schofield DE 1If paranormal is defined as “other than normal,” that pretty much sums up Alice Cooper’s five-decade career. Cooper, who's performing in Denver Monday, June 12, takes it a step further when he says, “My whole life has been paranormal.”
So, it’s fitting that the shock-rock pioneer and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, born Vincent Furnier, is dubbing his first album in six years Paranormal. It comes out July 28 on earMUSIC.
“You would think that Paranormal would be an Edgar Allan Poe kind of classic storyline,” Cooper says. “But it’s just the opposite of what it is.”
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Rather than go for a storyline that runs through the album, as he’s done in the past, Cooper and longtime producer and collaborator Bob Ezrin ditched the storyline concept with Paranormal and just culled the best dozen tracks of the 25 cuts that Cooper recorded.
“I said the best twelve songs, no matter where they come from, are going to be the twelve songs that we do,” Cooper says. “They have to be Alice songs. They have to fit what we do. They have to be hard rock. They have to have my sense of humor. I’m going to write the lyrics anyway on them, so I’ll make that happen. I said, ‘Let’s make sure that every single song is a gem.’ And that’s how we approached it.”
Cooper recorded Paranormal with his current band as well as guests Dennis Dunaway, Michael Bruce and Neal Smith (who were in Cooper’s original band in the ’70s and wrote and recorded two new songs for Paranormal) as well as ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, U2’s Larry Mullen Jr. and Deep Purple’s Roger Glover.
Cooper says the title track, one of the few that actually deal with the paranormal, is a love song about a guy who’s dead and can see his lover on the other side.
“She’s alone, and he does things to let her know he’s there,” Cooper says of the song. “He’ll leave his cologne on the lace of her dress so when she puts the dress on she can smell it and go, ‘Wow, that’s his cologne!’ Or she might wake up because he brushes her hair at night. Or the phone might ring and he’s telling her, ‘If the phone rings at three in the morning and there’s nobody there on the other end, that’s me.’ So it’s a love story.... That’s probably the spookiest song on the album.”
With some of the other cuts on Paranormal, Cooper says he always tries to write songs that have a bit of a twist at the end.
“I fashioned a lot my lyrics after Chuck Berry,” Cooper says. “Chuck Berry could tell you a story in three minutes and make it funny, and at the very end of the songs, you go, 'Oh.' Like ‘Memphis, Tennessee’ — you think he’s talking about his girlfriend, but all he’s trying to do is talk to his daughter. And to me that was a great twist; that was a terrific twist.”
And when Cooper met Berry, he told the rock legend, “I still say you’re the best lyric writer in rock and roll.” Cooper has admitted that his 1971 song “Under My Wheels” was “pure Chuck Berry,” while his early hit “I’m Eighteen” uses the twist at the end.
“When I did ‘Eighteen,’” Cooper says, "I did, ‘I’m eighteen, I’ve got to go to war, but I can’t vote about it. I’m half a man, I’m half a boy, I’m eighteen and I like it.' Instead of 'I hate it,' it was 'I like it.' I like the idea of having this chaos in my life. So that was a twist ending on that.”
Cooper says he also uses twists on some of the new material, like Texas-feel tune “Fallen in Love,” which Gibbons plays guitar on, or “Rats,” an ode to his fans with the line "Give the rats what they want."
“And they know I’m lovingly calling them rats, and they don’t mind being called the rats,” Cooper says. “It’s kind of endearing.”
While Cooper says his lyrics have always told a story in three minutes and tried to get a bit of the twist at the end, he usually goes to Ezrin, his collaborator since his 1971 major-label debut, Love it to Death, for advice on songs.
“I’ve worked with Ezrin on every major album that we’ve ever done,” Cooper says. “And he’s still my guru when it comes to writing.”
Cooper says Ezrin “has always been my George Martin,” offering wisdom like, “I love the verse on this. I love the chorus. The B section is weak. It doesn’t take me to the chorus right. The verse, you can do better on the verse on this, or this chorus doesn’t pay off the way it should.”
Cooper then goes back to the song and rewrites it, knowing where the weak spots are. Cooper says that Ezrin sat up all night at times working on bridges to get from one section to another, making them sound right.
And it was Ezrin’s call to bring in Mullen, which Cooper says totally came out of left field. Cooper says that Mullen, who plays on nearly three-quarters of the album, did something different from what he’d seen from other drummers.
“He would sit down and say, 'I want to see the lyrics before we do the song,’” Cooper recalls. “He says, 'I play to the lyrics. I don’t necessarily play to the bass drum or to the — I want to hear what the lyrics are saying, and I would rather interpret the drums that way.’"
Cooper appreciates that, adding that Mullen wouldn't necessarily play hi-hat and the snare drum for a 4/4 beat, but maybe snare, then tom-tom, which Cooper wouldn't expect.
"That’s what gives the album a different twist to it," Cooper says. "It’s not what our normal albums would sound like. And that’s what I kind of liked about it — the fact that it gave Alice a different, fresh sound.”
Alice Cooper, 8 p.m. Monday, June 12, Paramount Theatre, $49.50-$85, 303-892-7016.U.S. Navy A-7E Corsair IIs. U.S. Navy photo A short history of a superpower flashpoint by PAUL IDDON There is a now-obscure moment in...
U.S. Navy A-7E Corsair IIs. U.S. Navy photo
A short history of a superpower flashpoint
by PAUL IDDON
There is a now-obscure moment in the United States’ relationship — or lack thereof — with Syria under the rule of the Assad family. In an early October 1983 radio address, U.S. President Ronald Reagan sought to justify the deployment of hundreds of Marines to civil-war-wrecked Lebanon as a necessary move to counter the Soviet Union’s military presence in Syria.
Syria “today has some 5,000 Soviet advisers and technicians and a massive amount of new Soviet equipment in its country — including a new generation of surface-to-surface missiles, the SS-21,” Reagan said, going on to ask, rhetorically, if the “United States or the free would” could “stand by and see the Middle East incorporated into the Soviet bloc?”
The SS-21 Scarab is a short-range ballistic missile. Also known as the 9K79 Tochka, the earlier Scarab A models the Soviet Union deployed to Syria had a maximum range of 43 miles and could carry nuclear ordnance, 264 pounds of conventional high explosives or 50 cluster bombs each.
The influx of Soviet advisers and equipment into Syria resulted in the United States viewing events in Lebanon, at least partially, through a Cold War lens. Since Syria had also occupied Lebanon, the United States therefore sought to demonstrate that it wasn’t reluctant to use military power to force Syria’s troops out.
There was precedent for U.S. intervention in Lebanon, as the United States having done so in 1958 when the Western-aligned Baghdad Pact and pan-Arab nationalists led by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser were engaged in a regional cold war.
At the behest of Lebanon’s Christian government, U.S. Marines took over Beirut’s airport and port under the pretext of forcibly preventing the United Arab Republic from annexing that small country. The short-lived UAR, headed by Nasser, consisted of Egypt and Syria.
In the early 1980s, Syria supported Druze and Shiite paramilitaries in Lebanon, while Israel — which launched a massive campaign targeting the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1982 — supported the right-wing Christian government of President Amine Gemayel.
The United States deployed Marines as part of a multi-national force to Beirut to try and quell the conflict following the negotiated withdrawal of the PLO and Israeli withdrawal from the Lebanese capital. However, the Marines found themselves under attack by Syria’s proxies in Lebanon, which included the nascent Hezbollah militia.
This culminated in a devastating Oct. 23, 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport which killed 241 U.S. troops including 220 Marines — an attack which constituted the Marines’ largest loss of life sustained in a single incident since the Battle of Iwo Jima. Fifty-eight French troops lost their lives.
The United States withdrew, leaving only a residual force to guard American assets in Lebanon, and instead relied heavily on naval firepower and air strikes to put pressure on Syria. George Shultz, the U.S. Secretary of State, retrospectively summed it up as leaving “with our dobber down.”
Two A-6E Intruders and three A-7E Corsair IIs over Syrian-occupied Lebanon in 1982. U.S. Navy photo
After Syria fired at a U.S. reconnaissance plane in early December 1983, the United States responded by launching 28 naval strike planes to bomb Syrian positions. The raid was ill-prepared and sloppy, and Syrian anti-aircraft guns shot down two American planes.
“Inexplicably, the attacking squadrons also massed their planes for the attack — a tactic that made them further vulnerable to ground fire and that had been discredited years before in the Vietnam War,” New York Times military correspondent Bernard Trainor wrote in 1989.
To add insult to injury, Syria detained a surviving pilot for a month until Rev. Jesse Jackson visited Damascus and secured his release. The result was a fiasco for the Reagan administration, which wondered aloud how Israel managed to avoid a similar incident. The year before during Operation Mole Cricket 19, Israel’s shiny new fleet of F-16 fighters devastated the Syrian Arab Air Force over Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley and knocked out several Soviet-made surface-to-air missile batteries, all without losing a single warplane.
Then again in December 1983, Syrian anti-aircraft guns targeted U.S. planes but failed to shoot any down. In response, the reactivated Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey fired 1,900-pound shells at Syrian positions east of Beirut.
Given the advisory role the Soviets were playing to the Syrian military, especially when it came to helping maintain and operate hardware, the bombardment ran the risk of killing embedded Soviet advisers who had slipped into Lebanon proper. This could have resulted in a tenser standoff between the two superpowers.
The USS ‘New Jersey’ firing on Beirut, Lebanon in 1984. US Navy photo
But the Soviet presence — at least of that size — would not last. Less than three years later, the Soviet Union withdrew half of its approximately 5,000 advisers in Syria, including an air-defense unit and the USSR’s only combat unit in the region.
The Soviet-Syrian relationship had its low points. “The relationship really has its rough edges,” a Western diplomat remarked in 1986.
Syria resented the Soviet Union’s reluctance to provide more advanced weapons to compete with Israel after the humiliating defeat in the skies over the Beqaa Valley. The two countries also did not see eye-to-eye regarding a larger strategy for the Middle East. During the later Gorbachev years, Syrian leader Hafez Al Assad resented the Kremlin’s attempts to try — unsuccessfully — to maneuver him into making peace with Israel.
Perhaps one striking example of one of the relationship’s “rough edges” was an incident that took place in Syria itself in 1989. David W. Lesch, a scholar who has written extensively on Syria under the Assads, recalled that Syrian helicopter gunships fired on a Soviet cruiser off the port city of Latakia in 1989 and killed two sailors. It remains unclear what motivated the attack.
“Whatever the reason, that incident, now largely forgotten, revealed in dramatic fashion the complexity of the relationship between Syria and Russia over the decades,” Lesch noted.
Merely a year later, the United States — in an 180-degree policy change — essentially permitted Syria to occupy Lebanon in return for its support against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq following the invasion and annexation of Kuwait.
That action essentially brought the Lebanese Civil War to an end with the massacre of Oct. 13, 1990, in which the Syrian army killed hundreds of Lebanese soldiers after they surrendered. By then, world attention fixated on the looming confrontation between Saddam and the U.S.-led coalition in the Persian Gulf, in which Damascus participated on the side of the coalition.
Fast forward to today, and the Russian military is back in Syria, and is preparing for a more permanent air and naval presence in the country. While there are not quite as many Russian military personnel in the country today as there were in the early 1980s, the current deployment consists of much more sophisticated weapons and heavier firepower and is direct — not advisory — and therefore much more significant.
Russia is fielding advanced S-300 and S-400 long range air defense missile systems that are capable, in theory, of rendering most of Syria’s airspace a highly formidable no-fly zone. Furthermore, an Israeli-built satellite revealed that Russia deployed SS-26 Iskander nuclear-capable ballistic missiles capable of striking surrounding regional powers — including Britain’s air base in Cyprus.
The deployment of such weapons in a war against ragtag armed groups opposed to the Syrian regime is clearly Moscow’s way of warning off any outside power, including the United States, from trying to hinder its operations.
But unlike the 1980s, the United States and Russia are not locked in a similar Cold War-sized struggle. Nevertheless, there have been tense periods. In June 2016, American and Russian jets had a brief but tense showdown after the latter bombed anti-Islamic State militants backed by the former near the Jordanian border.
In September 2016, U.S. warplanes mistakenly killed scores of Syrian soldiers in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, leading the Kremlin to accuse the United States of aiding and abetting the Islamic State and throwing the ceasefire both powers had forged into question.
These incidents, and the aforementioned precedent in the early 1980s, are striking reminders that Syria runs the eternal risk of becoming a lethally dangerous flashpoint between world powers.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The events in Charlottesville were the culmination of months of protests by white supremacists
A 20-year-old man accused of ramming his car into a crowd of protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia has appeared in court via video from jail.
James Alex Fields was denied bail as he was arraigned for second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit and run.
Heather Heyer, 32, died and 19 were injured when a car hit demonstrators in Charlottesville on Saturday.
Mr Fields is said to have harboured Nazi sympathies.
President Donald Trump has been criticised for not specifically denouncing the far-right elements in the weekend's march.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Jason Kessler was booed and chased away from his press conference, as the BBC's Joel Gunter reports
But the White House has defended his remarks as explicitly condemning the white supremacy groups involved.
Ken Frazier, CEO of drugs giant Merck, announced on Monday he would resign from the president's American Manufacturing Council over Mr Trump's response to Charlottesville.
Mr Frazier, who is African American, tweeted he had "a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Photojournalist Ryan M Kelly was covering the protest when the car ploughed into the crowd
In court - Joel Gunter, BBC News, Charlottesville
James Alex Fields looked nervous and listless on the small monitor in the corner of the courtroom. Mostly he kept his head down, his eyes darting occasionally up towards the camera.
He was wearing a striped jumpsuit and had the neat, buzzcut hairstyle favoured by many white supremacists and neo-nazis who have united under the banner of the so-called "alt-right".
Judge Robert Downer read his charges - one count of murder, one count of hit and run, three counts of malicious wounding.
Alex Fields spoke briefly to say he was employed by Securitas and Omni Ohio, could not afford a lawyer, and had no ties to Charlottesville. Judge Robert Downer denied him bail, and revealed he could not be appointed a public defender because someone in the public defender's office was directly affected by the crime.
His appointed lawyer, Charles Webster, named in court by the judge, had yet to be contacted to inform him of his latest client.
In 10 minutes it was over. Outside the court, known white nationalist Matthew Heimbach was shouting that the death of Heather Heyer was the fault of the police.
"Nazis go home," the crowd chanted back at him. "I think I like it in Charlottesville," he said. "I think I'll stay."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Monday said the deadly violence met "the definition of domestic terrorism", adding that the Justice Department was opening a civil rights investigation into the event.
"You can be sure we will charge and advance the investigation towards the most serious charges that can be brought because this is unequivocally an unacceptable evil attack," he said on ABC News' Good Morning America.
He told the television programme that FBI agents from the terrorism and civil rights divisions were also investigating the matter.
How did the violence unfold?
Hundreds of white nationalists convened in Charlottesville on Saturday to protest against the removal of a statue of a general who had fought for the pro-slavery Confederacy during the US Civil War.
These groups, which include the Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazis and other white supremacy organisations, have coalesced under a banner of the so-called "alt-right" movement.
They were challenged by anti-fascist and counter-protesters and the rally erupted into violent clashes.
During the melee, Ms Heyer was struck by a car that rammed into a crowd of dispersing counter-protesters.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Marissa Blair, friend of Heather Heyer: "It was an act of terror"
Protests and vigils in support of Charlottesville were held in many US cities on Sunday. In Seattle, police used pepper spray to stop protesters approaching a pro-Trump rally.
How did Trump initially respond?
Hours after the violence erupted, Mr Trump said he condemned "in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides".
"The hate and the division must stop right now," he told reporters in New Jersey, where he is on a working holiday. "We have to come together as Americans with love for our nation."
But his comments did not explicitly condemn the white extremist groups involved in the rally, an omission that was strongly criticised by Republicans and Democrats alike.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The US president ignored questions over whether his response went far enough
Many, including senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, echoed the sentiment of Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, who tweeted: "Mr President - we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism."
The president's national security adviser, HR McMaster, went further by commenting: "Anytime that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it meets the definition of terrorism."
The mayor of Charlottesville, Democrat Mike Signer, drew a link between the events and the rhetoric of Mr Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, saying that "these anti-Semites, racists, Aryans, neo-Nazis, KKK" had come out of the shadows after having "been given a key and a reason to come into the light".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Racism in the US: Is there a single step that can bring equality?
In response to the criticism, the White House issued a statement on Sunday clarifying that Mr Trump's condemnation had included white supremacists.
"The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred. Of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups," a spokesperson said.
Mr Sessions also came to the president's defence on Monday, saying he "explicitly condemned the kind of ideology behind these movements of Nazism, white supremacy, the KKK."
That is his unequivocal position," Mr Sessions said, "He totally opposes those kind of values".This is an obvious and commonsensical measure to protect the safety of all citizens. If people can conceal their faces in public, they can commit any kind of crime and no one will be able to identify or catch them. We have already seen this happen many times in the U.S. But for Denis Coderre, the primary focus is winning Muslim votes. That’s the West today, on the road to suicide.
“Montreal Opposes Law That Forces Muslim Women To Remove Burqas”, by David Krayden, Daily Caller, August 19, 2017:
The mayor of sanctuary city Montreal doesn’t want to enforce a provincial law that would force Muslim women to uncover their faces if they want access to pubic services. Mayor Denis Coderre, who continues to welcome thousands of illegal refugees into his city every week, said Friday the Quebec legislation will force even bus drivers in Montral [sic] to become “burqa police.” The municipal-provincial spat is just the latest between the liberal and comopolitan [sic] metropolis and the rest of a province that is increasingly insistent that immigrants adapt to the majority culture. Bill 62 was introduced by the Liberal provincial government and merely dictates that both government clerks dispensing government services and those receiving them cannot cover their face. It says nothing about Muslim women or the the wearing of the burqa. The legislation was only supposed to relate to areas of provincial jurisdiction but Quebec’s justice minister decided to expand the law to cover municipal services and even those operating public transit. Coderre, a former federal immigration minister in the Liberal government of Jean Chretien, proclaimed Montreal a sanctuary city in February, just as asylum seekers began to pour across the Quebec border from New York. On Friday he rejected the province’s order that municipal authorities will enforce the law, suggesting it would be difficult if not impossible to do so. “Are we going to say to the driver, ‘I’ve become the burqa or niqab police, and I’ll decide who gets on the bus or not?’” Coderre asked at a news conference at Montreal city hall. “And if the driver says you can come in, will we have citizens who take the law into their own hands?” But Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard said there could be no municipal exceptions to the |
телевизор, когда сижу в кресле. I like to watch TV when I am sitting in a chair. Вчера я купил новое кресло. Yesterday I bought a new chair. Это кресло я сделал сам в прошлом году. This chair I made myself last year. Помоги мне перенести кресло в другую комнату. Help me to move the chair into another room. Если бы я был на вашем месте, я стал изучать компьютер. If I were you, I would study computer. Все заказы наших клиентов обрабатываются с помощью компьютера. All our customer orders are handled by computer. Мы поместили все наши записи на компьютер. We've put all our records on computer. Все наши компьютеры связаны с основной сетью. All our computers are linked to a main network. Все бронирование билетов делается на компьютере. Ticket reservations are all done on computer. Весь процесс осуществляется с помощью компьютера. The whole process is done by computer Это почти невозможно комфортно работать на вашем компьютере без компьютерного стола. It is almost impossible to comfortably work on your computer without a computer desk. Книга, которую я читаю, лежат на столе. The book that I am reading is on the table. Я не взял с собой никаких английских книг. I have not take any English books with me. Вы читали эту книгу? Have you read that book? Эту новую книгу я прочитал месяц назад. This new book I read a month ago. В библиотеке можно найти все необходимые книги. In the library you can find all the books you need. Когда я читаю интересную книгу, то забываю обо всем. When I read an interesting book, I forget about everything. Эти книжные полки занимают очень много места. These bookshelves hold a lot of space. Эту книгу надо поставить на верхнюю книжную полку. This book should be put on top of a bookshelf. Кто помогал тебе вешать эти книжные полки? Who helped you to hang these shelves? Том сделал эту книжную полку сам. Tom made the bookshelf himself. На книжной полке хранится много старых книг. A lot of old books stored on a bookshelf. Куда мне надо поставить эту книгу? - На книжную полку. Where should I put this book? - On the bookshelf. Пришла дама, которая вам звонила по телефону. The lady who called by telephone you is here. Я говорил с Линдой по телефону два дня назад. Linda and I talked over the telephone two days ago. Джимми дал вам свой новый номер телефона? Did Jimmy give you his new telephone number. Я писала письма, когда раздался телефонный звонок. I was writing letters when the telephone rang. Я вам звонил вчера по телефону, почему вас не было дома. I called you yesterday on the phone, why you were not at home.
Computer (Компьютер)
Клавиатура - Keyboard
Монитор - Screen
Мышь - Mouse
Микрофон - Microphone
Модем - Modem
Камера - Camera
Принтер - Printer
Сканер - Scanner
Examples:
Параметры могут быть выбраны используя мышь или клавиатуру. Options can be selected by using the mouse or the keyboard. Он ударил по клавиатуре обеими руками. He striked the keyboard with both hands. Недавно я купила себе мультимедиа клавиатуру для своего ПК. Recently I bought a multimedia keyboard for my PC. На этой клавиатуре я работаю уже 3 года. This keyboard I have been working for 3 years. Клавиатура Пети старая, поэтому клавиши на ней совсем стерлись. Petit’s keyboard is old, so the keys entirely obliterated on it. Эта клавиатура очень дорогая, я не могу ее себе позволить. This keyboard is very expensive, I can not afford it. Пиши буквы на компьютере, затем ты сможешь легко сделать изменения на мониторе. Write the letter on the computer, then you can make changes easily on screen. Новая иконка появилась на моем мониторе. A new icon appeared on my screen. Внезапно экран стал пустым. Suddenly the screen went blank. Сколько дюймов ваш монитор? How many inches is your monitor? Ваня купил этот монитор в прошлом месяце. Ivan bought this monitor last month. Этот монитор пригоден для обычной офисной работы. This monitor is suitable for normal office work. Щелкни по левой кнопке мыши. Click on the left mouse button. Я использую беспроводную мышь вместо проводной. I use a wireless mouse instead of the wire one. Я не могу работать на компьютере, потому что моя мышь сломалась. I can not work on my computer, because my mouse is broken. У этой мыши сбоку есть дополнительный клавиши. This mouse has an extra side button. Ты можешь починить мою мышь? Can you repair my mouse? Я купил эту мышь на прошлое Рождество. I bought this mouse last Christmas. Интервьюер попросила ее говорить в микрофон. The interviewer asked her to speak into/use the microphone. В моем ноутбуке встроенный микрофон. My laptop has a built-in microphone. Я использую микрофон, когда общаюсь по SKYPE со своим другом из США. I use the microphone when the talk with my friend from the U.S. by SKYPE. Я не смог поговорить с тобой вчера, потому что мой микрофон сломался. I could not talk to you yesterday, because my microphone was broken. Когда ты купил себе новый микрофон? When did you buy a new microphone? Этот микрофон сделан в Китае. This microphone is made in China. Я использую модем для выхода в Интернет. I use a modem to connect to the Internet. Мой модем сломался, и я не проверил почту. My modem was broken, and I didn’t check the mail. Модем необходим для того, чтобы подключится к Интернету. The modem needs to connect to the Internet. Модем Джессики работал очень медленно вчера. Jessica’s modem was very slow yesterday. На прошлой неделе, я заменил старый модем современной моделью. Last week, I replaced the old modem by modern one. Компания Cisco выпустила новую модель модема. Cisco corparation has released a new model of the modem. Телевизионные камеры снимают события по всему миру. Television camera crews broadcast the event all round the world. Я забыл взять свою камеру с собой в Португалию, поэтому я не мог делать фотографии. I forgot to take my camera with me to Portugal, so I couldn't take any photos. У него была маленькая камера под мышкой и рюкзак с другой стороны. He had a small camera under one arm and a knapsack under the other. Эта камера имеет разрешение высокой четкости. This camera has high definition resolution. Благодаря веб-камере я могу общаться со своим другом из Украины. Thanks to the webcam can I communicate with my friend from Ukraine. Саша очень расстроен, потому что вчера он разбил свою камеру. Sasha is very upset because yesterday he broke his camera. У Сергея закончилась черная краска в принтере. Sergey’s printer has no black ink in it. Вчера я купил себе новый катридж для своего принтера. Yesterday I bought a new cartridge for my printer. Мой принтер не работает, и я не могу напечатать документ. My printer doesn’t work and I can not print the document. Этот принтер мне подарили на прошлый День Рождения. This printer I got my at last birthday. Мой принтер уже старый и его необходимо заменить. My printer is old and it needs to be replaced. У Андрея дорогой принтер с множеством дополнительных функций. Andrei has an expensive printer with many advanced features. Я не умел пользоваться сканером раньше. I did not know how to use a scanner before. У меня нет личного сканера, но я имею доступ к сканеру у себя в офисе. I do not have a personal scanner, but I have access to a scanner at my office. Можно воспользоваться твоим сканером? Can I use your scanner? Мне не хватает 50$, чтобы купить сканер. I do not have $ 50 to buy a scanner. Вчера в магазине была распродажа сканеров. It was the sale of scanners at the store yesterday.
Conclusion
Try and learn all the Russian vocabulary words in this lesson. There are a lot more Russian words in the examples. Hopefully you will start to learn some of these words in context. We suggest that you return to this lesson at a later stage in your learning and read through the examples again. You may wish to print this lesson, and cover up the English or Russian translations and see if you can translate the sentences for yourself.This story was originally published on Smarter Than That in 2008. We are republishing a lightly edited version on Popular Science in light of recent interest in the subject.
Humanity has known Earth is round for a few millenia, and I’ve been meaning to show more methods that prove the world is not flat. I’ve had a few ideas on how to do that, but recently got an interesting incentive, when Phil Plait, The Bad Astronomer, wrote about a recently published BBC article about “The Flat Earth” society. (Most recently, rapper B.o.B. went on a Twitter rant on the topic.) Phil claims it’s ridiculous to even bother rebutting the Flat Earth Society—and I tend to agree. But the history of our species’ intellectual pursuit is important and interesting. You don’t need to denounce all science and knowledge and believe in a kooky conspiracy theory to enjoy some historical factoids about humanity’s quest for space.
Earth from the ISS The curvature of the Earth is visible in this 2014 photo, which ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti snapped from the International Space Station. NASA/Samantha Cristoforetti
On we go, to the top 10 ways to know the Earth is unequivocally, absolutely, positively, 100% not flat! 1. The Moon Now that humanity knows quite positively that the Moon is not a piece of cheese or a playful god, the phenomena that accompany it (from its monthly cycles to lunar eclipses) are well-explained. It was quite a mystery to the ancient Greeks, though, and in their quest for knowledge, they came up with a few insightful observations that helped humanity figure out the shape of our planet. Aristotle (who made quite a lot of observations about the spherical nature of the Earth) noticed that during lunar eclipses (when the Earth’s orbit places it directly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow in the process), the shadow on the Moon’s surface is round. This shadow is the planet's, and it’s a great clue about the spherical shape of the Earth.
Lunar eclipse A sequential view of the lunar eclipse that occurred on April 15, 2014. You can see Earth's shadow crossing the face of the Moon, and the shadow's shape is curved because Earth is spherical. Javier Sánchez
Since the earth is rotating (see the “Foucault Pendulum” experiment for a definite proof, if you are doubtful), the consistent oval-shadow it produces in each and every lunar eclipse proves that the earth is not only round but spherical—absolutely, utterly, beyond a shadow of a doubt not flat. 2. Ships and the horizon If you’ve been next to a port lately, or just strolled down a beach and stared off vacantly into the horizon, you might have noticed a very interesting phenomenon: Approaching ships do not just “appear” out of the horizon (like they should have if the world was flat), but rather seem to emerge from beneath the sea. But—you say—ships do not submerge and rise up again as they approach our view (except in Pirates of the Caribbean, but we are hereby assuming that was a fictitious movie series). The reason ships appear as if they “emerge from the waves” is because the world is not flat: It’s round.
Ant on an orange What you would see if you watched an ant crawling toward you over a curved surface. Moriel Schottlender
Imagine an ant walking along the surface of an orange, into your field of view. If you look at the orange “head on”, you will see the ant’s body slowly rising up from the “horizon” because of the curvature of the orange. If you would do that experiment with the ant approaching along a long road rather than a round object, the effect would change: The ant would slowly "materialize" into view (depending on how sharp your vision is). 3. Varying star constellations This observation was originally made by Aristotle (384-322 BCE), who declared the Earth was round judging from the different constellations one sees while moving away from the equator.
On a round planet Stargazing on a round Earth Moriel Schottlender
After returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted, “There are stars seen in Egypt and…Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions.” This phenomenon can only be explained if humans were viewing the stars from a round surface, Aristotle continued, claiming that the sphere of the Earth is “of no great size, for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be quickly apparent.” (De caelo, 298a2-10) The farther you go from the equator, the farther the "known" constellations go towards the horizon, to be replaced by different stars. This would not have happened if the world was flat:
On a flat plane Stargazing on a flat Earth Moriel Schottlender
4. Shadows and sticks If you stick a stick in the (sticky) ground, it will produce a shadow. The shadow moves as time passes (which is the principle for ancient Shadow Clocks). If the world had been flat, then two sticks in different locations would produce the same shadow:
Stick shadows on a flat Earth Imagine the Sun's rays (represented by yellow lines) hitting two sticks (white lines) some distance apart. If the Earth were flat, the resulting shadows would be the same length, no matter how far apart you place the sticks. Moriel Schottlender
But they don’t. This is because the Earth is round, and not flat:
Stick shadows on a round Earth Because the Earth is round, sticks placed at distant locations will throw shadows of different lengths. Moriel Schottlender
Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) used this principle to calculate the circumference of the Earth quite accurately. To see this demonstrated, refer to my experiment video about Eratosthenes and the circumference of the Earth.
5. Seeing farther from higher Standing on a flat plateau, you look ahead toward the horizon. You strain your eyes, then take out your favorite binoculars and stare through them, as far as your eyes (with the help of the binocular lenses) can see. Next, climb up the closest tree—the higher the better, just be careful not to drop those binoculars and break their lenses. Then look again, strain your eyes, and stare through the binoculars out to the horizon. The higher up you climb, the farther you will see. Usually, we tend to relate this to Earthly obstacles—like the fact we have houses or other trees obstructing our vision on the ground, and climbing upwards we have a clear view—but that’s not the true reason. Even if you stood on a completely clear plateau with no obstacles between you and the horizon, you would see much farther from the greater height than you would on the ground. This phenomenon is caused by the curvature of the Earth as well, and would not happen if the Earth was flat:
Point of view on a flat Earth How far can you see from a height? On a flat Earth, elevation doesn't make a difference. Moriel Schottlender
Point of view on a round Earth How far can you see from a height? On a round Earth, elevation makes a big difference. Moriel Schottlender
6. Ride a plane If you’ve ever taken a trip out of the country, specifically long-distance trips, you could notice two interesting facts about planes and the Earth: Planes can travel in a relatively straight line for a very long time and not fall off any edges. They can also circle the Earth without stopping. If you look out the window on a trans-Atlantic flight, you can, most of the times, see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon. The best view of the curvature used to be on the Concorde, but that plane’s long gone. I can’t wait to see the pictures from the new plane by Virgin Galactic—the horizon should look absolutely curved, as it actually is from a distance.
7. Look at other planets The Earth is different from other planets, that much is true. After all, we have life, and we haven’t found any other planets with life (yet). However, there are certain characteristics all planets have, and it will be quite logical to assume that if all planets behave a certain way, or show certain characteristics—specifically if those planets are in different places or were created under different circumstances—our planet is the same. In other words: If so many planets that were created in different locations and under different circumstances show the same property, it’s likely that our own planet has the same property as well. All of our observations show that other planets are spherical (and since we know how they’re created, it’s also obvious why they take this shape). Unless we have a very good reason to think otherwise (which we don’t), our planet is very likely the same. In 1610, Galileo Galilei observed the moons of Jupiter rotating around it. He described them as small planets orbiting a larger planet—a description (and observation) that was very difficult for the church to accept, as it challenged a geocentric model where everything was supposed to revolve around the Earth. This observation also showed that the planets (Jupiter, Neptune, and later Venus was observed too) are all spherical, and all orbit the sun. A flat planet (ours or any other planet) would be such an incredible observation that it would pretty much go against everything we know about how planets form and behave. It would not only change everything we know about planet formation, but also about star formation (our sun would have to behave quite differently to accommodate the flat-earth theory) and what we know of speeds and movements in space (like planets' orbits and the effects of gravity). In short, we don’t just suspect that our planet is spherical. We know it.
8. The existence of time zones The time in New York, at the moment these words are written, is 12:00pm. The sun is in the middle of the sky (though it’s hard to see with the current cloud coverage). In Beijing, it’s 12:00am, midnight, and the sun is nowhere to be found. In Adelaide, Australia, it is 1:30am. More than 13 hours ahead. There, the sunset is long gone—so much so, that the sun will soon rise up again at the beginning of a new day.
Time zones We have time zones because when the Sun is illuminating one side of the spherical Earth, the other side is dark. Moriel Schottlender
This can only be explained if the world is round, and rotating around its own axis. At a certain point when the sun is shining on one part of the Earth, the opposite side is dark, and vice versa. That allows for time differences and time zones, specifically ones that are larger than 12 hours. Another point concerning timezones, the sun, and Earth: If the sun was a “spotlight” (very directionally located so that light only shines on a specific location) and the world was flat, we would see the sun even if it didn’t shine on top of us (as you can see in the drawing below). Similarly, you can see the light coming out of a spotlight on a stage in the theater, even though you—the crowd—are sitting in the dark. The only way to create two distinctly separate time zones, where there is complete darkness in one while there’s light in the other, is if the world is spherical.
The "sun as spotlight" theory The visibility of a spotlight in a darkened theater should debunk the "sun as spotlight" theory. Moriel Schottlender
9. The pull of gravity Here's an interesting fact about mass: It attracts things to it. The force of attraction (gravity) between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them. Simply said, gravity will pull toward the center of mass of the objects. To find the center of mass, you have to examine the object.
A sphere's center of mass On a sphere's surface, gravity will pull you toward the sphere's center of mass: straight down. Moriel Schottlender
Consider a sphere. Since a sphere has a consistent shape, no matter where on it you stand, you have exactly the same amount of sphere under you. (Imagine an ant walking around on a crystal ball. From the insect's point of view, the only indication of movement would be the fact the ant is moving its feet—the shape of the surface would not change at all.) A sphere's center of mass is in the center of the sphere, which means gravity will pull anything on the surface of the sphere straight down toward the center of the sphere. This will occur no matter where on the surface the object is located. Consider a flat plane. The center of mass of a flat plane is in its center, so the force of gravity will pull anything on the surface toward the middle of the plane. That means that if you stand on the edge of the plane, gravity will be pulling you sideways toward the plane's middle, not straight down like you usually experience when you stand on Earth.
A plane's center of mass A plane's center of mass is in its middle—which means that gravity should pull objects toward the center of the plane. Moriel Schottlender
I am quite positive that, even for Australians, an apple falls downwards, not sideways. But if you have your doubts, I urge you to try dropping something—just make sure it’s nothing that can break or hurt you. For further reading about the center of mass and distribution of mass, check out this link. And if you are brave enough to handle some equations (not involving integration), you can learn more about Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation here.
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10. Images from space In the past 60 years of space exploration, we’ve launched satellites, probes, and people into space. Some of them got back, some of them still float through the solar system (and almost beyond it), and many transmit amazing images to our receivers on Earth. In all of these photos, the Earth is (wait for it) spherical. The curvature of the Earth is also visible in the many, many, many, many photos snapped by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. You can see a recent example from ISS Commander Scott Kelly's Instagram right here:
A post shared by Scott Kelly (@stationcdrkelly) on Jan 26, 2016 at 8:08am PSTNorthern Gannets PREENING (Morus Bassanus, Fou de Bassan, NOGA) Parc national de l'Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé, Bonaventure Island, Quebec. Image Copyright ©Christopher Dodds All Rights Reserved. Canon EOS 1DsMKIII, 500mm F4 L IS, Tripod & Wimberley Head II. ISO 250, F20 @1/320s Manual mode. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A PRINT or LICENSE IMAGE FOR PUBLICATION
Chris, I am a huge fan of your work and consider it the very best bird photography out there; bar none! I have been a photographer for 30 years, and wonder if you would share how you achieve such amazing details in the whitest feathers; the details that seem impossible for me to capture. I am always blown-away when I visit your works, and I delight in every moment on your site. Many thanks and keep up the great work - Art W.
Art, thank you for your kind words. I will try to keep my answer simple.
The key to getting the most out of your digital camera is exposing the image correctly, as you probably know. I expose “to the right”, but make a huge effort not to have any data touching the right side of the histogram.
With only a little experience, a quick glance at the histogram can tell you if the exposure is correct, and give you and idea of the general appearance of the image; are the highlights blown? Is there enough shadow detail? – It’s all in the histogram.
The histogram is a tool available on most digital cameras. It is a graph, which maps the luminosity (or brightness) values of your image, from black at left to white at right. The number of pixels at any given value are represented by the height of that value’s column. Once accustomed to reviewing the histogram, analyzing the data contained in it becomes second nature. It is the only way to know if you have exposed your image properly.
I’ll save you the boring science and details, but the idea of exposing to the right is a theory that capitalizes on the fact that the right side of the histogram contains more data than the left; there is more data in the whites, than in the blacks – much more. By overexposing the image slightly, and adjusting its brightness (or exposure) while converting the RAW image after capture, there is more data or details in the image. Conversely, if you were to underexpose an image and try to brighten the image after capture, then you would introduce noise, rather than detail, which was not captured in your RAW file. You have to be very careful not to push the whites up against the right of the histogram, or you risk loosing detail.
A good workflow post capture is another critical key to maximizing any detail contained in the RAW image. I typically use Photoshop to adjust contrast, boost saturation and add a little sharpness. My master.tiff is not created until I use Nik Software's Viveza 2. Viveza 2 is powerful engine that (among other things) adds targeted tonal contrast to any whites via the structure slider – be careful, it’s easy to overdo the adjustment.
Image of Histogram of the PROPERLY EXPOSED image above on the camera's LCD screen - The data is to the right of the histogram, but does not show any sign of over-exposure; there is no data touching the right edge of the graph.
Histogram of the same image when opened in Adobe Camera Raw for conversion without any adjustments.NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Amy Pekal signed up for the New York Academy of Art to hone her skills as a sculptor, she never thought she would end up assisting in a police investigation.
Clay sculptures of the faces of unidentified dead people in hopes of finding their identities in partnership with New York City's Chief Medical Examiner are seen at a workshop at the New York Academy of Art in New York, New York, United States in January 2016. Courtesy the New York Academy of Art/Handout via REUTERS
Yet the 22-year-old student from Brooklyn and about a dozen of her classmates are doing just that by helping anthropologists at New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner identify nameless corpses that have gone unclaimed, sometimes for decades.
The students participated earlier this year in a five-day forensic sculpture workshop where they used clay to reconstruct faces from the remains of a few of the medical examiner’s backlog of about 1,200 cases.
“Because of my skill and craft, I’m able to make a job for somebody else easier,” Pekal said.
The hope is that the sculptures will help families claim the remains of their loved ones and bring them closure. In cases where the cause of death was deemed to be criminal, an identification could help prosecutors find justice for the victims.
Pekal, who reconstructed the face of a man found in the trunk of an impounded car in the early 1990s, said it was a humbling experience to give “identity back to somebody.”
“This person was forgotten,” she said.
While the medical examiner’s office has used police sketch artists for years to help with identifications, the collaboration with the New York Academy of Art is the first time it has turned to art students.
Founded in 1982, the small graduate school is known for teaching the techniques of Leonardo da Vinci and other old masters who used anatomical studies to perfect their craft. At the school’s Lower Manhattan studios, it is not uncommon to see live horses, kangaroos and other animals serving as models for the students.
ANATOMICAL DETAILS
This is the second year the school has offered the forensic workshop. Students reconstruct the faces of about two dozen people using 3D images of skulls and the few facts available about ethnicity, sex, age and the like. In modeling the clay, they also draw on their knowledge of tissue depth and other anatomical details.
But they are told not to be too creative.
“It’s a close enough resemblance so that someone can go, ‘Hey, that kind of looks like so-and-so,’” said John Volk, the school’s director of continuing education.
The partnership arose from a discussion between Bradley Adams, the medical examiner’s director of anthropology, and Joe Mullins, a forensic imaging specialist who is the workshop’s instructor.
At first, the project looked to be out of the question because it was impractical for the art students to use actual human remains being studied at the medical examiner’s anthropology laboratory, which is also in Lower Manhattan. That changed when the office acquired a 3D printer with the help of a federal grant.
Slideshow (4 Images)
So far, the office has not cracked any cases as a direct result of the workshop, Adams said, but a student’s sculpture has helped a relative recognize someone who had already been identified.
That said, there is a strong chance the reconstruction of the face of a woman believed to have been missing since 1998 could result in a positive identification once DNA work is completed, Adams said.
Meanwhile, photographs of the sculptures, which are kept at the examiner’s office, have been posted online to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.A man firing paintballs was struck in the shoulder by a shot fired from a real gun (Published Friday, Nov. 1, 2013)
A Chicago woman says she was shot with a paintball gun Thursday not long before the shooter took a bullet from a real gun as a result of his pranks.
Lisa Tappler was walking to her South Side home when she was shot in the apparent Halloween prank.
"My face was bleeding. I didn't know if I had gotten shot with a real gun," Tappler said. "Hee didn't care who he was shooting... He didn't know me, I didn't now him."
Police say the 21-year-old man's prank went too far when one of his victims retaliated by firing back with a real gun in the 7800 block of South Emerald Avenue.
Activist Warns of Paintballs Fired From Vehicles
Three people face charges of reckless conduct and possession of a paint/pellet gun, just as a community activist put out a warning on Wednesday of such weapons being fired from moving vehicles. (Published Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013)
The man was shot in the shoulder and was listed in stable condition. His alleged accomplice in the paintball shootings, 39-year-old Jason Wells, was charged with one misdemeanor count of possession/discharging of an air rifle, a misdemeanor.
Police are still looking for the gunman who shot the paintball shooter.
Community activist Andrew Holmes has been on a crusade against paintball guns since the summer, and says it's only a matter of time before things get even more serious.
"Sooner or later, someone is going to lose their life behind these paintballs," Holmes said.Tiny prints from baby dinosaurs dot the oldest dino nesting site found to date, a 190-million-year-old nursery in South Africa, researchers said.
The hatchery and the baby footprints uncovered there are significant clues about the evolution of complex family behaviors in early dinosaurs, providing the oldest-known evidence that dinosaur hatchlings remained at nests long enough to at least double in size.
The newly unearthed clutches of eggs, many with embryos inside, belonged to the plant-eating dinosaur Massospondylus, a prosauropod, or predecessor of the largest animals to ever walk the Earth, long-necked sauropods such as Brachiosaurus.
How to unearth a dinosaur egg
The international team of researchers conducted their excavation in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park in South Africa. The nesting ground, now largely covered in reddish-brown muddy siltstone, predates previously known nesting sites by 100 million years.
"The eggs, embryos and nests come from the rocks of a nearly vertical road cut only 25 meters (82 feet) long," said researcher Robert Reisz, a paleontologist at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. "Even so, we found 10 nests, suggesting that there are a lot more in the cliff, still covered by tons of rock. We predict that many more nests will be eroded out in time as natural weathering processes continue." [Photos of dinosaur nesting sites]
The eggs and nests proved difficult to unearth because the eggshells are extremely delicate at less than 100 microns in thickness, or less than the width of a human hair, making it easy to inadvertently destroy them. "We literally spent days and days searching for the eggs and nests, spending most of our time on our hands and knees, but once we were able to recognize what to look for, we found four nests within 10 minutes," Reisz told LiveScience.
The nests unearthed to date each held up to 34 round eggs in tight clusters. The skeletal remains of the mothers suggest they were about 20 feet (6 meters) long, while their eggs were only about 2.3 to 2.7 inches (6 to 7 centimeters) wide. The mothers carefully arranged these eggs, the researchers say, basing this on the high level of organization of the nests and eggs.
Dinosaur day care
From the fine-grained nature of the sediments holding the eggs, the researchers think the nests were built near a lake or a slow-moving river. "The fact that the nests are relatively close to water, and the soil was moist, suggests that there was lots of vegetation," Reisz said. This likely made the area attractive to these herbivores.
And the site seemed to be a popular one for dino day care, as the nests were found in at least three distinct layers of rock within the excavation, each indicating a different point in time. In fact, the researchers suggest the dinosaur moms likely returned repeatedly to the site. Also, the fact that multiple nests were found within the same layers — and thus were laid at about the same time — reveals the dinosaurs likely gathered in groups to lay their eggs, the oldest evidence of such behavior in the fossil record.
"Even though the fossil record of dinosaurs is extensive, we actually have very little fossil information about their reproductive biology, particularly for early dinosaurs," said researcher David Evans, associate curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada. "This amazing series of 190-million-year-old nests gives us the first detailed look at dinosaur reproduction early in their evolutionary history, and documents the antiquity of nesting strategies that are only known much later in the dinosaur record."
The researchers are now slowly uncovering embryos within these eggs. They have embryos in several different stages of development, "allowing us to do actual comparisons between them," Reisz said. "The preservation is exquisite."
The scientists detailed their findings online today (Jan. 23) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.US Vice President Mike Pence (R), seen here in Buenos Aires with Argentina's President Mauricio Macri, heard warnings that "force is not the way" to deal with the crisis in Venezuela (AFP Photo/JUAN MABROMATA)
Buenos Aires (AFP) - US Vice President Mike Pence heard more complaints from Latin American allies Tuesday about President Donald Trump's warning of a possible US military option to deal with the crisis in Venezuela.
"The use of force is not the way," but rather political pressure, Argentine President Mauricio Macri said at a news conference alongside Mike Pence, who is on a tour of Latin American countries.
Trump warned on Friday that he was considering various options to resolve the Venezuela crisis, "including a possible military option if necessary."
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro responded by ordering his armed forces to carry out a national exercise next week.
Pence moved to soften the impact of Trump's announcement, stressing that peaceful pressure is the priority.
But he did not rule out Trump following through on his threat.
"The United States has many options, and we reserve those options," Pence said.
"But we truly believe that by increasing economic and diplomatic pressure on the Maduro regime -- not just across the Americas, but across the wider world -- that we can achieve a restoration of democracy in Venezuela by peaceable means."
The United States along with Argentina and other regional allies have joined in international condemnation of Maduro.
But the South American bloc Mercosur, of which is a member, over the weekend rejected any use of force to resolve the Venezuela crisis.
Maduro has been tightening his grip on power in response to economic chaos and angry street protests by opponents demanding elections. Nearly 130 people have died in recent months of unrest.
The US vice president was on the second stop in a tour of Latin America to rally the region over the Venezuela |
since S.H.I.E.L.D. stole her. In fact, he blamed S.H.I.E.L.D. for most of his problems—at least those that he did not blame on Whitehall, who callously cut his wife to pieces. Cal formed an alliance with Whitehall and Ward in order to get his revenge on both Whitehall himself and Coulson (whom he blames for Skye’s hatred of him).
Ward began the season in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody following his capture after Garrett’s defeat at the end of season 1. He agreed to give S.H.I.E.L.D. information in exchange for face-time with Skye. After a failed attempt to hand him over to his brother, Ward managed to escape from custody and exact revenge against his brother before infiltrating Hydra to find Cal and help arrange a meeting between Cal and Skye.
Meanwhile, Coulson’s compulsive alien writing—revealed at the end of the season 1 finale—had been getting progressively worse, to the point that he was doing it all the time. Finally, when it seemed to be driving him insane, he discovered other people who had been doing the same thing and started putting the pieces together. Skye (who was also exposed to the Kree blood but had not been drawing symbols) realized that it is not writing, but rather a diagram. When Coulson found a man (a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) who constructed the alien symbols into a three-dimensional train set, he realized that it was not supposed to be flat, and used the three-dimensional diagram to track down the location of a hidden alien city in Puerto Rico.
Skye and Cal finally met in “What They Become” (2x10) after Ward captured her and took her to Hydra at the hidden alien city, and Skye initially rejected Cal. However, when Whitehall double-crossed Cal and Ward, S.H.I.E.L.D. attacked to rescue Skye and destroy the alien city, killing Whitehall in the process. In the confusion, Skye and Raina wound up in the temple in the middle of the alien city with the Obelisk (which has been revealed to be a “Diviner”), joined by Tripp. The Diviner activated, revealing Crystals which released a Mist that caused Raina and Skye to be encased in stone. When Tripp panicked and kicked the Crystal, destroying it and the Diviner, shards of Diviner metal embedded themselves in him, causing him to turn to stone. The stone encasing Skye and Raina crumbled away, revealing their transformed bodies—Terrigenesis!
The second half of the season picked up right where the first half left off—Skye and Raina had just undergone Terrigenesis, and both were scared and confused. S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to help Skye, but failed spectacularly. Raina, meanwhile, was rejected by Cal and at the point of despair before Gordon, an Inhuman with the ability to teleport, appeared and whisked her away to the secret Inhuman sanctuary called Afterlife. A Kree warrior/scientist who picked up the signal of the Diviner activating came to Earth to locate the people who had been transformed, kill them, and eliminate any trace of the Inhumans, explaining to S.H.I.E.L.D. that the Inhumans were the results of failed genetic testing done by the Kree thousands of years earlier—these people are alien weapons. Lady Sif followed the Kree to Earth and confirmed his explanation of the history, but permitted Skye to remain on Earth in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody.
Coulson put a plan in motion that led directly to the deaths of four of the five remaining “Heads of Hydra,” leaving only Dr. List (and Strucker himself) in charge of Hydra and eliminating them as a major threat for most of the half-season.
Cal meanwhile put together a small team of enhanced people to challenge S.H.I.E.L.D. and show Skye what S.H.I.E.L.D. does to people like them. However, his actions angered the Inhumans, who sent Gordon to take him away to Afterlife and keep him from drawing too much attention to the Inhumans.
Shortly thereafter, Skye was forced to flee S.H.I.E.L.D. when a second S.H.I.E.L.D. organization formed after the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. (led by Robert Gonzales) invaded Coulson’s base because they feared his secrets. Skye called Gordon, who took her to Afterlife, where the Inhumans Lincoln and Jiaying (revealed to be her seemingly-immortal mother) helped her to understand and adjust to her transformation, as well as teaching her about Inhuman history and culture. The Inhuman city was in a virtually inaccessible area of the Himalayas, known only to Gordon, who was the only way in or out of the city. The Inhumans value their secrecy above all else, leading them to some questionable decisions later in the season.
The “S.H.I.E.L.D.” invasion of his base forced Coulson into hiding, where he, Hunter, Fitz, and Mike Peterson/Deathlok were forced into an uneasy alliance with Ward, who was now working with the formerly-brainwashed Kara toward his own ends. This group placed a brainwashed Sunil Bakshi (Whitehall’s former second-in-command) and Deathlok undercover to infiltrate Dr. List’s Hydra group and find Skye’s location by finding out what Hydra knew about Gordon. However, instead they were led directly to Skye when Hydra tracked Gordon’s teleportation. This led to a brief confrontation between Skye, Lincoln, Cal, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hydra, in which Lincoln and Deathlok were captured by Hydra. This forced Coulson to make a deal with Gonzales to send in Coulson’s team to rescue Lincoln and Deathlok, gather intelligence, and disable the air defense systems so Gonzales’ jets could destroy the facility. During this successful infiltration, Coulson acquired information on the whereabouts of Loki’s Scepter and Baron Strucker (along with the powers and background of the “Twins”), which he passed along to Maria Hill for the Avengers’ use.
Following the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, it was revealed that “Theta Protocol” was the codename given to Coulson’s mission from Fury to repair the original helicarrier in case of emergency. And conveniently, that emergency arose when Fury needed the helicarrier to rescue civilians during Avengers: Age of Ultron (uh… spoiler alert?). Because of Coulson’s key role in saving so many civilians, Gonzales and his Board agreed to a merger with Coulson: Coulson continued as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Gonzales and his Board serving as his Council (similar to the World Security Council, but with a few less Hydra agents). Shortly thereafter, the Inhumans and S.H.I.E.L.D. came into conflict because of a Kree artifact in Gonzales’ ship’s cargo hold. S.H.I.E.L.D. sent Gonzales to meet with Jiaying, who killed him and framed him for attempting to kill her, inciting her people to war against S.H.I.E.L.D. In the explosive season finale Raina sacrificed her life to reveal the truth of Jiaying’s evil to Skye. The Inhumans took over the ship and nearly killed the entire crew, but Skye, Lincoln, Mack, and Coulson’s team prevented Jiaying and Gordon from releasing the Diviner-metal-infused Terrigen Mist and killing all non-Inhumans. Cal transformed into Mr. Hyde, attempted to destroy Coulson’s base, and was eventually convinced to help Coulson save Skye, which he did by killing Jiaying.
At the end of the season, Coulson lost his arm after catching a Terrigen Crystal, Skye was left as the only “leader” we know of for the Inhumans as well as responsible for recruiting a team of super-humans for S.H.I.E.L.D., Cal had his memory wiped, Terrigen Crystals began dissolving into the ocean, Ward began rebuilding Hydra, and Simmons was sucked into the Kree artifact. Wait… what was that??? Check back on Thursday to find out just what all of that means for season 3!
What was your favorite part of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2? Which was your favorite episode? Was there anything important that I missed?
If you want to get an email whenever I publish a new article, go to the top of the page and enter your email address in the box labeled “Subscribe to Mostly MCU Reviews” and click “Submit.”This study was performed to investigate the involvement of mitochondrion-specific endonuclease G in piracetam (P)-induced protective mechanisms. Studies have shown the antiapoptotic effects of piracetam but the mechanism of action of piracetam is still an enigma. To assess the involvement of endonuclease G in piracetam-induced protective effects, astrocyte glial cells were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and piracetam. LPS treatment caused significantly decreased viability, mitochondrial activity, oxidative stress, chromatin condensation, and DNA fragmentation, which were attenuated by piracetam cotreatment. Cotreatment of astrocytes with piracetam showed its significantly time-dependent absorption as observed with high-performance liquid chromatography. Astrocytes treated with piracetam alone showed enhanced mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) in comparison to control astrocytes. However, in LPS-treated cells no significant alteration in MMP was observed in comparison to control cells. Protein and mRNA levels of the terminal executor of the caspase-mediated pathway, caspase-3, were not altered significantly in LPS or LPS + piracetam-treated astrocytes, whereas endonuclease G was significantly translocated to the nucleus in LPS-treated astrocytes. Piracetam cotreatment attenuated the LPS-induced endonuclease G translocation. In conclusion this study indicates that LPS treatment of astrocytes caused decreased viability, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, chromatin condensation, DNA damage, and translocation of endonuclease G to the nucleus, which was inhibited by piracetam cotreatment, confirming that the mitochondrion-specific endonuclease G is one of the factors involved in piracetam-induced protective mechanisms.CAMPBELL, California, January 30, 2014 (ENS) – The world’s largest EV charging network, ChargePoint, knows a thing or two about “charge rage” from dealing with its 15,300 U.S. charging locations, half of them located at workplaces.
By the end of 2013, EV and plug-in vehicles on American roads had reached nearly 170,000, with about 10,000 sales in December alone. Many of these EV drivers need to charge up at work, and workplaces have become sites of charge rage as drivers compete for access to the charging stations.
Frustrated EV drivers have unplugged other people’s cars without their permission, even while they were still charging, creating animosity between employees. Even EV-driving employees at companies in America’s high-tech Silicon Valley core are finding it hard to charge their cars at work.
ChargePoint says common courtesy demands that EV drivers don’t unplug other people even if they in desperate need of a charge. “On the other hand” says the company, “if you don’t need a full charge, leave a note letting folks know it’s OK to unplug you.”
For drivers, courtesy requires that they don’t hog an EV parking space and only park in designated charging spots if they need to charge.
Chargepoint has compiled a list of how companies are dealing with a rising demand for charging at work, how they are avoiding charge rage by keeping drivers happy and plugged in.
Five Tips for Avoiding Charge Rage
1. Workplaces have recognized they need one charging spot for every two EVs. This allows people to plug in when they get to work and then move their charged car at lunch so others can plug in during the afternoon.
Chargepoint is urging businesses to anticipate the future popularity of electric vehicles and the resulting need for charging stations and install enough of them now to meet future demand.
2. Location is crucial. Install the stations in a place that allows multiple parking spots to access the charging port. Ensure there is adequate signage that makes it clear the parking spots are for plug-in vehicles.
3. A “Valet Bowl” helps keep those in demand charging stations from standing idle for long. Some companies have a bowl at the front desk where employees leave their keys so that their car, once charged, can be moved to make room for another employee.
4. Companies have found that creating a community dashboard or email list connecting EV drivers within a company is a good way to ensure cooperation and efficiency in getting everyone plugged in and charged.
5. Some companies treat EV parking spots like a conference room and enable employees to reserve them in advance. ChargePoint allows companies to set up a reservations feature that drivers can access via mobile app and website.
ChargePoint makes advanced hardware and cloud based software. ChargePoint’s open network is utilized by many leading EV hardware makers and the company encourages all EV charging manufacturers to join.
Every 10 seconds, a U.S. driver connects to a ChargePoint station and by initiating over 3.7 million charging sessions, ChargePoint drivers have saved over three million gallons of gasoline and driven 65 million gas-free miles.
ChargePoint’s real-time information network on the availability of charging locations throughout the nation comes with the ChargePoint mobile app, online and via the navigation systems in several EVs, including the new BMW i3 and the Nissan Leaf.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2014. All rights reserved.Well, this doesn’t look like accurate science to us.
Reddit user Dtooth0 posted the above photo on the site’s “WTF” thread Tuesday morning, with a caption explaining the picture was of a third-grade lesson on gravity. While the first several questions of the lesson are fairly straightforward, the last few questions clearly have a religious agenda.
In one such part of the lesson, students are told that “people who do not believe in God” cannot explain gravity.
The post had more than 3,500 comments by Tuesday afternoon. Commenters questioned whether the photo was real, and Dtooth0 explained the lesson was given to his daughter at a private religious school in Florida. When pressed for details, he declined to provide the name of the school for privacy reasons.
“The school is in Florida and is accredited. I noticed that the lesson held a copyright from an instate Christian University,” Dtooth0 said in the comments. “I so wish it were fake.”We’re gonna kick things up to 11 with the high energy, hard rockin’:
NEW RENAISSANCE
(From left to right)
Bo Neufeld – Guitar, Backup Vocals
Dan Shortt – Drums, Backup Vocals
Jordan Vandal – Guitar, Lead Vocals
Michael Jason Horowitz – Bass
“Longing for a change in the state of the music scene that surrounded them, guitarist/vocalist Jordan Vandal, drummer/back up-vocalist Dan Shortt and bassist Michael Horowitz got together in 2009 and began jamming with the goal of creating something new. Eventually, they had written a handful of original songs which embraced the principles they believed were lacking in the music scene they had emerged from; simplicity, melody, energy and honesty. Being true to the music they had always loved, New Renaissance was born with a mission to revive and breathe new life into the style of rock music that means the most to them.”
You Oughta Know
My Hot and Steamy History with New Renaissance
You may find this entry to be a bit more in depth than others because, well, I have a bit of history with this band… OK, maybe a lot of history.
I knew these guys from my teen years and have worked with them countless times. The first time Jordan and I paired up to make sweet music we tried auditioning an acoustic song for our high school’s annual talent show. Did we make it into the lineup? No, we did not. Is that because we chose a song the Song “On My Own” by the Used? Most definitely maybe. Or maybe they were just threatened by our immense amount of emo talent. Luckily, Mike and I made it in with our rendition of the same song played on the skin flute (this also more than likely definitely maybe never actually happened). TRUTHFULLY, my musical journey with these two guys actually began during the most recent lineup of our band “Table 21” where they made up the tightest rhythm section I’ve had the pleasure of playing with (alongside Mike and Dan) on bass and drums. Dan and I were also involved in a bunch of musical acts together, but less on the rock side and more on the musical theater side… Which was way cooler. However, Dan eventually grew a bit more hair and turned into one of the greatest local drummers who will practice every part of a song until it’s 100% perfect.
New Renaissance started as a trio consisting of Dan, Jordan, and Mike. They’re the kind of guys that put countless hours into even the smallest of shows, making sure they consistently play at their best, and put on an entertaining show every time. Right from the get-go, they were great (they did win 1st place in the first battle of the bands they played, after all, but more on that later).
In early 2011 they finished working on their debut album, The Casuist, and were prepping for their CD release show. They had added some parts to the album they just couldn’t capture alone as a three piece and thought “Who is the most talented, handsomest musician we can get to play backup for us?”. After every other person they asked rejected their offer, they came to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed playing some of the most energetic and loudest shows I’ve ever played live with these guys (the permanent tinnitus can attest to that); accompanying New Renaissance on keyboard, a makeshift percussion station, and backup vocals was something I didn’t know I was capable of until I played with them. Still, when I go to their shows I find myself harmonizing along, and missing it each time (and I have to say, I especially miss beating the crap out of those drums). Maybe one of these days I’ll be called up to play along, and forget how high the harmonies are and crack like a prepubescent schoolboy. A guy can dream.
Check out this teaser video that was elegantly shot in preparation for the Casuist CD release by Paul Kroeker:
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
But eventually, all perfect things must come to an end. I made my way up north for my work term and could no longer play with NR. Dan, Jordan and Mike started holding auditions, and found this entry from our other Table 21 bandmate, Rory Jacob. You can likely guess which one he is, graceful as a fox (just wait for that sweet ending):
Ok, here’s a quick clip of him actually playing with New Renaissance. He’s pretty amazing:
Rory played alongside NR during the creation of their followup to The Casuist called Test of Time, providing guitar solos on “Burn, Burn, Burn” and “Set Me Free”. Then, much like myself, Rory left Winnipeg for work to a much nicer place than I.
Not too long thereafter, NR became the band they are today when they found Bo Neufeld to take Rory’s place on guitar (read about how they found him below), and man, can this guy absolutely shred on guitar!
Check out New Renaissance in all their glory with one of my favorite songs off of Test of time, “Feel Alive”. The video was shot by a very talented local filmmaker named James Dixon:
Feel Alive
Q&A with New Renaissance’s Jordan Vandal
Noah: When and how did you guys start up as a band? Jordan: We formed as “New Renaissance” all the way back in 2008. At that time, high school bands that we were all in were fading away and I really wanted to start a group that went back to the basics of Rock that got me into loving music; loud, grungy, tons of feedback, shit tones and high energy! Mike and Dan were both friends of mine that I had also played with in bands in the past, and I knew that the three of us grew up on this same style of music. I had a few concepts songs in the ol’ brain bag and we started jamming and before we knew it, we had a set full of songs in the bag! We would soon go on to playing our first set of shows, which turned out to be a battle of the bands series which we ended up winning the grand prize of $1000 which funded our first record, “The Casuist”. N: I’ve gotta say, I love the cover art you guys came up with for Test of Time. How did you guys come up with it? J: Dan’s idea! It’s actually a gear and spinal from a super vintage clock that Dan found and purchased off the interwebs. We wanted this record to have a simple look (The Casuist had TONS of graphic work and we wanted to chill it out for this record) and tie in to some degree “Test of Time”, and felt this worked perfectly. Dan shot, captured, and Photoshopped the shit out of these to make it look how it does today! N: When you guys were looking for a replacement after Rory Left, how did you find Bo? Jordan, how stunned were you to find out he was your long lost twin brother? J: Well Noah, as any twin well tell you there is this certain, how should I say, cerebral connection? Ya that sounds right! We posted up on Kijiji to find someone to take Rory’s place, and had a few auditions with people who all presented really good things, but Bo fit in with our playing style, groove, and obviously had amazing good looks and that just topped the fucking cake. I wasn’t stunned Noah, it just felt right. N: Having strong connections to your band, I’ll try to keep bias out of this interview. Through the past few years you’ve had several people accompany you at your live shows, videos, and recordings. Who was your favorite, and why was it me? J: New Renaissance has always believed in reaching out to the community, and having you and Rory play with us was us giving back to our city, helping out our troubled youth. N: And I thank you guys in my prayers every day for taking me in off the street. But in all seriousness, you’ve had accompaniments on keys, guitars, backup vocals, percussion, and most importantly, the shaker. From The Casuist to Test of Time and your upcoming recordings, have you found the backup you play with at the time influences your songs? J: Ya for sure. When we had you jamming with us, Noah, when writing new songs there were certainly parts and harmonies that would be written for you specifically, as well as you would jam with us and write things while jamming that would end up being a critical part of the song, like the main riff in “Coward”. I can say the same thing of Rory when he played with us, though Rory was defiantly worse N: Regarding the song “You Oughta Know”, I was pretty upset when I realized it wasn’t a cover of Alanis Morissette’s song. Anyways, you sing “Baby won’t you open wide, I’ve got enough to keep you satisfied, We’ll run until the sun burns out tonight, I’ve got enough for you to justify your life.” …. ಠ_ಠ …. Are you singing about what I think you’re singing about? J: If you think I’m singing about Luke Skywalker’s journey on the planet Hoth, cutting into a Tauntaun and crawling inside to save his life, then yes, I am singing about what you think I’m singing about! N: You guys have had some great live shows. Are there any that stand out as your favorite/most memorable? What about your least favorite show; why was it the worst? J: Thanks Noah! I’d be lying if I said our favourite show was not when we played the Burton Cummings Theatre last November when opening for The Trews. What a rush, man! Everything from getting there early and sound checking on that beautiful stage, to the cheers when we came out to play; not to mention we totally slayed the set which makes it that much better! All in all it was a great night and one that we all won’t forget! We’ve all had poor shows for a variety of reasons. Either one of us personally didn’t play well or we had a slue of technical difficulties. Whatever reason, it is what it is, everyone who plays shows will have a shitty one. As to one that stands out the worst, I can’t peg it right now. Most likely because I’ve wiped it from my memory!
[To add from my experience, there’s definitely one show that wasn’t necessarily the worst we played, but I won’t forget it. We played one year at NXNE in Toronto at the Hard Rock Cafe. Sounds great, right? Getting there ended up being a mess, as we thought we had funding which fell through. Mike and I flew in the morning of for the show, and flew out a few hours after the show, while Jordan and Dan hauled all the gear by car. After all that, when we were around 10 minutes or so into our set, we were given a 2 minute warning. A fun show to play, nonetheless!] N: What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you at a live show? J: One time we were suppose to have “some guy” come out to see us play as he was shooting a video for us in the near future and we were all really excited. So in between songs I was like, “Hey, “Some Guy” is here tonight and he’s shooting a video for us! Where are you man!”, and fucking crickets, Noah, is all that replied. Turns out “some guy” was kind of a piece of shit, but hey, live and learn! N: What’s your favorite song to play live, and why? J: Always, every time, for me at least, is “Give It Up”. For some reason that song always sounds so damn good. We could be playing the shittiest show, and we come to that song and hammer it out and that just kicks it up. Maybe it because its one of our oldest songs and we know it so well, or maybe its Maybelline. Give It Up N: Something that not a lot of people may know about your first two albums is that they were recorded and mixed entirely by yourselves. However, recently you were approached by exchange district studios to record a few new songs you’ve been working on. Can you guys talk a bit about the differences between the two, what you like more/less between recording on your own and under the direction of someone else? J: Recording yourself is a love/hate thing. Its great in the fact that you can take your sweet ass time, be a really picky bitch about every little part and redo them until they’re perfect to you. But at the same time this kills you as you stress on everything and often waste so much time on a little tiny, insignificant part that just takes and consumes all your attention. The next thing you know a year goes by and you’re like, “Shit, well we really need to finish this record!”. Having Dorian Preston take the lead on these couple of new songs we have been doing has been really nice as he has tons of musical experience and helped shaped these songs into better pieces. Oh, and the drum sounds he got will cause fucking earthquakes so that’s gonna be fun to hear! N: What are your plans for the near future? J: We’ll I’m about to make some toast, maybe watch a few episodes of “Mike Tyson Mysteries” and head to The Oakwood for lunch. N: My blog is all about exposing people to new music. What one song would you recommend everybody listen to right now? J: Mute Math – Odd Soul N: What’s your favorite cover song that you’ve played at shows? J: Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know
TMI, Jordan. TMI.
If you’re looking for music to get the blood pumping through your veins, or looking for a great band that carries on the age old tradition of straight-up Rock and Roll, you must check out New Renaissance’s albums! Right now, they’re offering The Casuist at a “name your price” offer! I also highly recommend Test of Time – You can really tell they found their stride on this album and really refined their recording, mixing and mastering skills on this record.
To end things off, check out this live video of a new song New Renaissance has been working on called “It’s your time”. Even though it isn’t credited, I took this video. But it’s all good! Water under the bridge, right? Hahahahaha.
My lawyers will be contacting you shortly.
It’s Your Time
AdvertisementsSomething is about to happen which hasn’t happened in a very long time: we are going to see a live action version of Barry Allen. Although an active participant in many of DC’s recent animated offerings, there hasn’t been a live-action version of Barry Allen since the 1997 TV movie Justice League, and the short-lived Flash TV show before that in 1990/1991. That changes tomorrow night when Grant Gustin will make his premiere as Barry Allen in the first part of Arrow‘s two-part mid-season finale. Yes, The Flash is too high profile a character to be wasted on a TV show, better served instead by a big budget summer blockbuster movie. Yes, Gustin does not really resemble Barry Allen from the comics, and playing Barry Allen is a completely different story from the regrettably one-note jerks he played on Glee and 90210. Yes, we’re just getting Barry Allen and not The Flash at this point, but when we do get The Flash the introduction of superpowers could mean the ruin of the grounded in reality Arrow. But forget all of that: we are this close to a Flash TV show. That’s pretty cool.
The producers of Arrow and its planned Flash spin-off sure hope we think its cool. Hoping to get the hype machine going, they screened the mid-season finale for critics after which Arrow executive producers Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, writer/DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and Grant Gustin were made available to answer questions. We already knew the basics, which is that Oliver Queen and Barry Allen will work together to solve an unexplained robbery in Starling City which is similar to a case in Central City, i.e., Allen’s home. Allen will only be around for the next two episodes, and although he was set to return for a back-door pilot later in the season the CW has canceled those plans, instead ordering a traditional pilot for a proper full Flash TV show with a bigger budget. However, there are some other things the producers want us to know. As per TVLine.com [there are light spoilers ahead]:
OLIVER IS ALL BROODING AND SHADOWS WHILE BARRY ALLEN IS AWKWARD SMILES AND GENUINE NICENESS | According to Kreisberg, “[Barry]’s the opposite of Oliver in a lot of ways — outgoing and funny, a little bit unsure of himself and smart.” The physical contrast, too, between the square-jawed vigilante and Gustin’s lanky, youthful alter ego is “both comical and fun.” Gustin was the first person to read for the role, and he “immediately thought [Barry] was funny and endearing, and I hadn’t done anything like that. He’s fun to play. He’s likable. I would be his friend. I haven’t had the opportunity to play a character that I would actually enjoy spending time with.” So, wait, he wouldn’t want to spend time with Sebastian from Glee, perhaps for fear of having a slushie thrown in his face and damaging his eye?
THERE WILL BE MAJOR SPARKAGE BETWEEN BARRY ALLEN AND FELICITY SMOAK | In trying to figure out a way to introduce Barry into Arrow‘s world, the writers spent a lot of time “talking about Oliver and Felicity and their growing … feelings for each other,” Kreisberg revealed. “[Because] Barry and Felicity are so similar — they’re both a bit uncomfortable in their own skins and very likable and personable — it just seemed like they would instantly hit it off, which would just complicate things for Oliver even more. It felt like the right way to go.” This connection between Barry and Felicity was so central to the writers plans that Grant Gustin actually had to audition with Emily Bett Rickards to establish whether or not the two had any chemistry. Berlanti joked: “We wanted to make sure he didn’t seem like jailbait next to her.”
THIS IS A VERY YOUNG VERSION OF BARRY ALLEN | There is a definite reason Gustin’s biggest claim to fame thus far has been playing a high school-aged character on Glee: although he’s 23-years-old, he could still pass as a believable teenager. This, as it turns out, was perfect for how the writers had conceived of Barry Allen, “We’d always seen [Barry] as being a little bit younger,” allowing for a few playful jabs at the scientist’s expense to address the elephant in the room, said Kreisberg. Not being super-confident and strong, Barry “needs the bolt of lightning to be a hero in a way [Oliver] doesn’t need the bolt of lightning.” Added Johns: “[Oliver] needs the heart, Barry has the heart. [Oliver] has the body, Barry needs the body.” So, the age difference between the 23-year-old Grant Gustin and 32-year-old Stephen Amell will not go unmentioned.
WE WON’T SEE HIM BUT WILL STILL HEAR ABOUT ALLEN BEYOND THE NEXT TWO EPISODES | Now that The Flash is getting its own pilot rather than a backdoor one, “Episode 20 will just be an episode of Arrow” — which has actually turned out to be a blessing, Kreisberg admitted. “[A backdoor pilot] actually made it a little bit harder because we were going to have to take a right turn [from] where we were in our ongoing story to incorporate that.” Vampire Diaries struggled with that last season, as its backdoor pilot for The Originals did temporarily halt the progress of the larger story arc of the season. Although Barry may no longer be getting his own episode toward the end of the season, viewers will still hear “about what happened to him in the way that you’re hearing now about Star Labs on the periphery, and certainly in terms of Felicity since she has a connection with him,” revealed Berlanti.
THE FLASH PILOT WILL BE HEAVY IN DC LORE | “We’re using a lot of mythology and characters from the comics in the development of The Flash,” said Johns. For one, the tortured backstory for the character in the comics will play a big role in the pilot. “To use how he reimagined the character’s origin and to have it be so emotional and to now actually be able to render that in pilot form has been terrific,” Berlanti raved. “In success, hopefully, with The Flash, there’s a way to bring on some of the more fantastical characters that will probably still go through the grounding lens with which we view everything [on Arrow],” said Kreisberg, adding that “there’s a hint of a major character in the [Flash] pilot,” but he warned that it could be cut.
Source: TVLine.com
So, for the first time in their history Oliver Queen won’t be the center of Felicity’s lustful gaze due to the presence of Barry Allen. Oliver may not care for this change, though his recent jerk-like (although honest) turn toward only getting involved with women he doesn’t actually care about may prevent him from actually doing anything about it.
As momentous as this all seems, Barry Allen is not the Flash yet. He is not a superhero nor do we even know if he will gain his superpowers in Arrow or in the pilot of his own show. Ignore the comic book canon, and it sure seems like Allen on Arrow will just be your standard TV character inserted in-between a potential romantic couple (Oliver/Felicity) to prolong the will they/won’t they dance, especially since we know that Barry is earmarked for his own show with his own set of characters and Felicity’s not going anywhere. Those who criticize the DC TV shows as submitting beloved comic book characters to standard CW-anguished romance and love triangles will certainly have much to complain about here. But Felicity is about to get her first honest-to-goodness love interest – this is going to be a new look for her. If fans respond to Felicity and Barry who knows where the producers might run with it, although it’s hard to imagine much of a future unless Felicity becomes a character who regularly crosses over between Arrow and Flash.
Via ArrowFan1, check out this clip promoting tomorrow’s episode:
Are you now sufficiently hyped for Barry Allen’s first episode of Arrow tomorrow night? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
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AdvertisementsChina and the European Union are setting out plans for changing energy use and curbing carbon emissions within a space of a few days.
As one of them is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases while the other would be third in the global list if its emissions were tallied as a single entity, what they come up with is obviously of some importance in shaping the world of the future.
The contexts of the two announcements are somewhat different.
In Beijing on Saturday, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao unveiled his report to the National People's Congress, the Chinese parliament.
In part he assessed progress on various measures over the last five years, and in part he outlined targets and aspirations for the five years ahead.
(Time has posted English translations of the various documents that are downloadable and searchable.)
Regarding energy and climate, one target is to generate 11.4% of energy from renewable sources by 2015 - up from 8% in 2010.
Energy will be used more efficiently - about 16% more efficiently, on the same timescale.
But by targeting economic growth just slightly lower than it's seen over the last decade, the Five-Year Plan also guarantees that energy use overall will still rise.
The size of the targets probably shouldn't come as a surprise given that back in 2009, before the Copenhagen climate summit, China vowed to improve carbon intensity by 40-45% between 2005 and 2020, and to produce 15% of energy renewably by 2020.
European energy and climate policy is proving a |
have neutralized the person who made multiple death threats targeting him.According to legal docs obtained by TMZ, L.A. police recently executed a warrant to search Twitter records for the identity of a user who threatened the lives of Jeff and his family.Among the tweets...-- "Wanna go scare some kids?? Maybe kill 'em too? I'ts all yers buddy [sic]."-- "YOUR NEXT ON MY LEEST... Guess who's outsideeeee"-- "You have approximately 4 months b4 death... CHOOSE what you WILL do b4 you DIEEEEE...."-- Then to Jeff's wife... "Your husbands name was spoken... 4 months is his limit... of DEATH... I WILL DRAG HIM INTO MY CAPTURE...."Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, cops tracked the creep down and they're confident he's no longer a threat. Our sources wouldn't be more specific.Member Appreciation Night
Members, come for a special evening from 5-7 pm, we'll have both the red lights and the regular lights on (sunset 5:42 pm). Memberships will be available to purchase at the door that night. Gift shop will be open for purchases. Silent auction. Free parking. Individual membership = entry for 1, couples membership for 2, family for 4, same as our regular admission policy
Military Appreciation Days - May 26 & 27 2019
Free admission for active duty military & veterans with ID and spouse/children
Twilight Tours - April 27, June 29, September 14 2019
Buy tickets online for Spring 2019
Special evening open houses called "Twilight Tours" are held three times a year (spring, summer, and fall). These are always held on Saturday evenings. The only time the compound is open in the evening, the cats are much more active, and we give them all enrichment items. Also, visitors can wander around parts of the compound that are not open to visitors during the day. This is because Twilight Tours are restricted to adults only (18 and over). There is an admission fee of $20 per person. Our cat's "adoptive parents" are invited to attend the Summer tour as our special guests.
Online ticket sales are through EventBrite. Please call 661.256.3793 between 10 am and 4 pm (except Wednesdays) to prepay over the phone. You can pay at the door but that is cash only, and we will let prepaid people enter first.
Doors open no later than 5 pm until it's dark out. There is a bake sale sponsored by FCC's American Association of Zookeepers (AAZK) chapter, a raffle, a barbeque by the Rotary club, and other surprises - goldfish in the fishing cat ponds, watermelons for the jaguars - there's something different every time, and of course lots of beautiful cats to see, hear, and photograph. Call (661) 256-3793, 10 am-4 pm except Wednesdays.
Event hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; increased admission prices are $10/each, all ages. Price includes most activities (and prizes to take home) but there is an additional charge for the hay rides. Members do not receive free admission on this day but get a 50% discount. Children must be accompanied by an adult(s) - NO child drop-offs will be allowed. Pictures:
More pictures at past eventsRep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) implied President 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 is an “a--” for sharing a GIF of himself knocking down 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 with a golf ball.
“clASSy,” Swalwell tweeted alongside a link to a story about Trump’s tweet.
Early Sunday morning, Trump shared a modified GIF that showed him hitting a golf ball, combined with another clip to look like it makes Clinton fall.
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Trump retweeted the GIF first posted from the Twitter account @Fuctupmind.
Trump sent out a flurry of tweets on Sunday, sharing stylized photos of himself from supporters and mocking North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea,” Trump said. “Too bad!”
I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017
Trump has tweeted other modified clips in the past.
In July, he caused outrage by sharing an edited video that appeared to show Trump body slamming CNN in a wrestling match.On Wednesday, Bill Nye said that he is not afraid that machines will take over and mocked Ray Kurzweil’s predictions for how fast artificial intelligence will improve.
In an interview with the Singularity.FM podcast, Nye said that he thinks that the machine revolution will not be as incredible as predicted. Since humans are making the machines, we don’t need to worry about a sudden onset of artificial intelligence taking over and replacing us, despite what Ray Kurzweil and Elon Musk worry about. Looking at where technology is in the world today and the timelines predicted for the rise of artificial intelligence leaves Nye dubious of Kurzweil’s predictions.
“I’m skeptical, especially about these extraordinary timelines — 2029? What is that, 12 years from now? No! No.” Nye said. “I’m not concerned, because humans make the machines. Sooner or later, to put it in old terms, somebody’s got to shovel the coal to make the electricity run the machine.”
Ray Kurzweil has predicted that the singularity, when humans merge with computer super-intelligence will happen in 2045. At that time, he’s said that there will be an explosion of art, humor, and people will be sexier. Nye mocked Kurzweil for this prediction, and that he thinks computers will be able to beat a Turing test in 2029.
“That’s where, “The machines are going to create machines, that are going to like provide the electricity and everything is going to work perfectly and it’s going to be really good and it’s going to happen in the next nine years.” Ray, really? Really?” said Nye, using an exaggerated tone while imitating Kurzweil. “Isn’t that when you’re going to be 80, and so that’s when you predicted it, hoping your brain would go in some electronic receptacle. Dude, no.”
Nye points out that there are a billion people in the world today who have never even made a phone call. This leaves him pretty skeptical that an artificial intelligence revolution would dramatically change things most places. And since humans design the machines, he’s not convinced that we’re on the brink of computers that can surpass human intelligence. “I’m not concerned,” he said.
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You can watch the whole interview here, with the bit on AI and Kurzweil starting at 9:45.Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 earned a rousing $26.9 million yesterday, thanks partially to the fact that yesterday was May Day in a number of territories. That brings the film's global total to $132.9m in the first week, with the caveat being that the film slowly expanded from its initial debuts on Tuesday and will shoot into supernova this weekend. It has already earned $23m in the United Kingdom, $12.6m in Australia, $11.7m in Germany, $10.8m in France, $10.6m in Mexico and $9.1m in Brazil among other territories.
Over the next few days, it will open in South Korea (tomorrow) and Russia (Thursday) along with North America (Thursday night) and China (Friday). It'll basically be playing all over the world by this weekend with the exception of Japan which goes on May 12. For those keeping track, Guardians of the Galaxy made a solid $96m in China three years ago Of note, since then, every single MCU movie (Avengers 2, Ant-Man, Civil War and Doctor Strange) has made more than that in said marketplace, so a noticeably higher cume in the world's second-biggest moviegoing marketplace would not surprise me.
As far as domestic grosses go, conventional wisdom says an over/under $160 million debut weekend. Yes, advance ticket sales are outpacing Avengers: Age of Ultron (which opened to $191m two years ago), but they apparently aren't surpassing Captain America: Civil War (which opened with $179m) or Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (which opened with $166m). Point being, the size of this opening weekend won't be determined by advance ticket sales but rather by the pull of general audiences and families deciding, on a whim or with little advance notice, to check out a showing over the weekend. That's why you're probably going to see a lot of "tickets still available" mentions in the last few days, as talk about pre-sales tends to reinforce the idea that every show will be packed-to-the-gills and/or sold out.
I took in a noon IMAX screening on the opening day of Avengers: Age of Ultron for one of those "see how these trailers play on an IMAX screen" things two years ago, and said theater was almost empty even as the film made $84 million that day. Like restaurants, movie theaters are a "peak hours"-type business. Sure, those Thursday nights at 7:00 pm at the Arclight or the TCL or the El Capitan might be sold out, but your regular neighborhood multiplex on Saturday morning or Sunday night should be okay. For what it's worth, I attended the same theater a month later for a much-more-crowded Jurassic World, which gave me my first big hint that said film was going to threaten The Avengers' opening weekend record. Sadly I probably won't be able to do the same trick on Friday as I have a press screening in the morning, a check-up appointment for my kids in the afternoon and a school function at night.
Anyway, that's enough for now. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may pass the $150 million mark sometime today as it makes a run at surpassing $200m before it even opens in American or China.In a twist to the lucrative criminal growth industry of indoor marijuana crops, two men have admitted using heat-detection cameras to locate and remove plants from suburban houses.
A Melbourne court heard that Danny Joe Szabo and Jano Matar used FLIRs - forward looking infrared radiometers - to detect "heat emitted from residences in the growing process".
Prosecutor Hayley Bate said that FLIR heat detection guns were "commonly used to locate a (marijuana) grow house emitting a strong heat signature".
Ms Bate said police intercepted calls between the pair that revealed marijuana was being located by identifying the location of "grow houses".
Ms Bate told Melbourne Magistrates Court this week that in a call on November 18 last year Szabo questioned Matar about using a "gun" the previous night and was told that there are "pictures" and "old ones" and "it showed us".When it comes to cancer, people don't always want to talk about it. Unfortunately, it's often a sad story. But it can also be an inspiring story about people who are fearless in times of adversity, people who have battled and people who are not afraid to put up a fight. Sometimes, it can be a happy story.
My dad, Arthur, was a big, strong guy. He could play any sport. To me, he could throw a ball a million yards. He hit golf balls the farthest. He always won when we played H-O-R-S-E. And he could play hockey better than any of us.
Then, all of a sudden, he was dwindling away. He lost a lot of weight and became weak. For months we kept asking him, "What's wrong? What's going on with you?" We didn't know what was happening.
Arthur Boyle was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, kidney cancer, when his son Brian was 14 years old. Courtesy Brian Boyle
I was 14 years old when my father was first diagnosed with cancer. He had renal cell carcinoma, which is kidney cancer. It was devastating news to my entire family. I'm the seventh child of 13 kids, and my youngest brother was only 2 years old at the time.
Fortunately, the cancer was only in his kidney and hadn't spread to his pancreas or his liver. He had a successful surgery. Then, eight months later, it was determined the cancer had come back. This time, it was in his lung.
When that kind of cancer metastasizes, it's essentially a death sentence. The worst part was my dad, the strongest man I know, thought he was a goner.
As a sophomore, I was trying to navigate my way through high school. During that time, I just shut down.
When it was determined the cancer was in his lung and he only had a few months to live, my uncle, Kevin, and a close family friend, Rob Griffin, persuaded him to go on a "spiritual cleansing." The three traveled together to Medjugorje, a mountainous town in Bosnia-Herzegovina that's believed to be a holy site.
When my dad came home, he had an appointment to scan his lung. They determined the cancer had completely disappeared. That was almost 15 years ago. He's had a clean bill of health ever since.
Everyone came back a changed person, my father especially. We believe the power of prayer restored and strengthened his faith and that's what healed him. It was a transformative experience for him and for our family. What we were given was such a blessing, a true miracle.
We're a close family and, after witnessing my dad go through the ups and downs of dealing with cancer, and seeing how he was healed, it's strengthened our faith, too. This experience is what makes the Hockey Fights Cancer initiative so much more meaningful to me.
Players are creatures of habit. We're superstitious and don't want to change our routine. The lavender ties and lavender stick tape, it seems like a small gesture, but it's not easy for a lot of guys to veer away from the usual. It's amazing to see so many players step up and support this great cause in even the smallest way.
When the puck drops, it seems like the most important thing in the world. But when it comes to people fighting cancer, nothing compares. I think, overall, players realize that and want to show support as much as we can.
I know I do.
To learn more or to make a donation, visit www.HockeyFightsCancer.com.Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition Software & Hardware Review
Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition Specs and Features
The Galaxy Note 10.1 features a 10.1-inch 1080p display that offers more than four million pixels – approximately two million more than standard HDTV. Combine this with a pixel density of 299PPI and colors appear much brighter and images are rendered more lifelike and clear. With such clarity, you can enjoy streaming your favorite movies and television shows. The Galaxy Note 10.1 can also double as an e-reader for your books, magazines, and newspapers. Stay connected with all of your favorite apps such as Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. With the power and image quality of the device, there is no end to your entertainment possibilities.The Galaxy Note 10.1 comes equipped with an enhanced S Pen. This remarkable feature allows you to jot down phone numbers and contact info. Use the S Pen to compose text messages and Samsung’s handwriting-to-text engine automatically converts your notes to text. Using the S Pen is an easy and efficient way to navigate your favorite websites.This Samsung tablet features an 8-megapixel 1080p main camera and 2-megapixel 720p front camera. The camera includes LED flash, auto-focus, and HD recording and playback. Use the camera to capture your favorite images or record video of your kids, pets, or anything your imagination can conjure.The battery for the Galaxy Note 10.1 provides up to 9 hours of Wi-Fi Internet use time, 10 hours of video play time, and 122 hours of music play time.The Galaxy Note 10.1 specs are equipped with 3GB of RAM and includes memory up to 32GB. It also features a 64GB micro-SD slot to supplement its available memory. The Galaxy Note 10.1 comes loaded with theOperating System and Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac. Moreover, the tablet also allows the user to run and display two applications simultaneously. It also has the ability to drag and drop content from one application window to another.is in the process of adding an LTE version of the tablet to its network. This means that the device will be capable of global roaming in GSM/W-CDMA networks and 2100MHz LTE networks. In addition, the company is providing 200MB of free tablet data for life. T-Mobile has also included international data roaming and text in over 120 countries and has eliminated overage fees. Customers can sign up on T-Mobile to find out more about the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 and be notified when the device is available.Freedom Flotilla 1 ships were intercepted by the Israeli navy, thereby denying Gaza of much-needed humanitarian aid following Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 to January 2009 [GALLO/GETTY]
It is expected that at the end of June, Freedom Flotilla 2 will set sail for Gaza, carrying various forms of humanitarian aid, including medical, school, and construction materials. This second flotilla will consist of 15 ships - including the Mavi Marmara from the first flotilla - sailing from Istanbul, but also vessels departing from several European countries, and carrying as many as 1,500 humanitarian activists as passengers. If these plans are carried out, as seems likely, it means that the second flotilla is about double the size of the first that was so violently intercepted by Israeli commandos in international waters on May 31, 2010, resulting in nine deaths on the Turkish lead ship.
Since that shocking incident of a year ago, the Arab Spring has changed the regional atmosphere, but it has not ended the unlawful blockade of Gaza, or the suffering inflicted on the Gazan population over the four-year period of coerced confinement. Such imprisonment of an occupied people has been punctuated by periodic violence, including the sustained all-out Israeli attack for three weeks at the end of 2008, during which even women, children, and the disabled were not allowed to leave the deadly killing fields of Gaza.
It is an extraordinary narrative of Israeli cruelty and deafening international silence. The silence was broken only by the brave civil society initiatives in recent years that brought both the symbolic relief of empathy and human solidarity, as well as the token amounts of substantive assistance in the form of much needed food and medicine. It is true that the new Egypt has opened the Rafah crossing a few days ago, allowing several hundred Gazans to leave or return to Gaza on a daily basis, but Rafah is not currently equipped to handle goods, and is available only to people, and so the blockade of imports and exports continues in force, and may even be intensified as Israel vents its anger over the Fatah/Hamas unity agreement.
Secretary General: No Flotilla
As the Greek coordinator of Freedom Flotilla 2, Vangelis Pisias has expressed the motivation of this new effort to break the blockade: "We will not allow Israel to set up open prisons and concentration camps." Connecting this Gazan ordeal to the wider regional struggles, Pisias added, "Palestine is in our heart and could be the symbol of a new era in the region."
A highly credible assessment of the Israeli 2010 attack on Freedom Flotilla 1 by a fact finding mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council concluded that the Israelis had violated international law in several respects: by using excessive force, by wrongfully attacking humanitarian vessels in international waters, and by an unacceptable claim to be enforcing a blockade that was itself unlawful. Such views have been widely endorsed by a variety of respected sources throughout the international community, although the panel appointed by the UN Secretary General to evaluate the same incident has not yet made public its report, and apparently its conclusions will be unacceptably muted by the need to accommodate its Israeli member.
In light of these surrounding circumstances, including the failure of Israel to live up to its announced promise after the attack in 2010 to lift the blockade, it shocks our moral and legal sensibilities that the UN Secretary General should be using the authority of his office to persuade member governments to do their best to prevent ships from joining Freedom Flotilla 2. Ban Ki-moon shamelessly does not even balance such a call, purportedly to prevent the recurrence of violence, by at least sending an equivalent message to Israel insisting that the blockade end and that no force be used in relation to humanitarian initiatives of the sort being planned.
Instead of protecting those who would act on behalf of unlawful Palestinian victimisation, the UN Secretary General disgraces the office by taking a one-sided stand in support of one of the most flagrant and long lasting instances of injustice that has been allowed to persist in the world. True, his spokesperson tries to soften the impact of such a message by vacuously stating that "the situation in the Gaza Strip must be changed, and Israel must conduct real measures to end the siege." We must ask why were these thoughts not express by the Secretary General himself and directly to Israel? Public relations is part of his job, but it is not a cover for crassly taking the wrong side in the controversy over whether or not Freedom Flotilla 2 is a legitimate humanitarian initiative freely undertaken by civil society without the slightest credible threat to Israeli security.
Appropriately, and not unexpectedly, the Turkish Government refuses to bow to such abusive pressures even when backed by the UN at its highest level. Ahmet Davutoglu, the widely respected Turkish foreign minister, has said repeatedly in recent weeks when asked about Freedom Flotilla 2, that no democratic government should claim the authority to exercise control over the initiatives of civil society, as represented by NGOs. Davutoglu has been quoted as saying, "[N]obody should expect from Turkey... to forget that nine civilians were killed last year [...] Therefore we are sending a clear message to all those concerned. The same tragedy should not be repeated again." Underscoring the unresolved essential issue he asked rhetorically, "[D]o we think that one member state is beyond international law?" Noting that Israel has still not offered an apology to Turkey or compensation to the families of those killed, Davutoglu makes clear that until such reasonable preconditions are met, Israel cannot be accepted "to be a partner in the region".
Liberating Palestine: Arab Spring's second stage
We should not overlook that further in the background of this sordid effort to interfere with Freedom Flotilla 2 is the geopolitical muscle of the United States that blindly (and dumbly) backs Israel no matter how outrageous or criminal its behaviour. And undoubtedly, this geopolitical pressure helps explain this attempted interference with a courageous and needed humanitarian initiative that should have been affirmed by the UN rather than condemned. It needs to be kept in mind that despite the near universal verbal objections of world leaders, including even Ban Ki-moon, to the Israeli blockade, no meaningful action has been yet taken by either governments or the UN in the face of Israel's undisguised refusal to respect the requirements of belligerent occupation of Gaza as set forth in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and the First Additional Protocol appended thereto in 1977.
Liberating Palestine from occupation and refugee regimes should be a core, unifying priority of this second stage of the Arab Spring. Nothing could do more to manifest the external as well as the internal turn to democracy, constitutional governance, and human rights than displays of solidarity by new and newly reformist leaders in Arab countries with this unendurably long Palestinian struggle for justice and sustainable peace. It would also offer the world a contrast with the subservience to Israel recently on display in Washington, highlighted by inviting Binyamin Netanyahu to address an adoring US Congress, a rarity in the country's treatment of foreign leaders paralleling the pandering speech given by president Obama to AIPAC, the Israeli lobbying organisation. It is unprecedented in the history of diplomacy that a leading sovereign state would so jeopardise its interests and abandon its values so as to avoid offending a small allied partner. It is in the American interest, as well as in the interest of the peoples of the Arab world, particularly the Palestinians, to unravel this mystery, and if not, to move the resolution of the conflict from Washington to the more geopolitically trustworthy auspices of Brazil, Turkey, Nordic countries, and even possibly Russia or China.
Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Visiting Distinguished Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has authored and edited numerous publications spanning a period of five decades, most recently editing the volume International Law and the Third World: Reshaping Justice (Routledge, 2008).
He is currently serving his third year of a six year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.The whole problem is that we think of ourselves as ourselves. That is, as objects – endowed with sentience, perceivers of the world, stumbling our way through life burdened by circumstances over which we have no control, all the while pretending that we do. And always lurking in the back of our mind is the knowing that ultimately we are going to die.
Life as an object is tough.
Seeing ourselves as objects is of course inevitable, given how we regard time and space as separate from us. I mean, if you think that objects exist in space out there, how would you ever see yourself as anything other than a perceiver of them? If we believe that objects are real, we must necessarily also believe that whatever perceives them is itself an object. Be it a brain, a soul, or a person, it must be some spatially distinct entity – and such an object, we refer to as a subject.
Let me be clear. Objects do not actually exist. Time and space are not objectively real. I just want to point out that if anyone believes that time and space is out there, they must admit that, logically, objects must be perceived by other objects (which we call subjects) – for as long as objects are regarded as things-in-themselves, the notion of an object necessarily involves the notion of a subject, since to be a thing-in-itself specifically means to exist independently of a perceiving subject. In other words, according to our misconstrued conceptual schema of reality, objects must – simply by how we define them and think about them – be perceived by a subject.
And since most of us do believe that subjects and objects are real, whenever we encounter an object we inevitably see ourselves as its subject.
This is the mistaken identity from which we seek to free ourselves.
And so, if we are to awake, we must rid ourselves of this notion of objects existing in their own right. It’s not the objects as such that are the problem, but their subject, and by abolishing the notion of an object as a thing-in-itself we thereby abolish the notion of its subject also – and that is why I stress the importance of understanding that there is no external world.
However, simply understanding that objects and subjects don’t actually exist isn’t enough. Conditioning is too strong. Decades of objectivizing day in and day out have established a habit that cannot be overcome by intellectual understanding alone – and it’s objectivization that is the real obstacle to awakening.
Objectivization can be understood as the functional aspect whereby this-which-we-are perceives what it is as an object. It’s a way of cognizing by means of conceptualization. We fabricate objects in the mind by turning what is nothing but pure perceiving into objective concepts such as “a lamp”, “a coffee mug” and “the moon” – and since we regard them as independently existing entities, we imagine ourselves into existence as their subject, namely the very subject whose perceiving they are supposedly independent of.
So, all of this can be summarily understood as follows: this-which-we-are, or pure consciousness if you will, perceives itself as an object (such as “a lamp”) by means of an subject (such as “myself”) – neither having any existence whatsoever other than conceptual – and thereby manifests this entirely illusory objective world and self. And all of this takes stage where there is nothing but pure subjectivity, which is no thing whatsoever.
It’s a division through conceptualization. In conceptualizing, pure experiencing is divided into interdependent conceptual counterparts: “subject” and “object”, “self” and “world” or “in here” and “over there”. We then add layer upon layer of other ideas to this imagined entity in here, thereby creating an entire edifice of figments that come to constitute our ego – the self image.
But all of these ideas are built upon the idea of a subject – and when conceptualizing ceases, the very linchpin of our identity is removed, because the subject is no longer fabricated in the mind. In this absence, looking stops and seeing begins – and no longer bound by objectivization, we find ourselves, simply, awake.
Note: Anyone who claims that objects are objectively real and at the same time say that consciousness is “prior to” or “beyond” time and space are talking out of their hats. If time and space are objectively real, there can be no “prior” to time or “beyond” space – for those are themselves temporal and spatial concepts with no application independently of time and space.
Artwork by ratpat13The iconic game show personality was admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday and is under observation.
Alex Trebek, longtime host of the iconic game show Jeopardy!, was admitted into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Saturday after suffering a “mild heart attack.”
PHOTOS: 10 Broadcast and Cable TV Show Most Watched By Men
According to a statement released Sunday by Sony Pictures Television, “Trebek is in good spirits and is currently under observation and undergoing further testing. He is expected to fully recover and be back at Jeopardy! when production begins taping in July for the new season, the show's 29th.”
Trebek suffered a heart attack in December 2007, after which he returned to Jeopardy! in a matter of weeks. He also was injured July 27, 2011, while pursuing a burglar in his hotel room in San Francisco. After snapping his Achilles tendon, he wore a cast for six weeks.
Trebek, 71, has hosted Jeopardy! since 1984, and his contract recently was extended until 2014. Speaking to THR at the Peabody Awards in May, Trebek said that his dream job would be hosting Hollywood Squares.David Ishee’s plan was simple, if not exactly free of complication. From the shed that functions as his laboratory in rural Mississippi, he hoped to use genetic engineering to rid dogs of the types of terrible disorders caused by decades of high-end breeding.
Now, on top of the obvious scientific hurdles, Ishee has a new challenge to contend with: the FDA.
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Ishee is a biohacker, one among a growing number of do-it-yourself scientists that the federal government is having an increasingly difficult time figuring out what to do with.
Since the DIY bio community first developed in the early aughts, it has largely avoided government regulation. But in 2017, cheaper equipment and simpler genetic engineering technologies mean that garage scientists can dream much bigger than simply turning yellow yeast red. We now live in a world where anyone can order custom DNA sequences on the internet to tinker with in their home. And the rules that govern genetic engineering today were not written with the foresight that it would one day be possible for 30-year-old hobbyists in Mississippi to try their hand at genetically engineering dogs.
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Ishee joined the ranks of DIY biohackers after becoming frustrated with the limits of traditional dog breeding. He breeds mastiffs—huge, friendly dogs that are known to be riddled with genetic disorders. Over a few generations, Ishee has used traditional techniques to breed out many troublesome conditions, such as the sagging skin and oversized head that make many mastiffs look goofy. But some recessive conditions, like hip dysplasia, could not simply be bred away.
And so for $1,000, two years ago he built a lab in his backyard shed capable of doing everything from culturing tissue to altering the DNA of canine sperm. Then he began trying to attack his dog breeding problems with genetic engineering. He is currently experimenting with different ways he might modify the DNA before artificially inseminating female dogs. In an early test to see whether his methods work, he fused sperm with genes from glowing bacteria in an attempt to engineer glowing puppies, though the pregnancy failed to take. Undeterred, he’s now gearing up to tackle even bigger challenges.
But he hit a roadblock earlier this month, when the FDA proposed a new rule that would require any genetically engineered animal go through a strict regulatory procedure. In essence, the FDA wants to define any animal a scientist purposefully genetically modifies as a “drug.” That means that if a scientist say, created cows without horns that are safer to farm, those cows would have to go through a vetting process similar to new drugs.
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Ishee was preparing for a project that sought to cure hyperuricemia in Dalmatians—a common liver malfunction that frequently results in kidney stones, bladder stones or gout.
“It should be straight forward,” he told Gizmodo. Ishee plans to use the gene-editing technique CRISPR to correct the single errant nucleotide that causes the condition, reversing the mutation to turn a T in the genetic code back into the correct G. Then he’ll use a technique called sperm-mediated gene transfer, which will allow him to transfer his engineered Dalmation DNA to a female Dalmation, resulting, he hopes, in a fertilized egg that’ll produce hyperuricemia-free pups.
“The animals just get molecular surgery to fix a broken gene that causes their bladders to explode,” he said. “Then those animals can become the founders on a healthy generation of Dalmatians and breed the disease away in a few years.”
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Under the proposed FDA rules, Ishee can still continue experimenting in his shed. But if enacted, the rules mean that should Ishee ever sell his Dalmatians, they will be subject to strict regulation. When the FDA first published the rules, some scientists freaked out, worrying that they might make animal genomics unfeasible for anyone other than large, cash-rich corporations.
For Ishee, who has not yet decided whether to continue with his experiments, the rules would make the science less accessible. “It’s regulation to control who can use these new technologies and how much money they need to have to use them, not regulation to mitigate any risks,” he said.
Ishee is not the first biohacker to run into regulatory roadblocks. Last month, the FDA intervened after finding out that a Bay Area biohacker was selling kits for homebrewers to genetically engineer their own glowing beer, questioning whether the green fluorescence protein used to make the beer’s yeast glow was a color additive for food that had yet to be recognized as safe for consumption. (Its creators argue that aside from not being a color, there’s little evidence to suggest there are safety issues.) At Body Hacking Con, a biohacker conference in Austin last weekend, a frequent topic of concern was how best to approach government regulation. Regulations for implants typically only apply when the implant is considered a “medical device,” but the magnets and RFID chips body hackers gravitate toward don’t fall into that category.
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“The FDA has made a continuous effort to better understand the needs of the developer community and has instituted a number of activities aimed at providing assistance to regulated small businesses,” the agency said in an emailed statement to questions about its views on the biohacker community. It added that the agency has a “number of programs” to help “small businesses navigate the regulatory system.”
As people move beyond implanting magnets, it seems inevitable that future devices will face regulation. Amal Graafstra, who owns Dangerous Things, a company that makes chip implants for biohackers, said that he initially pursued voluntary regulatory approval for new devices, but gave up because the process was too confusing and expensive.
“If [the FDA] was organized for accessibility, smaller organizations could get involved,” he said. “But I don’t have half a million dollars for an expert to help me through that process.”
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Part of the trouble is that even before biohackers came along, agencies like the FDA struggled to regulate new technologies, finding bizarre ways of applying old rules to new tech. (Like, perhaps, considering green fluorescent protein a “color additive.”)
Until now, though, DIY biohackers have evaded much government suspicion, mainly because the tight-knit community has built up strong, self-imposed policies of ethics and safety, encouraging people to stick to experiments that are safe for people and the environment. There are no explicit consequences for not following the guidelines, but so far, the system seems to have worked. At least, the community has been small enough and niche enough to avoid attracting the attention of potentially bad actors.
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But advancing scientific tools and a growing DIY bio movement mean that some of these projects are moving out of the garage and into the consumer world. The Odin sells its DIY glowing beer kits online for $160, along with all kinds of other supplies for Easy Bake genetic engineering. Ishee hopes to one day sell his lab-perfected pups to others, too.
This has amped up concerns, bringing to a head a long-standing and heated debate over how DIY science should be regulated.
DIY scientists argue that imposing more rules will make new technologies less accessible, and many in the scientific community agree that home-brewed biohacking poses little threat. Others find it hard to dispel the image of a lone scientist in a garage somewhere accidentally creating a deadly pathogen and unleashing it |
hot singalongs. Three Times Bad is “urban hillbilly music at its finest: ear-opening, toe-tapping tales of love-making on cornbread crumbs, illicit obsession with the reverend's wife and possum stew, and gospel hoedowns the likes of which you haven't seen since Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening”
Led by unrepentant freak preacher/transmedia artist Jesus Angel (on acoustic geetar, banjo and lead vocals), the band performs as a trio or quartet and often welcomes guest players on the stage. The current lineup features fiddler Claire Grinton (Red Weather), mandolinist Thomas Romero (The Silver Strings Ensemble), and prodigious bassist Curtis Aikens (Idyllwild Arts Academy alum). In the great bluegrass tradition, everyone in the band sings.This post was contributed by a community member.
Children can be cured of autism.
For years, parents have clung to stories passed around the internet or told with optimism in parents groups. Now, both parents and doctors have renewed hope with the release of a report from the University of Connecticut.
Published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, the clinical study examined 34 people who had been diagnosed with autism before age 5, but are now cured. The study's lead researcher was quick to state that most children will not recover, and it's unknown why some recover while others do not.
View the study here
"This study will help researchers believe reports of families and clinicians who say that their child has recovered from autism," psychologist Grace Gengoux, an autism specialist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University told the San Jose Mercury News.
The article, written by Chris Palmer, also profiled a Palo Alto teenager who was diagnosed with autism at age 4, but is no longer diagnosed with the disorder. His mother, Jill Rege, detailed her son's treatment-- speech therapy, occupational therapy, special diets and other medical interventions.
"I was willing to crawl through glass for a 1 percent improvement," his mother told Palmer. "It wasn't rapid. It was hard work. It was expensive. But in our case, it paid off."
At age 15, her son now has an IQ of 130.
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|Like us on Facebook |Blog for us | Follow us on Twitter|On April 24, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was lifted into low Earth orbit and promptly turned its attention to the depths of space. Today, over 10,000 publications and almost 22 years later, Hubble continues to change the way we see and understand our Universe with images that are truly awesome in every sense of the word.
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Case in point: the photo featured up top. The panoramic view of 30 Doradus — the brightest and most prolific star-forming region in our galactic neighborhood — is one of several breathtaking hi-res images released today in celebration of Hubble's 22nd anniversary.
According to the ESA, the photograph "comprises one of the largest mosaics ever assembled from Hubble photos," combining observations made by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera with those of the ESO's MPG/ESO 2.2 meter telescope, which visualizes clouds of interstellar hydrogen and oxygen. Those observations produce the image seen below. The photo up top takes that image and adds data from the Chandra observatory, which reveals x-ray (blue), infrared (red), and optical (green) wavelengths. According to the ESA:
The image [click here for hi-res] reveals the stages of star birth, from embryonic stars a few thousand years old still wrapped in dark cocoons of dust and gas to behemoths that die young in supernova explosions. 30 Doradus is a star-forming factory, churning out stars at a furious pace over millions of years. The Hubble image shows star clusters of various ages, from about 2 million to about 25 million years old.
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Other photographs released today include gorgeous close-up images of specific features within 30 Doradus and an annotated map of the Nebula that highlights notable stars, galaxies and cosmic clouds that can be seen in the photograph.
For more info visit the ESA's Hubble site, where you'll find some very, very hi-res versions of these photographs that are definitely worth checking out. [30 Doradus | Close-up images | Annotated Map]
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Lennon and E. Sabbi (ESA/STScI), J. Anderson, S. E. de Mink, R. van der Marel, T. Sohn, and N. Walborn (STScI), N. Bastian (Excellence Cluster, Munich), L. Bedin (INAF, Padua), E. Bressert (ESO), P. Crowther (University of Sheffield), A. de Koter (University of Amsterdam), C. Evans (UKATC/STFC, Edinburgh), A. Herrero (IAC, Tenerife), N. Langer (AifA, Bonn), I. Platais (JHU), and H. Sana (University of Amsterdam)LG
The U.S. Senate has approved legislation to amend a 1988 law that would make it easier for people to share their video-viewing habits online should the Netflix-backed bill win President Obama's signature.
The Senate approved revisions this evening to the Video Privacy Protection Act to allow video rental companies to obtain consent from customers in order to share information about their viewing preferences on social networks. The 24-year-old law was enacted after a newspaper printed the video rental history of Judge Robert H. Bork during his Supreme Court nomination hearings.
Bork died yesterday at age 85, a day after the U.S. House of Representatives approved the legislation.
A Netflix representative applauded the Senate's approval and promised to introduce new products should the president sign the bill.
"We are pleased the Senate has moved quickly to modernize the VPPA, giving consumers more freedom to share with friends when they want," Netflix spokesman Joris Evers said in a statement. "After the president signs the bill, we will introduce social features for our U.S. members in 2013."
Users outside of the United States have the option to link their Netflix accounts with Facebook, allowing them frictionless sharing of their video viewing preferences with other member of their online social network.BY: Follow @DavidRutz
Hillary Clinton writes that she feels her gender plays a key role as to why she doesn't enjoy the affection of the public in her memoir about her 2016 election loss.
In What Happened, Clinton delves into the various facets that played into her stunning defeat at the hands of Donald Trump, such as her relationship with her husband Bill Clinton, the media's coverage of her email scandal, Russia's meddling in the election and more.
CNN obtained a copy of the book a week ahead of its Sept. 12 release, and Clinton, whose approval rating and trust numbers were historically low throughout the campaign, reportedly asks in the book what makes her such a "lightning rod for fury."
"I'm really asking. I'm at a loss," she writes, before concluding: "I think it's partly because I'm a woman."
CNN reports:Mike Blanchfield, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- One of Canada's leading international jurists warned the Liberal government on Tuesday to shun nostalgia and partisan politics after Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion rebranded the government's foreign policy.
Louise Arbour, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and one-time lead prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, said there was a lot to like about Dion's speech at a University of Ottawa conference in which he offered a label for Canada's new Liberal foreign policy: responsible conviction.
In a speech that put his own stamp on foreign policy and added some philosophical gravitas to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's mantra that Canada "is back" in world affairs, Dion said the phrase is the guiding principle for the approach the Liberal government has adopted towards the world.
The minister said the concept explains the incorporation of a few old Conservative ideas, but also aims to reverse the previous government's "disengagement" approach to global affairs.
Arbour said as much as she admires the contributions that former foreign ministers such as Lester Pearson and Lloyd Axworthy made to peacekeeping and the advancement of human security, the current Liberal government must do more than invoke the past as it seeks to re-engage internationally.
She also hinted that the Liberals might want to extend an olive branch to those not inside their political tent.
"The danger is nostalgia, cheerleading, speaking only to the like-minded," Arbour told a panel discussion. "This is not the way to go.... We need to talk to people who disagree."
Arbour, who left her mark internationally when she indicted former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes in the 1990s, offered her own label for Canada's new foreign policy direction.
"I think it's a kind of principled pragmatism that's going to allow us again to punch above our weight," she said.
Dion also said the Office of Religious Freedom, a creation of the former government, will die when its mandate expires on Thursday. But he said the Liberals will continue to defend freedom of religion and belief "tooth and nail."
He reiterated the new focus on multilateralism and the United Nations, re-engaging the United States, fighting climate change, talking to Russia and Iran, opposing the death penalty for Canadians in prison abroad and a different approach to fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Dion said his concept also explains the common ground the Liberals continue to share with the former government, including carrying on its maternal and newborn health initiative -- while adding money for abortion and family planning -- as well as continuing to sell billions in military hardware to Saudi Arabia.
"This formulation means that my values and convictions include the sense of responsibility," Dion said.
"Our government shares the same conviction as the previous government, but it assesses the consequences of its chosen method of promoting this conviction differently."
Dion used that rationale to defend the controversial decision by the Conservatives to sell $15-billion in light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia. The Liberals are upholding the deal despite loud protests about Saudi Arabia's crackdown on dissent and its subjugation of women.
Dion said cancelling the contract would put thousands of Canadians out of work and harm the country's international reputation in other ways.
He said the government intends to ensure that future export permits conform to Canadian interests, including the promotion of human rights. He also said if Canada doesn't sell military hardware to the Saudis, others will.
"I think this export permit system might be the ultimate guarantor of at least some comfort that this will not be misused," Arbour told reporters, "But this argument, that if we don't do it somebody else will do it, I find frankly the least convincing."
Dion said Canada will have its eyes open as it re-establishes communication with authoritarian regimes such as Iran and Russia.
The speech echoed much of what Dion has said in the House of Commons in recent months in reply to Conservative attacks on the government's approach to those two countries, as well as its decision to withdraw fighter jets from the anti-ISIL coalition in favour of adding more special forces trainers on the ground in Iraq.
Dion also recast Canada's so-called honest broker role in foreign policy, which the Conservatives scorned as a sign of weakness.
"Since the classic concept of the honest broker is now too often confused with moral relativism or the lack of strong convictions, I prefer to say that Canada must be a fair-minded and determined peace builder."I am a final year animation student, and a short while ago, I was involved in the production of a few [very] short animated movies for a competition at my class. It was the hardest, messiest, fastest I have ever worked. Of a total 54 shots, I animated 35, in under a week, with a 72 hour work binge during the weekend during which I slept a total of 3 hours. I was asked [by a few friends and a couple of subreddits] to do a write up of the experience, so here we are! Before I start, I wanna drop in this time map to help you keep track of the production -
THE COMPETITION
The competition was called ‘The 100 hours challenge’. The basic idea was that each centre of the institute would take on a few movies [25 seconds long each] and have 100 hours to produce those movies. A total of 80 such movies entered production on 12 noon, 19th March, 2015. Some 550 students were working across all the centres. From here on out, I’ll describe the production experience of some 20 students at my centre, working on the 4 movies that we’ve taken on. Why 4? Because 4 movies totaled 100 seconds, so we wanted to produce 100 seconds in 100 hours.
We had pretty much no creative freedom in terms of being able to handle any pre-production during the competition. We received a script, animatic, model sheets for characters, prop sheets for bg, and concept art for scene layout. We had to pick up the production pipeline from there on out, onwards all the way to post-production.
THE IDEAL PRODUCTION CYCLE
Ideally, this is how a production pipeline is supposed to work -
[Pre production]
Story pitch -> Refinement -> Script
Concept art -> Character, bg, prop design -> Model sheets
Scripts + Model sheets -> Storyboards -> Animatic
[Production]
Model sheets -> Models for characters, bg and props
Models -> texturing/shading -> Rigging
Rigged models -> Scene setup -> Layout
Layout + animatic + script -> Animation
Animation -> Scene cleanup -> Lighting -> Rendering
[Post production]
Raw renders -> Composting -> Final renders
Raw renders + sound layout -> Raw edit line up
Final renders + final sound -> Final edit -> Movie
Movie ->??? -> Profit
At least, that’s how the ideal production pipeline is supposed to work. Ours was anything but ideal. There were quite a few fuck ups. Before I get to them, I wanna layout what my role in the production was, because my role defines the lens through which I see the production experience, and understanding that point of view is important before delving into details of the things that happened.
MY ROLE
I was the lead animator on the production, meaning my task was to head the animation team, supervise and assign shots, as well as do the important ones myself. Moreover, it was my task to co-ordinate with the layout artists on both ends of the animation production - first, when the scene first comes to the animators, at which point I made sure the set layout and camera matched the animatic and the rigs were functioning properly; and later, when the scene goes onto the cleanup artists, where my job was to take care of any issues that might arise with intersections of objects, ground placement/planting of feet and tires, etc.
So, that’s what my role in the production was. Now, onto some of the many issues we faced.
FUCK UPs & MESSES
The first issue we faced was scaling issues in layout, on movie 4. What happened was that the layout artists on that movie [who doubled as the modelers for it] were really new students, and didn’t have all the relevant knowledge to make sure no issues arose. So what happened was that when they started to layout the scenes, all the models were of different scales. A truck would be as big as a 4 storey building and so on. So, what they did was they rescaled them to ‘look right’. EXCEPT, it wasn’t right, since the scale still didn’t match across shots even if it did within them. So what?
Well, two things. First, this meant that when the animators did the character layout of the scenes, the characters all had to be rescaled differently in each shot. Some character rigs were not done well enough to properly scale - some bones or some controllers didn’t scale along with the rest as they should. That’s what happens when a team is working on such a short timeline. So, for those scenes, the shots had to be resent to the layout artists to scale all the bgs and props, and then finally we could animate. Woops, there goes a few hours of precious production time.
Secondly, the shots that didn’t get rescaled twice ended up animated and sent to lighting with the scaling still wrong as before. And now, when the lighting artists tried to match lights, the shadows and light intensities didn’t work properly because the values had to be changed to reflect the new scaling. Woops. Those shots had to be sent back to layout, given a checkup pass through animators, and then finally they could be lit. And a few more hours of precious production time were lost. That’s why we had to drop two of the movies [points d and e in that image up there].
During all this, I was also working on animating the major shots, as well as getting some of the simplest shot out of the way, leaving just the moderate shots for the other animators. Cue sleepless nights and hunger and tiredness and frustration and all that. Oh well, we got the the deadline on 4 pm on Monday, and managed to get two of the 4 movies done. We submitted them, and we thought we’d finally be able to go home and rest and relax.
But nope.
SOME DEAD THINGS SHOULD REMAIN THAT WAY
The head office called and demanded that we finish the other two movies. We explained that the models and rigging and so on had lots of issues we simply didn’t have the time to fix, but they didn’t care. By now, some of the animators had also left the production, because the competition was over and they couldn’t be arsed to put up with the head office’s shenanigans. So now, we had to finish the two movies which had died - for good reason - early in the production, and we didn’t even have the full production team to get the work done.
As a result, the work on those two movies is some of the worst I [and all of us, in fact] have done. Those two movies had died because they had lots of technical issues which we didn’t have time to solve before the deadline ended. Now that the deadline was over, it was a soul crushing case of the being asked, every single day, that we “get the work done by the end of today”. The only option we had was to work with the same buggy props and models and rigs that were left from when the movies died. Hence the final result of those movies being quite bad.
So, after so much effort and pain and frustration, all four movies got done, having taken twice as much time as they should have. It took quite an emotional toll on us, the whole experience. First the frustration from having our precious time be eaten up by the fuck ups that happened. Then, the pain from seeing the movies that we liked, and wanted to do, die. The short lived relief from having done at least two movies got buried quickly by the shock and horror at being forced to do the other two. And then, every day after that, it was just extremely stressful to keep pushing the submission date back, and working despite knowing that because of the technical issues, we wouldn’t be able to do anywhere near our best work.
AFTERMATH & REFLECTIONS
Overall, the experience was something I did feel to be personally transformative. I learned so much, due to collaborating across the teams. I picked up on rigging, modelling tricks, lighting info. I gained so much confidence due to being able to work this fast, and work under so much pressure. I learned shortcuts and better workflows in my animation to economise the time taken by each shot. I learned how to manage a team, how to delegate, supervise, assist, problem solve. I learned how to handle emotional whiplashes, how to provide support to others who are dealing with the same. I learned how to have fun even when there is so much work and stress. How to enjoy the little things when the going gets tough, and find positivity among all the negatives. When the production finally wrapped up on Thursday, I felt like I was a significantly different person than I was a week ago when the competition began.
A few days later, we received news that of the original 80 movies taken by all the centres, a total of 76 were submitted. Of those 76, one of the movies we did won second place! Much rejoicement was had, and it did put a nice cherry on top the bittersweet cake that was this production.
Later, I talked to many of the other artists, and they had similar thoughts on how the experience affected them, how it changed them as people. The production was like going through a crucible for me, and it was tough and there were times I wanted to cry and give up, and was frustrated, crestfallen, overworked, tired, sleepy. It wasn’t easy, but I am glad to have gone through this crucible, because I do feel that I have emerged the stronger for it.
________________________________________________________
Ps. I’ve had a few people ask me if there is anywhere they can see these movies. Unfortunately, no. The institute partnered with a third party which supplied the pre-production to the teams. As it wasn’t a project we did internally, we don’t own the intellectual rights to the movies, hence we can’t show them. Sorry about that.SHARE Poll Do you agree with the state GOP's decision to delay votes on abortion bills? Yes No vote View Results Yes: 65% No: 35% Total Responses: 947
By of the
Madison — A day after a Democrat pledged "all-out hell" on the Senate floor over abortion, Republicans backed off their plans and put off votes on two bills until next year, if then.
Republicans had said they were planning to take up two abortion measures Tuesday, their final day of floor votes in 2013. But on Friday, they issued a tentative schedule that did not include those bills, and a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said they would not be taken up this year.
"We wanted to end the November session with a 'light' calendar and focus on the economic development and jobs bills that we've included for Tuesday," Fitzgerald's chief of staff, Dan Romportl, said in an email.
Romportl did not say whether the abortion bills would be taken up in the spring, noting only that they "will remain available for scheduling."
The decision comes after a bitter summer debate over abortion and a year before a round of elections in which Democrats have signaled they will argue Republicans are out of touch with everyday women.
Republican senators are also avoiding other controversial issues that had appeared likely to come up. They did not schedule a vote on a bill limiting the ability of the state Department of Natural Resources to regulate high-capacity wells.
They also declined to consider confirmation votes for four members of the Government Accountability Board, which runs state elections and investigates ethics violations. The delay comes just after Gov. Scott Walker yanked a longtime member off the board because he said the Senate would not confirm him.
Four of the six board members are awaiting confirmation, but that now won't happen until January at the earliest.
The reversal on abortion came after a tense, 3-2 vote Thursday in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and a pledge of "all-out hell" on the Senate floor by Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton). If the abortion bills were taken up Tuesday, Erpenbach said the session could be on par with an abortion fight in June, when Senate President Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) broke the base of his gavel as he slammed it down to quiet Democrats upset over passing a different abortion bill.
Erpenbach's comments were not a factor in the Republican change of plans, Romportl said.
"Sen. Erpenbach's outbursts and threats had absolutely nothing to do with the decision not to schedule the bills," Romportl said by email.
Erpenbach said he did not know if Republicans changed course because of his response to their plans, but noted he believed Republicans were seeing the public react negatively to restricting access to abortion and contraception.
"I hope they realize they've done enough damage to women already," Erpenbach said.
One of the bills would ban any abortions that are sought because of the sex of the fetus. The other would prevent public employees' health plans from covering most abortions and would also allow religious organizations to restrict employees' access to contraception through their insurance plans.
The Assembly passed both measures in June, and Senate action would send them on to Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
Also in June, Walker and Republican legislators approved a law requiring women seeking abortions to get ultrasounds and mandating that doctors who provide them have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The Senate debate was tense, with Democrats screaming through the final vote and Ellis angrily slamming down his gavel in a vain effort to silence them.
U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison blocked the provision on hospital admitting privileges while he considers whether it is constitutional. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals is considering an appeal of the initial ruling; after that, it will go back to Conley for trial.
Appointment. Walker recently withdrew the nomination of David Deininger, who had been serving on the Government Accountability Board since 2010 without Senate confirmation.
Deininger, a former Republican lawmaker, was first appointed by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and reappointed by Walker. Deininger was chairman of the board in 2012, when it reviewed petitions to recall Walker and conducted his recall election.
Walker has said hemade the change because the Senate would not confirm him. In his place, he appointed Harold Froehlich, a Republican who served one term in Congress and is a former Assembly speaker.
Froehlich has already replaced Deininger, but Democrats voted against confirming him in committee Wednesday because he donated $400 to Republican campaigns two years ago. Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), the committee chairwoman, briefly stormed out of the room during a dispute with Democrats over the vote, according to The Associated Press.
Walker has also appointed former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Elsa Lamelas and reappointed board members Gerald Nichol and Timothy Vocke.
All can serve indefinitely without Senate confirmation. But without confirmation, they risk Walker withdrawing their nominations or the Senate rejecting them.
Confirming board members requires a two-thirds vote, meaning the Republicans would need to get four Democrats to side with them. That may be difficult because Democrats haven't received an explanation on why Deininger was removed from the board.
Twitter: twitter.com/patrickdmarleyWhen The King of Fighters XII comes to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this July, it will come with some swell, console-exclusive bonuses, including a new graphics mode and an expanded roster.
New shots of the game in action were released today, showing off an optional anti-aliasing graphical style, one that makes SNK Playmore fighting royalty a little less pixelated. These shots represent our first look at that mode, according to Joystiq. Never was a fan myself. Specifically, of anti-aliasing on 2D visuals.
In other The King of Fighters XII developments, producer Masaako Kukino reveals in the newest issue of Game Informer that when the 2D fighter comes home, it will do so with a roster beyond the 20 confirmed for the arcade release. Any requests?
Mull it over while enjoying four new screens.Events in recent days have illustrated just how quickly the violence in Syria could spiral into a regional war. After Syrian mortar bombs once again fell on Turkish soil, this time killing five civilians, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan felt compelled to act. The Turkish military's retaliation on Wednesday and Thursday startled the international community.
With its actions, Turkey obviously proceeded with caution: It answered the repeated attacks from Syria with a few artillery shots -- not missiles. And the permission for further military action granted to Erdogan by his parliament is intended primarily as an intimidation measure. There is no apparent intent to declare all-out war -- at least for the time being. The United Nations Security Council, meanwhile, has strongly condemned the Syrian attack on Turkish soil and called on both sides to show restraint.
The fact of the matter is that the longer Syrian civil war continues, the more often incidents like that seen earlier this week will occur -- particularly in Turkey and Lebanon. A large part of the border region around Syria has already become a war zone. Previously, the international community had worried that a military intervention could fuel a regional wildfire, but now it is being forced to look on as this increasingly appears to be the reality -- without it ever even having gotten involved.
All of Syria's neighbors have already been affected by the civil war -- with the most dramatic impact on Turkey and Lebanon.
Dozens of civilians have been killed on Turkish soil by cross-border shelling and gunfire near the Turkish-Syrian border. Prime Minister Erdogan is under pressure from an increasingly angry population to respond to the violence seeping out of Syria.
In the western border region, tensions within Turkey are intensifying as well. Ankara is lending massive support to the Syrian rebels and has taken in around 100,000 Syrian refugees, angering the Alawites in the Turkish border province of Hatay. The region was part of Syria up until 1938 and has a similar sectarian diversity. There have been repeated protests by Alawites in Hatay against the Syrian rebels.
Syria Gives PKK Free Reign
What Turkey finds especially unnerving is the support the government of President Bashar Assad lends to the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). To avoid angering its northern neighbor, Damascus had long suppressed the cross-regional militant group's activities on Syrian soil. But since the deterioration of Turkish-Syrian relations, the PKK as been allowed to recruit and train members in Syria and initiate attacks against targets in Turkey.
In the last year and a half -- not coincidentally the length of the Syrian civil war -- PKK attacks in eastern Turkey have drastically increased in frequency. In the past, Ankara has responded to foreign PKK activity in Iraq with military strikes. It is thus highly plausible that Turkey would not shy away from taking the same action against the PKK in Syria. That is one reason why Turkey has been increasing its militarization of the border with Syria since July, when Damascus granted de facto autonomy to the Syrian Kurdish region.
Much of the population in parts of the Lebanese-Syrian border region has already fled. Almost daily, Syrian rockets and artillery are landing in Lebanon, destroying homes and killing civilians. Syrian government forces regularly cross the border and kidnap residents whom they believe to be supporting the rebels. The large number of Syrian refugees is also creating pressures for Lebanese society. Often enough, groups backing the Syrian regime in Lebanon have themselves kidnapped civilians they suspect of being Assad opponents. In addition, the war in Syria has fuelled the conflict in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between Assad supporters and opponents. There have already been dozens of casualties there this year alone. The BBC has reported that Hezbollah, which is closely tied to Assad, has already lost several of its fighters in the war in Syria.
Israel, Iraq and Jordan
Fear of an expansion of violence outside Syria is also growing in Israel. In the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967, pro- and anti-Assad protests have become more common in recent weeks. Fighting in Syria is getting closer and closer to Israel, and several incidents of gunfire from Syria have been reported in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Israeli army on Wednesday evacuated tourists from the region after discovering armed individuals near the border.
The government in Baghdad, meanwhile, is nervous that the Syrian civil war could reignite its own internal armed conflict. The Assad government previously egged on fighting in Iraq by smuggling militant jihadis into the country and giving them a safe haven to retreat to in Syria. Out of fear that fighters from Syria would infiltrate the country, Iraq has been turning away all male Syrian refugees from its borders.
Last month, the Syrian-Jordanian border experienced an hour-long skirmish between Jordanian troops and pro-Assad soldiers after the latter fired on Jordanian territory. The closer the fighting on the Syrian side gets to Jordan, the more dangerous the border regions there become.
No neighbor of Syria is interested in getting dragged into war. All its provocations notwithstanding, the Assad regime is also taking pains to deter its neighbors from direct intervention. After inflammatory incidents like the most recent shelling on the Turkish border town or the shooting down of an unarmed Turkish surveillance plane in June, Syria has acted with policies of deescalation.
Still, the mutual saber-rattling and the growing violence along Syria's borders provide a clear warning: The danger of a regional war cannot be underestimated.Quick Stop and Shoot: Biscuits & Barbecue in Mineola
A 1940’s railcar on Long Island is something quote unusual. Even more unusual is a 1940’s railcar serving up authentic barbecue that is delighting everyone who visits and creating a cult following for itself. Such is the case at Biscuits & Barbecue.
Open since 2012, this small spot has been taking the north shore by storm. Quietly tucked away on a Mineola side street, it’s not the most visible restaurant on Long Island, but for those who are in the know (or happen upon it by accident) it’s a restaurant that will be in heavy rotation on their repertoire. Whether it’s alligator, chicken, ribs, pulled pork or a slice of pecan pie, Biscuits & Barbecue is raising the bar (and the temperature) on the local bbq scene.
Biscuits & Barbecue
106 E 2nd St
Mineola, NY 11501
516-493-9797Welcome to the Cheap Vegetarian, a growing collection of simple, healthy, vegan and vegetarian recipes. We publish only the best of essential vegetarian recipes; all dishes have been tested in our kitchen to ensure they meet our quality criteria. Feel free to browse the collection. Check back soon as there are many great idea's coming up!
The Cheap Vegetarian is a free resource providing information on how to cook simple, delicious, economical and healthy vegetarian food. Although all the recipes that are on The Cheap Vegetarian are for veg*n foods this site is intended for all palates. Its common knowledge that eating a plant based diet provides one with optimal health. Whether you are a hardcore vegan or an omnivore looking for a healthy meal idea, this site is for you.
The Cheap Vegetarian is in its early stages of development. We strive hard to ensure that all of our recipes are clear, and easy to follow. We welcome feedback regarding the quality of this site and the recipes contained herein.
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ÂWreckage of First World War German submarine found off Suffolk coast
First World War German submarine wreckage discovered off the Suffolk coast Archant
The wreckage of a World War One German Submarine - missing in action since 1915 - has been found off the Suffolk coast.
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First World War German submarine U-31 First World War German submarine U-31
Developers behind offshore windfarm East Anglia One. ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) and Vattenfall, were conducting investigations to the seabed in the Southern North Sea around 90km from the Suffolk and Norfolk coast when divers made the shock discovery in September 2012.
The vessel, identified as World War One German submarine Type U-31, was found at a depth of only 30 metres. It is 57.6 metres in length, 4.1 metres in width and 4.6 metres in height. The bow appears to be facing south.
Damage was observed at the bow and the stern, so the original length could be slightly longer than it appears and debris surrounding the wreck suggests a more likely length of over 60 metres, but still less than 70m.
A database of reference books shows that only U-boats U-31 and U-34 had been lost in this area of the North Sea.
First World War German submarine U-31 First World War German submarine U-31
More than 60 wrecks were discovered during the scanning work, however most of these were anticipated - the uncharted submarine was said to be “entirely unexpected”.
Charlie Jordan, ScottishPower Renewables’ project director for the East Anglia ONE windfarm says of the discovery: “The scanning team were expecting to see wrecks, but such a discovery was quite a surprise and has been extremely interesting.”
The relevant authorities were notified, including Receiver of Wreck, and the discovery was confirmed by ScottishPower Renewables today.
Mark Dunkley, marine archaeologist at Historic England, said: “SM U-31 was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy in September 1914.
Teri from ScottishPower Renewables, with Jouke from the RNL Navy and Andy Paine of Vattenfall Teri from ScottishPower Renewables, with Jouke from the RNL Navy and Andy Paine of Vattenfall
“On January 13, 1915, the U-31 slipped its mooring and sailed north-west from Wilhelmshaven for a routine patrol and disappeared.
“It is thought that U-31 had struck a mine off England’s east coast and sank with the loss of its entire complement of four officers, 31 men.
“U-31 was the first of eleven Type U-31* submarines built between 1912 and 1915.
“The class were considered very good high sea boats with good surface steering; eight were sunk during operations while three surrendered and were scrapped after the war.
“Of those lost during operations, the whereabouts and fate of two, including U-31, was unknown.
“The discovery and identification of SM U-31 by ScottishPower Renewables and Vattenfall is a significant achievement.
“After being on the seabed for over a century, the submarine appears to be in a remarkable condition with the conning tower present and the bows partially buried.
“Relatives and descendants of those lost in the U-31 may now take some comfort in knowing the final resting place of the crew and the discovery serves as a poignant reminder of all those lost at sea, on land and in the air during the First World War.”
As an official military maritime grave, the wreck of U-31 will remain in its final resting place and plans for any offshore windfarm development will be progressed ensuring no disturbance to the area.
Andy Paine, Vattenfall project director of East Anglia Offshore Wind Farm, said: “The seabed scanning had been undertaken by Netherlands-owned company Fugro, and their team made us aware of the Dutch Navy’s hunt for its last remaining missing WWII submarine.
“We were all extremely keen to make contact with the Dutch Navy to see if this could be the submarine |
Zehava Occupation,” saying, “She works for the enemy every hour of every day. She is the enemy’s spokeswoman.” He addressed her directly, jeering, “We can’t defeat terrorism with war. I’m telling you, Zehava Gal-On, that for us to defeat terrorism with war, we have to defeat you first. We’ll send you to Gaza. You can be their spokesperson there, and we will take care of them the right way.”
“Let’s stop being suckers. Let’s take care of the enemy,” he continued, adding, “Those who pity their enemies end up being cruel to their own people. Those who are cruel to their enemies truly love their own people.”
Ben-Ari represents only a fringe political group, so the mainstream media, which he also considers an “enemy of the people,” prefers to ignore his provocative statements. The problem, however, is that since the kidnapping and murder of the three Jewish teens, the retaliatory murder of an Arab teen and the launch of Operation Protective Edge, provocative statements from the fringes, like those released by Ben-Ari and his supporters, expand the boundaries of this violence-drenched dialogue.
When Knesset members from the ostensibly center-right Likud Party, like Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon, demand that Israel “stop providing fuel and electricity to the Gaza Strip,” or Miri Regev promotes action to “prevent the people of Gaza from receiving basic goods and block the crossings and main roads,” it should be no wonder that in the midst of all the fighting in Gaza, the far left and right are fighting each other in Tel Aviv. Even with the air-raid siren wailing throughout the city, police were needed to separate the two sides.
The demonstration took place on the night of June 12, in Habima Square in Tel Aviv. Ever since it was renovated three years ago, the square has become a nerve center of political and social activism, particularly of the left — a “Tahrir Square” of sorts.
A right wing demonstration in reaction to rocket fire on Tel Aviv is held at the HaBima theatre square in Tel Aviv, July 12, 2014. (Photo by Tal Schneider)
Demonstrators from radical left-wing groups poured into the square that evening to demonstrate against Operation Protective Edge. The signs they carried were provocative. They denounced the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and called on people to refuse to serve. There were slogans like, “The IDF is the most moral terrorist organization in the world,” “Racist regime,” “Stop the massacre in Gaza” and “Occupation is terrorism,” condemning the current operation that, according to polls, has widespread support among the general public. This is not the first time that the far left has demonstrated against the IDF, but without the right-wing demonstrators who came to confront them, the demonstration would have broken up as soon as the siren went off and received minimal media coverage, if any.
But things heated up that evening. Rapper Yoav Eliasi, known as “The Shadow,” showed up with a few dozen young people from right-wing organizations like Lehava (a group dedicated to preventing assimilation), wrapped in Israeli flags and some in masks. They started taunting the demonstrators from the left, with “traitor” and much worse. For the most part they cursed the leftist activists, wishing them any number of cruel deaths. It didn't take much for the fracas to devolve into an all-out brawl.
As someone who was present nearby, the feeling was surreal. Suddenly the siren went off. The leftist demonstrators were subjected to a barrage of curses and had things thrown at them as they ran for protected spaces nearby. The violence even reached a nearby cafe, when a right-wing activist who asked for some water was outraged when someone commented, “Maybe it will cool you off.” He burst inside and started a ruckus.
That evening in Habima Square was unusual in terms of both its level of violence and its timing. Traditionally, an atmosphere of unity has always transcended politics at the start of any military operation or war. As the old saying goes, “When the cannons roar, the muses are silent.”
Meanwhile, Eliasi continued to incite the crowds, boasting on his Facebook page, “Together we are a powerful force confronting the real enemy, who wanders freely among us: the radical left.” His post received extensive media coverage.
The outbreak of violence at the demonstration in Habima Square is reminiscent of the attempt to force out Minister of Economy and Trade Naftali Bennett from the Haaretz peace conference July 8 for being a "fascist." They are part of the same violent dialogue from the far left and the far right alike that can easily make the leap from verbal provocation to real physical violence. We saw that happen only recently, when it turned out that Arab teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir's killing was committed by young Jews seeking revenge. Regardless of how infuriating the signs held up by the radical left may have been to some, anyone who was at the demonstration at Habima Square could sense the violence mood incited by Eliasi and his friends. Anyone who saw it knows that we are standing before a slippery slope, which could end with people getting hurt in demonstrations. This should be a wake-up call to politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. It is incumbent on them to restore calm, even with all the passion that the war evokes. It is up to them to stop seeking to gain popularity by pandering to their electorates, right now. One Emil Grunzweig is enough.Carmelo Anthony says trade rumors are out of his control and that he doesn't see them as a distraction for the Knicks. (2:12)
The New York Knicks have been unsuccessful in their attempts to engage the Cleveland Cavaliers in Carmelo Anthony-for-Kevin Love trade talks in advance of the NBA's Feb. 23 trade deadline, ESPN has learned.
League sources told ESPN on Wednesday that the Knicks approached the Cavaliers to gauge their interest in swapping All-Star forwards but were told Cleveland was not interested in such an exchange.
The Knicks, sources said, would have gone to Anthony to discuss waiving his no-trade clause had Cleveland shown interest in the deal. Anthony is one of only three NBA players with a full no-trade clause in his contract, alongside the Cavaliers' LeBron James and the Dallas Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki.
On multiple occasions in recent weeks, James has been vocal about the Cavaliers' need for another seasoned point guard as well as another big man to fill the voids created by the offseason departures of guard Matthew Dellavedova and center Timofey Mozgov.
Although James and Anthony are close and have expressed interest in playing together someday, sources said Cleveland is not prepared to surrender Love to get Anthony after the role Love played in helping the Cavaliers win their first championship in franchise history in June.
Asked about the report later Wednesday, James said he had "no reaction."
"We got 14 guys in here," James said after the Cavs' 116-112 overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings. "We need to be ready every night, who we got in here. We got to play. We can't play fantasy basketball. We got who we got, and we got to go out and play."
Cleveland general manager David Griffin offered his take, saying the Cavaliers would keep their plans close to the vest.
"There's going to be a lot of things written between now and the end of the deadline, and we're going to be pretty consistent with not telling you any of those things," Griffin said. "I'll always try to keep you from driving off the cliff if you're banging a drum that's absolutely untrue all the time, but I'm not going to speak to any of those things."
Anthony's future with the Knicks has become a daily topic of conversation, despite his no-trade clause; there has been widespread suspicion that team president Phil Jackson wants to move him and start anew with second-year big man Kristaps Porzingis as New York's centerpiece.
ESPN's Ian Begley reported earlier this month that some in the Knicks organization believe it is best if the team and Anthony part ways.
Asked about the proposed trade following the Knicks' 103-95 loss to the Mavericks on Wednesday night, Anthony replied, "I really don't have a reaction to it. I mean, until management comes to me and says something, it's not something I can look forward to or feed into at this point."
Trade proposals of Carmelo Anthony, right, for Kevin Love were turned away by the Cavs, sources say. Jason Miller/Getty Images
Anthony said he "would have to consider" waiving his no-trade clause if the Knicks ultimately decided to go in a different direction but added, "All the talk that's going on right now, that's out of my control."
He said no one from the Knicks has been in contact with his representatives.
Earlier Wednesday, Anthony said his recent meeting with Jackson and Knicks general manager Steve Mills lasted only five to seven minutes -- with Jackson doing most of the talking.
Anthony, 32, is earning $24.6 million this season and has two years left on his Knicks contract worth nearly $54 million. The final year of the deal is at Anthony's option in 2018-19, and the contract contains a 15 percent trade kicker that would hike his current salary into the $29 million range if he is dealt.
Love, 28, is earning $21.2 million this season and has three seasons remaining on his contract after this year, worth in excess of $72 million. The 2019-20 season, when he is scheduled to earn $25.6 million, is at Love's option.
ESPN's Dave McMenamin and Tim MacMahon contributed to this report.* Seven oil majors ran annual cash deficit of $55 bln
* Falling oil price to force new wave of asset sales
* Asset sales close to $150 bln, some dividend yields top 6 pct
* Repeat of M&A boom as response to low oil prices seen unlikely
By Ron Bousso and Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters) - This year’s fall in energy prices is hastening the decline of big oil, as the seven Western majors sell-off assets, cut investment, return money to shareholders and shrink in size, leaving ever more output to small producers and state firms.
Companies that were already deep in the red when the price of Brent was at $109 a barrel last year are having to redraw business plans for prices as low as $90.
With promised shareholder dividends probably untouchable for now, they will have to divest, cut costs and borrow more against a smaller business just to make ends meet. And unlike in previous downturns, they are no longer big enough to ensure that their own cutbacks will drive prices and profits back up.
According to Morgan Stanley analysts, the seven majors - Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Total <TOTF.PA, ENI and Statoil - ran a collective deficit of $55 billion last year.
They generated $207 billion of operating cash flow but invested $209 billion in capital expenditure and returned $53 billion to shareholders in dividends.
All have promised investors to do better this year by cutting their capital investment and operating expenses - which mushroomed in recent years on the back of cost overruns and delays at projects such as Kashagan in Kazakhstan or Gordon in Australia - both estimated to cost over $50 billion.
But the latest drop in oil prices to a two-year low leaves few options other than to continue shrinking by selling projects, oil fields and refineries.
And given that the seven majors have already sold assets worth $150 billion in the past four years, they are gradually turning from super-majors into mini-majors: still among the biggest companies in the world but no longer with the size to bend prices to fit their investment cycle.
“Oil companies are in a period of circumspection, which will only be prolonged with the oil price pullback... It is quite clear the business cannot sustain itself with Brent below $100,” said Charles Whall, fund manager at London-based Investec Asset Management, which invests in Shell, Total, Chevron, Exxon and Statoil.
Last year, most majors would have needed a price of $120-130 per barrel to balance their budgets without borrowing, selling assets or cutting payments to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks.
With promised spending cuts, financials were expected to be back in balance by 2016 based on average oil prices of $110 a barrel, according to Morgan Stanley, which also estimates that every $10 per barrel fall in oil prices translates into a 12 percent decline in earnings.
NO OIL PRICE HELP
An old mantra in oil markets says that when prices fall too sharply, companies respond by cutting investment, which in turn leads to an oil shortage several years down the road, helping to propel prices so companies can start a new investment cycle.
That theory may simply no longer work for oil majors.
In 2003, Exxon, Shell, BP, Total, Chevron and Eni produced 11.5 million barrels of oil liquids per day, or 14.5 percent of global output of 79.6 million bpd. Fast forward 10 years and their smaller output of 9.5 million bpd is equivalent to only 10.4 percent of larger global production of 91.6 million bpd.
“Oil majors have very little leverage over actual oil prices today,” said Jason Gammel, analyst at Jefferies.
Meanwhile the engine of today’s growth in oil output - the U.S. shale oil boom - is driven mainly by mid-sized and small producers such as Anadarko, Apache, Occidental and Devon, rather than the majors.
And technology improves so fast on U.S. fields that what looked uneconomical two years ago looks economical today, even with lower prices.
According to an analysis from Barclays, 90 percent of production from the U.S. Bakken province will still be profitable even if oil prices fall to $60 per barrel.
EATING ITSELF
For now, the one form of expenditure that many analysts believe the majors cannot cut is dividends to shareholders, who might revolt if they no longer get their expected payouts.
“Prices will have to go below $90 for companies to start putting projects on the back burner. But dividends is the last thing they will want to cut,” said Iain Reid, analyst at investment bank BMO.
According to BMO, Exxon and Eni are effectively trading today as if oil prices were at $102 a barrel, partly thanks to dividend payments that keep the share prices up. For some of the majors, dividend yields are as high as 6 percent.
To keep up such payments, majors are effectively eating into themselves and will have to sell tens of billions of dollars worth of additional assets in the next years, according to banking and oil industry sources.
In recent years they have been able to borrow cheaply - all of the majors but Exxon are paying out dividends at a higher yield than their cost of borrowing. But if historically low interest rates go up they will no longer be able to fund their dividend payouts with ever more debt.
One way to maintain their stature might be to merge. The last collapse in oil prices at the end of the 1990s triggered the wave of oil mega-mergers that produced the present big seven, when BP bought Amoco and Arco, Exxon bought Mobil and Total bought Elf and Fina.
That seems unlikely to be repeated.
“I think most easy mega-mergers have been already done. It is difficult to see French Total and Anglo-American BP opting to merge,” said a senior mergers and acquisitions banker at a top Wall Street bank, who asked not to be named.
Reid from BMO agreed: “Majors’ strategies today are all about capital discipline and free cash flow, not mega mergers”. (Additional reporting by Sam Wilkin; Editing by Peter Graff)ufc.tv/132/Photos/132_Weighins/44_UFC132_weighins.jpg" align="left">The Ultimate Fighting Championship® announced today that The Ultimate Fighter®, the longest-running sports reality show on television, is moving to FX this March with an exciting, new live format.
The Ultimate Fighter® LIVE debuts on Friday, March 9 as part of a two-hour season premiere beginning at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The show will then air for one hour at 10 p.m. ET/PT every Friday for the next 11 weeks on FX. The three-hour finale will conclude FX’s premiere season of The Ultimate Fighter®LIVE on June 1 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. UFC® bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz and“The California Kid” Urijah Faber will serve as coaches on the upcoming season, with lightweight and welterweight contestants competing for two, six-figure UFC contracts.
This past Saturday, The Ultimate Fighter® concluded its run on SPIKE TV as 2.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the season 14 finale headlined by Michael Bisping battling Jason “Mayhem” Miller in a middleweight contest. The event was the highest rated and most watched TUF Finale since TUF 10 in 2009, and was the No. 1 program on cable among M18-49 and M18-34 (No. 2 in A18-49). In addition, season 14 was up +121 percent with A18-34 compared to the previous season. The strong ratings prove that the show has tremendous momentum heading into its highly anticipated arrival on FX.
“We’re producing ground-breaking television with The Ultimate Fighter LIVE and we can’t wait to kick this season off with FX in March,” UFC President Dana White said. “It’s going to be can’t-miss TV. Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber are two incredible personalities who also happen to be two of the best fighters in the world. They genuinely dislike each other and I expect this to make for the best season yet.”
“We believe that Dana and Lorenzo (Fertitta), along with Executive Producer Craig Piligian, have come up with exciting new changes to the format of The Ultimate Fighter that will expand and grow the series,” said Chuck Saftler, Executive Vice President, FX Networks. “The fact that the fights at the end of each episode will now be televised live is certain to create a sense of urgency for UFC fans. Furthermore, the move of TUF to Friday nights will provide a great ratings boost to the network.”
The rivalry between coaches Cruz and Faber dates back to March 2007, when Faber handed Cruz his first and only professional loss in a 145-pound bout. The 26-year-old Cruz avenged that loss this past July, defeating Faber by unanimous decision to retain the bantamweight crown in a Fight of the Year candidate. With the series now even, Cruz and Faber look to settle the score as TUF coaches, followed by a title fight in mid-2012 inside the Octagon®.
Undefeated at 9-0 since dropping to bantamweight in 2008, San Diego’s Cruz (19-1) has surged to the top of the division thanks to unorthodox striking, tremendous cardio, and aggressive wrestling. Owner of wins over the likes of Faber, Demetrious Johnson, Scott Jorgensen, Joseph Benavidez (twice), and Brian Bowles, “The Dominator” has long sought an opportunity to serve as coach on The Ultimate Fighter®. The chance to coach opposite his longtime rival makes the opportunity that much sweeter.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a gym rat and love learning and teaching mixed martial arts,” Cruz, who trains at Alliance MMA in San Diego, said. “This is a dream come true. To get a chance to coach TUF and beat Faber again is all the motivation I need. This is going to be an insane season of The Ultimate Fighter.”
Sacramento’s Faber cemented his place as a pioneer in the lighter weight divisions after holding the WEC featherweight title for a span of over two years from 2006-2008. Boasting victories over the likes of Cruz, Jeff Curran and Jens Pulver at 145-pounds, “The California Kid” dropped to his more natural weight class of 135-pounds in November 2010 in search of his second world title. He’s since been on a tear, most recently submitting former champion Bowles at UFC® 139.
Now, the 32-year-old turns his attention to another one of his passions – coaching.
“I can’t wait to be the next coach on The Ultimate Fighter,” Faber, whose gym in Sacramento has helped produce UFC stars Benavidez, Chad Mendes and Danny Castillo, said. “I am looking forward to mentoring a bunch of hungry and talented fighters. The new cast needs to be ready to work hard and learn! Having Dominick coach on the opposite side couldn’t be more perfect. I’m not too thrilled about being in each other’s space for an extended period of time, as I am sure we are going to get on each other’s nerves. But I can’t wait to mentally beat him up as a coach, and then literally beat him up in the cage and swipe that UFC strap.”No, it's simply a move away from a system that doesn't appear to treat people fair and equal anymore in terms of legal partnership, marriage and divorce.
Though motives and levels of disengagement vary, many men are mainly disillusioned by the marriage and divorce system.
As they enter full of hope and devotion to build a future together with a partner and maybe start a family.
And then some discover they are seen as nothing but a utility, and while having worked hard they get spat out, the divorce courts rule unfavourably to husbands and fathers 80% of the time when it comes to custody. Regardless if a man is devoted, hard-working and a loving father. Even cases where the children have a better bond with the father and would like to stay with him, they're removed from custody instead of looking at what's in the best interest for the child.
I've even seen examples form a woman in Canada who reported that she and her husband were getting a divorce, they had peacefully and on very good terms agreed to share custody of the kids and live in the same neighbourhood so that the family would keep functioning as good as it could. But the court system and lawyers made it very very hard for them to get such an arrangement passed. They decided the children would go to the mother and nothing else. And the mother didn't even want that, she had no grudge against her ex husband, they wanted to share the kids upbringing between them, but the system would not let them and did not hear the father's, mother's or children's preference.
Furthermore belongings and status men built-up painstakingly over years before the marriage even get taken from them, and there's not much they can do.
And this is why a lot of men won't play the game of marriage and signing partner contracts anymore. Since they risk to lose most of what they built up in their life and more.
This doesn't mean they hate women or anything, (of coarse every label/group has some extreme individuals in there that don't represent the whole), they just don't agree with how partnership is seen and regulated on a government level and legally.
There's even homosexual MGTOW's, guys will not engage in marriage with a partner because they see the marriage and divorce system as rigged and a deal that doesn't make sense in order to just enjoy a happy relationship with a partner.
There's various degrees of disengagement.
Some men will still mary, but are aware of the risks of divorce.
Some men will co-habitate in a long-term relationship only if marriage is undesired by both.
Some men will aim to only have relationships or date, but not live together.
Some men will not have romantic relationships with women. Just friends and platonic or formal work-related.
Some men will aim to not engage with women at all. (this is a small minority)
Like many people have said, every individual who uses the label MGTOW has their own philosophy and reasons, and there are as many exceptions to the general outline as there are individuals.During the past decade, working memory training has attracted much interest. However, the training outcomes have varied between studies and methodological problems have hampered the interpretation of results. The current study examined transfer after working memory updating training by employing an extensive battery of pre-post cognitive measures with a focus on near transfer. Thirty-one healthy Finnish young adults were randomized into either a working memory training group or an active control group. The working memory training group practiced with three working memory tasks, while the control group trained with three commercial computer games with a low working memory load. The participants trained thrice a week for five weeks, with one training session lasting about 45 minutes. Compared to the control group, the working memory training group showed strongest transfer to an n-back task, followed by working memory updating, which in turn was followed by active working memory capacity. Our results support the view that working memory training produces near transfer effects, and that the degree of transfer depends on the cognitive overlap between the training and transfer measures.Some interesting bus shelter advertisements have begun appearing in Toronto, addressing Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments in the city.
The ads, posted by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) and the City of Toronto, have been posted in response to the recent influx of Syrian refugees in December and a number of crimes against Muslims earlier in the year.
“It is important for Torontonians from all walks of life to take responsibility for not only welcoming refugees but also examining assumptions and stereotypes they may hold about Muslims, racialized communities, refugees in general, and refugees from the Middle East and Africa in particular,” Debbie Douglas, executive director of OCASI, said in a statement. “We hope this campaign will start to shift some people’s erroneous and harmful assumptions.”
In the ad, a white male is confronting a woman in a hijab, telling her to “go back to where you came from.”
The woman’s response is “Where, North York?”
The ad’s tagline is “Muslims are part of Toronto.”
The campaign is intended to dispel and prevent rumours and stereotypes.
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“Racism hurts our communities in so many ways,” says Amira Elghawaby, communications director at the National Council of Canadian Muslims, a partner on the public awareness campaign. “It’s uplifting to see several key national and provincial organizations come together to encourage Torontonians to unite against discrimination. We all have a responsibility to speak out against all forms of racism, including Islamophobia. We must work together to ensure our cities are welcoming for all.”
“Our goal with this campaign is to get people thinking, talking and challenging the assumptions they may be making about others, not just new Torontonians,” says Coun. Joe Mihevc.
According to the release, the overarching goal is to “create a Toronto that says ‘No’ to all forms of discrimination and racism.”Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams charged dozens of people in major insurance scheme that involved a dead deer. Prosecutors say it all started at "Galati's Family Auto Body" in South Philadelphia. NBC10's George Spencer digs deeper into the investigation, and talked to the District Attorney Wednesday. (Published Thursday, May 29, 2014)
The owners of a family auto collision business in South Philadelphia are among 41 people charged for their alleged roles in a major insurance scheme that prosecutors say involved fake car accidents and dead deer.
Officials say a 16-month grand jury investigation of the American Collision and Auto Center located at 1930 S. 20th St. revealed an elaborate scheme led by shop owner Ronald Galati Sr. He's accused of leading a team of accomplices, including his wife, son, and daughter, as well as a number of insurance adjusters, tow truck drivers, a city official, and a Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) officer to falsify insurance claims for financial gain.
Suspects in Insurance Fraud Scam
Co-conspirators in the case say Galati Sr.'s motto was, "I live my life to cheat insurance companies -- my high every day is to cheat insurance companies."
District Attorney Seth Williams released details of the investigation on Wednesday afternoon.
According to investigators, Galati Sr. routinely created false accounts of vehicles being damaged by accidents involving falling objects, deer, and other animals to increase amounts received for insurance claims. Investigators say Galati Sr. went as far as to have employees gather and store deer blood, hair and carcasses in the shop's garage to be used as props in photos that were later submitted with insurance claims.
The false claims were reportedly legitimized with the help of PPD officer Douglas DiEmidio, Erie Insurance Company adjuster Cheryl Stanton, Allstate Insurance Company adjuster Arthur Juliano, and several local South Philadelphia tow truck drivers.
In addition to altering insurance claims, investigators say Galati Sr. orchestrated deliberate car collisions and ordered cars to be purposely vandalized to generate business for his shop.
Fraudulent claims submitted as a part of the scheme resulted in the issuance of more than $2.3 million in payments from insurance companies.
Officials say Galati also conspired with City Office of Fleet Management employee Robert Otterson to obtain a lucrative, $1.8 million contract with the City, even though the shop did not meet all contract requirements.
Galati Sr. now faces charges for hundreds of counts of conspiracy, insurance fraud, and theft by deception, among other felony charges.
Authorities have arrested 14 alleged participants and are in the process of arresting 27 other individuals that they say were involved in the scheme.Flying cross country is all in a day's work for most airlines, but tracing your company's logo with your flight path? That's clever marketing.
SCROLL FOR PHOTO
The 787 Dreamliner (Flight ZA236) drew the Boeing logo during a 19-hour test flight between Washington and Iowa, Gizmodo reports.
A spokesperson for Boeing told Wired UK the flight, which took place between Feb. 9 and Feb. 10, was "coordinated with the many air traffic control centers, choosing the routing to avoid restricted airspace."
Flight Blogger Jon Ostrower noted he was tipped off to the plane's intended path while sitting at Houston International Airport on Feb. 9.
According to Business Insider, the 19-hour journey is the 787's longest flight yet. And it isn't the company's first attempt at skywriting either: The 747-8 Freighter traced a "747" over several states during another test flight in August, Wired observes.
The 787 Dreamliner boasts lighter-weight composite materials and consumes less fuel, according to the Associated Press. Boeing recently discovered a glitch on fuselages, but said the problem should not affect production.
Via GizmodoSlate blackboards with biblical references are on one wall of an old science laboratory in the historic administration building designed by architect Alexander Eschweiler for the old agricultural college. Restoration of the five deteriorating buildings in the complex is uncertain. Credit: Gary Porter
By of the
Five historic Wauwatosa buildings, which preservationists hope will be converted into apartments, face an uncertain future that could include demolition for some of the structures.
The red brick buildings, four of them designed a century ago by noted architect Alexander Eschweiler, sit atop a hill east of U.S. Highway 45 and south of Swan Blvd., on the County Grounds.
They are part of 89 acres that Milwaukee County sold last year to an affiliate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Real Estate Foundation. The foundation is developing Innovation Park - a project to include a university research building, privately developed buildings for technology-oriented companies and other uses.
UWM officials have been negotiating a sale of the Eschweiler buildings to Mandel Group Inc., which wants to convert them into apartments. But after receiving cost estimates from four different firms, Mandel executives believe restoring all the buildings may not be financially feasible, said Robert Monnat, the firm's chief operating officer.
"Our goal, our passion, is to do everything we can to save those buildings," Monnat said.
But, he said, the structures have deterio rated significantly after several years of being empty.
"We're not in a position to commit financial hara-kiri to save buildings that, if they had been caught earlier, something could have been done with them," Monnat said.
Mandel executives have been in talks with city officials and others in Wauwatosa about the buildings. The firm hasn't yet reached a purchase agreement with the UWM foundation, nor has it submitted a development proposal to the city.
"The possibility of taking down some of those buildings is in the air," said Common Council President Dennis McBride. "It's an unhappy discussion."
If Mandel wants to raze some of the buildings, or make other exterior changes, it needs permission from the city Historic Preservation Commission, said McBride, a commission member. If the commission denies permission to tear down any buildings, Mandel could appeal that ruling to the Common Council, he said.
Built in 1912
The buildings are what remain of the former Milwaukee County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. The Tudor Revival style buildings were all built in 1912 except for the power plant, which was built in 1936. All five buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The agriculture school was one of the largest commissions Eschweiler received during the early part of his career. Eschweiler's other buildings include the former Wisconsin Gas Co. headquarters, 626 E. Wisconsin Ave.; a mansion that now houses the Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave.; and the former Milwaukee Gas Light Co. complex in the Menomonee Valley, part of which was converted into Zimmerman Architectural Studios Inc.'s headquarters.
The agriculture school was among Wisconsin's earliest ventures in technical education but lasted only 16 years. The buildings later served as an annex to the county Children's Home and as offices for various government agencies.
Medical equipment-maker Gammex Inc. was among the last tenants in the buildings, which have been vacant since 2006 as their condition worsened.
"The county did precious little to preserve them," McBride said, citing roof damage that allowed water to enter the structures and frequent graffiti tags.
'Huge financial hurdle'
Even before Gammex left, the former school administration building had been vacant for years.
"The vacant structure is only partially boarded-up; upper-level windows have been broken out, sashes are rotting and gutters are sagging," former Journal Sentinel architectural critic Whitney Gould wrote in 1998. "As water damage worsens, the county is courting demolition by neglect."
Monnat said the costs to restore the buildings amount to "a huge financial hurdle."
Other challenges include the administration building's space layout, with a gymnasium on the top floor, Monnat said. If Mandel uses federal historic preservation tax credits to help finance the building's redevelopment, tax credit rules prohibit converting that space into apartments, he said. That greatly reduces the amount of space that can be used to create income.
The possible demolition led the Wauwatosa Historical Society's board to recently approve a resolution saying it wants to see all of the buildings preserved, said Janel Ruzicka, executive director. But she doesn't know how that would be accomplished.
The planned conversion to new uses had been based on a development firm, such as Mandel Group, making a profit. But that idea first surfaced before the housing market collapsed, the recession struck and banks created higher standards for development loans, Ruzicka said.
Meanwhile, McBride said, Wauwatosa officials may face a conflict between a desire to preserve the buildings and the need to generate more property tax revenue from new development to help finance city operations.
"We're looking at grim possibilities," McBride said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported incorrectly that Gammex had leased the buildings until 1999, and they have been vacant since then. The buildings have been vacant since 2006.By Larry Kummer, from the Fabius Maximus website
Summary: The social science literature about climate change includes many oddities. A new hot paper about climate denial adds to that list, and illustrates why the climate policy debate has become gridlocked.
Another social science study of climate deniers makes waves on the Left: “Text-mining the signals of climate change doubt” by Constantine Boussalis and Travis G. Coan in the highly-ranked journal Global Environmental Change, January 2016. The abstract reads like real news…
“…This study contributes to the literature on organized climate scepticism by providing the first systematic overview of conservative think tank sceptical discourse in nearly 15 years. Specifically, we
1. compile the largest corpus of contrarian literature to date, collecting over 16,000 documents from 19 organizations over the period 1998–2013;
2. introduce a methodology to measure key themes in the corpus which scales to the substantial increase in content generated by conservative think tanks over the past decade; and
3. leverage this new methodology to shed light on the relative prevalence of science- and policy-related discussion among conservative think tanks.”
“We find little support for the claim that “the era of science denial is over” — instead, discussion of climate science has generally increased over the sample period.”
The authors execute these goals described in the three bullets with detail and skill. From which they draw the conclusion of the last sentence. But their evidence provides little support for that conclusion; it is almost irrelevant to it. They state their conclusions in more detail. …
1. “The overall level of CTT {conservative think tank} information has grown rapidly over the past decade and a half, reaching a peak during late 2009-early 2010.
2. Topics questioning the integrity of individual scientists and scientific bodies appear closer (semantically) to politics than science, suggesting that claims often consider the hallmark of scientific skepticism are rooted in politics.
3. The era of climate science denial is not over. …
4. CTTs tend to react to the external environment — i.e., they counter claims …”
They provide strong evidence and analysis for their first, second, and fourth conclusions. This post discusses the third. Citations are omitted from the following quotations.
A strong opening followed by a quick shift to denialism
“Climate scientists overwhelming agree that the Earth is getting warmer and that the rise in average global temperature is predominantly due to human activity. Yet a sizeable segment of the American public rejects this “consensus view” and U.S. climate policy remains in a state of limbo. As of early 2015, 1/3 of the American public believes that climate change is not primarily caused by human activity and only 1 in 10 understands that more than 90% of climate scientists agree on the existence and nature of observed global warming. What explains this divergence in views among climate scientists and the American public? What factors promote inaction on comprehensive climate change mitigation policy? These questions have garnered considerable attention in disciplines across the social and behavioural sciences.”
The authors then quickly steer onto the rocks. In the first three pages they say …
· “One prominent explanation investigates the influence of a “well-funded and relatively |
U.S. will acquire in fiscal year 2013 will cost $197 million each. In 2001, the projected cost for these jets was $69 million.
The cost per plane is expected to drop later in the production cycle, assuming the order numbers do not.
Over the course of the U.S. program, the "average" cost of acquiring each F-35 should be about $162 million each, according to Pentagon figures.
The Canadian government has estimated its 65 F-35s will cost just $75 million each to acquire. But the parliamentary budget officer pegs that number at $148 million.
JSF program in question
F-35 Lightning II Full Mission Simulator includes a high-fidelity 360-degree visual display system and a reconfigurable cockpit. (Lockheed Martin)
On March 20, 2012, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report that raised serious questions about the JSF program.
According to Michael Sullivan, the GAO's director of acquisition management, "the long-stated intent that the Joint Strike Fighter would deliver an affordable, highly common fifth-generation aircraft that could be acquired in large numbers could be in question."
The report states that, "manufacturing processes and performance indicators show some progress, but performance on the first low-initial production contracts has not been good."
Daniel Zanatta, a vice-president at Magellan Aerospace in Mississauga, Ont., said he is not really concerned about the program's problems in the U.S.
Magellan is involved with the JSF program and Zanatta told Embassy Magazine that the program is "moving actually very nicely through those challenges in the last 18 to 24 months."
Unmanned aerial systems vs. F-35s
The F-35 is called a fifth generation aircraft because of its technology, but that technology also adds to its costs and delays.
The plane requires millions of lines of software, "with testing of the most complex software and advanced capabilities still in the future," according to the GAO. And only "four per cent of the aircraft mission system for full combat capability has been verified."
The emergence of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has raised doubts in some quarters over whether the F-35 is the way to go. Current UAS have the elements of fifth generation fighters and are much cheaper to produce.
That view is challenged by Winslow Wheeler of the Centre for Defence Information in Washington. In a five-part series on Time magazine's website, he argues that UAS cost more and are less effective than the U.S.'s current fighter aircraft. Wheeler focusses his analysis on the MQ-9 Reaper, the U.S.'s first true hunter-killer drone.
Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are already taking away assignments for reconnaissance and even strike roles from jets with pilots onboard.
The JSF program has also had some perception problems recently, due to revelations in the media.
The U.S. Marine Corps F-35B test aircraft BF-2 flies with external weapons for the first time over the Atlantic test range at Patuxent River Naval Air Systems Command in Maryland on Feb. 22. The F-35B is the variant of the Joint Strike Fighter for the USMC, capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings for use on amphibious ships or expeditionary airfields. (Lockheed Martin/Reuters)
On March 11, 2012, the Sunday Times in London reported that, "Chinese spies hacked into computers belonging to BAE Systems, Britain's biggest defence company, to steal details about the design, performance and electronic systems" of the F-35. The jet's advanced radar capabilities were thought to be one of the targets.
That report adds confirmation to a Wall Street Journal report about a hacking attack on BAE in 2009. China denied the claims then, and again after last month's story.
The CBC's Evan Solomon reported on March 26 that the Canadian government's 2010 statement of operational requirements for new fighter jets was drafted just two months before Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced the F-35 was the choice, suggesting the process had been hijacked for political aims as it would normally have taken a year or two.
Solomon also reported that the F-35 didn't even meet all the requirements.
The only choice
A lengthy article on the F-35 in the current issue of the Canadian Military Journal concedes that although "the JSF program has proven to be an exorbitantly expensive, imperfect and risky endeavour," the F-35 is Canada's only choice.
"If Canadians are set on equipping their military with the most advanced arms available, political considerations and market demands all but guarantee that their only choice of aircraft is the F-35," write researchers Marco Wyss and Alex Wilner.
In Canada, the process of selecting the F-35 has long been questioned by the government's critics. In April 2012, Auditor General Michael Ferguson released a report that finds the Department of National Defence "did not fully inform decision makers," "did not exercise due diligence," and understated the known costs to Parliament.
The federal government has accepted the auditor general's recommendations and conclusions on the F-35 and issued a statement that funding for F-35 acquisition is now frozen.
The government will establish a secretariat inside the Public Works Department to oversee the process, thereby removing the lead from Fantino, who is in charge of procurement at DND.Every Sunday in February, we will feature and explore previously unpublished photographs from The New York Times’s archives, with a special focus on the 1960s. Revisit last year’s Unpublished Black History project, sign up for our Race/Related newsletter and share your own experiences with black history in the comments.
The copper-jacketed bullet tore through a civil rights worker’s shoulder, stopping within an inch of his spine. The shotgun blast shattered the car windows of four voting rights activists and gouged the wall of a nearby home.
And a fire destroyed voter registration equipment and materials outside the city’s Voter Registration Headquarters, leaving the street strewn with rubble.
It was 1963 in Greenwood, Miss., a major battleground in the fight for civil rights, and white officials were playing down and ignoring a series of attacks intended to discourage thousands of African-Americans from registering to vote.By Allie Haroutunian
The National Pain Report recently spoke with cannabis doctors Dustin Sulak, DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) out of Falmouth, Maine and Michelle Sexton, ND (Naturopathic Doctor) out of San Diego, California.
Medical Cannabis Doctors and the Appointments
Despite what you may have heard, docs who prescribe marijuana for chronic pain (and other maladies) are just regular doctors who treat patients with a variety of ailments. What makes these doctors different is they happen to recommend cannabis to their patients.
Allie: “You are a doctor that recommends and has medical marijuana patients come to see you. I read that you were one of the top doctors, most popular, in Maine.”
Dr. Sulak: “I had to learn very quickly to serve this unmet need in my community. A lot of the learning I did at first — seeing hundreds and thousands of patients — was just around listening to what people were doing with cannabis and looking for patterns around what was working and what wasn’t working. Very quickly I found that it was helping a lot of people with such a wide variety of different conditions particularly chronic pain.”
“It [chronic pain] is very common in Maine…and everywhere, although I think we have more than our fair share of it up here due to things like Lyme Disease and Vitamin D deficiency. There’s a lot of pain everywhere, and I spend consistently about 70% or more of my practice treating chronic pain.”
Cannabis Works
“Cannabis is an incredible treatment especially considering how few effective treatments there are in the current medical arsenal — in the pharmaceutical, and surgical and even more conservative measures like physical therapy, and manipulation. They all have their place, and they all have something to offer but it’s very clear to patients and doctors alike that chronic pain is a big problem that we don’t have an effective solution for. So I saw it working well for that and other conditions. I like being on the frontline of a new type of treatment that has such a good safety profile.”
National Pain Report: “Do you find you have to be careful in any way beyond normal practicing procedures as a recommending doctor?”
Dr. Sexton: “Not really, I think if you’re just following standard practice guidelines for any way that you would treat any other patient…that you see the patent in person, that you perform a physical exam where it’s indicated, you get all of their relevant medical history including the history of the present illness, you get family history, you get a list of what drugs they’re on — supplements, you do a review of all their systems. I mean, this is how you treat any other patient, so it’s no different for cannabis. The only specific thing, you would probably have them sign an informed consent document, because it’s federally illegal and they need to understand that. And I think patients also need to understand that often there’s no quality control or quality assurance of these products so you know you can’t hold the physician responsible for the [medical cannabis] industry who’s not performing analyses like they should.”
National Pain Report: “Is it true that Physician members have to be physicians licensed, healthcare providers in good standing that can issue cannabis recommendations wherever they are?”
Dr. Sulak: “Yes, Definitely. Because there are many unknowns we have to be cautious. For example, we have evidence that cannabis can both improve and worsen liver fibrosis and hepatitis C. So we need to evaluate those cases carefully to make sure that we’re not doing harm. To go along with that example, it can help them with fatigue, joint pain, nausea, and abdominal discomfort that is caused by the hepatitis, but while doing that THC can be increasing scarring in the liver. Could be…it depends. We have some evidence that it does when there’s active inflammation. Same thing with mental health. Those are cases where we have to exercise a lot of caution. Cannabis when it’s used in the right way can be very helpful for PTSD, anxiety, bipolar, even schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis but it can also make those conditions worse if it’s used in the wrong way.”
National Pain Report: “I’m getting the sense that there are distinguishing factors between the “real” doctors — the medical doctors who are investigating cannabis — and [those doing it] as a side thing.”
Dr. Sexton: “Definitely. One of our practice guidelines is that you have a face-to-face visit with the person. And I can tell you from experience my own partner who has a cancer diagnosis went to get a recommendation and there was not even a doctor on the premises. There was no exam, there was no review of medical records. It was walking in and paying the fee and walking out given a piece of paper that said here’s your recommendation you can use cannabis in California. Keep in mind is that it’s rapidly changing.”
“There is a new demographic of patients that are interested so they want to see a bona fide doctor who is going to review their records, is going to examine them, give them a treatment plan and follow up with them on the cannabis, and continue to guide them.”
National Pain Report: “In your practice how do you safeguard against different interactions with medications, and different ailments that may not be helped by cannabis?”
Dr. Sexton: “Well, it’s in taking the complete medical history, and part of that is getting a list of any medications that they’re on, and then doing diligence to find out if there’s going to be a drug interaction via the metabolizing enzymes in the liver or not, or some other physiologic. So for instance, take an elderly patient on a blood pressure medication; cannabis will dilate the blood vessels and lower blood pressure. In that case they need to be educated that this is a potential side effect, that they could have a hypotensive effect; you tell them how to avoid it — you monitor their blood pressure medications, monitor their blood pressure. If they stay on cannabis they may be able to come off of the blood pressure medication.”
More from these interviews will be published in future blogs by the National Pain Report.
Subscribe to our blog via emailIndia’s badminton record has never been as good as it has been this year, with an Indian featuring in the top five players of the world among men as well as among women, according to rankings data published by the Badminton World Federation. Kidambi Srikanth at fourth position among men and P.V. Sindhu at third place among women have powered India’s rise to the top of the charts this year.
The median singles rank of the top five Indian players has risen from 28 to 17 for men, the biggest rise since 2010. The rise in the median singles rank of the top five players for women has been slower, from 57 last year to 49 this year.
The rise in rankings follows impressive performances by top-ranked players such as Srikanth and Prannoy H.S., as well as by relatively lower-ranked players such as Ajay Jayaram and B. Sai Praneeth. The Singapore Open had an all-India male finish this year. Prannoy beat both Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong and gold medallist Chen Long in the Indonesian Open this year. Srikanth went on to win the title after Prannoy lost in the semi-final to Japan’s Kazumasa Sakai.
Srikanth and Prannoy’s performances have been especially impressive. The former has risen nine positions to finish at fourth this year while the latter has risen 19 rungs to finish at 10th.
This year has also been great for P.V. Sindhu, who has risen from the 10th rank at the start of the year to finish third. Saina Nehwal, who has been recovering from injury, slipped one place from ninth to 10th.
However, unlike in the case of men, there seems to be a stark difference in rankings between the top two women players and the rest. The rankings gap between the third best and the best women player—46—is far wider than the corresponding gap for men at 13.
The difference in rankings seems to be driven at least in part by the number of tournaments played.
The Badminton World Federation has recently mandated minimum tournaments for top players. The top 15 singles players have to play at least a dozen tournaments every year. It remains to be seen if this increased play for top players will trickle down to the lower rungs.“Is that Kafka?“, asks the title of a playful new book from Reiner Stach, one that pulls together 99 facts and observations from the Czech author’s life, all with the purpose of clearing the brush of falsehoods about the man that linger in the public imagination.
Stach, a wonderful writer, who also wrote a three-volume documentary on Kafka, is forthright about the stakes of the book, which is on its surface nothing more than an extended list of items:
[W]here Kafka has persisted as the quintessential archetype of the writer as a sort of alien: unworldly, neurotic, introverted, sick — an uncanny man bringing forth uncanny things. This is only a cliché, but a very powerful one. Because, even if these myths are largely kept alive by those furthest removed from literature — the mass media — nevertheless it has been extraordinarily difficult for experienced readers to resist the pull of this cultural stereotype, powered as it is by such vivid images…a cobblestone alley damp with rain in nighttime Prague, backlit by gas lanterns…piles of papers, dusty in the candlelight…the nightmare of an enormous vermin. All of that is “Kafka,” no matter what literary scholarship might tell us.
To this end, the book is crammed with sad, humorous, amorous, and even ribald “counter-images,” or biographical snapshots of Kafka’s short life, all with headings that recall silent film intertitles before they became complexly narrative: “Kafka Cheats on his Exams,” “Kafka’s Exercise Routine,” “Going Whoring,” “How Kafka and Brod Almost Became Millionaires,” and “Kafka Takes the Subway” — almost every oddity from his life is exemplary.
If these snapshots are mere outtakes from Stach’s biographical writings about Kafka, they are still pleasing, even in list form — the word “list” derives from Old English and means pleasure (for those who don’t overuse it). And Stach is right that the overall effect is to humanize Kafka, who seems to have loved slapstick, to have had a kind of literary Withnail and I-like friendship with Max Brod, who schemed and flirted, was both obstinate and generous — who indeed was called upon by people he had never met for advice.
This also makes the final section of Is that Kafka? — “The End” — sad and moving. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 41, having reluctantly spent time in a sanitorium, and although historical tragedy loomed on the horizon for his friends and family, his death is felt in the book as a tremendous loss for those who knew him. Among the 99 items included are Kafka’s final letter to his family, his will, the epitaph on his gravestone, and his lover Milena Jesenská’s painful obituary:
He was shy, nervous, gentle, and kind, but the books that he wrote were gruesome and painful. He saw a world full of invisible demons that antagonize and annihilate defenseless people. He was too clear-sighted, too wise to live, and too weak to fight: but his was the weakness of noble, beautiful people…
It is generous of Stach to give this last word to Milena, given that it undercuts his attempt to dispel the image of the man as alien and otherworldly. But her vision of Kafka was an important part of a parallax that would try in vain to pin him down. More than 200 pages into Is that Kafka? Stach lets us in on the joke. After a brief description of a protest in Meran, where Kafka was staying at the time, followed by a panoramic, Where’s Waldo?-style image with hundreds of men in suits, Stach points out that two men are standing in line with lamppost are wearing much lighter colored suits — of the type that Kafka preferred. “The figure on the left has Kafka’s strikingly slim, unusually tall build and — to the extent that this can be seen in the picture — his characteristically youthful features,” Stach writes with all of the conspiratorial zeal of a high priest. “While we can’t be certain,” he continues, “there is a high probability: that’s him.”
X
Perhaps, if we looked for Kafka in the 21st century, we would find him in Lagos. This much is shrewdly put forward by forward by Blackass, the debut novel of celebrated Nigerian author A. Igoni Barrett, out this week from Graywolf. And this is to say that Barrett seems as much anyone to understand two things about Kafka: he was funny, and, as Milena said (above), he saw the world as basically unfair and poised on violence.
But first, again: he was funny and bold. So, too, is Barrett, whose novel begins with two epigraphs, one an inscription of the Agba Meta statue at the entrance to Lagos, the other a line from Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. In light of the fact that Blackass is a novel that brims with thick, often hilarious descriptions of Lagos, the former makes perfect sense; but why The Metamorphosis? That much becomes clear as you turn the page.
The thrust of Blackass is all the more Kafka-like (forget the word Kafkaesque) because it is daring and simple: a man, Furo Wariboko, wakes up on the day of an important job interview to find that he has become a white guy; or, at least, all of his body has inexplicably turned white except for his ass — hence the title of the novel. With nowhere to hide, he manages to get dressed, avoid his mother and sister, and make his way out the door of his house without being noticed; until, that is, he sets foot in the broader neighborhood, where (like many places in Lagos, we learn), the inhabitants “have never held a conversation with an oyibo, never considered white people as anything more or less than historical opportunists or gullible victims, never seen red hair, green eyes, or pink nipples except on screen and on paper.”
Along these lines, propelled by the ridiculousness of his situation, Furo faces a series of Odyssean encounters on the way to his interview, where he is promptly hired for a higher paying job than he would have thought possible — precisely because he is white. One of the joys of the novel, in fact, is that whiteness is treated as a kind of soulless existential and economic skeleton key, until it becomes something much worse.
Blackass is, like the best of Kafka, fiction concerned with family psychodrama, as when Furo, estranged by his whiteness, confesses his contempt for his father and his childlike adoration for his mother, whom he dreams would “strip of his clothes and bathe him in warm, Dettol-smelling water, then rub him down with calamine lotion and set him loose to run shrieking around the house.” It is also Kafka-like in the sense that Furo is moved through the plot by way of these relentless, externalized drives and subconscious motivations. When he meets Syreeta, a kept woman who hangs out at a shopping mall, she lures him to her apartment with the promise of a massage. Moments after she puts her hands him, he cries himself to sleep — I laughed as I winced.
There are a couple of baffling metafictional sections that feature the author (or his avatar), one “Igoni,” who eventually undergoes changes himself, but I’ll admit that I’m too mystified by these short sections to render a verdict. Still, the proteanism of Blackass, its emphasis on the absurdity of metamorphosis, points to a pressurized life in a precarious, corrupt world. When Igoni talks of meeting Furo’s sister, with whom he identifies, he puts the frustration of his generation in no uncertain terms:
We were both members of that caste of young adults who grew up in the ruins of Nigeria’s middle class. We were born into the military dictatorships of the ‘80s and ‘90s; we attended the cheaper private schools or the better public ones; we read the same Pacesetter novels and watched the same NTA shows: we lived in cities…Shame and arrogance. Pragmatism and sentimentality. Thoughtless violence and unthinking sacrifice. Red blusher and black skin.
By the time it comes to its unsettling conclusion, Blackass has itself metamorphosed into an imperfect yet affecting social novel, yes, but also set of fateful contradictions about a mad world forcefully and originally seen through to the end. Is that Kafka? Not yet, but it sounds familiar.Login to vote this up!
Do you remember when we used to be kids, we always wanted to experience and discover new and unknown things. Nobody can deny that. We also tried sometimes to test our courage by getting near a abandoned house and to see what lies inside its walls. Well today a new game studio is giving us this opportunity.It's, �an independent studio of former developers from, have launched their first trailer of their new gameAs you can see in the trailer (above),is a Paranormal Horror Experience, the game takes place in an abandoned house where lot of unexplainable events happens. As a player you have to be careful, you have to run and hide so that you could solve the mysteries and survive the evil in that haunted house."The Conjuring House is more than a game; it's an experience to live..." says RYM dev team.It's their first title, which is seeking additional funding for the downloadable PC game via indiegogo:� igg.the.conjuring.houseMichigan Gov. Rick Snyder was the Republican party’s only governor not to sign a 2011 letter by the Republican Governors Association calling for the ACA’s repeal. Scott Eells / Bloomberg / Getty Images
States play a leading role in the implementation of two of the most important components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA): the creation of health-insurance marketplaces, known as exchanges, and the expansion of Medicaid. Even after the nasty and partisan fight over health-care reform in Congress in 2009 and the Supreme Court's momentous decision in June 2012 to allow it to go forward, the ultimate shape of the reform is largely being determined by battles in state capitals around the country. Michigan is a particularly interesting case study of the politics of this ongoing fight, since Democrats had recently been in charge but Republicans now control the state House, state Senate and governorship. The legislature ultimately decided against doing an exchange but in favor of expanding Medicaid. Both votes were close and could easily have turned out differently. The results came down not simply to a battle between Democrats and Republicans, but between moderate Republicans and more conservative tea party Republicans.
Unusual political landscape
Michigan's role in national politics might have suggested a political environment open to, if not supportive of, implementing the ACA. Every Democratic nominee since Bill Clinton in 1992 has won in Michigan, including Barack Obama with 57 percent of the vote in 2008 and 54 percent in 2012, despite Mitt Romney’s ties to the state. In 2012, Senator Debbie Stabenow, also a Democrat, won re-election in Michigan with 59 percent of the vote, despite severe attacks from her opponent about her role in passing health reform. Some of Michigan's congressional representatives were among the leaders supporting the ACA's passage, including Democrats John Dingell and John Conyers, who have introduced health-reform bills in every session of Congress for many years. Moreover, Michigan needs the help after being hit hard by the Great Recession. Thirteen percent of Michiganders are without health insurance, including 18 percent of adults aged 19 to 64 and 5 percent of children under age 18. The state's unemployment rate is 9 percent (compared to a nationwide rate of 7.3 percent). At the same time, other Michigan representatives led the opposition in Congress to the law's passage, including Republican Dave Camp, who was the ranking member on the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, the first Republican to hold the office since 1955, was among the original plaintiffs on the lawsuit arguing that the ACA is unconstitutional. In November 2010, Republicans rode their opposition of the ACA to their largest majorities in the legislature since the 1950s. Elected in the same 2010 GOP wave, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder has been more of a pro-business pragmatist than an ideologue. He supported the lawsuit against the ACA but was the party's only governor not to sign a 2011 letter by the Republican Governors Association calling for the law's repeal. Snyder also supported the creation of a state exchange and expanding Medicaid. Republican leaders in both chambers of the state capitol ultimately supported both approaches as well. Implementing the ACA in Michigan was therefore not a question of Democrats trying to convince Republicans, but Republican leaders trying to convince enough rank and file Republicans to vote with the Democrats.
State exchange rejected
Michigan was on track to be the first state led entirely by Republicans to create an insurance exchange as part of the ACA. Backed by a broad coalition of insurance companies and other businesses, hospitals, health-care providers and consumer advocates, Snyder called on the legislature in September 2011 to create an exchange run by a non-profit board and focused on maximizing competition and providing good consumer service. The state Senate endorsed this plan, but House leaders delayed action in the hope that the issue would go away if the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law or if President Barack Obama lost re-election in 2012. When neither happened, the House's Health Policy Committee voted down exchange legislation with nine Republicans voting against the bill, two Republicans joining three Democrats to support it, two Democrats and a Republican abstaining, and two Democrats not even showing up. Each of these Democrats likely would have voted for the exchange except that at the last minute Republicans included a provision barring any plan sold on the exchange from covering abortion. Had the bill made it out of committee, insiders say enough Republicans would have voted with the Democrats to pass it on the house floor.
Leaders who supported Medicaid expansion framed it as a'reform' of the program that would save Michigan money and help business.
With plans for a state-based exchange rejected, Snyder focused on creating a partnership exchange with the federal government. The partnership would mean that Michigan would maintain control over customer assistance and a basis could be laid for a later transition to full state control. The Obama administration approved Snyder's proposal in March 2013 and awarded the state $31 million for the project. However, state officials cannot spend federal grants without a specific state appropriation, and the Michigan Senate refused to approve the appropriation. Without funding, plans for a partnership exchange fell apart, leaving national officials to build Michigan's exchange.
Contentious Medicaid debate
Republicans who support Medicaid expansion tried to learn from the failed exchange effort. Because conservatives do not like Medicaid as it is, supportive leaders framed it as "Medicaid reform" rather than about expanding coverage. They proposed legislation through the House's Michigan Competitiveness Committee, arguing that the generous federal funding would result in a net savings of $1.17 billion through 2019, while refusing the money would put Michigan businesses at a disadvantage. This approach worked in the House, with enough Republicans siding with Democrats to advance expansion by a two-to-one margin. But the Senate adjourned for the summer without taking a vote, because leaders in that chamber refused to put a bill on the floor without support from more than half of the Republican caucus. After a summer of contentious debates, a reconsideration of the Medicaid expansion passed by a razor-thin margin. A bill endorsed by Snyder initially failed by one vote, but then passed hours later by two votes – when one senator who had voted against changed his position and another who had abstained registered a vote in favor. Experts estimate that as a result of expanding Medicaid, 620,000 additional Michiganders will be insured by 2020, reducing the overall uninsured population to 5 percent. The federal government is scheduled to pay 100 percent of the increase until 2016, with the state's share ultimately phasing up to 10 percent in 2020. However, the Republicans placed one last barrier: Rather than record another vote in favor of Medicaid, Republicans allowed the start date for the expansion to be 90 days beyond Jan. 1, 2014. As a result, uninsured Michiganders will have to wait a few more months before receiving new coverage. For each day of this delay, the state will lose an estimated $7 million in federal money.
Partisan divisionsHe may be hundreds of miles away at the International Space Station, but that hasn’t stopped Thomas Pesquet from voting in the French election.With the help of a friend, he was able to take part in what has become one of the most turbulent battles for the French presidency in decades.A #timelapse that highlights how much of our planet is desert, water and covered in clouds! https://t.co/MNNwvuQUHX pic.twitter.com/lmjD1hJZB2— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) May 5, 2017Mr Pesquet, who now lives in Germany, said: “It was a bit complicated because I live abroad, but the people from the consulate were really nice so I was able to arrange for a French colleague to vote for me.”The European Space Agency astronaut will return to earth at the end of May, after completing a six month mission at the space station.Amazon has a new product that doesn’t really have any current equivalent form any other tech company – a connected speaker called Echo that’s always-on, listening for commands that its virtual assistant can then respond to with information or by triggering a task.
The cylindrical device has room-filling sound, and seven microphones on top, which use beam-forming tech to pinpoint your voice and ensure it can hear you no matter where you’re speaking to it in a room. It can filter out background noise, including playing music, in order to better understand requests, and it processes voice input via Amazon’s cloud-based web servers, meaning that it can get better at identifying requests and responding to commands over time.
It has a 360-degree-firing speaker, and it works with both Bluetooth from your device, as well as built-in support for playback of music from Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn and iHeartRadio. You can also get news and weather information from local radio, NPR, and ESPN via TuneIn, as well as other sources. It’ll answer queries and provide basic info from Wikipedia, give you word definitions, and even convert units on the fly.
Amazon is shipping a dedicated Echo app to go with the speaker, which runs on Fire OS and Android, as well as a web-based app for iOS via Safari, and for control via desktop. You can use this to set up your service, to view and monitor alarms, check reminders and shopping lists you create and generally check info you input via the speaker itself.
Amazon’s Echo is $199, or $99 for Prime members for a limited time, and requires an invite from the company to even be ordered. It’s pretty much out of left field, though we’d heard that Amazon’s highly secretive special projects Lab126 was working on various gadgets earlier this year. The concept of a whole-home Siri always on, and always ready for queries and to provide information, is also an idea that some had floated for inclusion in future versions of Apple TV hardware, and a notion at the heart of more than a few current startups.
For Amazon, it has obvious benefits, since the whole concept involves the device listening for and processing voice queries from users. That aspect might also make users uneasy with the idea overall, in a similar way to how many found that Amazon’s Fire Phone appeared to be more about funnelling shoppers to Amazon’s web store than providing user-oriented convenience. Amazon notes that it only listens when you say the activation word, which appears to be “Alexa” by default.
The whole thing is a tad baffling, but also intriguing in that it’s fairly unique among major tech company product introductions. Plus, if this thing gets wider connectivity to the growing category of smart home devices, like Philips Hue connected bulbs or Nest’s learning thermostat, you could see it shifting to become a whole-home smart hub. As it currently stands, though, this seems like an odd pitch to make to consumers, although perhaps more sensible than a smartphone with a 3D display you have to move your head around to navigate.Russian President Vladimir Putin. Adam Berry/Getty Images A high-level official at the Department of Justice tasked with investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election has announced that she will leave the DOJ in May, leaving a key position in the department's National Security Division unfilled as President Donald Trump's political appointees await confirmation in the Senate.
Mary McCord, the acting assistant attorney general of the division, did not provide a reason when she told her staff that she would be leaving in May, according to NPR. She said "the time is now right for me to pursue new career opportunities."
McCord's departure has raised questions about the future of the Trump-Russia investigation, which will be in the hands of Trump's nominee for deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, if and when he is confirmed. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from Trump-campaign-related investigations last month amid revelations that he failed to disclose two meetings he had with Russia's ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, in 2016.
"This just highlights how important it is that the Russia investigation be handled by an independent prosecutor," said Matt Miller, a DOJ spokesman under the Obama administration. "Once Rod Rosenstein is confirmed, the investigation will be in the hands of someone who interacts with people in the White House on a daily basis, and that's just not tenable. It's even harder with the career official who has been handling it leaving the department."
When asked during his confirmation hearing last month whether he would select a special prosecutor to oversee the Russia investigation, Rosenstein replied that he was "not in a position to answer."
US President Donald Trump with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Thomson Reuters
"I view it as an issue of principle that as a nominee for deputy attorney general, I should not be promising to take action on a particular case," Rosenstein said. "I believe that if I were to do this in this case, some future deputy attorney general nominee would be … asked to make a similar commitment, and they'd say, 'Rosenstein did it — why won't you?'"
Rosenstein added that he had not yet read the intelligence community's report on Russia's election interference and knew only what he had seen in media reports.
Democrats concerned about Rosenstein's ability to lead an unbiased investigation into the Trump campaign's ties with Moscow vowed to block his confirmation if he did not commit to appointing a special counsel.
"I'll use every possible tool to block DOJ Deputy AG nominee [Rosenstein] unless he commits to appoint independent special prosecutor," Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal tweeted at the time.
(As lawyer Paul Rosenzweig has written, however, the correct term is "special counsel," not "special prosecutor.")
In any case, with McCord gone and Rosenstein set to take over, calls are growing louder for an independent counsel to oversee the criminal investigation into Russia's election interference and the Trump campaign's possible role in it. (The FBI's intelligence activities are overseen by the Director of National Intelligence.)
"The final step would be for the Attorney General to select to lead the inquiry a prominent Republican — perhaps one who is not affiliated with the #NeverTrump wing of the party," Rosenzweig wrote on Lawfare. "We might also consider convening a special grand jury, which could provide the American public with a report on its investigation."
"The ideal preference, of course, would be for this all to run in parallel with a Congressional investigation," he added, "but that may be too much to ask for."
The congressional intelligence committees' respective investigations into Russian meddling and who knew about it have been slow-going. The House Intelligence Committee's chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, stepped aside earlier this month amid questions about his ability to lead an independent investigation into Trump's Russia ties. Republican Rep. Mike Conaway is set to take over for Nunes, but he has cast doubt on the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia interfered in the election to help Trump win.
An open hearing featuring testimony from former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan was scrapped by Nunes late last month and hasn't been rescheduled.
Yates warned the administration in January that Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn |
(Kelly Bennett/CBC)
Last fall, the service supplied three categories of numbers in response to questions for clarity from CBC Hamilton, none of which conclusively showed what was happening.
CBC Hamilton revealed that the numbers the chief was relying on for that statement left out a shooting in August that left an 18-year-old dead. They left out two shootings just a few days before the chief's statements, and afternoon gunfire in August while children reportedly watched.
kelly.bennett@cbc.ca | @kellyrbennettContrary to popular belief, the pilot of a show doesn't spell doom or success right away. "Given the precious nature of primetime slots on traditional TV, a series pilot is arguably the most important point in the life of the show," Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer for Netflix, said in a statement. "However, in our research of more than 20 shows across 16 markets, we found that no one was ever hooked on the pilot. This gives us confidence that giving our members all episodes at once is more aligned with how fans are made."
This global research that pulled data from 16 countries, including US, UK, Brazil, Australia to name a few, seems to validate the site's "all at once" motto. But according to the WSJ, the findings that pin-point when viewers bail on a series haven't been disclosed.
[Image credit: Netflix, Inc]Doctors warned Mr Thompson that he would die unless he lost weight
Britain’ fattest man - who weighed 65 stone aged 33 - was found dead just hours after ordering apple crumble and ice cream from his favourite takeaway.
Emergency services needed several hours to remove Carl Thompson from his home yesterday morning, using a small crane to carry his body out via an upstairs balcony and closing the road outside.
The 33-year-old, from Dover, had been housebound for more than a year after doctors warned he needed to lose 70 per cent of his body-weight to survive.
Carl Thompson, Britain's fattest man who weighed 65 stone, has died at the age of 33 in his home in Kent
Mr Thompson attributed his weight gain to the death of his mother in 2012. They are pictured together, above, when he was a teenager
Last night the owner of his favourite takeaway, who would deliver food to his bedside using a key to his flat, spoke of sending him what may have been his final food order.
In the weeks before he died their best customer had been reducing the number of dishes he bought to lose weight.
Merdad Mohebbi, owner of nearby Q Pizza, told The Sun: 'I can't believe it. He had cut right down on what he was eating. He was only ordering one or two things a day.
'When I took the order he seemed happy enough. He was talking about how he was going to the hospital and they were going to do tests for him. He was full of life.'
Last month Mr Thompson appeared on This Morning and begged for help to lose weight, saying he wanted to do it naturally rather than using a gastric band.
When his mother died of a brain tumour in 2012, Mr Thompson turned to junk food as a means of coping with his grief – despite already being obese.
His weight went from 30 stone to 65 in three years, leaving him unable to care for himself.
Consuming a staggering 10,000 calories every day – four times the usual daily amount for a man – Mr Thompson binged on Chinese takeaways and pizzas he had delivered to his door and claimed to have spent £10 a day on chocolate – relying on state handouts for money.
Unable to walk or even dress himself, he was bathed and cooked for by a team of NHS carers.
Living off incapacity benefits and disability allowances, he had not worked since the age of 17 and spent roughly £200 a week on takeaways and online food shopping.
The 33-year-old had become confined to his home in Dover, relying on NHS carers to cook his food and bathe him
The 33-year-old said he had always had a problem with food and was seen raiding his neighbours' fridges as a toddler. He is seen above aged around three (right) and at a healthier weight aged around 10 (left)
While Mr Thompson attributed most of his weight gain to the death of his mother, he admitted he had always ‘loved’ food.
Last month he made a public appeal for help to overcome his problem after tipping the scales as Britain’s fattest man – and was inundated with offers. Doctors warned he could be faced with death if efforts were not made to shed at least 45 stone.
Mr Thompson said: ‘Any professional opinion or other knowledge would be great. I’ve had a lot of that coming in anyway but the more the better.
‘I could die, that’s the bottom line if I keep going the way I do.
‘Because of what I eat I’m missing out on everything in life.’
Unable to leave the house to go food shopping, the 33-year-old lived on Chinese takeaways and pizzas that he had delivered to his door.
He also claimed to have spent £10 a day on chocolate, relying on benefits to pay for his junk food.
While Mr Thompson attributed most of his weight gain to the death of his mother, he admitted that he had always 'loved' food.
'I was only about three or four and no one knew why I did it. I would just eat anything out of the cupboards,' he said.
When his mother died of a brain tumour in 2012, he turned to unhealthy food as a means of coping with his grief.
His weight soon doubled from 30stone to 65, leaving him unable to work.
Mr Thompson spent the last few years in and out of hospital, where he was treated for a range of ailments including septicemia.
Mr Thompson died just weeks after vowing to shed weight after being 'touched' by the outpouring of sympathy he received since sharing his story
Unlike Paul Mason – previously Britain’s heaviest man at 70 stone before losing 48 stone after gastric band surgery – Mr Thompson did not want to undergo an operation.
He said: ‘I don’t want a gastric band, they’re dangerous. I’d like the help of a dietician and a psychiatrist to help shift the weight,’ he said. ‘I will go anywhere which will help me lose weight. It’s taken over my life. I can’t move, and it’s time for that to end.’
He confessed to struggling with his weight since childhood, indulging in late-night fridge raids even as a toddler.
‘I was only about three or four,’ he said. ‘I would just eat anything out of the cupboards.’Kalamazoo, Michigan’s WWMT-TV reported Tuesday that Gophers football head coach P.J. Fleck may have engaged in a recruiting violation.
Robert Spillane, former Western Michigan linebacker, recently received a release from Western Michigan University, Fleck’s last stop as head coach.
WWMT-TV reported from an anonymous source that Fleck contacted Spillane about playing for Minnesota before Spillane had received full permission to transfer, which could be a violation of NCAA rules.
University spokesman Paul Rovnak told the Star Tribune that the school is “not recruiting any students from Western Michigan”
Spillane has yet to make a decision on where to transfer. Fleck coached the linebacker during his three collegiate seasons.
In a tweet Wednesday afternoon, Spillane said he hasn’t decided where to transfer and that his decision to leave Western Michigan had “nothing to do with PJ Fleck.”
Spillane played in all 13 games last season for the Broncos and was the team’s leading tackler with 105. He had two sacks and three interceptions in 2016, including an interception against Ohio University that helped the team clinch their first MAC title and an undefeated season.
The NCAA requires permission to contact for students transferring schools, which must be granted before any formal recruiting can occur.
ShareCopyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved In this Jan. 25, 2015 file photo, Debbie Reynolds, winner of the Screen Actors Guild lifetime award, left, and Carrie Fisher pose in the press room at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP,...
Copyright by WOODTV - All rights reserved In this Jan. 25, 2015 file photo, Debbie Reynolds, winner of the Screen Actors Guild lifetime award, left, and Carrie Fisher pose in the press room at the 21st annual Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP,...
ANTHONY McCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer - LOS ANGELES (AP) — Stars and fans will gather Saturday for a public memorial to honor late actresses Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher nearly three months after their deaths.
The ceremony honoring the lives of the mother-daughter duo will be held at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, the storied cemetery that is their final resting place. People will be granted attendance at the event on a first-come, first-served basis, and it will be live-streamed on www.debbiereynolds.com beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern.
The ceremony is slated to feature music by James Blunt and "Star Wars" composer John Williams and display Hollywood memorabilia that Reynolds collected throughout her life.
Fisher, 60, an actress and writer who starred as Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" trilogy, died Dec. 27 after suffering a medical emergency days earlier aboard a flight from London. Reynolds, 84, an Oscar-nominated actress who shot to fame after starring in "Singin' in the Rain" at age 19, died the following day after being briefly hospitalized.
"She said, 'I want to be with Carrie,'" Reynolds' son, Todd Fisher, told The Associated Press after his mother's death. "And then she was gone."
The back-to-back deaths of two prominent actresses were stunning, but they were made even more poignant by the women's complex history. Fisher and Reynolds had a strained relationship that Fisher explored in her writing, but they later reconciled and became trusted confidantes brought closer by painful events in their lives.
Reynolds lost one husband to Elizabeth Taylor, and two other husbands plundered her for millions. Fisher struggled with addiction and mental illness, which she candidly described in books and interviews.
Fisher died after finishing work on "The Last Jedi," the eighth film in the core "Star Wars" saga. Disney CEO Bob Iger said this week that Fisher appears throughout the film, and her performance will not be changed.
Reynolds earned an Oscar nomination for her starring role in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
The actresses participated in an HBO documentary on their lives called "Bright Lights," which aired in January.
Todd Fisher organized Saturday's memorial to give fans an opportunity to honor his mother and sister. Fisher's daughter, actress Billie Lourd, is expected to attend.
Stars including Meryl Streep, Tracey Ullman and Stephen Fry mourned the actresses at a private memorial in January.We seem to be hearing an awful lot about the Buffalo Bills medical staff these days. The team has made poor or hasty decisions about several injured players, and it's starting to form a narrative. Read about some of the recent missteps and see if you agree:
An overly optimistic opinion of Shaq Lawson
Lawson, considered one of the top ten talents in the 2016 NFL Draft, fell to the 19th overall pick in part because of a shoulder injury that was considered a risk by some teams. It wasn't Lawson's first injury either, as he dealt with an ankle injury in the last couple games of his college career. The Bills made a (now notorious) proclamation that they weren't worried about his shoulder injury on draft weekend, circulating reports that the team planned to have him play one season through his condition and then undergo surgery in the 2017 offseason. They then had to dodge plenty of flak when he aggravated the injury, allegedly by working against a tackling dummy in practice. Lawson is now in the estimated four- to six-month recovery period following his shoulder surgery.
Making the situation more curious is a line from Vic Carucci's recent mailbag article:
I think the Bills were hoping against hope that Lawson would push through this year as best as possible, but at some point during rookie minicamp, he came to the realization that what he was able to do successfully in college just might not work as well in the NFL. He saw the operation as being better for his chances of living up to lofty expectations. The Bills had no choice but to go along with his wishes.
As Ryan Talbot noted on Monday, this is a significant difference, suggesting that the Bills organization was still planning to have Lawson play through his injury until he forced their hands. It would appear the player didn't agree. The official line out of One Bills Drive was that the team's decision makers made a collective choice to have Lawson undergo surgery in order to prolong his career.
Mishandling Seantrel Henderson's illness
Buffalo's right tackle has been fighting Crohn's disease since the middle of last season. According to a new report from Tyler Dunne speaking with Henderson's agent, the team failed to properly diagnose the illness when Henderson was first dealing with stomach pains. The tackle lost 20 pounds and was hospitalized after the Eagles game, and has since undergone two surgeries to remove infected areas of his intestine.
Not only did the Bills mishandle the diagnosis, but Henderson's agent alleges that the team's communication was "unusual," with none of the coaches reaching out to him during the tackle's recovery process.
A blasé assessment of Leodis McKelvin's ankle injury
If you think back to the 2014 season, McKelvin suffered an ankle injury that caused him to drop onto Injured Reserve for the last chunk of the season. Spending much of the ensuing offseason rehabbing, McKelvin was still expected to return to the field as a rotational starter in 2015. On the first day of training camp, he was placed on the Reserve-Non Football Injury list, and Rex Ryan called it "a little injury," saying he wasn't concerned with it.
One day later, McKelvin was driving a scooter around, having had what Ryan called "a setback" in his recovery. The team said they hoped he would be back soon.
The next time he saw the field? Week 9 of the regular season, almost a full year after initially injuring that ankle.
Indecision on LeSean McCoy's hamstring injury
Perhaps no one felt the roller coaster effects of an injury-plagued season as much as Buffalo's lead rusher. During a joint practice with the Browns, McCoy strained his hamstring, (Editor's note: While the original article called his injury a sprain, we have since been corrected that McCoy's injury was a strain, which is very different) putting his availability for week one in doubt. The team forced the issue by cutting Fred Jackson, and McCoy did end up debuting, albeit on a "pitch count." He clearly wasn't at full strength, rushing for 3.39 yards per carry in the first three weeks of the season. At that point, the Bills started questioning if McCoy should sit after all, and Ryan deferred to Buffalo's "experts" to decide that he should take time off.
That's just the tip of the iceberg
Over the last couple of seasons, we've seen more perplexing injury situations than we'd want from an NFL team. Sammy Watkins came back too quickly from his broken rib, EJ Manuel was rushed back from knee injuries, and the chain of communication does not seem to be present between the medical staff, the coaches and scouts, and the players. At what point will someone be held accountable? While the injuries haven't reached the abysmal problems affecting the New York Giants every day, it's still affecting Buffalo's on-field performance and off-field reputation. For the health of the players and the good of the team, someone should be held accountable.A London-based student who is accused of trying to smuggle 20,000 Euros hidden in her underwear to Syria is on trial in Britain after she was caught traveling through Heathrow airport.
London-based student Nawal Massad (R). (Photo courtesy: Facebook)
Nawal Masaad, 26, was allegedly caught with the money on a flight to Turkey and is accused of being recruited by a mother-of-two, Amal El-Wahabi, to send the cash to Wahabi’s husband in Syria.
The money was reportedly wrapped in cling film and found when she was searched at Heathrow on Jan. 16. Masaad and Wahabi, who are both of Moroccan descent, pleaded not guilty to one count of becoming concerned in a funding arrangement when they appeared in court.
On Monday, she arrived at court “with her electronic ankle tag clearly on display,” the Daily Mail reported.
Arriving at court on Monday. (Photo courtesy: Central News/ Daily Mail)
She was carrying “what appeared to be a quilted black Chanel bag and wearing stilettos, a blouse, and white mini-skirt and jacket,” the newspaper added.
On Facebook, Masaad posted a statement in which she denied any “jihadist affiliations,” describing herself as a British Muslim who ‘hates terrorism’ and feels that she has been targeted because of her race.
“On 16th January 2014, I was arrested at Heathrow airport and accused of transporting money to Syria for the purposes of terrorism.
“I was not travelling to Syria, I was travelling to Turkey, Istanbul which is very far from the Syrian border,” she added.
Masaad and Wahabi are the first British women to be charged with terrorism offences related to the conflict
Britain has witnessed a surge in the number of Britons caught travelling or returning from war-wracked Syria.
Last year, 25 arrests were made, while the number has now climbed to 40 for the first three months of 2014, Agence France-Presse reported.
Several of those arrested were subsequently charged with terrorism-related offences.
Last Update: Tuesday, 20 May 2014 KSA 12:16 - GMT 09:16There's a small group of young people in Attawapiskat who want to beautify their small James Bay coast community.
The group, led by 16-year old Jack Junior Linklater, has been volunteering to pick up litter over the past week.
Since Saturday they've been clearing garbage and debris from ditches, elder's yards and other parts of the community.
The team wants to clean up all of Attawapiskat and they plan on keeping up their work until all the garbage is picked up.
Linklater expects it should take them a month or two to do that.
A group of young people in Attawapiskat has been cleaning up litter around the community since Saturday. (David Linklater)
The community has been in crisis of late, due to a number of young people contemplating suicide.
Linklater said cleaning up his community helps him deal with his depressed feelings and helps him get through the day.
He said when he gets down he likes to "help someone or do something positive", adding that doing that gives him hope.
Linklater described living in the remote community as a battle for hope.
"Every day I put up a fight struggling in school, at home, in the world," he said.
The group cleaning up litter is focusing on ditches. This is one of the ditches in the James Bay community that the youth cleaned up. (Jack Junior Linklater)
He said he wishes more people would keep the earth clean.
"My message to the community and every one else, not only in Attawapiskat, but all over, is to keep the environment clean and safe for all the children and everyone else around the world."
Linklater aspires to work for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry once he's completed his education, likely in environmental studies.
A group of youth in Attawapiskat have been picking up litter around the community (Jack Junior Linklater)
If Linklater's name seems familiar, that's because he's been in the news before for helping his community.
The teen was honoured as the Junior Canadian Ranger of the Year in Ontario in 2015, for his bravery during a house fire in 2014.
Linklater said it was on his birthday, on Aug. 2, when smoke and flames woke him from a nap. He called for the home's 16 residents to get out — but his two young nieces were left inside. Linklater re-entered the burning house, broke down a locked door and carried them out.“If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh
We are all beset with doubts sometimes. Even the most self-assured and successful people can be unsure of themselves. Some people are clearly more confident than others, though. To what extent this is ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’ is unclear, though I suspect that ‘nurture’ has a lot to do with it. I’ve seen my own confidence wax and wane over the years, and external factors have certainly played a part. Some signs that you might be lacking somewhat in confidence are:
Thinking that other people are better than you
Expecting the worst outcome
Engaging in negative self-talk
Feeling the need to justify your behavior to others
Overreacting to criticism
Not having many friends or avoiding social situations
Body language that is defensive and closed.
If you have some of these traits, perhaps you need to consider building more confidence. Can this be done? I think it’s clear is that confidence, like most other traits, can be developed. Like a muscle, with training and in time, it can become strong and powerful. To put it another way: confidence is a habit – confidence begets confidence. Here are some training ideas to develop this most important of habits.
Make friends with your failings and limitations
This is a key area. Obviously, you are not perfect – far from it. So long as you are challenging yourself, stepping out of your comfort zone and seeking to develop, you will be making mistakes. The mistakes are signs of growth and nothing to be ashamed of.. Confident people are comfortable in their own skin, happy with themselves in all their imperfection. They have nothing to prove.
Don’t be pushy or aggressive
Confidence can manifest itself in many different ways, and sometimes there is a visibly assertive quality to it, but there is also a quieter and more restrained confidence. When you meet a confident person, you tend to pick up that the person is happy with himself and feels comfortable in her own skin. Confidence does not mean aggressive, pushy, loud or superior, which is often a sign of over-compensation for some kind of inferiority complex.
Don’t be defensive
Listening to and acting on criticism is an important part of being confident. It is often very hard for us to be objective about ourselves, and other people can give us great insights into our strengths and weaknesses. Of course, we have to be critical about the things that people tell us, not falling into credulity and taking everything they say at face value. But the insights afforded by others can be very valuable. If people laugh at you or attack you, this probably says more about them than about you. Insecure people often try to cover up their feelings of inadequacy by falling into such behaviors.
Do what you believe to be right
Confident people tend to rely on an internal guidance system to keep them going along the right track, whereas those with less confidence can be buffeted around by other people’s opinions and agendas. Having an inner compass is an essential part of living assertively and confidently, and following the compass can sometimes mean having to take risks. But without risk, there is no growth.
Set challenging goals
Confident people tend to live in a more conscious and deliberate way, setting goals for themselves. They are secure enough to tolerate failure, and are comfortable with not getting things right first time. If we are not growing, then we are falling back – there is always movement. As we challenge ourselves, our comfort zone grows, and this growth often involves the pain of failure. This pain is too much for insecure people to bear. But to confident people, failure is only a stepping-stone, not the destination. Success, for confident people, is inevitable. It’s only a matter of time.
Keep a record of your achievements
It is common for people with limited self-confidence to compare themselves unfavorably with others. Such people may assume that others are ‘better’ and have achieved more, so it can be very helpful to make a list of achievements. If you do this, you may find that the list is longer than you thought. Imagine what you would think if this were a list of someone else’s achievements. Would you be impressed? Would you think highly of that person?
Learn to be optimistic
People who lack self-confidence are often pessimistic about the future and tend to think the worst. It’s important to replace negative, self-defeating mental chatter with upbeat, positive self-talk. All day long, thoughts are swirling around inside our head and we need to be conscious about this. Such self awareness isn’t easy, but with some gentle persistence you can become more aware of your thoughts and, when you catch yourself thinking in a negative way, replace the thought with something more positive. Examples of negative thinking are: exaggerating the negative aspects of things, taking things personally, feeling you are being blamed for things or feeling like a victim, to name just a few. Simply being aware of negative thinking modalities can be a great help in overcoming them. When you catch yourself thinking in such negative ways, try to replace the thought with something more self-affirming.
Take a balanced approach
The benefits of confidence are clear but, as with most things, too much of it can be unhealthy. Over-confidence, which can lead to errors of judgment and under-performance, is dangerous and should be guarded against. Confidence is about getting the balance right.
Relax
Confident people are more relaxed, happier and enjoy situations, however challenging, a lot more than those with low self-esteem, trusting that they can deal with whatever problems and challenges might arise. If you fail, if you get it all wrong, it won’t be the end of the world. If you’re tense and worried about how you’re being perceived, your energy is being wasted – it’s not going into the matter at hand. So let go, take the focus of attention off yourself, relax and enjoy the ride.
“Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale
The benefits of being confident are clear: you’ll be happier, more relaxed and probably healthier. You’ll use time more effectively because you won’t be worrying endlessly about other people’s opinions, and you’ll have a clearer sense of purpose, so you’ll be a lot more effective. Confidence, in a sense, is the key to happiness and fulfillment.
“What a fool am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle.” – John Bunyan
Photo by Andy CThae Yong-ho, a former North Korean embassy official who became one of the highest-ranking defectors from his country, said on Thursday that a potential upcoming nuclear test by the outlaw regime in Pyongyang could “break the country in two pieces” and topple the government of Kim Jong-un.
Yonhap News reviews the evidence that such a North Korean nuclear test is forthcoming:
On Thursday, 38 North, a website run by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said that satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast shows that substantial tunnel excavation is continuing at the North Portal, where the last four of the five underground nuclear tests by the North were conducted. The test, if made, will be 14 times more powerful than the previous test, it said.
Thae points out that such a powerful nuclear blast would be bad news for the people who live near the test site, and those folks already wake up every morning to the bad news that they live in North Korea:
“All northward roads and railways pass by Punggye-ri. If a massive explosion pollutes the area, and subsequently Pyongyang loses its control over the border areas of North Hamkyong Province, a massive defection will take place there,” he said. The environmental pollution resulting from a failure to control a nuclear explosion in a small country like North Korea will almost be an apocalypse, he said. The international community should be aware of the danger of the North’s large-scale nuclear test this time, he said. “In particular, Punggye-ri is not far from China. Efforts to get China to help prevent the North from conducting a nuclear test should also be made,” he said.
38North, the group referenced by Yonhap News, believes Kim Jong-un wants a big, messy, dangerous nuclear test to further his “coercive strategy” against the United States. In fact, North Korea’s primary goal is proving that “strategic patience” will not slowly nibble away at Pyongyang’s resources and resolve until its nuclear program collapses. Decades of sanctions and diplomatic pressure will vanish in a cloud of fallout.
North Korea has long employed nuclear blackmail to squeeze money from the civilized nations around it and even threatened China with a refugee tidal wave should the Kim regime collapse, but this may prove an opportune moment for the Communist backwater to achieve one of its most difficult strategic goals: driving a wedge between its opponents, specifically the United States and South Korea. As 38North explains:
In the past, the DPRK has experienced some success in driving wedges between divergent US and ROK policy positions. Depending on the outcome of this year’s presidential election in South Korea, the North may find ample opportunity for wedge driving. However, the DPRK’s coercive strategy is vulnerable to being over-played, and in the hands of a young and relatively inexperienced leader there is an even greater likelihood of blowback from South Korea and China.
Gigantic nuclear explosions are a brutally effective means of reducing “blowback” from neighboring nations, especially those downwind of the test site. The current chaos in South Korea must be extremely tempting for Kim, especially since North Korea was always gleefully savage and misogynist in its treatment of impeached President Park Geun-hye.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on his way to Asia, including stops in Japan, South Korea, and Beijing. His agenda includes convincing China to rein in North Korea, but Reuters speculates the Chinese are still angry about the deployment of the THAAD missile shield to North Korea, and President Donald Trump’s “repeated threats to impose punitive tariffs on Beijing to correct a large trade imbalance.”
The possibility that South Korea will vote in a more liberal government to replace Park, and perhaps even back out of THAAD deployment, may also tempt Beijing to rebuff any demands Tillerson makes. Perhaps a 280-kiloton nuclear blast in troubling proximity to the Chinese border will change their minds.Digital Album Digital Album Streaming + Download Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
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Cualli’s latest EP, “The Monk of Chunk,” is a colorful blend of meticulously crafted sound design and adventurous musicality. Within these five tracks, Cualli delves deep into the swung out rhythms of Dilla-era hip hop; the fusion of slippery synthesis and immense sub pressure with these rhythms comes across as chaotic yet careful in its execution. Beyond drawing inspiration from both mid-tempo bass music and halftime drum ’n bass, the release sits within a world of personal experiences and field recordings from various international nature locations such as the Amazon of Peru, the Northern California redwoods, and the Himalayas.
Released as a pay-what-you-want album via Gravitas Recordings, the EP exudes a unique quality that speaks both of his personal experience as well as a broader sense of the world of nature. Through this music, Cualli hopes to inspire feelings of awe and respect for the majesty of nature as well as provide a vision for the potential artistic beauty in the synthesis between humans, technology and the environment.
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released January 17, 2017
All tracks produced, mixed and mastered by Cualli
Vocals for "Rain Tiger" by Sophia Boedecker
Artwork by Mugwort
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all rights reservedQ. When did you fall in love with this hobby?
A. It started with the Centennial Anniversary of the Civil War. I was 10 years old in 1961, and 14 years of age come 1965. Those are real formative years for a young boy. During the Centennial, the newspaper had a big section every week, and living history presentations were also a big deal. I attended a few of them, and as a 10 to 14 year old, it made quite an impression. Those were the years when I said “you know what, this stuff is cool.”
When I moved on to High School, I started to learn about metal detectors. My friend and I purchased one and put it to work. In those days, every place you went had never had a machine on it. Now keep in mind, the detectors weren’t that good, but the relics were so plentiful that a forked-stick would’ve worked!
Q. What was your first metal detector?
A. My first attempts at metal detecting were made with what was called a Heathkit Metal Locator. The company would send you the parts and you would build it. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to start with. What I would consider my first “real” metal detector would have been a Metrotech. It worked okay. It had a little depth to it; but again, relics were so prolific in those days that plenty of them were just under the surface. If you didn’t find 50 to 100 artifacts on a day’s hunt you weren’t trying! On many occasions, I would lay my machine down to dig a signal and it would scream back at me with another signal where I had laid the coil down. The relics were just that abundant in those days.
During the 1960’s, 70’s, and the first half of the 80’s, relics were everywhere. In those years, public opinion of the hobby was that it was a novelty for people who were into history – rescuing and preserving artifacts. Also, the relics back then didn’t really have that much monetary value. For example, the first CSA belt buckle that I recovered, I got $500 for it. At the time, that was big, big money. I ended up buying it back a few years ago for $2,500 – that was a little negative return I would say!
Q. What do you hunt with these days?
A. I bounce back-and-forth between the White’s MXT Pro and the Fisher F75. Both are really great machines. On a site that holds relics, and you know how to use one of those machines, you’ll find something. With that said, there are so many good machines out there like Garrett, Minelab, and others. Most machines available today are really good if you learn how to use them right.
Q. What do you perceive to be the biggest threat to the hobby of relic hunting?
A. I believe the future of the hobby will be different than what the past has been. This is mostly due to urban sprawl and the erosion of personal connections. It’s not just the big cities; small communities are experiencing it as well. There are now many more people, houses, subdivisions, businesses, roads, and other things that are eating up the camps that were once miles away from the city. Urban sprawl works like a cancer that slowly makes its way outward, covering up sites as it spreads. Even in outlying areas where farms once stood, they’ve been subdivided and sold. Now to hunt one camp you have to get permission from 4 or 5 people. It’s just all different now.
To get permission these days, you can’t just knock on the door expecting to know the person on the other side. In the past you could, because everybody knew everybody. But now, it’s not likely because they’re probably from Michigan or California. Now more than ever, it’s just hard to find common ground.
Q. Have you changed the way you approach gaining access to new properties?
A. Yes. To improve your yes/no ratio, you have to research the property owners as well–where do they go to church, where did they go to school, where do they work, where do their kids play sports, etc. You do that until you find a shared connection that may be able to make an introduction on your behalf. You’re far better off having that person introduce you to the property owner versus making a cold call. This way, they already know a little about you, they’ve had time to think about it, someone else has vouched for you, and they’re expecting your visit.
This approach helps to lower the property owner’s natural reservations and goes a long way in reassuring them that you’re a good guy who just loves history. Now when you go and knock on their door, the reception is more like “oh, you’re that history guy Johnny called about.” It’s not “who are you and what are you doing here?”
If you’re cold calling around here anymore, you’ll only succeed about 20% of the time. If you use the intermediary approach, you’ll get permission somewhere north of 50% of the time. However, this does require a few more steps that will take extra time and research. I think it’s worth it though, because it’s almost impossible to reverse a no; and once a decision has been made, the umpire isn’t changing the call!
Q. What’s your approach when you visit a property owner?
A. It isn’t cool to show up to the door dressed like you’ve just escaped from the homeless shelter! And don’t show up dressed like you’re ready to go dig. That doesn’t work. I would suggest dressing as if you’re going to work–presentable and well-kept. Also, meet them when they’re expecting you.
Introduce yourself; tell them a little more about you, how long you’ve been in the hobby, and your love of history. If you have research on the area, share it with them. Let them know why you think there may be some bullets, old gun parts, or buttons on the property. Always speak in terms of historical items that are minor in nature. Never talk in terms of lost money. You don’t want to give the impression that your intent is financial gain. |
obvious improvement from many players throughout the year, particularly among some of the newcomers. Michael Qualls started the season as the guy who’d come in during garbage time of a non-conference blowout and throw down a YouTube dunk, and ended the year as a reliable contributor who started five games. Anthlon Bell didn’t even enter the game for a few conference games, but ended the year knocking down 14 three-point shots in the last 7 games. Coty Clarke came on strong enough to permanently take Hunter Mickelson’s place in the starting lineup beginning with the Alabama game.
Some of the returning players improved as well. Marshawn Powell became a legit three point threat (even if his accuracy faded late in the year), which helped him become one of the more feared players in the conference. After serving a suspension for the South Carolina game, Rashad Madden shed his reputation as a turnover waiting to happen and became a reliable point guard, committing only one turnover in the final six games and, promisingly, scoring 26 points in the final four games.
But all that being said, this team should have been in the NCAA Tournament.
I don’t believe this team wasn’t talented enough. I don’t believe this team was too young. I believe this team blew far too many opportunities to beat bad teams on the road to be taken seriously on a national level.
Don’t tell me Arkansas didn’t have the talent or experience to beat South Carolina in Columbia, Texas A&M in College Station, LSU in Baton Rouge, or Vanderbilt in Nashville (twice). They may not have been ready to beat Michigan, Florida, or Missouri away from home, but they could have beaten those other teams if the Hogs hadn’t come out flat and rallied too late, or failed to show up at all. They had a 15-3 lead against South Carolina, but lost the final 35 minutes by a score of 72 to 39. They allowed LSU to build a 22 point lead in the first half before not quite coming all the way back in the final minutes.
That’s why Arkansas isn’t in the NCAA Tournament.
Any team that has two players who could legitimately leave early to play professionally should be able to at least make the tournament. If a team doesn’t even make the NIT, then this is a situation similar to how every terrible high school team has a best player whose opinions of his own talents are amplified by virtue of the weak talent surrounding him on the team. Half the fans watching the games wonder why more colleges don’t come around for their best player because he’s clearly better than all those other players on the court. But the reality is that they’re not that great as evidenced by lack of team success, and they should probably make sure they get a degree before they head out into the professional world.
But the Arkansas team wasn’t that bad. Out of all the big home wins, the only time the Razorbacks truly played out of their minds was against Florida. They didn’t appear to do anything amazing against Oklahoma, Tennessee, or Kentucky, they just appeared to play competently, which didn’t happen on the road.
Arkansas may not have been talented enough to be considered a contender for an SEC Championship or a top NCAA seed, but they were talented enough to make the tournament. And in college basketball, there’s really not such a thing anymore as being “too young” in major conferences. Of the eight players named to the All-SEC first team, only two were seniors. Of the 17 players on the first and second team, 10 were juniors or sophomores. The six Razorbacks who played the most minutes this season were all juniors or sophomores.
What’s as troubling as the bad losses is the play of some of the Arkansas players. It is well-documented that BJ Young and Mardracus Wade both shot significantly worse this season than last season (although Wade began to show signs of improvement in late games). Both were maddeningly inconsistent. For example, Young scored in single digits eight times, between 10-20 points 14 times, and over 20 points nine times. You never knew what you were going to get.
Hunter Mickelson completely disappeared shortly after being replaced in the starting lineup by Clarke. Mickelson averaged more than 7 points per game during the first 22 games, even scoring in double digits 5 times, but could only muster 1.8 points over the final 10 games while only once scoring more than two points.
Mickelson started the first 19 games before Clarke replaced him. Perhaps Mike Anderson could sense Mickelson was about to hit a wall, or perhaps being taken out of the starting lineup shook Mickelson’s confidence. Whatever the reason, Mickelson’s lack of production at the end of the year effectively negated some of the much-needed bump at the end of the year provided by other players like Qualls or Bell.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing to me was that Young and Powell were held out of the starting lineup for the final game at home. Afterward, Anderson alluded to team rules that needed to be followed, and it felt like it meant that once the NCAA at-large bid was out of the picture, the players just mailed it in. As if they felt they had no chance of making any noise at the SEC Tournament. It’s incredibly disheartening to have the impression that tournament time doesn’t get everybody excited because this is the most exciting time of the year. Even if Arkansas didn’t win the tournament, they still could have played Kentucky on Friday and there was a chance they could have played Missouri on Saturday. That would have been awesome. But the entire team clearly wasn’t focused at the end of the regular season and came out flat, again, against Vanderbilt. As a result, Texas A&M now has more wins in the last five SEC Tournaments than Arkansas.
The Razorbacks made progress this season in many ways, and that’s terrific. But it’s possible to make progress while still failing to live up to potential, and it feels like that’s what happened this year. Stan Heath made progress each year until Ronnie Brewer departed for the NBA, but he ultimately lost games people believed he should have won and that was his downfall.
We won’t have to wait long to see if the team can turn things around away from Bud Walton next season, as Arkansas will travel to Hawaii to participate in the Maui Invitational in November. They’ll get to play three games there and winning just one of them should ease at least some concerns going into the year. But lose all three, and there will certainly be tons of empty seats in Bud Walton next season, each one serving as a haunting reminder of what used to be.
—
Doc Harper is the managing editor of Arkansas Expats and is a regular contributor to College Football News and Sporting Life Arkansas. You can email him here and follow him on Twitter.Journalist Sarah Jane Murphy relayed the exchange, which took place at a Dublin court on Monday, to her followers on Twitter and it has gone viral with almost 2,000 retweets.
An Irish judge is being praised online for excusing a 54-year-old man from jury duty after he revealed he had planned a long weekend away with his partner and it was his 'first time in love'.
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"Man: I can’t serve; I’m away for weekend.
Judge: We don’t sit at weekends.
Man: I’m away till Monday. I’m 54, a bachelor & it’s my 1st time in love.
Jury selection, CCJ, yesterday.
Man: I can’t serve; I’m away for weekend.
Judge: We don’t sit at weekends.
Man: I’m away till Monday. I’m 54, a bachelor & it’s my 1st time in love.
Judge: Then you GO and you GO with my blessing.
It was truly an epic moment ❤️ — Sarah-Jane Murphy (@sjanemurf) December 13, 2017
Judge: Then you GO and you GO with my blessing.
It was truly an epic moment"
Sarah-Jane reveals that the man spoke hesitantly at first but then with more confidence when he delivered his reason for not being able to serve.
"The judge broke into a broad smile and the man walked away grinning," she revealed, "The woman beside me turned to me and said, 'Did I imagine that?'"
Twitter users have been commenting that the exchange is like a scene from Richard Curtis' romantic comedy Love Actually.
"Is this the ending to Love Actually II?" wrote one, while another commented, "This honestly sounds like the ending to a film and it’s lovely!"
Another quipped, "Guilty of 'Love In The First Degree', perhaps?"
Online EditorsThere are two kinds of war movies. There’s Platoon and there’s Apocalypse Now. One addresses the specific hardships and adventures, acts of bravery and cowardice, and sociopolitical context around a particular conflict. The other is about conflict itself — why we find ourselves, over and over again, drawn into these acts of mutual destruction. The two cross-pollinate, of course (Platoon, with its two father figures fighting for the soul of a son, has almost biblical overtones, while Apocalypse Now could not be made about any other war than Vietnam), but it is a useful way of dividing the genre. There is Saving Private Ryan and there is Inglourious Basterds; there is reportage and there is poetry.
In the past, movies about the war on drugs have played like procedurals — crime films — and they have played like cinematic journalism. This is especially true in the case of Steven Soderbergh’s 2000 film Traffic, probably the most notable film ever made about the drug trade on the U.S.-Mexico border. But as the war on drugs has become the drug war, and as the prism through which we view the conflict has become increasingly militarized, so has the cinema surrounding it. And now this war has its Apocalypse Now.
Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 epic was, as his wife Eleanor described it in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, “a metaphor for a journey into self.” It followed a lone agent as he made his way up a river to find a mad soldier, Kurtz, who had gone rogue and begun to raise his own army, somewhere in the jungle. As this agent, Willard (played by Martin Sheen), ventures farther up the river, he goes deeper into himself, seemingly traveling back in time to a primitive age. The imagery gets increasingly hallucinogenic; the violence, especially at the end of the film, has mythical overtones — where murder becomes some kind of religious sacrifice.
Visually, Sicario is similar to Apocalypse Now in that it uses a modern setting to paint a portrait of hell. When Sicario begins, it’s all stark suburban desert-scapes and harsh light — the sun, overhead fluorescents in office buildings. But as the film winds on, and the moral decay sets in as our hero becomes corrupted, cinematographer Roger Deakins and director Denis Villeneuve move to a palette of grays, oranges, reds, and purples. The desert becomes almost lunar; the world becomes otherworldly.
The visuals match the arc of the story. This is a rabbit hole tale. Sicario is about an FBI agent who joins up with two other … agents (I use that term loosely) to hunt down a shadowy cartel chief in Mexico. That’s the logline for the script. It is hardly what the movie is about.
It’s a movie about the drug war, not the war on drugs. This may not be immediately apparent to the viewer; it certainly isn’t to some of the characters in the film. In fact, it’s this discovery — for both the protagonist and the audience — that drives the film: This is a movie about revealing, about journeying into hell and finding out that it looks awfully familiar.
One of the things you hear in the beginning of Sicario is Emily Blunt’s character, Kate Macer, insisting that she is not a soldier. She says it once when she is asked to volunteer for a special team that is being put together to “dramatically overreact” to increased Mexican drug cartel activity Stateside, and she says it again when she finds out just how dramatic that overreaction is. Macer is an FBI agent specializing in kidnapping cases. She might wear a helmet, she might be protected by body armor, she may travel in a military-grade personnel carrier, she may fire an automatic weapon and duck from explosions, but she’s not a soldier. This seems to be an important distinction to her.
It is one that matters very little to Josh Brolin’s Matt Graver. Nobody is really sure what Graver does or who he works for. He shows up in Arizona wearing flip-flops and bifocals, with the warm demeanor of a surfing instructor. Does he work for the Department of Defense? State? Jurisdictions are nothing but clerical obstacles to Graver. Call yourself a soldier or don’t. He knows this: We’re at war, all the time.
Macer always wants to know where she stands. She wants to follow procedure, she wants to build a prosecutable case against the cartels. She wants to understand the boundaries. But as she gets increasingly involved with Graver’s mission, she learns, as her boss tells her, that the boundaries have changed.
She is constantly looking for reference points — locations, context, hallmarks of organization. In the first half of the film, Benicio Del Toro’s Alejandro character is seemingly there to filibuster all of these efforts. When she asks him on a private jet flight to El Paso how Juárez works, he smirks: “You’re asking me how a watch works. For now, just keep an eye on the time.” She wonders if he’s American, who he works for, and he says, “I go where I’m sent.” This is how he talks. He’s gnomic. Finding the cartel chief “would be like discovering a vaccine.” When he prepares her for a raid in Juárez, he tells her, “Nothing will make sense to your American ears, but in the end, you will understand.”
This language is seductive to Macer, and to us. If Alejandro is Macer’s Kurtz (a messianic figure beckoning her deeper down the rabbit hole), Graver is her Kilgore — a wildly charismatic, possibly insane commander who has truly found his calling in this conflict. Where Alejandro is all scar tissue and darkness, Graver’s eyes sparkle; he is in his element. Whether he’s riding in an SUV convoy with a cartel higher-up or leading a raid through tunnels connecting Arizona and Mexico, Graver has the look of someone who already knows how a story ends. Alejandro and Graver aren’t just soldiers, they are salesmen. They are selling an idea to Macer — that they will find the men responsible for a mass murder, the results of which Macer stumbles upon in the beginning of the film — so that she will give them the operational cover they need to carry out their mission. But really what they are selling is ideas: of unmooring one’s self from language, from designation, from occupation, from beliefs about borders and jurisdiction. They want her to get out of the boat.
To do this, they tell the truth, they lie, they misdirect. Some might see this as a corruption, but there are ways in which Macer can be viewed as a willing participant; she actively wants to go through this transformation. They show her something. There is a line in Apocalypse Now when Willard quotes Kurtz, but the line could just as easily have been spoken by Alejandro: “There are many moments for ruthless action — what is often called ruthless — what may in many circumstances be only clarity, seeing clearly what there is to be done and doing it, directly, quickly, awake, looking at it.” By the end of the film, Macer is damaged, beaten, bloodied, and unsure of the future. But she is very much awake.To show her support for American workers, President Obama's labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has junked the standard black limo and purchased a new Chevrolet Equinox to ride around Washington in. The problem: the crossover SUV is built and assembled in Canada from parts also made in Canada.
Solis proudly arrived at a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor today in the shiny silver vehicle, which she has dubbed the "bullet." She was asked about why she traded the standard-issue limo for the SUV. "What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we're for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well," she told the Monitor's Dave Cook, who provided this video of her answer.
[Check out political cartoons about the economy.]
Solis added that she was inspired to buy the Chevy because of the pride she saw in American auto workers during trips to U.S. car and truck plants. She said that she was wowed by "the pride that they take making our automobiles here in America."
The car is made at two Canadian plants and has been so popular that General Motors has been hiring more workers in Canada to keep up with demand. [See who's in Obama's inner circle.]
A company official noted that the profits do come back to the United States.
Solis did note that the Equinox, which she's driven once, is a nice ride. "It drives well. It's a good family car. Its not too big and I think women really like it."
Update: When Whispers notified her office that her “American-made” car was actually Canadian, Labor spokesman Carl Fillichio said, “Modern automobile manufacturing is a global industry and General Motors is a company whose reach extends far beyond the boundaries of the United States. Cars assembled here in the U.S. are made from globally sourced parts, just as cars assembled in other countries utilize parts made in America. Not only is the Equinox the second fastest selling SUV in America—a good sign for the overall health of the U.S. auto industry—66 percent of its parts were made in America. That’s up from about 50 percent just a few years ago.”By Robert Shibley
Harvard University should be no stranger to satire. Home of the famous Harvard Lampoon, (“lampoon" means satire), the school is indirectly responsible for modern exercises in satire and parody like National Lampoon’s Vacation, Saturday Night Live, and the career of Conan O’Brien (all of which have substantial Lampoon connections). Thus, it should surprise nobody when a parody piece shows up on campus.
But the latest bit of Harvard lampoonery has monocles popping out of eyes all across Harvard Yard.
The culprit? A flyer supposedly advertising The Pigeon, a new “final club" at Harvard. (Final clubs are Harvard’s unrecognized but influential substitutes for fraternities.) Applicants were told to show up at a frozen yogurt shop in Cambridge two minutes after closing time, wearing the required “semi-bro" attire. But what really raised hackles were the asterisked qualifiers at the end: “Jews need not apply"; “Seriously, no fucking Jews. Coloreds OK"; and “Rophynol" (the last a misspelling of the “date-rape drug", Rohypnol). These asterisks were linked to the “values" of Inclusion, Diversity, and Love, respectively.
Harvard students and administrators wasted no time going into the now de rigeur outrage mode over such insensitive speech, despite the fact that a normal person would understand that the insensitivity of the language was probably an intentional caricature of the perceived elitism and exclusivity of Harvard final clubs. (It might also have been alluding to the fact that Harvard, along with other Ivy League schools, instituted de facto caps on Jewish enrollment in the 1920s and 30s.)
Of course, satire, like any other creative work, doesn’t always mean the same thing to everyone. It has been suggested that the flyer was an attempt to make fun of the Harvard administration’s widely lambasted efforts to provide “social spaces" for those who do not participate in final clubs. Or perhaps it was intended as a vehicle to mock a campus culture that many find politically correct in the extreme when it comes to race and sexual issues. The least likely explanation is that it was a sincere attempt to deride Jews and non-white students, although that’s probably the exact opposite of what was intended. And, of course, it could be some combination of any of the above.
Without question, this flyer touched upon issues that many find upsetting, but to place restrictions on the topics that satire can address is to render this form of social commentary pointless. Satire has been used for centuries (OK, millennia) as a vehicle for societal comment through mockery. Not everyone will find it humorous, and some will find it downright offensive, to the point of outrage. That’s what makes satire so effective; the controversy that it generates draws widespread attention to the behavior being ridiculed, thereby igniting a public dialogue about it.
No idea or belief should be immune from questioning or criticism. Somewhere along the way, however, colleges and universities seem to have decided that they must shield their students—the vast majority of whom are adults—from being made uncomfortable. But there’s no “right to not be offended" in America. Using personal offense as a standard for censoring speech is a surefire way to destroy the very freedom of speech that allows us to proclaim that sense of offense.
The Supreme Court recognizes this, and has repeatedly found highly objectionable satire to be protected by the First Amendment. For instance, in Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell (1988), the Court upheld Hustler’s right to run a parody advertisement in which the late Rev. Jerry Falwell reminisced about getting drunk and losing his virginity to his own mother in an outhouse. Tasteful? Not even close. Hurtful? Surely. But even though this advertisement touched upon potentially disturbing social taboos and targeted a specific person’s sexuality and religious beliefs, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled for its protection.
In reaching its ruling, the Court stressed that “[t]he freedom to speak one’s mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty—and thus a good unto itself—but also is essential to the common quest for truth and vitality of society as a whole." This concept can easily be applied to the uproar surrounding The Pigeon. If the lurid depiction of incest at the heart of the Hustler case has the potential to represent valuable societal commentary, how can we not grasp the value of a critique of racism and sexual abuse on our nation’s most famous campus?
Satire isn’t always funny, and it doesn’t always succeed in creating positive change. But the best way to ensure the death of social criticism is to declare that some beliefs are too sacred to be mocked. Let’s hope that Harvard remembers this as it addresses the latest in its extremely long line of satirical offerings.
Robert Shibley is senior vice president at the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education (FIRE).For other people named William Clark, see William Clark (disambiguation)
William Andrews Clark Sr. (January 8, 1839 – March 2, 1925) was an American politician and entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads.[2]
Biography [ edit ]
Clark buying a newspaper, c. 1906
Clark was born in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. He moved with his family to Iowa in 1856 where he taught school and studied law at Iowa Wesleyan College. In 1862, he traveled west to become a miner.[3] After working in quartz mines in Colorado, during 1863 Clark made his way to new gold fields to find his fortune in the Montana gold rush.
He settled in the capital of Montana Territory, Bannack, Montana, and began placer mining. Though his claim paid only moderately, Clark invested his earnings in becoming a trader, driving mules back and forth between Salt Lake City and the boomtowns of Montana to transport eggs and other basic supplies.
He soon changed careers again and became a banker in Deer Lodge, Montana. He repossessed mining properties when owners defaulted on their loans, placing him in the mining industry. He made a fortune with copper mining, small smelters, electric power companies, newspapers, railroads (trolley lines around Butte and the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad from Salt Lake City, Utah to San Pedro and Los Angeles, California), and other businesses, becoming known as one of three "Copper Kings" of Butte, Montana, along with Marcus Daly and F. Augustus Heinze.
Between 1884 and 1888, Clark constructed a 34-room, Tiffany-decorated home on West Granite Street, incorporating the most modern inventions available, in Butte, Montana. This home is now the Copper King Mansion bed-and-breakfast, as well as a museum.[4] In 1899, Clark built Columbia Gardens for the children of Butte. It included flower dgardens, a dance pavilion, amusement park, lake, and picnic areas. Clark later built a much larger and more extravagant 121-room mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City. See William_A._Clark_House.
He died on March 2, 1925, and is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.
Political career [ edit ]
Political cartoon depicting Clark bribing state legislators, October 1900
Clark served as president of both Montana state constitutional conventions in 1884 and 1889.
Clark yearned to be a statesman and used his newspaper, the Butte Miner, to push his political ambitions. At this time, Butte was one of the largest cities in the West. He became a hero in Helena, Montana, by campaigning for its selection as the state capital instead of Anaconda. This battle for the placement of the capital had subtle Irish vs. English, Catholic vs. Protestant, and non-Masonic vs. Masonic elements. Clark's long-standing dream of becoming a United States Senator resulted in scandal in 1899 when it was revealed that he bribed members of the Montana State Legislature in return for their votes. At the time, U.S. Senators were chosen by their respective state legislatures. The corruption of his election contributed to the passage of the 17th Amendment. The U.S. Senate refused to seat Clark because of the 1899 bribery scheme, but a later senate campaign was successful, and he served a single term from 1901 until 1907. In responding to criticism of his bribery of the Montana legislature, Clark is reported to have said, "I never bought a man who wasn't for sale." Clark died at the age of 86 in his mansion at 962 Fifth Avenue in New York City. His estate at his death was estimated to be worth $300 million, (equivalent to $4,285,958,000 in today's dollars)[5], making him one of the wealthiest Americans ever.[6] [7]
In a 1907 essay, Mark Twain, who was a close friend of Clark's rival Henry H. Rogers, an organizer of the Amalgamated Copper Mining Company,[8] portrayed Clark as the very embodiment of Gilded Age excess and corruption:
He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag; he is a shame to the American nation, and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary, with a ball and chain on his legs. To my mind he is the most disgusting creature that the republic has produced since Tweed's time.[9]
Family [ edit ]
Clark with his daughters Huguette (right) and Andrée (left), c. 1917
Clark in November 1920 with his daughter, Huguette, donating 135 acres to the Girl Scouts after the death of his daughter Andrée, which was named Camp Andree Clark
Clark was married twice. His first wife was Katherine Louise "Kate" Stauffer (1844 Pennsylvania – 1893 New York).[10]
Together, they had seven children:
Mary Joaquina Clark (1870 – 1939), m. Everett Mallory Culver, Charles Potter Kling, and Marius de Brabant
Charles Walker Clark (1871 – 1933), m. Katharine Quin Roberts and Cecelia "Celia" Tobin
Unnamed son (1874–1874) [11]
Jessie Clark (1875–1878) [11]
Katherine Louise Clark (1875 – c. 1933), m. Dr. Lewis Rutherford Morris (1862-1936) [12]
William Andrews Clark Jr. (1877–1934), m. Mabel Foster and Alice McManus
Paul Francis Clark (1880–1896)
After Kate's death in 1893, William married his second and final wife, the woman who had been his teenage ward, Anna Eugenia La Chapelle (March 10, 1878 Michigan – October 11, 1963 New York). They claimed to have been married in 1901 in France. Anna was 23 and William was 62.[13] They had two children:
Louise Amelia Andrée Clark (August 13, 1902 San Lucas, Spain – August 6, 1919 Rangeley, Maine)
Huguette Marcelle Clark (June 9, 1906 Paris, France – May 24, 2011, New York City)[14]
In early 1946 Anna commissioned the Paganini Quartet, and acquired the four famous Stradivarius instruments once owned by Niccolo Paganini for their use.
William Clark donated 135 acres to the Girl Scouts in honor of his daughter, Louise Amelia Andrée, who died aged 16 of meningitis and had been very happy there. The Girl Scout camp in Briarcliff Manor was named Camp Andree Clark.[15]
William Andrews Clark Jr. [ edit ]
Clark's son, William Andrews Clark Jr., founder of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1919, left his library of rare books and manuscripts to the regents of the University of California, Los Angeles. Today, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library specializes in English literature and history from 1641 to 1800, materials related to Oscar Wilde and his associates, and fine printing.
Huguette Marcelle Clark [ edit ]
Huguette (pronounced: oo-GETT), born in Paris, France in June 1906, was known as a reclusive heiress and was the youngest child of Clark with his second wife, Anna Eugenia La Chapelle. She married once, but divorced less than a year later. She led a reclusive life thereafter, communicating very little with the public including her extended family. She lived in three magnificent apartments, with a total of 42 rooms, on New York's Fifth Avenue at 72nd Street, overlooking Central Park. In 1991, she moved out of her apartment in New York and for the remainder of her life, voluntarily lived in various New York City hospitals.
In February 2010, she became the subject of a series of reports on msnbc.com after it was reported that the caretakers of her three residences (including a $24 million estate in Connecticut, a sprawling seaside estate in Santa Barbara, California and her Fifth Avenue apartments valued at $100 million) had not seen her in decades. These articles were the basis for the 2013 bestselling book Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune. by investigative reporter Bill Dedman.
Her final residence was Beth Israel Medical Center, where she died on the morning of May 24, 2011, age 104.[16] Huguette's extraordinary collection of arts and antiquities were consigned to go on the auction block at Christie's in June 2014, over three years after her death.[17]
Walter Clark [ edit ]
Clark's nephew, Walter Miller Clark, son of James Ross and Miriam Augusta (Evans) Clark, along with Walter's wife, Virginia (McDowell) Clark, were passengers on the RMS Titanic. He was among the 1,514 who died on April 15, 1912 after the ship struck an iceberg at 2:20 a.m. She survived and arrived in New York City a widow. Some of Mr. Clark's personal items were retrieved during an expedition to the site of the sinking in 1994 in the debris field. They were identified by engraved initials. They included shaving soap, toiletry items, cuff links, and gambling chips.[18] Walter's wife, Virginia, was rescued by the RMS Carpathia.
Legacy [ edit ]
Clark's art collection was donated to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. after his death, greatly enriching that museum's holdings of European as well as American art. The Clark donation also included the construction of a new wing for the Corcoran, known appropriately as the Clark Wing.
The city of Las Vegas was established as a maintenance stop for Clark's San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. He subdivided 110 acres into 1200 lots, some of which on the corner of Fremont Street in Las Vegas sold for as much as $1750. The Las Vegas area was organized as Clark County, Nevada, in Clark's honor. Clark's involvement in the founding of Las Vegas is recounted in a decidedly negative light by Chris Romano in the "Las Vegas" episode of Comedy Central's Drunk History, with Rich Fulcher portraying Clark.
Clarkdale, Arizona [ edit ]
Clarkdale, Arizona, named for Clark, was the site of smelting operations for Clark's mines in nearby Jerome, Arizona. The town includes the historic Clark Mansion, which sustained severe fire damage on June 25, 2010. Clarkdale is home to the Verde Canyon Railroad wilderness train ride which follows the historic route that Clark had constructed in 1911 and home to the Copper Art Museum.[19]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]Source: PathDoc/Shutterstock
Most people think of as a system of or an explanation of the purpose of life, so they miss its most practical aspects. Ancient philosophy was a way to create mental clarity—to clear the mind of what psychologists today refer to as distortions.
Epictetus, the Stoic slave-turned-philosopher, told his students that the place to “begin in philosophy is this: a clear perception of one’s own ruling principle.” He meant that people became philosophers when they began to question what guides their thinking and analyze their thoughts. Epictetus wanted to help his students break out of the exaggerated thinking patterns that have a destructive impact on the life of the thinker. Patterns like negative self-labeling, catastrophizing, disqualifying the positive, emotional reasoning, and other cognitive distortions.
Today, one of the most common destructive thought patterns is all-or-nothing thinking (also referred to as splitting). Examples of this include thoughts like:
If you’re not with me, you’re against me.
He/She is all good/all bad.
Because this attempt wasn’t a complete success, it is a total failure.
In other words, perfectionism.
We often hold up as models, but psychologists know that this sort of extreme thinking is associated with and frustration. It’s a miserable, unproductive way to live. How could it not be? Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction—only disappointment.
The Stoics understood how pointless—and dangerous to our mental and progress in life—such thoughts are. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, one of the three major Stoic philosophers, reminded himself of this in his private journal, which came to be known as Meditations: “Don't go expecting Plato's Republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress.” Or as Epictetus states, “We don’t abandon our pursuits because we despair of ever perfecting them.”
These thinkers understood that you're never going to find perfection. Instead, the message is clear: We must do the best with what we've got.
We want things to go perfectly, so we naturally tell ourselves that we’ll get started once the conditions are right, or once we have our bearings, when, really, it would be better to focus on making do with how things actually are.
Instead of perfectionism, we need to embrace a philosophy of pragmatism. As Marcus Aurelius once joked, “That cucumber is bitter, so toss it out! There are thorns on the path, then keep away! Enough said.”
Pragmatism—as opposed to perfectionism—does not share the same paralyzing hang-ups; it takes what it can get. And that’s what Epictetus is telling us: We’re never going to be perfect—if there is even such a thing. We’re human, after all. Our pursuits should be aimed at progress, no matter how much it's possible for us to make.
Not that pragmatism is inherently at odds with idealism or pushing the ball forward. The first iPhone was revolutionary, but it still shipped without a copy-and-paste function or a handful of other features Apple would have liked to include. Steve Jobs, that supposed perfectionist, knew that at some point you have to compromise. What mattered was that you produced something and it worked.
This is why we need to start thinking like radical pragmatists—ambitious, aggressive, and rooted in ideals, but also imminently practical and guided by the possible. We can't be guided by everything we would like to have, or by the desire to change the world right at this moment, but with ambitious enough to get everything we need. Not thinking small, but making the distinction between the critical and the extra.
There are plenty of things you could do today to make the world a better place. There are plenty of small steps that, were you to take them, would help move your life forward. Don’t excuse yourself from doing them because the conditions aren’t right or because a better opportunity might come along soon. Do what you can, now. And when you’ve done it, keep it in perspective and be pleased with the result.
And remember, it all boils down to this simple idea: Think progress, not perfection.
Ryan Holiday is the author of The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego is the Enemy. His new book, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on, Perseverance, and the Art of Living is now available. For more, visit the Daily Stoic website and sign up for the free 7-Day Stoic Starter Pack.An author and journalist came under fire on social media Monday, after she tweeted a reply to an anti-looting warning from Miami police by saying: "The carceral state... is inseparable from white supremacy."
The Miami Police Department took to Twitter on Sunday, as Hurricane Irma battered the state. "Thinking about looting? Ask these guys how that turned out. #stayindoors," the post read, sharing a photo of people inside a jail cell.
Though Sarah Jaffe’s tweet on Monday garnered 1,500 likes, it sparked more than 100 comments -- many of which were critical and |
Yang "half and half" kind of look but I was thinking that would be a bit disturbing so I ended up not covering her whole half face. I also put a bit of my thought on yang's individual art, so check that out.I also do some speed art so check out my youtube. www.youtube.com/channel/UCB25J…Thousands of runners crossed the finish line Sunday during the 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. Were your friends and family among them? We streamed the finish line between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 9. Find your runner below:
Chicago Marathon Finish Line 1: 3:38.16
Chicago Marathon Finish Line 2: 3:42:05
Chicago Marathon Finish Line 3: 3:45:55
Chicago Marathon Finish Line 4: 3:45:55
Chicago Marathon Finish Line 5: 3:49:11
Chicago Marathon Finish Line 6: 3:52:28
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Chicago Marathon Finish Line 56: 6:55:25Auto-correlations
Before we decide which model to use, we need to look at auto-correlations.
Autocorrelation correlogram. Seasonal patterns of time series can be examined via correlograms, which display graphically and numerically the autocorrelation function (ACF). Auto-correlation in pandas plotting and statsmodels graphics standardize the data before computing the auto-correlation. These libraries subtract the mean and divide by the standard deviation of the data.
When using standardization, they make an assumption that your data has been generated with a Gaussian law (with a certain mean and standard deviation). This may not be the case in reality.
Correlation is sensitive. Both (matplotlib and pandas plotting) of these functions have their drawbacks. The figure generated by the following code using matplotlib will be identical to figure generated by pandas plotting or statsmodels graphics.
Partial autocorrelations. Another useful method to examine serial dependencies is to examine the partial autocorrelation function (PACF) – an extension of autocorrelation, where the dependence on the intermediate elements (those within the lag) is removed.
Once we determine the nature of the auto-correlations we use the following rules of thumb.
Rule 1: If the A C F shows exponential decay, the P A C F has a spike at lag 1, and no correlation for other lags, then use one autoregressive ( p ) parameter
shows exponential decay, the has a spike at lag 1, and no correlation for other lags, then use one autoregressive parameter Rule 2: If the A C F shows a sine-wave shape pattern or a set of exponential decays, the P A C F has spikes at lags 1 and 2, and no correlation for other lags, the use two autoregressive ( p ) parameters
shows a sine-wave shape pattern or a set of exponential decays, the has spikes at lags 1 and 2, and no correlation for other lags, the use two autoregressive parameters Rule 3: If the A C F has a spike at lag 1, no correlation for other lags, and the P A C F damps out exponentially, then use one moving average ( q ) parameter.
has a spike at lag 1, no correlation for other lags, and the damps out exponentially, then use one moving average parameter. Rule 4: If the A C F has spikes at lags 1 and 2, no correlation for other lags, and the P A C F has a sine-wave shape pattern or a set of exponential decays, then use two moving average ( q) parameter.
has spikes at lags 1 and 2, no correlation for other lags, and the has a sine-wave shape pattern or a set of exponential decays, then use two moving average parameter. Rule 5: If the A C F shows exponential decay starting at lag 1, and the P A C F shows exponential decay starting at lag 1, then use one autoregressive ( p ) and one moving average ( q ) parameter.
Removing serial dependency. Serial dependency for a particular lag can be removed by differencing the series. There are two major reasons for such transformations.During Hillary Clinton’s first campaign event in Iowa, the (finally) announced presidential candidate laid out the four main goals of her campaign, including the need to fix our “dysfunctional” political system and to get “unaccountable” money out of politics, even if it requires a constitutional amendment. And thus we have the latest chapter in Clinton’s unique and evolving relationship with Citizens United v. Federal Exchange Commission.
It may be easy to forget that the basis for the claim that led to the controversial Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC was a barely watchable film titled Hillary: The Movie, featuring prominent conservatives such as Dick Morris and Ann Coulter that was trying to damage Hillary Clinton on eve of the January 2008 Democratic presidential primaries. The film was produced by Citizens United, a D.C.-based conservative nonprofit organization.
The film was supposed to be distributed on cable television and video on demand, but the federal government blocked the airing of the film because it violated the McCain-Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that prohibited corporate and nonprofit funded advocacy ads that mentioned a candidate’s name within 30 days of a primary or caucus, or 60 days of a general election.
At the time, no one could have predicted that Clinton would finish third in the Iowa caucuses behind Barack Obama and John Edwards, so many conservatives thought that more than just attack ads would be needed to defeat her eventual rise to the presidency: Attack movies were the new and necessary medium.
Well, roughly a year into President Obama’s first term, the Supreme Court made its decision on Citizens United v. FEC, saying that certain provisions in the McCain-Feingold BCRA were unconstitutional, and this brought us into the modern era of a nearly unrestricted and confusing flow of cash into our electoral process through various 501(c)(4)s, PACs, and Super PACs.
Stephen Colbert may have actually best explained how this absurd network of constantly flowing political money works when he announced on his show that he was officially forming an exploratory committee for his potential candidacy for President of the United States of South Carolina, and therefore could no longer run his Super PAC. See the videos here and here.
And here we are today. Less than a week into Clinton’s second official presidential bid, she has already done two things that may completely alter Citizens United v. FEC and our electoral process. Her support of a constitutional amendment limiting or regulating campaign finance is a smart and popular decision among liberal voters, but her campaign’s announcement that it intends to raise a staggering $2.5 billion combined by the official campaign, Hillary for America, and various unaffiliated 501(c)(4)s, PACs, and Super PACs has completely altered our political landscape.
Roughly eight months before the Iowa caucuses, the fundraising machine that will drive or greatly influence Clinton’s campaign has set goals that dwarf those of Obama’s in 2012, and may scare away potential Democratic challengers.
The 2012 presidential election between President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney was the most expensive campaign in history, with each candidate’s election team and supporting groups raising $1.123 and $1.019 billion respectively. Clinton’s campaign intends to surpass that entire amount on its own, and she is allowed to do so because of a case brought to the Supreme Court because a conservative group wanted to have a larger impact on hopefully preventing her from winning the presidency in 2008. The irony is so rich.
Who knows if Clinton will be able to defeat the GOP and Republicans at the game they insisted on creating, but she most likely will at least be able to match them dollar-for-dollar in the general election.
The brilliance surrounding all of this is the fact that Clinton has steadfastly been against this sort of external influence into politics. She articulated her objections on her first day of campaigning in Iowa, and the main reason why campaign finance laws have changed in recent years was due to her objection to the previously unlawful attempt to disseminate a campaign attack video denouncing her in 2008.
Clearly, her campaign’s $2.5 billion fundraising estimate may point to the contrary, but the fundraising strategy of her campaign is actually based around small donations. Additionally, she has not named a finance chair for her campaign.
According to an internal campaign memo obtained by Politico, Hillary for America intends to have a “flat fundraising structure” and a “grassroots donor base and a merit-based finance organization.”
“The campaign will have the resources needed to compete,” continued the memo. “Initially fundraising will be a challenge—with lower limits and a smaller list than Obama in 2011.”
The campaign has moved away from her 2008 strategy of seeking mega-donors, but it also knows that it has the support of unaffiliated organizations such as Ready PAC, formerly Ready for Hillary, that desperately want a Hillary Clinton presidency. (According to FEC regulations, Ready for Hillary was forced to change its name once Clinton officially announced her candidacy.)
Arguably against the wishes of many Clinton supporters, two Clinton 2008 volunteers launched Ready for Hillary in 2013 and have raised more than $15 million for Clinton’s campaign and amassed a 4 million strong grassroots fundraising list that will be given to Hillary for America. Clinton’s campaign has already hired six Ready for Hillary staffers, including co-founder Adam Parkhomenko. These former staffers can no longer coordinate with remaining staffers, and Ready PAC intend to shut down completely in the coming days.
Essentially, Hillary Clinton’s campaign can develop only the fundraising strategy that the candidate supports, but the numerous other political groups that independently support her can fundraise how they see fit. Independent of each other they all collectively believe that these various efforts should enhance candidate Clinton’s chances of moving back into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
All told these fundraising efforts may make her the unstoppable, inevitable candidate that she wanted to be in 2008. The big difference now is that she did not have Citizens United v. FEC to support her campaign.
If Hillary Clinton becomes the 45th president of the United States, the GOP may want to give themselves a nice pat on the back for all the hard work they indirectly have done to fund her presidential campaign.As I noted yesterday, part of the effort to pass the USA Freedom Act involved what I call a “data handshake:” A deal whereby all four major telecoms would keep call detail records 2 years, without a mandate to do so.
At Foreign Policy, I have more details on this — with a focus on how this works with the Business Records law that authorizes the phone dragnet.
The terms of the data handshake are the most interesting part. This promise is not in writing. According to Feinstein it is a “personal testament.” (And of course it wasn’t in the bill, where privacy advocates might have objected to it.) The telecom companies could say they were retaining the data for business purposes, though, until now, they’ve had no business purpose to keep the records. The government has repeatedly told courts that under Section 215, the NSA can only ask telecoms for business records they already hold. Yet Feinstein seems to have revealed, perhaps unintentionally, that under the new law the telecom companies would be willing to hold records at least an extra six months just so the government could presumably spy on their customers, if necessary. And in order to keep the records available under the law, the companies would claim they were keeping the records for business reasons. By doing this orally, no records could be obtained under discovery in a customer lawsuit or leaked by an NSA whistleblower like Edward Snowden. The telecoms could claim that they are not agents of the nation’s spies, even after they seem to have agreed to a handshake deal making them into just that.
Compare agreeing to this data handshake with what Verizon said in June.
At a Senate hearing in June, Verizon’s Associate General Counsel Michael Woods explained that Verizon keeps call detail records for just 12 to 18 months. “We don’t have data five years back,” Woods explained in response to a question from Collins. “All collection would be from our ordinary business records.” In June, Woods made clear that Verizon objected to holding call detail records longer. His written testimony insisted that “national security is a fundamental government function that should not be outsourced to private companies.” He described that if a telecom company were asked to “retain data for the use of intelligence agencies,” it would be serving as “an agent” of the government.
Now, as I conclude in my piece, the telecoms that agreed to the data handshakes were probably calculating, correctly, that their customers would be better off if they held the records for 6 months longer than they needed to given their business needs than having the government hold them at all. I get the logic behind this deal.
But it is indefensible. The law, as written, cannot oblige Verizon to hold these records. The reason it can’t is because the law was never intended to set up an intrusive dragnet. Had it done so –and hopefully if the government tries to do so now — then it would have been publicly debated. And the program’s inefficacy would have been a much bigger issue.
The strong-arming of telecoms, presumably including Verizon, into this data handshake ought to refocus efforts to find a better solution to get the government the coverage it actually needs, but without inventing dragnets that have not shown to be useful.I know what I want in a video game. I want a smart story, innovative gameplay, and to be challenged intellectually. At least, I thought that's what I wanted. But then I played the new DOOM, which had none of that, but was also the most fun I've had in front of my TV in years.
I'm not sure if you've heard, but this is a thing you can do in that game.
That's when I realized that I don't actually have the faintest damn clue what I want in a game. And what I think I want is actually just a bunch of malarkey. Also: I'm bringing back "malarkey." It's a good word.
#4. Absolute Freedom (Means There's Nothing to Do)
What We Think We Want
Freedom, baby. Ya feel me? More than just a word for the type of radiation given off by the American flag, "freedom" is the greatest thing that a video game can offer you. In real life, we're trapped in stupid human society, with stupid "laws" and petty "physical consequences for our squishy human bodies" preventing us from fulfilling our deranged fantasies. But in video games, anything is possible. That's why the best games are stuff like Grand Theft Auto and Minecraft -- ones that don't even tell you what to do. They just point at the world and say, "All yours, my child. All yours. Also, here's a machine gun."
And hey, did you hear about this No Man's Sky game? It's like that, but with an entire universe! There's so much goddamn freedom in that game that anyone who goes near it becomes riddled with malignant patriotic tumors. That much freedom guarantees it'll be awesome, right?
The Reality
Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but "freedom" in a video game is a lie, man. You're only ever doing what the video game was programmed to allow you to do, man. And that's always how it is.
For example, take Grand Theft Auto. You can't do "anything" -- you can do the violent, hyper-masculine activities the designers remembered to program. That may be fun as hell, but it's still not "freedom." Even Minecraft, which seems like the purest sandbox game possible, still only lets you mine and repurpose materials into your own creations. You can't, say, try to sustainably coexist with nature. There's no granola-munching hippie lifestyle in Minecraft. And these limitations, it turns out, are what make the game fun. If you don't give us direction, we get sorta lost.
No Man's Sky. It's a game about exploring space, and when they two quintillion planets? Were all the planets the same? Did the game just straight up not work? For proof, look at the saga of. It's a game about exploring space, and when they debuted a trailer at E3, everyone lost their goddamn minds over it, as I did above, because of all that sweet, intoxicating freedom. The main hook was that there were nine quintillion planets to explore, and you could go anywhere and do anything. It seemed pretty damn neat. But then it came out, and everyone was so horribly disappointed that fans dubbed it "No Man's Lie," and demanded refunds (and in many cases, received them). What was the problem? Were there onlyquintillion planets? Were all the planets? Did the game just straight up not work?
Was it this guy?
No, nothing like that. The problem was that multiplayer didn't work, and a lot of the aliens you met were kinda boring. The nine quintillion planets, the space travel, that was all there. In fact, No Man's Sky does absolutely everything it promised from the beginning; everything that made us excited to play it in the first place. It's just that exploring an infinite video game universe -- the very thing that we got so excited about in the first place -- is super boring if there isn't anything to do. This is why we defunded NASA in real life, it turns out. Exploring is boring. Freedom, it turns out, isn't enough. Gamers need tasks. We need you to tell us to do something. We want you to make us think we're free, when we're actually doing exactly what you want. That was the message of Bioshock, right?
#3. We Want Movie-Quality Stories (As Long As They Don't Get In The Way Of Our Murder Fantasies)
What We Think We Want
Look, I don't just play video games because they're hyper-violent fantasies or because I'm afraid of the mosquitoes and loud noises that are outside. I play them because of their great stories. Stories like in The Last Of Us or Bioshock or Spec Ops: The Line. See? This is a real medium. Shakespeare would've probably written video games if he were alive now, I bet. For sure.
The Reality
The reason video games don't have great stories is that they're games. Games are different from stories. The first goal of a video game is always to be fun, but somewhere along the line, we decided that the only way to have games be taken seriously is to give them Serious Stories. So we decided to splice in cutscenes -- whole chunks of the game in which instead of "playing," we're watching a CGI movie. This is the equivalent of playing chess with your friends, but taking five minutes before your turn to explain the motivation of your rook, and the tragic injury in his youth that prevents him from moving diagonally.
"My father looked up at me, and with his dying breath, whispered, 'Never move diagonally.' I am a talking tower."
I remember loving The Last Of Us's story, but when I think back on it, I realize that the story kept being hurt by the fact that it also had to be a game. In the beginning, Joel and his buddy ruthlessly murder like 50 dudes in the middle of a town, but we're still supposed to see him as a relatable hero. We're also supposed to be worried about Ellie, even though she's invincible through all the gameplay, because otherwise that'd be irritating. The game I played and the story I was following were happening in two totally different worlds, so I kept having to switch.
That's when I realizes that there are the three types of "great video game stories."
1. Thesis statements on the nature of video games (Bioshock, Spec Ops: The Line)
2. Several dozen cool, loosely related ideas, scattered around a map for you to discover on your own (Fallout, Oblivion, Dark Souls)
3. Something that would work better as a movie (The Last Of Us)
Calling this stuff "stories" is the same simplistic, reductive thinking that leads game designers to throw in random references to sexual violence because they think it's mature. Games don't need to be movies. They can be games. They are games! Stop trying to make them something else! Why am I shouting at myself!?Paul McCartney’s son wants his fellow Fab Four offspring to come together for their own version of Beatlemania.
James McCartney, Sir Paul’s 34-year-old son, claims he’s already getting a little help from his friends, Sean Lennon, 37, and Dhani Harrison, 33, to get their dads’ old band back together.
Children of original Beatles members said they are open to forming “The Beatles: The Next Generation.” What do you think?
“I’d be up for it. Sean seemed to be into it, Dhani seemed to be into it,” the younger McCartney said in a recent BBC chat. “I’d be happy to do it.”
But drummer Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr’s oldest son, doesn’t feel fine about McCartney’s proposed “The Beatles — The Next Generation.”
Starkey has been banging drums for The Who.
And at 46, Ringo’s kid is the baby of a band with dinosaur rockers Roger Daltrey, 68, and Pete Townshend, 66.
“I don’t think it’s something that Zak wants to do,” McCartney said.
“Maybe Jason [another of Starr’s sons, a 44-year-old drummer] would want to do it.”
The younger McCartney admits it’ll be a long and winding road before these second-generation Beatles can ever work it out.
“Yeah, hopefully, naturally. I don’t know, you’d have to wait and see,” he said.
“The will of God, nature’s support, I guess. So yeah, maybe.”
If this Beatles reincarnation ever came to be, each son would be older than their dads when they played their last gig on Jan. 30, 1969, high atop Apple studios in London.
Sir Paul was 26, John 28, George 26 and Ringo 28 on that cold, windswept day.
No Beatles’ kid has had a break-out musical career, though Julian Lennon hit the top 10 in 1985 with “Too Late for Goodbyes.”
James McCartney said he once fantasized about leading a band as big as The Beatles, but that dream is so yesterday.
“If anything, I would love to be equal to The Beatles — but even that’s quite tough,” he said.
McCartney called his dad a “genius” and an “inspiration.”
“He’s a genius, he’s beyond genius, and he’s a big inspiration,” the band-leader wannabe said.
“Very intellectual and obviously amazing at what he does, so it’s great fun. He helps me get in tune with myself and be the best person that I can be.”
Despite those glowing words about Sir Paul, the younger McCartney admits they’ve had their battles like any other family.
“Sometimes in the past, a few years ago, it can be difficult, it can be tense, like families can get,” he said. “But beyond that, it’s beautiful.”
With"Y'All Want a Single" is a song written and recorded by American nu metal band Korn for their sixth studio album, Take a Look in the Mirror. It was released as the album's third single in March 2004, chosen by fans through a poll on the band's official forum.
Music and structure [ edit ]
At a running time of three minutes and seventeen seconds, the song contains 89 uses of the word "fuck" with the repeated line "Y'all want a single, say fuck that - fuck that fuck that", although the radio edit replaces the word "fuck" with "suck".
Concept [ edit ]
"We were recording this album before we went to Ozzfest. We had 10 songs written and recorded, but we weren't feeling it would be the whole album. We wanted to add 3 or 4 more songs, so we came back to record them. Then our record company was like 'Hey, we'd really love to have a single' and our management, The Firm said 'We would really like to have a smash hit single, man, can you dig it?'. We were really appalled by that scene. They wanted 'Got the Life' or 'Freak on a Leash', and that shit wasn't flying with us at all! For the first time in our lives we were dissecting our music, and trying to analyze the structure of those songs, trying to figure out what made them huge hits. But Korn never works like that, and while we were all wondering, Jonathan came up with a line: 'Y'all want a single? Say: FUCK THAT' and we wrote Y'All Want a Single as a big 'fuck you' to them. Damn, Jonathan is really good at motivating us this way."[1] – James Shaffer
Chart performance [ edit ]
"Y'All Want a Single" was released exclusively in the UK, but it failed to chart. However, it received unsolicited airplay in the US, peaking at number twenty-three on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Songs chart in February 2004.[2]
Charts [ edit ]
Music video [ edit ]
The video, directed by Andrews Jenkins, presents a mob of fans destroying a record store with statements about the music industry displayed throughout. The video begins with all of the members of Korn entering the record store and destroying all of the music CDs and tapes and dismantling the racks and shelves that they are stored on. As the video moves along, facts criticizing the music industry and major label companies flash across the screen. One caption announces the video itself cost $150,000 to make, a budget smaller than many major label releases at the time. They state opinions based on the idea that the corporate nature of the music industry is questionable.Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Telecom node (KXAN photo)
Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Telecom node (KXAN photo)
AUSTIN (KXAN) - The City of Austin sued the State of Texas in Federal Court over its massive new telecommunications law, SB 1004, which takes effect Sept. 1. This year, lawmakers decided to take away much of city's power to regulate the installation of cell service and wireless internet, and the City of Austin wants to go to court.
In order to bring faster and better quality internet to cell phones -- including preparing for the capability to 5G internet -- state lawmakers made it easier for major telecommunications companies to put up small cell towers on public right of way. The new law would allow telecom companies to use streetlights, street signs and utility poles with less oversight from cities in Texas.
The new law would undercut prior agreements the City of Austin had with several companies -- including AT&T, which supported the bill. The agreements charged the companies $1,500 per small cell "node" per year. The bill would cap that charge at $250 to $270 per year per node.
The Texas Municipal League estimated cities would lose out on more than $700 million a year.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Western District Court, the City of Austin claims the State violated the Federal Telecommunications Act and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution by forcing the city to take "unreasonable low rates" by capping the fees and "frustrating the City's ability to safety and efficiently manage public rights-of-way."
Andy Tate, Senior Public Information Specialist wrote to KXAN saying, "the State is effectively forcing the City of Austin to subsidize the private cellular industry by several million dollars a year. At the same time the State is interfering with our ability to govern the use of antennae and equipment on public land."
The city claims part of the new law also grants telecom companies access to private property, even if the property owner has not given consent. Right now the city comes to an agreement with a landowner while putting a utility pole on their land. This bill would allow a telecom company to put small cell towers on the utility pole without a benefit to the landowner.
In March 2017, Austin began a pilot program to get better cell service and internet downtown by allowing cell providers to put up small cell nodes on the right of way. City leaders plan to take the program city-wide.
SB 1004 also caps the application fee for a new node at $100. In the lawsuit, the city lawyers claim the application process to license, conduct field assessments, monitor and inspect the small cell installation costs the city $1,234. The law also bans any "moratorium" on issuing permits so Austin worries the public right of way will be bombarded and overloaded with small cell nodes that would look terrible and disrupt the city's "aesthetics."
The city of Brownsville has also sued the State over SB 1004.
The State's lawyer, Attorney General Ken Paxton, did not have a comment on the lawsuit at this time.
Industry leaders came to the capitol in early 2017 to explain to lawmakers why this bill is needed for the future of wireless service.
"It's to give our customers an effortless, wireless customer experience," Ryan Tidwell from AT&T's engineering department told lawmakers in a spring committee hearing, "Things like 4K video, the internet of things, connected cars, smart cities. They all start with 5G."
Nearly every lawmaker agreed. SB 1004 passed the Texas House 140 to 6. It passed the Texas Senate 29 to 0. Governor Abbott signed it into law in June.
The House sponsor, Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, tells KXAN he never comments on pending litigation. Staff for the Senate author, Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, told KXAN he could not be reached for comment.WELCOME TO "1000 PEASANTS KILL DONALD TRUMP!! (Totally Accurate Battle Simulator TABS)" TODAY WE KILL THE ORANGE MAN TRUMP! HURRAY FOR 1000 PEASANTS DESTROYING AMERICAS PRESIDENT!!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------PREVIOUS VIDEO - https://goo.gl/ZUHjlA RANDOM VIDEO #1 - https://goo.gl/7DOP0C RANDOM VIDEO #2 - https://goo.gl/OhbBNT RANDOM VIDEO #3 - https://goo.gl/tDZcxM Twitch - https://goo.gl/Rt06lA Twitter - https://goo.gl/gCe3hM Facebook - https://goo.gl/oRClw8 Instagram - https://goo.gl/eD90dA SnapChat - https://goo.gl/p5yhAz TOTALLY ACCURATE BATTLE SIMULATOR: Totally Accurate Battle Simulator is a physics based medieval battle simulator which lets you pit wacky waving armies against each other.Outro Music: https://goo.gl/lDMITV TRASH CONTENT & SPARKLY BAGELSMy name is Currie! (Originally CurriePlays) I post loads of gameplay, commentary, and even some reactions to my fans snapchats and other weird stuff. I play anything from Totally Accurate Battle Simulator or TABS, GTA or Grand Theft Auto, HAPPY WHEELS, Raft, Happy Room and even Golf with Your Friends. I really just like playing any video game that will make people laugh! SUPER generic I know BUT THIS IS A GAMING CHANNEL, But hopefully I can make you laugh with my funny moments! I also like posting really anything random, like Reading comments or Snapchat Q&A's.I am also the Editor for Kwebbelkop, So if you have any buisness inquiries for editing there is a link down belowSOME FRIENDS:Kwebbelkop - https://goo.gl/aMmKTG Jelly - https://goo.gl/5FW1tw RobertIDK - https://goo.gl/VP1ISc Yub - https://goo.gl/BLfh4L TheAuthentik - https://goo.gl/W5BFd1 SCHEDULEEVERYDAY - 8PM EST!!!The legislation is being piloted by 34-year-old Marlene Schiappa (pictured), a feminist and early supporter of French President Emmanuel Macron
Men will be fined on the spot for wolf-whistling women on French streets, the country's women's minister has said.
Marlene Schiappa, 34, a feminist and early supporter of French President Emmanuel Macron, is trying to tackle sexist male attitudes in public spaces with new legislation currently being piloted.
Men will be fined for lecherous, aggressive behaviour or anything deemed harassment under the policy.
But a definition of harassment and the amount of money harassers will be fined have yet to be decided upon.
'It's completely necessary because at the moment street harassment is not defined in the law,' she told RTL radio today in a major interview to outline the law, which is to be voted on next year.
The escalating scandal over Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual assaults on a string of actresses has rekindled debate on sexual harassment and predation in France.
The 'MeToo' hashtag encouraging women to share their experiences is among the top 10 trends on French Twitter, and a new one has emerged - #balancetonporc ('Expose the Pig') - to report sexual harassment in the workplace.
Asked about the difficulty of drawing a line between harassment and flirtation, Schiappa replied: 'We know very well at what point we start feeling intimidated, unsafe or harassed in the street.'
She cited examples such as when a man invades a woman's personal space - 'by talking to you 10, 20 centimetres from your face' - or follows a woman for several blocks, or 'asks for your number 17 times.'
A cross-party taskforce composed of five MPs has been asked to work with police and magistrates to come up with a definition of harassment that can be enforced by officers on the streets.
'The level of the fine is part of our discussions,' Schiappa said, adding that neighbourhood police would act on complaints brought to their attention by women.
A cross-party taskforce composed of five MPs has been asked to work with police and magistrates to come up with a definition of harassment that can be enforced by officers on the streets. Pictured: President Emmanuel Macron
'The symbolic value of laws that outlaw street harassment is very great,' she said.
The legislation will also include provisions such as lengthening the amount of time women have to lodge sexual assault complaints dating from their childhood and toughening laws on sex with minors.
Raphaelle Remy-Leleu of the feminist organisation Osez le Feminisme (Dare to Be Feminist) said: 'I hope that social tolerance will decrease after people become more aware' of sexual harassment.
'But there's a lot of work to be done.'After each Space Shuttle flight, NASA retrieved Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) segments from the ocean. During a Shuttle launch, the SRBs detached as the Shuttle rose, and they fell into the ocean, where teams in two massive ships (Liberty Star and Freedom Star) were waiting to locate and retrieve them so they could be reused. Here's video of NASA's SRB recovery teams picking up the segments after the STS-133 launch, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery in February 2011.
Although I've always known the SRBs were reused, I never saw footage of the retrieval process. This is pretty much raw footage of the process (no narration), but if you're a space nerd, this is a must-see video. Part of the fun is seeing just how massive these things are; the other extra-fun bit is the time-lapse at the end, which helps to show how long the process takes.
If you want more of that, there's a 45-minute video of the STS-135 retrieval. It's slow, but shows even more of |
the women’s Featherweight division! pic.twitter.com/qTNcGo7pJO — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) December 20, 2017
The PUMMA trained fighter brings a 3-2 record into the promotion though the two losses on her professional record came against current UFC fighter Jessica-Rose Clark and previous Bellator title challenger Arlene Blencowe. The Aussie made her international debut in May, travelling to Hong Kong where she secured a second round stoppage over Ramona Pascual.
Harding was recently scheduled to compete on Dana White’s Contender series though visa complications forced her out of the event.
The current Bellator women’s featherweight champion is Julia Budd who in her last title defense, edged out Arlene Blencowe via split-points decision.
There has been no confirmation as to when and who Harding will face in her debut.A black screen. The sound of a harsh cough. We are already alert when, soon after, we see a bartender pick up a customer's coin and then punch numbers into a cash register. Germs, we're thinking. "Contagion" is a realistic, unsensational film about a global epidemic. It's being marketed as a thriller, a frightening speculation about how a new airborne virus could enter the human species and spread relentlessly in very little time.
This scenario is already familiar to us through the apparently annual outbreaks of influenza. Not many of them cause as much alarm as swine flu did. The news chronology is always the same: alarmist maps, global roundups, the struggle to produce a vaccine at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, the manufacture and distribution of supplies of this year's "flu shot."
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The virus in "Contagion" is a baffling one, defying isolation, rejecting cure. This film by Steven Soderbergh is skillful at telling the story through the lives of several key characters and the casual interactions of many others. It makes it clear that people do not "give" one another a virus; a virus is a life form evolved to seek out new hosts — as it must to survive, because its carriers die, and it must always stay one jump ahead of death. In a sense, it is an alien species, and this is a movie about an invasion from inner space.
The cough we hear at the outset is from Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow), a Minneapolis woman traveling home from Hong Kong. Soon her son dies. She follows. Her husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), apparently immune, is incredulous that death could so suddenly devastate his family. An investigation uncovers a secret visit that Beth made during a stopover in Chicago — but no, she didn't contract the virus through sexual contact, the way AIDS seemed to spread.
At the very end of the film, Soderbergh adds a brief scenario explaining where the virus may have come from in the first place, and how very few degrees of separation there were between its origin and a woman from Minneapolis. Whether this could happen in the way Soderbergh illustrates is beside the point; all viruses originate somewhere, and in an age of air travel, they can reach a new continent in a day.
The movie follows the protocols of techno-thrillers, with subtitles keeping count: Day 1, Day 3, Minneapolis, Geneva … We meet such key players as Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) of the CDC in Atlanta; Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, who tries to track the spread with on-the-spot visits; Dr. Leonora Orantes (Marion Cotillard), an investigator from the World Health Organization in Geneva. They have worked together before, are skilled, operate urgently. And in a laboratory, there is Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle), trying to perfect a vaccine and impatient with the time being lost before she can test it on humans.
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All of this works as drama. It might have been useful if Soderbergh had explained viruses more clearly as a life form that is not hostile to us, but concerned with other life forms only as its means of survival. Richard Dawkins outlined this process in his remorseless The Selfish Gene: From the viewpoint of a gene, bodies are merely steppingstones on their journey through time. Still, "Contagion" deserves praise for taking the scientific method seriously when so much hogwash is floated about regarding vaccines.
One aspect of the film is befuddling. Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law) is a popular blogger with conspiracy theories about the government's ties with drug companies. His concerns are ominous but unfocused. Does he think drug companies encourage viruses? The blogger subplot doesn't interact clearly with the main story lines and functions mostly as an alarming but vague distraction.
Yes, we must often wash our hands. Yes, "hand sanitizers" are all over the place these days. Yes, shaking hands with strangers can be annoying — although they are no more likely to carry viruses than we are. Yes, there is really not much we can do. You might be surprised by how many hospital patients die because of viruses they didn't walk in with.What you’re looking at is probably the first prototype of future Radeon R9 300 series cooling.
Just 3 weeks ago Asetek announced ‘the largest ever design win’.
Press Release: Thursday, August 14, 2014 — Asetek® today announced that it has secured a design win with an undisclosed OEM customer for a graphics liquid cooling product. The ambitious project is forecasted by the customer to result in 2 – 4 million dollars of revenue. Shipping is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2015. The design win continues Asetek’s success in the growing graphics liquid cooling market. (..)
Radeon R9 390X has hybrid cooling
Well as it just turns out, that deal was with AMD to design new R9 300 series cooling solution. The new cooler is almost identical to R9 295X2 (which was design by Asetek by the way). The only difference is that the middle fan has been moved to the side, as only one GPU has to be cooled down. We can even see the place where liquid loop will be connected, so it’s quite obvious now that next Radeon flagship will use hybrid cooling system, just like dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2 does.
Whether this is a good news or not, it’s a huge progress from plastic reference cooling of R9 200 series. We just hope the decision to use liquid cooling was not dictated by high temperate of the next high-end GPU, but rather a design upgrade.
In July this slide has been popular among tech sites. New GPU designed by Synapse most likely for AMD.
500 sq.mm silicon needs some proper cooling.
The rumors suggest we might be looking at Radeon R9 390X right now, equipped with Fiji GPU. This card is not expected to launch any time soon (like months soon).
Source: Baidu
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Game Of Thrones actor
Sean Bean has been stabbed following a row over glamour model April Summers, according to reports.
Sean Bean has apparently been stabbed following an altercation over a glamour model (Pic: Reuters)
Bean was apparently stabbed in the arm during an altercation outside a London pub, after a passer-by made lewd comments about his female companion.
The 52-year-old actor reportedly followed the man down the road to challenge him about the comments, and was later attacked.
According to eyewitnesses quoted by the Daily Mail, Bean was stabbed in the arm with what was believed to be a broken glass and punched in the face during the incident on Sunday evening.
Glamour model April Summers (BigPictures)
But, ever the hard man, the Lord Of The Rings star decided against going to hospital â and returned to order another drink from the pub.
A member of staff at the pub said: ‘Sean is a regular here and we’ve never had any problems before.
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‘He was with a very attractive woman and an incident occurred outside the bar.
‘He came in with a cut on his arm and a bruise on his eyebrow. We saw to his injuries with the first aid kit. He seemed ok and wanted to have another drink.’
Neither Bean nor Summers have commented on the incident.A couple of weeks ago, I stood before a crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau and listened to the tour guide talk about the sonderkommandos. The sonderkommandos, he explained quietly, were the prisoners tasked with removing dead corpses from the gas chambers – after the victims had been showered with cyanide and choked to death – and then with hurling them into ovens or onto piles of other lifeless bodies and burning them to ash. The sonderkommandos, who sometimes found their own family members in the heaps, would be killed off and then replaced to prevent their gruesome stories from circulating to others in the camp. I stood there and listened, catatonic and sick to my stomach, perturbed by the lush green fields and flowers growing along the perimeter of the gas chamber.
But what disturbed me just as much was the tourist I saw tiptoeing his way into the ruins of the gas chamber – which at this point looks like little more than volcanic rubble because the Nazis bombed it to erase evidence before they retreated. Selfie stick in hand, this guy was taking photos of himself in the remains of the crematorium where hundreds of thousands of people were murdered.
“Look at him,” I said under my breath to a friend, narrowing my eyes at the sight of this guy. “Is he serious? Someone should go confiscate that stick, now.”
That was the first of three selfie sticks I saw in one day at Auschwitz. One at a Birkenau crematorium. One at the entrance to Birkenau, in front of the iconic building with train tracks running through its center. And one at the entrance to Auschwitz, in front of the ever-famous Arbeit Macht Frei sign.
More than 50 locations worldwide have formally banned selfie sticks. A couple of those places are sports stadiums. A couple nightclubs and music festivals, too. But the majority of bans are at museums – including Versailles, the Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Center in Los Angeles and Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in D.C. Those bans are designed, primarily, to protect what’s inside the museums. But what about protecting the sanctity of a place and the feelings of those who visit? There are no selfie stick bans at Auschwitz.
“It’s really hard to ban everything that is somehow disrespectful,” says Thorsten Wagner, academic director for the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, or FASPE, a program run through the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Twice a year, FASPE travels to Auschwitz with groups of current and soon-to-be lawyers, doctors, journalists, businesspeople and seminarians to explore how each discipline plays a role in genocide and war.
“You can try to set up rules, which moral sites like Auschwitz do – you can limit people from walking around in bikinis – but there are these gray zones, and I’m afraid that proscriptions and legal ramifications would only very partially deal with the broader culture of how we interact with [these places],” Wagner says. “It’s very hard to isolate the phenomenon of the selfie stick from a much broader theme: What does a certain site demand of me as a visitor?”
As we wrapped our way around the red-brick barracks, past the gallows and through the barbed wire fences, which 70 years ago were electrified and could kill a prisoner on contact, I kept thinking about the people I had seen with selfie sticks. I was disgusted and angry, unable to fathom why anyone would treat Auschwitz – where the Nazis murdered 1,100,000 human beings – like a red carpet in Hollywood.
I had seen the controversial “selfies at Auschwitz” posts (and the explosive criticism that followed) a year or two ago, but the physical selfie stick is an even newer phenomenon that has really taken off only in the last 6 months or so. Selfie sticks, manufactured largely in China, were the gift of the year this past holiday season, according to Bloomberg News — roughly 100,000 selfie sticks were sold in December alone. Using this hot new toy at Auschwitz just struck me as the next level of disrespect – at first impression, these narcissticks seemed to have made the death camp less about the perpetrators and victims killed there, and more about you and me. After a while, though, I slowly began to second-guess myself.
When I left Auschwitz, I couldn’t formulate sentences or articulate thoughts. But over the days that followed, I thought about how my visit to Auschwitz was so much more real than learning about it ten times over in Hebrew school, then again in elementary school, and again in high school and college. It suddenly struck me that in the next ten-or-so years, the last Holocaust survivors — many of whom we’ve had the honor of interviewing, hearing at lectures and getting to know in more intimate settings — may pass. My own children will learn only from textbooks, never from a survivor, and that’s a scary thing.
The need to bear witness to the Holocaust and to its camps is one of the most important factors in keeping the story alive after the survivors and onlookers are no longer here. I began to think that if capturing Auschwitz with a selfie stick is one person’s way of bearing witness and making sure the history never disappears, that must be acceptable. Maybe it’s unfair to cast judgment on how different people behave in these kinds of places, how they absorb it, how they decide to remember it. By the time I had digested my thoughts, I had done a near-180 on this selfie stick issue.
“I’ve seen people process, confront and deal with visiting Auschwitz in many different ways, and these are people I know are serious about being there,” says FASPE’s managing director, Thorin Tritter, who has been to Auschwitz eight times since 2011.
“It’s not what I would choose to do, but we have the technology to now enable yourself, through these selfie sticks, to put yourself into the picture and the memory, to show you were there, without having to ask someone to take a picture of you,” says Tritter. “It’s really hard to ask someone to do that for you [at Auschwitz].”
Perhaps my initial reaction was wrong. Perhaps the tourist who arrives, selfie stick in hand, is not taking the Holocaust any less seriously than the tourist who shows up with a notebook, prayer book, or a bouquet of flowers to leave beside the Death Wall, where naked, demeaned prisoners would line up to be shot in the head. Maybe that person is just trying to document the story in a peculiar yet effective way.
Wagner, however, thinks this may be a dangerous assumption. “I would not be so optimistic as you are,” says Wagner, who has served as an educator at the Jewish Museum of Berlin and a research fellow at the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He is now a professor at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, where he lectures on these very issues. He tries to raise awareness about what scholars call ‘dark tourism’ or ‘Holocaust tourism,’ the dramatic rise in interest to go to places of disaster or catastrophe.
“I have students in my class who delve into analysis of Holocaust tourism and have a naïve and optimistic approach, saying people come here so they can make sure they never do this again,” Wagner said. “But I try to nudge them to a more skeptical, cynical attitude, to think about whether this is really the attitude people come with.”
“If people are here [at Auschwitz] to bear witness and they choose to do it that way then I make my peace with it,” he adds, “but I’d challenge whether the bearing witness thing is the prime motivation for people. Although there are people who have a sincere, reflective approach to the place they go to, I’m afraid that this explosion of visitors numbers comes along with a diverse range of interests, so I’d at least be skeptical.”
The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, located in rural Oświęcim, Poland, now brings in between 8,000 and 10,000 visitors per day, said the museum’s director of communications, Pawel Sawicki, during my visit earlier this month.
So what happens when these phenomena clash – when the booming global tourism industry meets sites that are charred, contaminated, complex and emotional? Each and every one of us who has visited Auschwitz is now a Holocaust tourist in some regard. And in return for seeing Auschwitz as tourists – 70 years later, from a place of safety and even privilege – we’ve now assumed the responsibility of sharing its tales and disseminating its history, whatever the medium, in the most sensitive, considerate way possible.
Alexandra Levine is the Forward’s culture intern. Contact her at levine@forward.com
This story "Will a Selfie at Auschwitz Make You Free?" was written by Alexandra Levine.Uber may be hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons of late, but the sharing economy is here to stay. As it reshapes the world of business, it is equally disrupting the world of work, too. Freelancing is displacing payroll employment globally. In the US, self-employed workers, pegged at 15.5 million in 2015, are expected to touch 60 million by 2020, comprising 40% of the workforce, according to software firm Intuit. India, with a 470 millionstrong workforce, has also joined the gigs economy., an online outsourcing marketplace that claims to be the world’s largest, tells ET that India is No. 2, after the US, in terms of number of users on Freelancer. Excerpts from an email interview:It is the world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace in terms of the number of users and projects posted on the site. We have over 24 million users worldwide. Over 11 million projects have been posted on our platform. On the one hand, Freelancer.com helps startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs grow their business and on the other, it provides flexible job options to professionals across fields and geographies. We currently have 53 local domains, and support 34 languages and 28 currencies. We are effectively an eBay for jobs.Jobs/projects mostly come from developed countries like the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. As for job seekers or freelancers, they mostly come from developing countries like India, the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh. However, if we count the total (freelancers and employers together), India is in second place in terms of total number of users in our marketplace after the US.Over 75% of our users are millennials. India, the US, the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia, the UK, Brazil, Bangladesh, Australia and Canada are the top 10 countries where our users are from. About 25% of the user base are self-employed business owners, 21% identify themselves as freelance professionals, 19% as students and 22% as full-time employees. About 45% of professionals on the platform possess a bachelor’s degree, while 21% have a master’s degree. The jobs/projects most in demand are graphic design, Photoshop, logo design, website design, data entry, data processing and programming like PHP and HTML, WordPress, proofreading, copywriting and the like.The internet has made it easy for people to learn multiple skills which they can earn from on our marketplace. Many of our users have successfully completed projects that have nothing to do with their educational background. We can see from our user case studies that employees quit their jobs if they didn’t feel it aligns with their career goals. They are confident they can make it on their own.Employers from developing countries are on the rise and they are employing local freelancers as well. When Freelancer first started out, employers usually came from developed countries like the US, UK and Australia, while freelancers were commonly from developing ones like India, the Philippines and Bangladesh. However, through the years, we are seeing employers from developing countries who are looking to hire freelancers, and they employ freelancers from every part of the world, even from their own countries. More and more companies have teams working from different parts of the world. It is now common to hear of small businesses with three to five teams remotely collaborating from different countries. Our tools aid this kind of collaborative setup.The workplace is rapidly changing. Instead of hiring fulltime employees, more organisations are turning to freelancing and crowdsourcing. Individuals also prefer the flexibility of picking their own projects and hours rather than having these imposed on them through full-time employment. This is where Freelancer comes in. We have 24 million users and about 11 million projects posted today. By definition, it is the future of work and the marketplace for jobs. One can earn an average of $200 per project on Freelancer.com.Moreover, in an increasingly competitive global market, small businesses are turning to freelancers to crowdsource short-term projects in skill categories that they do not necessarily have the resources for. By tapping into a global talent pool like Freelancer.com, a small business can operate like a major corporation.Technology is playing a huge role in disrupting industries and creating amazing opportunities online for businesses and freelancers globally. The digital economy can provide people with a way to earn a living, even if they are otherwise excluded from traditional labour markets. These include stay-at-home women, college students and people with disabilities. The key benefit of the digital economy is that it allows and encourages remote working, where gender, location and age may not matter as much as they do in the physical economy. It opens up a world of opportunities for more people.With 4.5 million-plus users, India represents the second biggest market for us. We have recently tied up with Paytm to enable digital payments and allow our users to transact electronically. Most of the employers who hire Indian freelancers come from India, the US, Australia, UK and Canada. Majority of Indian users are from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. In line with the growth in India’s startup ecosystem, the number of Indian employers who have hired freelancers on our platform has risen and is expected to rise further.Always upgrade your skills. Narrow your freelance niche to stand out. Write bids that clients won’t say no to. Provide quality service beyond clients’ expectations. They will come back to you. Don’t sell yourself short. Employers go for quality first and price second, so focus on your bid proposal, show that you have read the brief, understand what is required and how your skill and experience relate. Employers would much rather award someone who has a detailed proposal at a higher rate than someone who cuts and pastes the same bid for every project they apply for. Successful freelancers who have strong pricing power build amazing profiles, put their great examples of work into our showcase, deliver their work on time, on budget and with high quality — which builds up their feedback. The higher your feedback, the easier it is to increase your pricing. If you are new as a freelancer and you don’t have the ratings and reviews yet from previous employers, I strongly suggest to focus on your profile. The first job is always the hardest one to get, but once you get your first job and you complete it satisfactorily, and finally you get a good review, the second one will be easier to get and the same thing for the third one and so on.The U.S. government is tracking and gathering intelligence on as many as 300 Americans who are fighting side by side with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and are poised to become a major threat to the homeland, according to senior U.S. officials.
Officials say concern is widespread in Washington that radicalized foreign fighters could return to the homeland and commit terrorist attacks with skills acquired overseas, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. Those concerns were heightened by the disclosure Tuesday that a California man was killed fighting alongside militants with the group, also known as ISIS.
The U.S. government is doing its best to keep track of the foreign fighters, who have been shifting back and forth between Iraq and Syria, according to a senior U.S. official.
“We know that there are several hundred American passport holders running around with ISIS in Syria or Iraq,” the official said, offering a figure well above widespread reports of about 100 such fighters. “It’s hard to tell whether or not they’re in Syria or moved to Iraq.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for the number of Americans traveling in Iraq and Syria.
Supporters of the Islamic State group have worked to cultivate anxiety in the United States over the threat they might pose domestically.
SEE ALSO: American reportedly killed while fighting for Islamic State terrorists
Among photographs posted to Twitter in recent weeks is one that shows the Islamic State flag unfurled in front of the White House at night. Another photo taken in front of a high-rise building in Chicago features the message: “We are in your state. We are in your cities. We are in your streets. You are our goals anywhere.”
The Secret Service is investigating the incident in front of the White House, and the FBI and Department of Homeland Security last week issued bulletins to local law enforcement agencies urging them to be alert but not identifying any specific threat.
The militant group’s supporters have also pursued a more subtle propaganda campaign on social media against Mr. Obama’s policies. One post includes a photo of Mr. Obama on the golf course with insets of U.S. soldiers in combat and American flag-draped coffins. The caption reads: “O American soldiers! Obama sends you to death and he just goes to play golf.”
In even some Western countries, the tactics appear to be gaining traction. London-based polling firm ICM Research conducted a survey in Britain, France and Germany to test whether people were aware of the Islamic State and in favor of the group’s radical actions.
At least 15 percent of the roughly 1,000 French citizens polled responded favorably to the group’s terror tactics, according to Russia Today. ICM conducted the poll on behalf of Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya.
The poll was conducted Aug. 19, the same day a videotape surfaced showing a member of the Islamic State beheading American journalist James Foley. It was unclear whether the poll was prompted by Foley’s killing, which his executioners said was done to send a message to President Obama and the U.S. military.
“You’re no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic army and a state that has been accepted by large number of Muslims worldwide,” Mr. Foley’s executioner said. “So effectively, any aggression towards the Islamic State is aggression towards Muslims from all walks of life who has accepted the Islamic caliphate as their leadership. So any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their rights of living in safety under the Islamic caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people.”
The threat of radical jihadists returning to the United States is “a new hazard” for the Department of Homeland Security, said retired Army Maj. Mike Lyons, a senior fellow with the Truman National Security Project and a CBS Radio News analyst. As a result, the department must plan for a future where the jihadists leave their Middle East battlefield and trickle back to America, he said.
“If these people have been identified, there needs to be a discussion with regard to how and when they are allowed back in the U.S.,” he said.
Heightening concerns about Americans joining the Islamic State group were reports Tuesday that a California man who fought side by side with militants was found dead on the battlefield.
U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that the body of Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, was found after a brutal battle. He was identified based on the U.S. passport he had in his pocket.
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said officials were “aware” of McCain’s presence in Syria and acknowledged that the White House had been tracking his whereabouts prior to his death.
“We continue to use every tool we possess to disrupt and dissuade individuals from traveling abroad for violent jihad and to track and engage those who return,” she said.
CNN spoke to McCain’s uncle, Ken McCain, who said his nephew converted from Christianity to Islam several years ago, became a jihadi and left his family “devastated.” Douglas McCain often praised the Islamic State on his Twitter account.
The discovery of an American Muslim convert in combat alongside foreign fighters is consistent with the unease of U.S. officials, who are concerned they will take what they learned from the battlefield, return to the homeland and perpetrate attacks on Americans.
Obama administration officials believe the threat capability of the returning jihadists is limited to small attacks. The foreign fighters are expected to lack the conspiracy planning and organization necessary to commit a larger attack like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
But Maj. Lyons suggested the foreign fighters overall present a greater long-term danger to the United States than al-Qaeda.
“Unlike the 9/11 terrorists, who worked as a team and [carried out] a plan over the course of years, individuals returning from Syria are likely a greater risk to be either lone wolf suicide bomber-type attackers or organizers/recruiters for cells who will conduct a more complex attack than a suicide bomb,” he said.
Senior U.S. officials said that it is likely that intelligence agencies will place those Americans on an appropriate watch list or a no-fly list.
“I know that law enforcement agencies in Homeland Security are mindful of some Americans who have become radicalized, and some have taken up with [the Islamic State],” the official said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for clarification on its methods for tracking Americans suspected of involvement with the Islamic State group or for deterring the potential threat they pose to the United States.
Not everyone in Washington sees such a small sliver of the radicalized American population as a threat to the U.S. homeland.
Aaron Miller, a national security analyst and the vice president for new initiatives at Washington think tank the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, said members of the Islamic State group are projected to range between 10,000 to 15,000 — a figure that does not pose a serious threat to the United States and should not spark a scare campaign.
“We love scaring ourselves,” said Mr. Miller, who has served as adviser to Republican and Democratic secretaries of state. “I mean, we’ve become masters at it. We did it during the Cold War and we did it in the wake of 9/11. And while our response to Afghanistan was extremely appropriate, look what we did in Iraq.”
U.S. allies, however, are also taking seriously the threat posed by Islamic State foreign fighters and showing increasing concern about Westerners who have joined the militants and hold passports that would allow them to travel to their countries of origin to carry out terrorist attacks.
The British government issued an urgent appeal to the public Tuesday to help police identify “aspiring terrorists” who may be preparing to strike the West as officials work to confirm whether the man seen in the video executing Foley was a British citizen.
“They may be about to travel abroad, have just returned or be showing signs of becoming radicalized,” said Mark Rowley, a top British counterterrorism official. “We appeal to the public to help identify for us aspiring terrorists. High-priority operations, especially against those involved in attack planning or on the cusp, have increased greatly.”
• Dave Boyer and Philip Swarts contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.At the UFC Fight Night 47 weigh-ins, all 20 fighters taking part in Saturday's UFC Fight Night 47 fights will step on the scale Friday, and we'll have the live video here at MMAFighting.com.
In the main event, Ryan Bader and Ovince St. Preux will have to make the ligh t heavyweight limit of 205 pounds.
The UFC Fight Night 47 weigh-in takes place at 4 p.m. ET, and the video is above.
Check out the UFC Fight Night 47 weigh-in results below.
Main card (FOX Sports 1 at 10 p.m. ET)
Ryan Bader (205) vs. Ovince St. Preux (205)
Gray Maynard (156) vs. Ross Pearson (156)
Tim Boetsch (186) vs. Brad Tavares (185)
Seth Baczynski (171) vs. Alan Jouban (170)
Shawn Jordan (260) vs. Jack May (247)
Thiago Tavares (146) vs. Robbie Peralta (146)
Undercard (FOX Sports 2 at 8 p.m. ET)
Jussier Formiga (126) vs. Zach Makovsky (125)
Sara McMann (135) vs. Lauren Murphy (135)
Tom Watson (185) vs. Sam Alvey (185)
Nolan Ticman (136) vs. Frankie Saenz (136)One of Charles Darwin's lesser-known experiments, on the expression of emotion, is being re-run as an exercise in online crowdsourcing - and anyone can take part.
In 1868, Charles Darwin undertook a study to prove that humans, like animals, have an innate and universal set of emotional expressions - a code by which we understand each other's feelings.
The Darwin Correspondence Project, which is working to publish and digitise thousands of the scientist's letters, has recreated the experiment nearly 150 years later - to test his results, and draw attention to his contribution to psychology.
The experiment took place in the living room of Down House, Darwin's country home in Kent, during a series of dinner parties from March to November 1868, where he asked guests for their responses to photographs of a man with his face frozen into a range of different positions.
This was followed by a questionnaire that was distributed around the world - one of the first questionnaires ever printed.
Very few people really knew that he had done this experiment at all and the actual data tables were buried in a box in the library in Cambridge Peter Snyder, Professor of Neurology at Brown University
"Mr Darwin brought in some photographs taken by a Frenchman, galvanising certain muscles in an old man's face, to see if we read aright [sic] the expression that putting such muscles in play should produce," wrote one of the guests in a letter to her sister.
It was somewhat unscientific by modern standards, with no control group and a very small sample, but it was revolutionary for its time.
"It was typical of Darwin that he used what was to hand," says Dr Alison Pearn of the Darwin Correspondence Project.
He used 11 black and white photographs originally taken by French anatomist Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne, to examine the movement of facial muscles.
According to Duchenne, the subject was "an old, toothless, man with a thin face, whose appearance, without being precisely ugly, was more or less nondescript". His "intelligence was limited", he added.
Duchenne used electrodes to manipulate the muscles on the man's face and contort them into various expressions.
While he appears to be in some pain, Darwin later wrote that the man was "little sensitive", as he had a medical condition that left his face numb.
Shrugging and blushing
Darwin showed the photographs to each of his guests individually, asking them what emotion the subject was feeling and collected their responses on a table, hastily scribbled on scrap paper.
According to these notes, his subjects agreed almost unanimously on certain photographs - those that betrayed fear, surprise, happiness, sadness and anger.
After the experiment Darwin distributed a questionnaire around the world - he couldn't send the pictures themselves as they were very valuable. He asked about facial expressions and gestures such as shrugging and blushing among different cultures.
He had a vast network of correspondents - more than 2,000 in his lifetime - and received replies from travellers and missionaries as far as South Africa, India, China, North America, and Australia.
Race and gender
Darwin wanted to prove that there is a series of "cardinal" emotions that are expressed and perceived by all humans in the same way, and that these are innate or biological.
The study formed part of his 1872 book The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals in which he outlined his view that expression was a trait that humans shared with beasts.
He wanted to disprove one of the arguments against his theory of evolution - that the ability to feel, express and read emotion is unique to humans (so they could not have descended from apes).
But how accurate were his results? That is what Dr Pearn and her team have set out to discover.
They have created an interactive online tool that allows the public to look at each of the 11 portraits and give their own interpretations of the Frenchman's expression.
They will collate the responses and see whether the results from Darwin's small sample match their findings.
One interesting feature of Darwin's experiment is that he seems to have honed his method as he went along. At the beginning he offered his subjects a Yes/No option, but as the study progressed he began soliciting a whole range of responses.
His experiment evolved into a "single-blind" study - one which doesn't lead the subject to any particular response.
For the modern incarnation of the project, which will have a vastly bigger sample unit, this raises some problems - how to group the findings when the list of responses is unlimited.
To get around these issues the Darwin project has teamed up with the Computer Laboratory, another Cambridge-based project, which for the past two years has been using web-based tools to study people's response to facial expression.
They are developing a bank of common human emotions which will be used to programme computer systems - such as teaching tools or satellite navigation - to recognise human expressions.
"The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals was the seminal work in the field back when it was written in 1872," says Peter Robinson who heads the project. "Of course we all read it when we started working on this."
His project uses video images of real people evoking natural expressions and asks viewers to name them.
Like Darwin's study, it was developed to get as wide a sample as possible, regardless of cultural issues such as age, race or gender.
Schizophrenia
Today, few psychologists disagree with Darwin's theory of a universal set of expressions - it has formed the basis for an entire canon of psychological study.
But it was overlooked for nearly 100 years. It wasn't until the 1960s, that the experiment was revisited by psychologist Paul Ekman, who started out trying to disprove Darwin, but obtained results that merely backed him up.
Ekman travelled around the world showing photographs of facial expressions to people in various cultures, the majority of cultures tested read the five core emotions in the same way.
Natural or posed? One of the major problems with Darwin's study was the fact the expressions were unnaturally evoked
Photography was a new process and it was difficult to capture movement so expression had to be posed and held in position
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's first freely contested election. His government lasted only nine months before it was overthrown by junior military officers who accused his Labor Party of lacking political and governmental experience and of using its government offices inefficiently. President Araujo faced general popular discontent, as the people had expected economic reforms and the redistribution of land. There were demonstrations in front of the National Palace from the first week of his administration. His vice president and minister of war was Gen. Maximiliano Hernández Martínez.
In December 1931, a coup d'état organized by junior officers and led by Gen. Martínez started in the First Regiment of Infantry across from the National Palace in downtown San Salvador. Only the First Regiment of Cavalry and the National Police defended the presidency (the National Police had been on its payroll), but later that night, after hours of fighting, the badly outnumbered defenders surrendered to rebel forces.
The Directorate, composed of officers, hid behind a shadowy figure,[33] a rich anti-Communist banker called Rodolfo Duke, and later installed the ardent fascist Gen. Martínez as president. The revolt was probably due to the army's discontent at not having been paid by President Araujo for some months. Araujo left the National Palace and unsuccessfully tried to organize forces to defeat the revolt.
The U.S. Minister in El Salvador met with the Directorate and later recognized the government of Martínez, which agreed to hold presidential elections. He resigned six months prior to running for re-election, winning back the presidency as the only candidate on the ballot. He ruled from 1935 to 1939, then from 1939 to 1943. He began a fourth term in 1944, but resigned in May after a general strike. Martínez had said he was going to respect the Constitution, which stipulated he could not be re-elected, but he refused to keep his promise.
From December 1931, the year of the coup that brought Martínez to power, there was brutal suppression of rural resistance. The most notable event was the February 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising, originally led by Farabundo Martí and Abel Cuenca, and university students Alfonso Luna and Mario Zapata, but these leaders were captured before the planned insurrection. Only Cuenca survived; the other insurgents were killed by the government. After the capture of the movement leaders, the insurrection erupted in a disorganized and mob-controlled fashion, resulting in government repression that was later referred to as La Matanza (The Massacre), because tens of thousands of peasants died in the ensuing chaos on the orders of President Martinez.
In the unstable political climate of the previous few years, the social activist and revolutionary leader Farabundo Martí helped found the Communist Party of Central America, and led a Communist alternative to the Red Cross called International Red Aid, serving as one of its representatives. Their goal was to help poor and underprivileged Salvadorans through the use of Marxist-Leninist ideology (strongly rejecting Stalinism). In December 1930, at the height of the country's economic and social depression, Martí was once again exiled due to his popularity among the nation's poor and rumors of his upcoming nomination for President the following year. Once Arturo Araujo was elected president in 1931, Martí returned to El Salvador, and along with Alfonso Luna and Mario Zapata began the movement that was later truncated by the military.
They helped start a guerrilla revolt of indigenous farmers. The government responded by killing over 30,000 people at what was to have been a "peaceful meeting" in 1932; this became known as La Matanza (The Slaughter). The peasant uprising against Martínez was crushed by the Salvadoran military ten days after it had begun. The Communist-led rebellion, fomented by collapsing coffee prices, enjoyed some initial success, but was soon drowned in a bloodbath. President Martínez, who had himself toppled an elected government only weeks earlier, ordered the defeated Martí shot after a perfunctory hearing.
Historically, the high Salvadoran population density has contributed to tensions with neighboring Honduras, as land-poor Salvadorans emigrated to less densely populated Honduras and established themselves as squatters on unused or underused land. This phenomenon was a major cause of the 1969 Football War between the two countries.[34] As many as 130,000 Salvadorans were forcibly expelled or fled from Honduras.[35]
The Christian Democratic Party (PDC) and the National Conciliation Party (PCN) were active in Salvadoran politics from 1960 until 2011, when they were disbanded by the Supreme Court because they had failed to win enough votes in the 2004 presidential election;[36] Both parties have since reconstituted. They share common ideals, but one represents the middle class and the latter the interests of the Salvadoran military.
PDC leader José Napoleón Duarte was the mayor of San Salvador from 1964 to 1970, winning three elections during the regime of PCN President Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo, who allowed free elections for mayors and the National Assembly. Duarte later ran for president with a political grouping called the National Opposition Union (UNO) but was defeated in the 1972 presidential elections. He lost to the ex-Minister of Interior, Col. Arturo Armando Molina, in an election that was widely viewed as fraudulent; Molina was declared the winner even though Duarte was said to have received a majority of the votes. Duarte, at some army officers' request, supported a revolt to protest the election fraud, but was captured, tortured and later exiled. Duarte returned to the country in 1979 to enter politics after working on projects in Venezuela as an engineer.
Salvadoran Civil War (1979–1992)
In October 1979, a coup d'état brought the Revolutionary Government Junta of El Salvador to power. It nationalized many private companies and took over much privately owned land. The purpose of this new junta was to stop the revolutionary movement already underway in response to Duarte's stolen election. Nevertheless, the oligarchy opposed agrarian reform, and a junta formed with young liberal elements from the army such as Gen. Majano and Gen. Gutierrez,[37][38] as well as with progressives such as Guillermo Ungo and Alvarez.
A billboard serving as a reminder of one of many massacres that occurred during the civil war.
Pressure from the oligarchy soon dissolved the junta because of its inability to control the army in its repression of the people fighting for unionization rights, agrarian reform, better wages, accessible health care and freedom of expression. In the meantime, the guerrilla movement was spreading to all sectors of Salvadoran society. Middle and high school students were organized in MERS (Movimiento Estudiantil Revolucionario de Secundaria, Revolutionary Movement of Secondary Students); college students were involved with AGEUS (Asociacion de Estudiantes Universitarios Salvadorenos; Association of Salvadoran College Students); and workers were organized in BPR (Bloque Popular Revolucionario, Popular Revolutionary Block). In October 1980, several other major guerrilla groups of the Salvadoran left had formed the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN. By the end of the 1970s, death squads were killing about 10 people each day, and the FMLN had 6,000 – 8,000 active guerrillas and hundreds of thousands of part-time militia, supporters, and sympathizers.[39]
The U.S. supported and financed the creation of a second junta to change the political environment and stop the spread of a leftist insurrection. Napoleón Duarte was recalled from his exile in Venezuela to head this new junta. However, a revolution was already underway and his new role as head of the junta was seen by the general population as opportunistic. He was unable to influence the outcome of the insurrection. Óscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, denounced injustices and massacres committed against civilians by government forces. He was considered "the voice of the voiceless", but he was assassinated by a death squad while saying Mass on 24 March 1980.[40] Some consider this to be the beginning of the full Salvadoran Civil War, which lasted from 1980 to 1992. An unknown number of people "disappeared" during the conflict, and the UN reports that more than 75,000 were killed.[41] The Salvadoran Army's US-trained Atlacatl Battalion was responsible for the El Mozote massacre where more than 800 civilians were murdered, over half of them children, the El Calabozo massacre, and the murder of UCA scholars.[42]
On January 16, 1992, the government of El Salvador, represented by president Alfredo Cristiani, and the FMLN, represented by the commanders of the five guerrilla groups – Shafik Handal, Joaquín Villalobos, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, Francisco Jovel and Eduardo Sancho, all signed peace agreements brokered by the United Nations ending the 12-year civil war. This event, held at Chapultepec Castle in Mexico, was attended by U.N. dignitaries and other representatives of the international community. After signing the armistice, the president stood up and shook hands with all the now ex-guerrilla commanders, an action which was widely admired.
Post-war (1992–present)
The so-called Chapultepec Peace Accords mandated reductions in the size of the army, and the dissolution of the National Police, the Treasury Police, the National Guard and the Civilian Defense, a paramilitary group. A new Civil Police was to be organized. Judicial immunity for crimes committed by the armed forces ended; the government agreed to submit to the recommendations of a Commission on the Truth for El Salvador (Comisión de la Verdad Para El Salvador), which would "investigate serious acts of violence occurring since 1980, and the nature and effects of the violence, and...recommend methods of promoting national reconciliation." In 1993 the Commission delivered its findings reporting human rights violations on both sides of the conflict.[43] Five days later the El Salvadoran legislature passed an amnesty law for all acts of violence during the period.
From 1989 until 2004, Salvadorans favored the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, voting in ARENA presidents in every election (Alfredo Cristiani, Armando Calderón Sol, Francisco Flores Pérez, Antonio Saca) until 2009, when Mauricio Funes was elected president from the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party.
Economic reforms since the early 1990s brought major benefits in terms of improved social conditions, diversification of the export sector, and access to international financial markets at investment grade level. Crime remains a major problem for the investment climate.
This[clarification needed] all ended in 2001, and support for ARENA weakened. Internal turmoil in ARENA weakened the party also, while the FMLN united and broadened its support.[44]
The unsuccessful attempts of the left-wing party to win presidential elections led to its selection of a journalist rather than a former guerrilla leader as a candidate. On March 15, 2009, Mauricio Funes, a television figure, became the first president from the FMLN party. He was inaugurated on June 1, 2009. One focus of the Funes government has been revealing the alleged corruption from the past government.[45]
ARENA formally expelled Saca from the party in December 2009. With 12 loyalists in the National Assembly, Saca established his own party, GANA (Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional or Grand Alliance for National Unity), and entered into a tactical legislative alliance with the FMLN.[46] After three years in office, with Saca's GANA party providing the FMLN with a legislative majority, Funes had not taken action to either investigate or to bring corrupt former officials to justice.
Early in the new millennium, El Salvador's government created the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales – the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) and began promoting the integration of climate change into national policy. This move was in response to the increase in extreme weather events affecting the country. Initially MARN aimed to fulfil the country's obligations following its ratification of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto protocol However, since Hurricane Ida in 2009, the government's stance has shifted towards integrating risk reduction into all areas of policy, including financial.[47]
In a specific effort to increase the resilience of its economy and people to climate-related events, El Salvador commissioned a project in 2011 to develop and implement a National Policy and Strategy for Climate Change, which culminated with the launch of the National Environmental Policy in June 2012 and the National Environmental Strategy in June 2013, both incorporating climate change goals. This work was undertaken with support from the Climate & Development Knowledge Network. The government is now preparing action plans for putting the strategy into practice.[47]
Geography
A map of El Salvador
El Salvador lies in the isthmus of Central America between latitudes 13° and 15°N, and longitudes 87° and 91°W. It stretches 270 km (168 mi) from west-northwest to east-southeast and 142 km (88 mi) north to south, with a total area of 21,041 km2 (8,124 sq mi). As the smallest country in continental America, El Salvador is affectionately called Pulgarcito de America (the "Tom Thumb of the Americas"). The highest point in El Salvador is Cerro El Pital, at 2,730 metres (8,957 ft), on the border with Honduras.
El Salvador has a long history of destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The capital San Salvador was destroyed in 1756 and 1854, and it suffered heavy damage in the 1919, 1982, and 1986 tremors. El Salvador has over twenty volcanoes, two of them, San Miguel and Izalco, active in recent years. From the early 19th century to the mid-1950s, Izalco erupted with a regularity that earned it the name "Lighthouse of the Pacific." Its brilliant flares were clearly visible for great distances at sea, and at night its glowing lava turned it into a brilliant luminous cone.
El Salvador has over 300 rivers, the most important of which is the Rio Lempa. Originating in Guatemala, the Rio Lempa cuts across the northern range of mountains, flows along much of the central plateau, and cuts through the southern volcanic range to empty into the Pacific. It is El Salvador's only navigable river. It and its tributaries drain about half of the country's area. Other rivers are generally short and drain the Pacific lowlands or flow from the central plateau through gaps in the southern mountain range to the Pacific. These include the Goascorán, Jiboa, Torola, Paz and the Río Grande de San Miguel.
There are several lakes enclosed by volcanic craters in El Salvador, the most important of which are Lake Ilopango (70 km²) and Lake Coatepeque (26 km²). Lake Güija is El Salvador's largest natural lake (44 km²). Several artificial lakes were created by the damming of the Lempa, the largest of which is Embalse Cerrón Grande (135 km²). There are a total 320 km2 (123.6 sq mi) of water within El Salvador's borders.
El Salvador shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras, the total national boundary length is 546 km (339 mi): 126 miles (203 km) with Guatemala and 343 km (213 mi) with Honduras. It is the only Central American country that has no Caribbean coastline. The coastline on the Pacific is 307 km (191 mi) long.
Two parallel mountain ranges cross El Salvador to the west with a central plateau between them and a narrow coastal plain hugging the Pacific. These physical features divide the country into two physiographic regions. The mountain ranges and central plateau, covering 85% of the land, comprise the interior highlands. The remaining coastal plains are referred to as the Pacific lowlands.
Climate
El Salvador's topography.
El Salvador has a tropical climate with pronounced wet and dry seasons. Temperatures vary primarily with elevation and show little seasonal change. The Pacific lowlands are uniformly hot; the central plateau and mountain areas are more moderate. The rainy season extends from May to October; this time of year is referred to as invierno or winter. Almost all the annual rainfall occurs during this period; yearly totals, particularly on southern-facing mountain slopes, can be as high as 2170 mm.
The best time to visit El Salvador would be at the beginning or end of the dry season. Protected areas and the central plateau receive less, although still significant, amounts. Rainfall during this season generally comes from low pressure systems formed over the Pacific and usually falls in heavy afternoon thunderstorms. Hurricanes occasionally form in the Pacific with the notable exception of Hurricane Mitch, which formed in the Atlantic and crossed Central America.
From November through April, the northeast trade winds control weather patterns; this time of year is referred to as verano, or summer. During these months, air flowing from the Caribbean has lost most of its precipitation while passing over the mountains in Honduras. By the time this air reaches El Salvador, it is dry, hot, and hazy, and the country experiences hot weather, excluding the northern higher mountain ranges, where temperatures will be cool. In the extreme northeastern part of the country near Cerro El Pital, snow is known to fall during summer as well as during winter due to the high elevations (it is the coldest part of the country).
Natural disasters
Extreme weather events
El Salvador's position on the Pacific Ocean also makes it subject to severe weather conditions, including heavy rainstorms and severe droughts, both of which may be made more extreme by the El Niño and La Niña effects. Severe deforestation and soil erosion have made the landscape vulnerable to landslides and forest fires. These characteristics, coupled with severe fiscal constraints, make the nation highly susceptible to the impacts of extreme weather events.[48]
In the summer of 2001 a severe drought destroyed 80% of El Salvador's crops, causing famine in the countryside.[49][50] On October 4, 2005, severe rains resulted in dangerous flooding and landslides, which caused a minimum of fifty deaths.[51] In 2010, losses to agriculture from flooding exceeded US$100 million, while those resulting from drought were US$38 million.[52]
El Salvador's location in Central America also makes it vulnerable to severe storms and hurricanes coming off the Caribbean. Since the 1990s, there has been an increase in the frequency and duration of storms, as well as a marked change in the pattern of their occurrence. Hurricanes used to strike El Salvador infrequently, only came from the Atlantic and were limited to the months of September and October. However, since the mid 1990s, such storms have occurred more frequently, originated in both the Atlantic and Pacific, and have struck in six different months of the year.[47]
Earthquakes and volcanic activity
El Salvador lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, and is thus subject to significant tectonic activity, including frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. Recent examples include the earthquake on January 13, 2001 that measured 7.7 on the Richter magnitude scale and caused a landslide that killed more than 800 people;[51] and another earthquake only a month later, on February 13, 2001, that killed 255 people and damaged about 20% of the nation's housing. Luckily, many families were able to find safety from the landslides caused by the earthquake.
The San Salvador area has been hit by earthquakes in 1576, 1659, 1798, 1839, 1854, 1873, 1880, 1917, 1919, 1965, 1986, 2001 and 2005.[53] The 5.7 M w -earthquake of 1986 resulted in 1,500 deaths, 10,000 injuries, and 100,000 people left homeless.[54][55]
El Salvador's most recent destructive volcanic eruption took place on October 1, 2005, when the Santa Ana Volcano spewed a cloud of ash, hot mud and rocks that fell on nearby villages and caused two deaths. The most severe volcanic eruption in this area occurred in the 5th century AD when the Ilopango volcano erupted with a VEI strength of 6, producing widespread pyroclastic flows and devastating Mayan cities.[56]
The Santa Ana Volcano in El Salvador is active;[57] the most recent eruptions were in 1904 and 2005. Lago de Coatepeque (one of El Salvador's lakes) was created by water filling the caldera that formed after a massive eruption.
The British Imperial College's El Salvador Project aims to build earthquake-proof buildings in remote areas of the country.
Biodiversity and endangered species
The torogoz is El Salvador's national bird.
There are eight species of sea turtles in the world; six of them nest on the coasts of Central America, and four make their home on the Salvadoran coast: the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), the green sea turtle (black) (Chelonia agasizzii) and the olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea). Of these four species, the most common is the olive ridley turtle, followed by the green sea turtle. The other two species, hawksbill and leatherback, are much more difficult to find as they are critically endangered, while the olive ridley and green sea turtle are in danger of extinction.
Recent conservation efforts provide hope for the future of the country's biological diversity. In 1997, the government established the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources. A general environmental framework law was approved by the National Assembly in 1999. Specific legislation to protect wildlife is still pending.[when?] In addition, a number of non-governmental organizations are doing important work to safeguard some of the country's most important forested areas. Foremost among these is SalvaNatura, which manages El Impossible, the country's largest national park under an agreement with El Salvador's environmental authorities.
Despite these efforts, much remains to be done.
It is estimated that there are 500 species of birds, 1,000 species of butterflies, 400 species of orchids, 800 species of trees, and 800 species of marine fish in El Salvador.
Government and politics
The 1983 Constitution is the highest legal authority in the country. El Salvador has a democratic and representative government, whose three bodies are:
Salvadoran cadets in the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador
The Executive Branch, headed by the President of the Republic, who is elected by direct vote and remains in office for five years. He can be elected to only one term. The president has a Cabinet of Ministers whom he appoints, and is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The Legislative Branch, called El Salvador's Legislative Assembly (unicameral), consisting of 84 deputies. The Judiciary, headed by the Supreme Court, which is composed of 15 judges, one of them being elected as President of the Judiciary.
After the Civil War, the Chapultepec Peace Accords (1992) created the new National Civil Police, the Attorney for the Defense of Human Rights and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. The Peace Accords re-imagined the Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) as a political party and redefined the role of the army to be for the defense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Accords also removed some security forces who were in command of the army, such as the National Guard, Treasury Police and special battalions that were formed to fight against the insurgency of the 1980s.
The political framework of El Salvador is a presidential representative democratic republic with a multiform, multi-party system. The President, currently Salvador Sánchez Cerén, is both head of state and head of government. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Legislative Assembly. The country also has an independent Judiciary and Supreme Court.
Political culture
El Salvador has a multi-party system. Two political parties, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) have tended to dominate elections. ARENA candidates won four consecutive presidential elections until the election of Mauricio Funes of the FMLN in March 2009. The FMLN Party is Leftist in ideology, and is split between the dominant Marxist-Leninist faction in the legislature, and the social liberal wing led by President Funes.
Geographically, the departments of the Central region, especially the capital and the coastal regions, known as departamentos rojos, or red departments, are relatively Leftist. The departamentos azules, or blue departments in the east, western and highland regions are relatively conservative. The winner of the 2014 presidential election, Salvador Sánchez Cerén belongs to the FMLN party. In the 2015 elections for mayors and members of the National Assembly, ARENA appeared to be the winner with tight control of the National Assembly.
Foreign relations
In November, 1950 El Salvador helped the newly empowered 14th Dalai Lama by supporting his Tibetan Government cabinet minister's telegram requesting an appeal before the General Assembly of the United Nations to stop the Communist China's People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet. "Only the tiny country of El Salvador agreed to sponsor Tibet's plea."[58]"At the UN, no one was willing to stand up beside El Salvador. The other nations had overriding self-interests, which made it impossible for them to support San Salvador's attempt to bring the invasion before the General Assembly."[58] With no other countries in support, "the UN unanimously dropped the Tibetan plea from its agenda."[58]
El Salvador is a member of the United Nations and several of its specialized agencies, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Central American Common Market (CACM), the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and the Central American Integration System (SICA). It actively participates in the Central American Security Commission (CASC), which seeks to promote regional arms control.
El Salvador also is a member of the World Trade Organization and is pursuing regional free trade agreements. An active participant in the Summit of the Americas process, El Salvador chairs a working group on market access under the Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative.
Military
El Salvador has an army, airforce and modest navy. There are around 17,000 personnel in the armed forces in total.[59]
Human rights
Amnesty International has drawn attention to several arrests of police officers for unlawful police killings. Other current issues to gain Amnesty International's attention in the past 10 years include missing children, failure of law enforcement to properly investigate and prosecute crimes against women, and rendering organized labor illegal.[60]
Administrative divisions
El Salvador is divided into 14 departments (departamentos), which in turn are subdivided into 262 municipalities (municipios).
Department names and capitals for the 14 Salvadoran Departments:
Economy
A proportional representation of El Salvador's exports
El Salvador's economy has been hampered at times by natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, by government policies that mandate large economic subsidies, and by official corruption. Subsidies became such a problem that in April 2012, the International Monetary Fund suspended a $750 million loan to the central government. President Funes' chief of cabinet, Alex Segovia, acknowledged that the economy was at the "point of collapse."[61]
Antiguo Cuscatlán has the highest per capita income of all the cities in the country, and is a center of international investment.[citation needed]
GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2008 was estimated at US$25.895 billion. The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 64.1%, followed by the industrial sector at 24.7% (2008 est.). Agriculture represents only 11.2% of GDP (2010 est.)
The GDP grew after 1996 at an annual rate that averaged 3.2% real growth. The government committed to free market initiatives, and the 2007 GDP's real growth rate was 4.7%.[62]
In December 1999, net international reserves equaled US$1.8 billion or roughly five months of imports. Having this hard currency buffer to work with, the Salvadoran government undertook a monetary integration plan beginning January 1, 2001 by which the U.S. dollar became legal tender alongside the Salvadoran colón, and all formal accounting was done in U.S. dollars. Thus, the government has formally limited the implementing of open market monetary policies to influence short-term variables in the economy. As of September 2007, net international reserves stood at $2.42 billion.[51][63]
It has long been a challenge in El Salvador to develop new growth sectors for a more diversified economy. In the past, the country produced gold and silver,[64] but recent attempts to reopen the mining sector, which were expected to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy, collapsed after President Saca shut down the operations of Pacific Rim Mining Corporation. Nevertheless, according to the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (Instituto Centroamericano for Estudios Fiscales, by its acronym in Spanish), the contribution of metallic mining was a minuscule 0.3% of the country's GDP between 2010 and 2015.[65] Saca's decision although not lacking political motives, had strong support from local residents and grassroots movements in the country. According to NACLA, incoming President Funes later rejected a company's application for a further permit based on the risk of cyanide contamination on one of the country's main rivers.[66]
As with other former colonies, El Salvador was considered a mono-export economy (an economy that depended heavily on one type of export) for many years. During colonial times, El Salvador was a thriving exporter of indigo, but after the invention of synthetic dyes in the 19th century, the newly created modern state turned to coffee as the main export.
[67] San Miguel is an important economic center of El Salvador and home to the "Carnival of San Miguel", one of the biggest festivals of entertainment and food in Central America.
The government has sought to improve the collection of its current revenues, with a focus on indirect taxes. A 10% value-added tax (IVA in Spanish), implemented in September 1992, was raised to 13% in July 1995.
Inflation has been steady and among the lowest in the region. Since 1997 inflation has averaged 3%, with recent years increasing to nearly 5%. As a result of the free trade agreements, from 2000 to 2006, total exports have grown 19% from $2.94 billion to $3.51 billion, and total imports have risen 54% from $4.95 billion to $7.63 billion. This has resulted in a 102% increase in the trade deficit, from $2.01 billion to $4.12 billion.[68]
El Chorreron, El Salvador; tourism is the fastest-growing sector of the Salvadoran economy.
El Salvador has promoted an open trade and investment environment, and has embarked on a wave of privatization extending to telecommunications, electricity distribution, banking, and pension funds. In late 2006, the government and the Millennium Challenge Corporation signed a five-year, $461 million compact to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty in the country's northern region, the primary conflict zone during the civil war, through investments in education, public services, enterprise development, and transportation infrastructure. With the adoption of the US dollar as its currency in 2001, El Salvador lost control over monetary policy. Any counter-cyclical policy response to the downturn must be through fiscal policy, which is constrained by legislative requirements for a two-thirds majority to approve any international financing.
Remittances from abroad
El Salvador leads the region in remittances per capita, with inflows equivalent to nearly all export income; about a third of all households receive these financial inflows. Remittances from Salvadorans living and working in the United States, sent to family members in El Salvador, are a major source of foreign income and offset the substantial trade deficit of $4.12 billion. Remittances have increased steadily in the last decade, and reached an all-time high of $3.32 billion in 2006 (an increase of 17% over the previous year).[69] approximately 16.2% of gross domestic product(GDP).
Remittances have had positive and negative effects on El Salvador. In 2005, the number of people living in extreme poverty in El Salvador was 20%,[70] according to a United Nations Development Program report. Without remittances, the number of Salvadorans living in extreme poverty would rise to 37%. While Salvadoran education levels have gone up, wage expectations have risen faster than either skills or productivity. For example, some Salvadorans are no longer willing to take jobs that pay them less than what they receive monthly from family members abroad. This has led to an influx of Hondurans and Nicaraguans who are willing to work for the prevailing wage. Also, the local propensity for consumption over investment has increased.
Money from remittances has also increased prices for certain commodities such as real estate. With much higher wages, many Salvadorans abroad can afford higher prices for houses in El Salvador than local Salvadorans, and thus push up the prices that all Salvadorans must pay.[71]
Free trade agreements
In 2006, El Salvador was the first country to ratify the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement. CAFTA has bolstered exports of processed foods, sugar, and ethanol, and supported investment in the apparel sector, which faced Asian competition with the expiration of the Multi-Fiber Agreement in 2005. In anticipation of the declines in the apparel sector's competitiveness, the previous administration sought to diversify the economy by promoting the country as a regional distribution and logistics hub, and by promoting tourism investment through tax incentives.
There are a total of 15 free trade zones in El Salvador. El Salvador signed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) — negotiated by the five countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic — with the United States in 2004. CAFTA requires that the Salvadoran government adopt policies that foster free trade. El Salvador has signed free trade agreements with Mexico, Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Panama and increased its trade with those countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua also are negotiating a free trade agreement with Canada. In October 2007, these four countries and Costa Rica began free trade agreement negotiations with the European Union. Negotiations started in 2006 for a free trade agreement with Colombia.
Official corruption and foreign investment
In an analysis of ARENA's electoral defeat in 2009, the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador pointed to official corruption under the Saca administration as a significant reason for public rejection of continued ARENA government. According to a secret diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks, "While the Salvadoran public may be inured to self-serving behavior by politicians, many in ARENA believe that the brazen manner in which Saca and his people are widely perceived to have used their positions for personal enrichment went beyond the pale. ARENA deputy Roberto d'Aubuisson, son of ARENA founder Roberto d'Aubuisson, told [a U.S. diplomat] that Saca 'deliberately ignored' his Public Works Minister's government contract kickbacks scheme, even after the case was revealed in the press. Furthermore, considerable evidence exists, including from U.S. business sources, that the Saca administration pushed laws and selectively enforced regulations with the specific intent to benefit Saca family business interests."[72]
Subsequent policies under Funes administrations improved El Salvador to foreign investment, and the World Bank in 2014 rated El Salvador 109, a little better than Belize (118) and Nicaragua (119) in the World Bank's annual "Ease of doing business" index.[73]
As per Santander Trade, a Spanish think tank in foreign investment, "Foreign investment into El Salvador has been steadily growing during the last few years. In 2013, the influx of FDI increased. Nevertheless, El Salvador receives less FDI than other countries of Central America. The government has made little progress in terms of improving the business climate. In addition to this, the limited size of its domestic market, weak infrastructures and institutions, as well as the high level of criminality have been real obstacles to investors. However, El Salvador is the second most "business friendly" country in South America in terms of business taxation. It also has a young and skilled labor force and a strategic geographical position. The country's membership in the DR-CAFTA, as well as its reinforced integration to the C4 countries (producers of cotton) should lead to an increase of FDI."[74]
Foreign companies have lately resorted to arbitration in international trade tribunals in total disagreement with Salvadoran government policies. In 2008, El Salvador sought international arbitration against Italy's Enel Green Power, on behalf of Salvadoran state-owned electric companies for a geothermal project Enel had invested in. Four years later, Enel indicated it would seek arbitration against El Salvador, blaming the government for technical problems that prevent it from completing its investment.[75] The government came to its defense claiming that Art 109 of the constitution does not allow any government (regardless of the party they belong), to privatize the resources of the national soil (in this case geothermic energy). The dispute came to an end in December 2014 when both parties came to a settlement, from which no details have been released. The small country had yielded to pressure from the Washington based powerful ICSID.[76] The U.S. Embassy warned in 2009 that the Salvadoran government's populist policies of mandating artificially low electricity prices were damaging private sector profitability, including the interests of American investors in the energy sector.[77] The U.S. Embassy noted the corruption of El Salvador's judicial system and quietly urged American businesses to include "arbitration clauses, preferably with a foreign venue," when doing business in the country.[78]
The U.S. Embassy warned in 2009 that the Salvadoran government's populist policies of mandating artificially low electricity prices were damaging private sector profitability, including the interests of American investors in the energy sector.[77] The U.S. Embassy noted the corruption of El Salvador's judicial system and quietly urged American businesses to include "arbitration clauses, preferably with a foreign venue," when doing business in the country.[78] On |
we wondered not just who was going to die next, but what the alien was going to do next.
Mike Cobley
Humanity’s Fire series. Check out Humanity’s Fire news and sundry other Cobley-focussed updates at Michael Cobley is a science fiction writer and author of theseries. Check outnews and sundry other Cobley-focussed updates at michaelcobley.com
What makes a good alien often depends on the author’s overall intention. To my mind, sentient aliens should be mysterious to some degree (the same goes for alien flora and fauna). One complaint leveled at some SF writers is that their aliens are little more than humans-in-rubber-suits, that their behaviour appears too idiosyncratically human to plausibly be the members of a species from another world, which would be at the current end point of its own evolutionary course and socio-cultural history. For some writers, though, that kind of detailed conceptual underpinning is part of the fascination and the motivation for creating an alien species.
Other writers may have a different goal in mind, a different point to make. But most SF writers working in the space opera mode will at one time or another be confronted by the question, ‘How alien should my aliens be?’ Make them too human-like they risk being seen merely as stand-ins for some faction or grouping from contemporary society: make them too alien, too enigmatic, and you risk mystifying the reader to the point where it suppresses the pleasure of reading (unless, of course, the sheer lyrical power of the prose is the reader’s main pleasure, rather than the explanation of mysteries).
My favourite humanesque aliens include the Skroderiders and the Tines from Vernor Vinge’s Fire Upon The Deep, and the Tymbrimi and the Thennanin from Brin’s Uplift War sequence. For enigmatic aliens I cannot forget the Moties from Niven & Pournelle’s The Mote In God’s Eye, or the insectoid intelligence from Bruce Sterling’s short story, “Swarm”.
Gini Koch
Alien/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books and the Martian Alliance Chronicles series for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes the Alexander Outland series for Night Shade Books. She also writes under a variety of other pen names (including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch), listens to rock music 24/7, and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). She speaks frequently on what it takes to become a successful author and other aspects of writing and the publishing business. She can be reached through her website at Gini Koch lives in Hell’s Orientation Area (aka Phoenix, AZ), works her butt off (sadly, not literally) by day, and writes by night with the rest of the beautiful people. She writes the fast, fresh and funny/Katherine “Kitty” Katt series for DAW Books and theseries for Musa Publishing. As G.J. Koch she writes theseries for Night Shade Books. She also writes under a variety of other pen names (including Anita Ensal, Jemma Chase, A.E. Stanton, and J.C. Koch), listens to rock music 24/7, and is a proud comics geek-girl willing to discuss at any time why Wolverine is the best superhero ever (even if Deadpool does get all the best lines). She speaks frequently on what it takes to become a successful author and other aspects of writing and the publishing business. She can be reached through her website at www.ginikoch.com
I think there are really two kinds of aliens — the kind we’d like to meet, and the kind we wouldn’t. Within the kind we’d like to meet are the helpful aliens, the smarter but more caring aliens, the ‘just like us’ aliens, and the aliens that are weaker than us. Within the kind we’d like to avoid are the scary aliens, the conquering aliens, the smarter than us and views us as cattle aliens, and the truly ‘we can’t understand them at all’ aliens.
There’s a lot of debate around whether or not we have yet to create a ‘real’ alien, one that humans can’t understand. Frankly, if we humans can’t understand it at all, it’s going to be hard to write about it, because the author has to understand their characters, and if the aliens are so alien that they’re not understandable…well, you can see the paradox forming.
To me, though, coming up with a ‘real’ alien misses the point. Movies, TV shows, literature, none of these are creating aliens to be able to later on prove their existence scientifically. We’re creating them to entertain, to teach, to make people think.
Personally, while I write about aliens all the time, and most of my aliens fall under the ‘we’d like to meet them’ banner, in real life I fall more on the Stephen Hawking side of the house — I agree that whenever we really meet real aliens, it’s likely we’re going to be in real trouble, because they won’t be coming to offer entry into the Galactic Union.
So, for me, a good depiction of an alien depends on what you, the creator, are trying to show, what emotions and thoughts you’re trying to create in those who watch or read or look at what you’ve presented. And, honestly, if what you created wasn’t engaging in some way, then I think you’ve failed, because you can’t get your point across if no one’s reading or watching. By that measure, as long as the alien-based effort was engaging in some way, I call it a good depiction of an alien. (I’m easy that way.)
Star Trek did a good job of showing us what different aliens might look like and act like as humans met and interacted with them. Star Wars showed us a galaxy filled with different life forms that interacted with each other much like people from different countries do on Earth. Both of these are great examples of the aliens we’d like to meet, because they all ultimately have some kind of human emotions or motivations we can relate to.
In the Alien movie series, at least in the first three, the aliens are nothing like us at all. They view humans as something to lay eggs in, something to destroy when we get in their way, but nothing else. However, there are examples of these kinds of creatures in nature on Earth. Not as big and scary (to us, anyway), but they’re there. In the Predator movies, again, at least the early ones, humans are viewed as big game. Predator is driven by more human motivations than Alien, but they’re aliens we don’t really want to meet. But we can still look at them and find a human motivation or an aspect of them that’s relatable. And Pitch Black, where the aliens are both terrifying and not at all like humans, may be one of the better depictions of aliens, at least on the ‘we don’t want to meet them’ side. However, you can still assign some kinds of human or at least animal motivations to the aliens.
Literature is filled with great examples of aliens. My feeling is that you have but to pick up any SF piece that deals with non-humans and you’ve got someone’s good example of how to do an alien. But some who did and do them well include Asimov, Silverberg, Heinlein, Burroughs, Simak, Lichtenberg, Sinclair, McMaster Bujold…there are more, many, many more. And, insofar as we can’t prove or disprove any of them, they’re all good, all interesting in their own ways.
My personal favorites for depictions of aliens are Galaxy Quest and the Men In Black series from the movie side of the house, Green Lantern animated series on TV, and Douglas Adams for literature. I like these best because they’re funny and because, ultimately, they show the huge number of varied aliens to indeed be just like us, both good and bad, only with some key differences in physiology and technology. But mostly I like them because they’re fun and funny and I enjoy laughing a lot more than I enjoy being scared.
Christie Yant
Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy, an Assistant Editor for Lightspeed Magazine, audio book reviewer for Audible.com, occasional narrator for StarShipSofa, and remains a co-blogger at Inkpunks.com, a website for aspiring and newly-pro writers. Her fiction has appeared in Crossed Genres, Daily Science Fiction, Fireside Magazine, and the anthologies The Way of the Wizard, Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, and Armored. She lives in a former Temperance colony on the central coast of California, where she sometimes gets to watch rocket launches with her husband and her two amazing daughters. Follow her on Twitter @inkhaven. Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer and habitual volunteer. She has been a “podtern” for, an Assistant Editor for, audio book reviewer for Audible.com, occasional narrator for StarShipSofa, and remains a co-blogger at Inkpunks.com, a website for aspiring and newly-pro writers. Her fiction has appeared in, and the anthologies, and. She lives in a former Temperance colony on the central coast of California, where she sometimes gets to watch rocket launches with her husband and her two amazing daughters. Follow her on Twitter @inkhaven.
I love a good face-hugger as much as the next guy, but my favorite aliens are all from literature.
The first aliens I remember being fascinated by were the Ixchel on the colorless planet in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Their whole world lacked color, and they lacked eyes–that was so foreign to me as a child, it really made me think about what it might be like to exist in a completely different environment, with different primary senses. They were minor supporting characters, but they had seized my imagination. I reread their chapter over and over.
Another group of aliens that really struck me were the ranids in Elizabeth Bear’s Undertow. The parts of the book that stuck with me most strongly were the ones from the alien Gourami’s point of view. I thought Bear’s treatment of the ranids was masterful: from the vivid and visceral description of life in the tepid swamps, their complex life cycle and relationships, and the way that their interpretation of events differed from the humans in the story, her aliens left an impression on me.
A particularly memorable and creepy treatment of aliens is An Owomoyela’s “All That Touches the Air“. There is nothing sympathetic about the Vosth. An uneasy agreement between the humans and the Vosth is all that prevents the parasitic species from taking over human bodies and minds and using them like puppets. Owomoyela’s protagonist is horrified by the possibility, and frankly so was I.
And on a lighter note, I’m not sure any alien has delighted me as much as Douglas Adams’s adorable sentient mattresses of Squornshellous Zeta, though they do add an extra layer of guilt to taking a nap!
Jeff Patterson
I was fortunate that my teen years were populated by magnificent aliens. Childhood doses of Space Ghost villains and Colorforms’ Outer Space Men toys had prepared me well, and Star Trek, Space: 1999 and Star Wars deftly pried open my headspace to the notion of imaginatively crafted lifeforms. But even then I realized there had to be more depth to the alien mind then awkwardly-manufactured phrases like “I will destroy you in two of your Earth minutes!” It was the Heechee, Moties, and Gentle Giants of Ganymede that first illuminated what was possible. These were beings that humans had no common ground with, and where the true conflict in the story came down to comprehension. Shortly thereafter came Angus McKie’s So Beautiful So Dangerous, and The Incal by Moebius and Jodorowsky, and suddenly alien life was a weird and delicious commodity. The final blow to my preconceptions of possible alien biology and sociology came on page 75 of Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, where I learned about the Polarians from Piers Anthony’s Cluster series. These waxy slugs rolled around on leathery balls, which they jettisoned as part of their tender mating ritual. My bi-pedal symmetrical carbon-based self reeled at how alien an alien could be, and considered itself humbly schooled.
What makes a good depiction of aliens? That depends on the goal of your story. As much as I scorn the lazy, unthinking man’s bromide “SF is about what it means to be human,” there’s much to be said for aliens created as counterpoints to Homo Sapiens. Creatures as varied as Mork, the Zanti Misfits, and the Mysterons all served to illustrate (in very broad strokes) the eccentric nature of human tendencies and shortcomings. Klaatu and the Overlords were heavy-handed signifiers of human potential. This “hold a mirror up” technique has the benefit of being almost infinitely scalable. Consider The Twilight Zone, where most alien species are hyperbolic proxies for fear, paranoia, communism, and prejudice. It is a sizable leap in magnitude from the bleakness of the Cold War to the indecipherable enigmas of the Old Ones, Solaris, and the more advanced races from the Perry Rhodan universe, who remind us how small and (c’mon, say it along with me now) insignificant we are in the face of a vast and unsympathetic cosmos.
Once you get past this symbolic realm of “the other,” you find soundly-built aliens play just as well in less-contrived settings. When compared to classic allegorical SF, the themes of Space Opera and interplanetary Hard SF can be downright naturalistic, and require aliens with substance. Niven’s Known Space and Brin’s Uplift are the usual default choices for milieus where multiple spacefaring species take practical measures to coexist, so I’ll add Kristine Katherine Rusch’s Retrieval Artist and Charles Sheffield’s Inheritance series. In these stories the aliens resemble us in that they are just trying to get by, make a living, and achieve progress. Their philosophies and methodologies are wildly dissimilar to ours, and there is often open hostility, but their goals all point to roughly the same direction. The sociological aspect of this gets a lot of play in Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis (or Lilith’s Brood), one of the finer series about alien interaction. I’ll also mention the insectoid Naxid from Walter Jon Williams’ Dread Empire’s Fall series, who make war with other races out of fear of losing their status. In these examples individual and species-wide motivations become nuanced, and the authors make their creations relatable.
Compare and contrast that with beings like MorningLightMountain from Hamilton’s Commonwealth, the Blight from Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep, or the Mechs from Benford’s Galactic Center series, who (to the credit of their authors) have totally logical and self-sustaining reasons for the wholesale elimination of the human race (and anyone else nearby). For a near-perfect take on such implacable ethos at work, read Peter Watts’ “The Things,” which retells John Campbell’s “Who Goes There?” from the POV of the shapeshifting alien who wants only to return to the glorious post-physical culture of the greater Galaxy, and “save” humanity along the way. You actually feel the creature’s horror as it realizes how humans function.
The Mechs lead me to a favorite subject of mine ever since Dr. Morbius showed the crew of C57-D the works of the Krell: learning the nature of aliens from their technology. I still consider Pohl the master of this with the Gateway series, but in recent decades this concept has evolved. Most fascinating to me is the alien automated system, the idea of programs and mechanisms running in the background of the cosmos carrying out tasks over eons. Examples include Festival from Stross’ Singularity Sky, the Hypotheticals from the Spin trilogy, and the Inhibitors from Reynolds Revelation Space. Hell, I’ll throw in the Monoliths from 2001 as well. This concept is a great tool for portraying the mind-numbing distance between us and forward-thinking intellects with galaxy-sized ambitions.
I also have to salute the clever method of depicting alien nature via their rituals. Klingons are a good example, but Farscape and Babylon 5 both made extensive use of this trick, my favorite being the Drazi. I paid homage to this trope in my story “Eating at Joe’s“.
In the end, the bizarre entities visited upon my formative years still influence my tastes. I find aliens work best when communication and shared frame-of-reference are nigh-impossible. My favorite examples are Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee and Photino Birds, the inscrutable smiley-faced abductors from Moonshadow by J. M. DeMatteis and Jon J. Muth, the zookeeping Lactrans from the animated Star Trek episode “Eye of the Beholder”, Mors the Qys from Miracleman, the Weeping Angels (who feed on potential), and the Pattern Jugglers (who feed on biotechnical data).
I love the mind-play of Big Smart Objects like Rorschach from Peter Watts’ Blindsight, Tin Man from Star Trek TNG, and the biomechanical “mother” from Swamp Thing #60 “Loving the Alien” (when comics were 75 cents!). I also have a soft spot for the wholly non-physical, such as the sentient mathematical equation Dkrtzy RRR from Green Lantern, and the Hoovooloo, the hyperintelligent shade of blue from Hitchhiker’s Guide. Yes, these can be more conceptual window-dressing than realized characters, but they force the mind to take a counterintuitive step sideways in order to grasp the possibilities of alien nature.
Which, when you get down to it, is the best reason to write aliens in the first place.
Cynthia Ward
What makes for a good depiction of aliens in science fiction? I know the reasonable response is to identify the aliens who least resemble humans as the best depictions, and to criticize as worst the “aliens with funny noses”–those fictional extraterrestrials who have, say, three nostrils, but few other dissimilarities to humanity. However, I grew up reading that swashbuckling subgenre of SF known as the interplanetary romance, so I retain a certain fondness for an even less dissimilar style of alien: the human non-Earthling.
This style of alien has lost popularity over the decades, in part because the characterizations are often cardboard, offering minimal insight to the reader. However, the better examples of human non-Earthlings–such as those found in the interplanetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, or several episodes of Star Trek–are developed with more psychological complexity. This means that, when these humanoids vary from us, they do so in ways that let us see ourselves in a new and different light. The most famous example is probably the Star Trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” which limns the folly of racism by locking the black-and-white humanoids of Ariannus in apocalyptic conflict with the white-and-black humanoids of Ariannus.
Alien characters fall along a spectrum, from the strongly similar to the radically unfathomable. Near the anthropocentric or “knowable” end of the spectrum, we find Ursula K. Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle, about the divergent descendants of an extrasolar race which colonized numerous planets (including Earth) millennia ago, then collapsed. The divergent races’ common origin allows Le Guin to examine her extraterrestrial characters in uncommon depth, while the diversity of their civilizations and biologies allows her to illuminate human behaviors from unique angles.
As we move toward the other end of the spectrum, we encounter increasingly unknowable aliens. The extraterrestrials inspired by non-human Earth species–such as the cat-like Na’vi of James Cameron’s Avatar and Kzinti of Larry Niven’s Known Space, or the parasite-inspired aliens of The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein, and The Host by Stephenie Meyer–have significant biological and behavioral differences from us, yet may still be explored with a revealing amount of depth. The implacable destroyers of the Alien movies and H.G. Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds act from drives or motives we cannot plumb, but only guess at–yet their actions still have informative analogues in our own behaviors. The bizarre and wonderful pond in Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen’s novel Heaven is more a reflection of what we are not than of what we are, and is inevitably too much the Other to be delved into with a Le Guinian–or even a Burroughsian–level of complexity. And, at the farthest end of the spectrum, the ocean in Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris is the ultimate unknowable Other. So different from us that it can’t even be developed as a character in its own right, the planet-spanning alien defeats all human attempts at understanding, leaving us to gaze at a mirror which reflects only our own weaknesses, limitations, and failures.
Given our persistent inability to determine whether even fellow Earth species, like dolphins and nonhuman primates, possess human-level intelligence, Solaris may prove more predictive of human-extraterrestrial encounters than any other work of science fiction. Surely, it is fiction’s finest depiction of the extraterrestrial Other. Nonetheless, when I’m reading or viewing SF, I favor Others who are rather less inscrutable. I revisit Burroughs’s interplanetary romances or the Alien movies more often than Lem’s Solaris, because even the films’ relentlessly destructive monstrosities, or The Chessmen of Mars‘s bizarrely symbiotic Kaldanes and Rykors, are characters ultimately more consonant with the human heart than an ocean.
Ty Franck
Ty Franck was born in Portland, Oregon, and has lived in most of the western and southwestern states at one time or another. He has had nearly every job known to man, including a variety of fast food jobs, rock quarry grunt, newspaper reporter, radio advertising salesman, composite materials fabricator, director of operations for a computer manufacturing firm, and part owner of an accounting software consulting firm. He is currently the personal assistant to fellow writer George R.R. Martin, where he makes coffee, runs to the post office, and argues about what constitutes good writing. He mostly loses. His second book, Caliban’s War, a sequel to the Hugo Nominated Leviathan’s Wake, hits the shelves in June of 2012, and was written in collaboration with his good friend Daniel Abraham under the name James S.A. Corey. He lives in New Mexico with his astonishingly brilliant wife and one very stupid cat.
I think there are two questions hiding in there. There’s the question of what makes an alien depiction realistic or plausible, and then the
entirely different question of makes an alien depiction fun or interesting.
I think it’s an important distinction, because we’ve seen what interacting and communicating with alien intelligences is like. We live with some very intelligent and communication capable creatures on our very own planet, and we’ve been trying to dialog with them for years. Dolphins share most of our DNA, live on the same world as we do, and have almost all of the same biological requirements. They are clearly capable of abstract thought and complex communication. And our level of communication with them is utterly rudimentary. Finding common ground, meaningful symbols, and methods for communicating complex ideas are still in the works, but they are slow going.
Now that those attempts at communication and take away all the commonality. Take away the DNA similarities, the biological similarities, and even having a planet in common. How much more complex does the problem become? It seems almost insurmountable.
Fun, now, that we can do. Alien was an amazing film but it wasn’t because it deeply explored the concept of alien life. The story doesn’t change much if the threatening creature is a kodiak bear. The alien is a scary monster, but not much else. I thought the recent War of the Worlds remake wasn’t a particularly good movie, but the one thing it did is make its aliens and their motivations difficult to discern. I appreciated that about it. No lame, “they came for our water” justifications that fall apart with even a moment’s thought. Sadly, most of the aliens in movies are transparent stand ins for human fears. That doesn’t make the movies bad, but it also doesn’t make for particularly interesting aliens.
In prose, a number of writers have been able to successfully meld fun and truly alien. China Mieville’s Embassytown is a powerful novel that tells a good story while still keeping the aliens truly alien. In older fiction, Joe Haldeman’s Forever War gives us a frightening hive mind that is inexplicable enough to continue a war neither side wants for thousands of years. Vernor Vinge has been creating weird but empathetic aliens long enough to populate his own small galaxy. Scott Card’s novel Xenocide brought the Descolada, a possibly sentient viral life form, and the term ‘Varelse’ to describe aliens with which no meaningful communication is even possible.
I’m reading Jack Vance’s Dragon Masters right now. The aliens are basically reptilian versions of us. But boy is the book fun.
Philip Athans
Aliens in science fiction have always been more about allegory and metaphor than they are an attempt to actually predict what alien life might actually be like. The most memorable SF aliens are the ones that reveal something about us.
That having been said, probably my favorite science fiction alien is the eponymous sentient planet from Stanislaw Lem’s classic Solaris. In that case Lem presents a truly alien alien, and makes what I think is an extremely valid point: When we do meet another sentience out there in the wide universe, chances are we won’t hardly be able to identify it, let alone communicate with it. After all, we’ve never managed to speak to whales and dolphins, and only in the past year have scientists identified arsenic-based life here on earth.
Even then, Lem’s Solaris did function as a metaphor, a microscope into the insecurities of the human researchers. The aliens that tend to resonate with people fill a niche not just in the narrative but in the social or even political makeup of the cast of characters. For instance, Spock represents the coldly logical side of Captain Kirk, while Dr. McCoy occupies the opposite end of the spectrum and acts as Kirk’s emotional conscience. Captain Kirk, the character we’re intended to identify with, has to learn to balance both ends of that spectrum in order to be not just the ultimate starship captain, but the ultimate man, in general.
Even those aliens that are more like monsters, like the unnamed alien in the movie Alien, shine a light on what it means to be human. As a species we’ve become the apex predator in every environment on Earth. One of the scariest things we can consider is a circumstance in which that balance is tipped and we go from being the hunter to the hunted. In a way, from the point of view of Ripley, we get to feel what it’s like to be a deer, relentlessly pursued by a ravenous monster we can’t hope to defeat—and even to be used as a sort of livestock, our rights, our lives, our very humanity, utterly ignored so we can be used as surrogate wombs for their young.
I happen to be of the opinion that the universe around us is teeming with life, but like Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, I think we’ll have even more trouble understanding our celestial neighbors than we do the other sentient beings that share our homeworld. Thankfully, science fiction writers won’t be held accountable for solving that problem when it’s eventually forced on the human race. We’ll be working on creating aliens of our own that tell us something about ourselves.
Steven Silver
Steven H Silver is a fourteen time Hugo nominee. His most recent short story, “In the Shadows of Broadway,” appeared on the podcast StarShipSofa. He is the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press and this year, he’s spending a lot of his time working as one of the vice chairs of Chicon 7, the 70th Worldcon.
There are two aspects to the creation of a good depiction of aliens in science fiction, one of which is more important in visual science fiction (art, television, and movies) than it is in literary science fiction.
In writing science fiction, an author can describe anything she wants to and it is up to the reader to create a mental image of the alien in their mind, the strangeness of the creature’s visual form is only limited by the joint imagination of creator and the reader. Artists can depict any sort of aliens they want, as long as their abilities can keep up with their imagination. In television and film, the image of the creature is limited by the abilities of either the costume designer or, more recently, the computer animators.
An example of these limitations is, of course, the aliens which featured in classic episodes of Star Trek or Doctor Who. Most of their aliens appeared as people in rubber masks, although occasionally an experiment would produce the Daleks or creatures which were made out of light and pulsating colors. One of the aliens which clearly suffered from this limitation were the Menoptera, featured in the first Doctor Who serial “The Web Planet.” Despite the writer’s ability with the story, these aliens come across as looking no more realistic than John Belushi wearing his killer bee costume on Saturday Night Live. Conversely, by the time Doctor Who introduced the Vespiform in the episode “The Unicorn and the Wasp” computer generated imagery had advanced to the point of creating a realistic creature which could meet the needs of the aliens described in the writer’s imagination.
Similarly, even in the short period from 1977 to 1984, Star Wars was able to move from the humans in latex prosthesis of the Mos Eisley Cantina to the puppetry of Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, eventually introducing the computer generated aliens of the prequel trilogy such as the Kaminoans or the Geonosians (and compare the latter to the Menoptera or Vespiform).
With the use of first puppets and then computer animation, science fiction has opened up a new expanse of aliens, which will continue to advance as the computer technology improves. James Cameron’s Pandorans are just the latest line of creatures to be introduced which are physically alien to terrestrial creatures, but which are given a realistic appearance on screen.
The other aspect of writing aliens, which is important in both visual and literary science fiction, harkens back to John W. Campbell, Jr.’s challenge: “Write me a creature that thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man.” Because literary science fiction does not include the visual aspect, the depiction of alien thought and activity becomes more important in these areas.
Truly alien thought processes are evident throughout science fiction. The titular creature in the movie Alien is ascribed motivation, but it is clear from watching the film that those motivations are projections of the humans who are trying to make sense of what the alien is doing. This can be contrasted by many of the aliens who appeared in the original Star Trek universe who are motivated by all too human thought processes no matter what color makeup was spread over their features or the prosthesis on their faces. Even the Klingons were provided with motivations which were easily defined within human terms.
In fact, in science fiction the alien does not need to appear alien at all on the surface. One of the most alien individuals in science fiction is Mike Resnick’s mundumugu Koriba in his Kirinyaga cycle. On the surface, there should be nothing alien about this old man sitting on his terraformed asteroid. Koriba was educated at Cambridge and Yale and uses a computer. However, he has come to espouse a culture and way of life which is quite removed from the western civilization in which he was brought up, championing customs which are not only foreign to Western civilization, but in some cases anathema, ranging from infanticide to female circumcision. Although Koriba’s attitudes are based on a real society, he is as alien as any creature to come from another planet.
In some cases, basic, stereotypical aliens can become much more as the author writes about them more. Larry Niven’s Kzin began their lives as relatively one-dimensional aliens in the short story “The Warriors,” but as Niven (and eventually other authors) began to explore the universe through which the Kzin moved, they became more and more alien. In these cases, the author starts out with a stock alien and they only become notable as the author begins to really flesh them out over time, severing them in many ways from their origins.
There is also the danger of making the alien too different from the way humans think. A gas bag creature floating in the atmosphere of a gas giant may not have enough in common with humans for an author to make them relatable to the reader. This doesn’t mean authors can’t realistically depict these extremely strange aliens, and many attempt to, and some succeed. They just don’t often become the sort of aliens people remember since they are so outré.
Of course, what it comes down to is the author, artist, or designer thinking intelligently about the aliens they are trying to create, not just in an attempt make something cool, but trying to make it fit into its ecological (and sociological?) niche. An alien species can evolve as well in a fictional setting as one can in the real world. One that initially appears as a cliché can, in the long run, turn into something amazing.A heated confrontation between PGA Tour veteran Robert Allenby and his caddie during Thursday's first round of the Canadian Open led to a contentious midround split, with Allenby having a fan jump in to caddie for his last nine holes.
Allenby and his caddie, Mick Middlemo, had a discussion before his fourth shot on the par-5 13th at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Canada. According to Golf.com, Allenby had wanted a 7-iron, but the discussion focused on the 8-iron for the shot, which was about 150 yards out.
Editor's Picks Tom Fraser becomes PGA caddie for a day ESPN's Johnette Howard tracks down Tom Fraser, the principal at an adult school for prison inmates who stepped in to carry the bag after the Australian pro clashed with his caddie.
Allenby's shot fell short of the hole and into a creek. He tripled the hole.
Allenby, who finished the round with an 81, recounted the confrontation that followed to ScoreGolf.com:
"I said to him, 'You know this happens every week. This has happened for like the last three or four or five months. We keep making bad mistakes, and you're not helping me in these circumstances,'" said Allenby, 44. "And he just lost the plot at me. He just told me I could go eff myself.
"And I said, 'Look, you need to slow down. I mean just calm down.' And then he just got right in my face as if he wanted to just beat me up," he said. "I said, 'Stop being a such and such and calm down and get back into the game.' And he just got even closer and closer, and I just said, 'That's it, you're sacked.' I said, 'I will never have you caddie ever again.' And we never spoke for the rest of the (first nine), and when we got to 18 we walked off, and he said some smartass remark to me, and I said, 'You don't deserve to be caddying out there.' And he just got right in my face and threatened me, so I said, 'Go.' So he left."
While Middlemo confirmed most of Allenby's remarks, he disputed the initial conversation that led to the dispute.
"I just wished it had never gone this far. But he is again using the media to make himself look like the victim," Middlemo told ESPN.com.
"The discussion was only about waiting for the wind to die down and hit the 8-iron; the 7-iron was never discussed. Not once. He came up 10 meters short of the front of the green.... He hit a bad shot.
Robert Allenby withdrew from the Canadian Open after a 9-over 81 and a confrontation with his caddie. Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
"He said, 'I can't believe this fat c--t,' loud enough for everyone to hear. There's a lot as a caddie I can take but a personal attack like that.... If this was an office in any country in the world, that would be considered bullying.... I can take it if you call me the worst caddie in the world, tell me I'm horrible at picking clubs, but there's a line you just can't cross."
Middlemo told GolfChannel.com that it was Allenby who lost his cool and became verbally abusive.
"I said, 'Look, if you want someone to abuse, get someone out of the parking lot,'" Middlemo said. "He said, 'I'm going to get a caddie banned for life on this tour.' And I asked if it was me, and he said, 'Yes.' That was it."
Middlemo is the fourth caddie to walk off during a round while working for Allenby.
After Middlemo walked off the course, Allenby carried his own bag to the 18th green to speak with officials, and according to Golf.com, that's when a fan offered his services.
Allenby said yes to the fan, Tom Fraser, a 61-year-old local school principal, allowing him to caddie for the last nine holes. Allenby birded the first hole with Fraser on the bag but later had four straight bogeys, finishing with a 43.
Allenby withdrew from the tournament, finishing at 9 over.
"He did a great job," Allenby said of Fraser, according to ScoreGolf.com. "He did everything he was told. He was a nice guy. I'm really thankful that he helped me out. It was nice to have someone friendly on the bag who didn't want to threaten me."
A source who was walking with the group verified Middlemo's version to ESPN.com.
PGA Tour official Steve Cartman has spoken to multiple parties who witnessed the events.
Earlier this year, Allenby was involved in a strange off-course incident in Hawaii. In January, after missing the cut at the Sony Open, Allenby said he was robbed and beaten and needed help from a homeless woman.
"You think... that happens in the movie, not real life," Allenby told The Associated Press at |
his unusual faith mix has shaped him as a politician.
1. He was raised Catholic and later attended an evangelical megachurch.
Growing up in an Irish Catholic family that reportedly revered the Kennedys, Pence served as an altar boy and went to parochial school in Columbus, Ind., according to Fehrman.
Pence has said he made that “commitment to Christ” while taking part in a nondenominational Christian student group in college, according to the journalist. Pence had told The Indianapolis Star that he and his family attended Grace Evangelical Church in the 1990s, but by 2013, he told Fehrman they were “kind of looking for a church.”
2. He supported causes important to evangelicals as a congressman.
As a member of the U.S. House from 2000 until his election as governor, Pence had a “reputation as a culture warrior (that) was unsullied,” according to Roll Call. The website lists his bona fides: He opposed the expansion of abortion rights and federal spending on embryonic stem cell research, pushed a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage and briefly cut off new federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
3. He clashed with the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis over refugees.
Late last year, Pence clashed with the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis when he halted state support for efforts to relocate refugees, citing security concerns.
The archdiocese defied him by welcoming a Syrian family to the city anyway. In the end, the governor said that while he disagreed with the archdiocese’s action, he would not block food stamps and other state aid for the family.
On the other hand, he came out against Trump’s plan to halt all Muslim immigration to the U.S., tweeting last December that “calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional.”
Calls to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. are offensive and unconstitutional. — Governor Mike Pence (@GovPenceIN) December 8, 2015
4. He supports Israel.
Pundits have said one reason Trump may pick Pence is that the governor’s strong pro-Israel sentiment would shore up Trump’s shaky relationship with Jewish voters. Speaking before AIPAC in 2009, then-Rep. Pence linked his support for Israel with his faith:
“Let me say emphatically, like the overwhelming majority of my constituents, my Christian faith compels me to cherish the state of Israel.”
He backed that up last December at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s conference when he said: “Israel’s enemies are our enemies, Israel’s cause is our cause. If this world knows nothing else, let it know this: America stands with Israel.”
5. He signed Indiana’s controversial “religious freedom” law.
Last year, Pence found himself at the center of a storm when he supported Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which would have allowed businesses and individuals to refuse to do business with some people based on their own religious beliefs. In his 2016 State of the State address, he added:
“I will not support any bill that diminished the religious freedom of Hoosiers or that interferes with the constitutional rights of our citizens to live out their beliefs in worship, service or work. … No one should ever fear persecution because of their deeply held religious beliefs.”
His stance on the issue made him the darling of evangelicals and other conservatives, and he signed the bill into law in March. But a week later, he had to sign a revised version after major corporations, organizations and celebrities vowed to boycott Indiana.Internet is considered the pioneer of transforming our world into a global village. It has helped humanity get together on a single platform and share their thoughts with each other. It has proved to be the best medium to access media and information from any part of the world. The popularity of the internet has been aroused around the world due to the basic human right to know and have information. This right is sometimes violated by governments which restrict the flow of information to certain people based on their geographic location by banning IP addresses or filtering the web content. VPN services came to the rescue in such situations by providing a network through which a user can access restricted information through a server with an IP address where such information is not restricted.
Today, I am going to list certain benefits associated with best VPN service for UK. There are certain online services that are available only to UK residents and the most popular among them is the online UK television services. The BBC iplayer, 4oD, ITV on Demand and Zatoo are the most popular television services offered to UK residents through the internet. Now with a UK VPN you can access these UK television services from any part of the world regardless of your location. This may seem very exciting to you, but it is a treat for UK expatriates who love their home television network. Now VPN for UK can grant seamless access to all those non-resident UK citizens who crave for UK television services around the world. So all UK citizens, wherever you go around the world, you are not going to miss your favorite television shows. All you have to do is to look for the Best UK VPN.
Finding a best VPN for UK is not an easy task with hundreds of VPN services on the internet offering UK IP addresses. Moreover, with too many scams on the internet, some VPN service do offer the UK IP address, but lack the infrastructure to support seamless media streaming. So you need to be prudent before you decide to use the services of VPN for UK. Here is a list of factors to be considered before you buy a VPN service for UK so that you can get the best UK VPN:
Whether the VPN service supports and provides seamless media streaming services.
Whether it offers a dedicated IP to every user or not.
The IP address provided to you should not be banned by the services you want to access.
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, 5.3 out of 10 based on 7 ratingsSuccessful people are known to be great at practicing tips on time management. Chances are, if you want to be an extremely successful professional at your chosen field, you should also learn how to organize your day effectively.
So now, you’re excited.
You’re pumped.
You can’t wait to get started and organize your day right away. There’s a tiny problem, though: Where should you start? With all the tips, techniques, and tricks scattered all over the Internet, which tips are really going to be effective and convenient for you to adapt? With all the stress and the expectations during your day, how can you even get started?
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The first thing that you should take note of is the definition of time. Simply put, time is an idea that’s relative, depending on how you define it. You may think that one hour spent on writing an article is a luxury, while other writers believe that you would need to spend at least two hours to do so. You may think that fifteen minutes spent on brainstorming your ideas is already enough, while some entrepreneurs even spend three days just to brainstorm. Also, you may believe that spending time with your loved ones should be done everyday, while some people simply think it’s a waste of time!
You see, time is subjective. Your concept of time is different from other people’s idea of it. Therefore, everything that you read and learn about time management is irrelevant if you don’t believe that time needs to be managed. If you think that your time is worthless, if you’d rather watch TV all day than work on your personal growth, or if you’d rather spend all day in bed sleeping instead of trying to make a change in your life, organizing your day for success is not the answer. Focus on being inspired and pursuing your passion first.
If you think that your time is valuable, on the other hand, here are five tips to help you organize it successfully:
1. Plan your day the night before.
Before going to sleep, make sure that you’re going to start your day with a purpose. Whip up a journal or a planner and put your action plans for the next day in there.
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To give you a guideline, you should have at least four plans for everyday: one should be work-related, one should be for a personal activity like an errand, and two should be for accomplishing your life dreams.
2. Schedule for interruptions.
Get frustration out of the picture by setting up time allowances in your plan. If you say that you’re going to write an article from 08:00 to 08:45 and then you’re going to write a blog post from 08:46 to 09:30, you’re just setting yourself up for trouble!
Expect that not everything will go as planned. You will only be able to organize your day successfully if you plan for interruptions.
3. Start your day with accomplishing something big.
When eating a meal, you start eating the food that you don’t like first so that you can focus on enjoying the rest of the meal, right? The same goes for your day. If you have a big thing that you need to accomplish, do it first.
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This way, even if you don’t accomplish anything else, you can still say that you did something productive at least.
4. Use a time-tracking application to help you stay on track.
Of course you can still check on Facebook and Twitter — you just need to plan for it and track your time doing these activities so that you won’t get distracted.
Toggl, SlimTimer, and RescueTime are nice tools to help you get started.
5. Accept the fact that you’re not going to be able to do it all in one day.
You’re not Superman (or are you…?) so you can’t do everything in one day. Instead of working on a big project in one day and cramming it, arrange milestones instead. Don’t get frustrated if you weren’t able to finish everything you’ve planned.
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Remember, you still have next time.
We hope that by that time, you’ll be wise enough to practice what you’ve read in this article and organize your day right.PROVIDENCE, R.I. — One of the darkest chapters of Rhode Island history involved the state’s pre-eminence in the slave trade, beginning in the 1700s. More than half of the slaving voyages from the United States left from ports in Providence, Newport and Bristol — so many, and so contrary to the popular image of slavery as primarily a scourge of the South, that Rhode Island has been called “the Deep North.”
That history will soon become more prominent as the Episcopal diocese here, which was steeped in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, establishes a museum dedicated to telling that story, the first in the country to do so, according to scholars.
Many of the shipbuilders, captains and financiers of those slaving voyages were Episcopalians. The church, like many others in its day, supported slavery and profited from it even after the trans-Atlantic slave trade was outlawed and slavery had been banned in the state. Among the most notable Episcopalian slaveholders were Thomas Jefferson, who was active for some time in the church, and George Washington.
Over the last decade, the Episcopal Church of the United States has formally acknowledged and apologized for its complicity in perpetuating slavery. Some Episcopal dioceses have been re-examining their role, holding services of repentance and starting programs of truth and reconciliation.FRANKFORT, Ky. — A rainbow-colored crosswalk honouring the LGBT community in Lexington, Kentucky, is a distracting safety hazard and should be removed, a federal official says.
Officials painted the crosswalk at a busy intersection across from the county courthouse earlier this year to coincide with an annual gay pride festival. At the time, city officials said the crosswalk would be safer because it would better catch the attention of drivers.
But Thomas Nelson, the Kentucky division administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, said the crosswalk art distracts drivers because it is designed to “draw the eye” instead of “commanding the attention.” He noted pedestrian deaths jumped 9 per cent in 2016, an increase not all attributed to crosswalks but still an “alarming increase.”
“While we recognize in good faith your crosswalk art was well-intended for your community, we request that you take the necessary steps to remove the non-compliant crosswalk art as soon as it is feasible,” Nelson wrote in a letter to Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.
City officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cities across the country have tried to use colorful crosswalk art to add character to downtown shopping and business districts. Atlanta has rainbow-colored crosswalks near popular Piedmont Park. And some crosswalks in St. Louis have rainbows and fleur-de-lis. But the Federal Highway Administration has routinely frowned on the practice, telling officials in Buffalo, New York, that their plans to paint crosswalks in a jigsaw-pattern of yellow, green and grey would be a safety hazard.
That ruling prompted officials in St. Louis to ban new crosswalk paintings.
“The use of crosswalk art is actually contrary to the goal of increased safety and most likely could be a contributing factor to a false sense of security for both motorists and pedestrians,” the Federal Highway Administration ruled in 2013.
Lexington’s rainbow crosswalks were installed earlier this year with the help of a $5,000 grant from the Bluegrass Community Foundation. Lisa Adkins, the foundation’s president and CEO, said rainbow crosswalks have become common across the country.
“You cannot go to … any kind of meeting and conference about creating a more vibrant city where you are not talking about things like (crosswalk art) that I think add a lot to the street level experience, whether you are pedestrian or a bicyclist or in a car,” she said.You have seen them on high, scurrying with great urgency between columns of marble, the clicks of Armani-heeled favor seekers never far behind. You have heard them in the past few days, saying they are “troubled” or “disappointed” about the latest assault on democracy from the White House.
They know enough history to get this: Donald Trump is the first president in history whose campaign has come under F.B.I.-initiated investigation for collusion with a hostile foreign power. And now the person heading that investigation, the F.B.I. director, has been fired.
We’re looking for a few good men and women in Congress to understand the gravity of this debasement. We don’t need more parsing about the bad “optics” or “timing” of Trump firing the man who could have ended his presidency. We need a Republican in power to call it what it is: a bungled attempt to obstruct justice.
And the tragic part is that Trump is likely to succeed, at least in the short term. The person he chooses for F.B.I. director will never assemble a prosecutable case of treason that leads to the doorstep of this White House.Dear Media: Polyamory Is Not All About Sex
By Carrie Jenkins
If you read about polyamory in the media, you’ve probably seen The Photo: an image of three (or more) pairs of adult feet at the end of a bed, poking out from under a white duvet.
In reality it is not one photo, but many, yet it’s a visual trope recycled so frequently and predictably that it might as well be just one. The Photo is supposed to provide a glimpse into the lives of those naughty non-monogamous people having their naughty non-monogamous sex; while only slightly risqué, it gets its point across — the point being that polyamory is all about having sex with lots of people.
You can see The Photo in action here in The Guardian, here at news.com, here at GetReligion.org, here at stuff.co.nz, here in the Georgia Straight, here at Mic, here at Cafe Mom, here in Soot Magazine, here at Role Reboot, and here at The Frisky. Sometimes it’s not feet, just three or more people in a bed—under, yes, a white duvet. (I confess I don’t own a white duvet, but I didn’t realize it was such a sine qua non of poly life.)
There is more going on here than editorial laziness. It suggests that our culture’s default visual image for polyamory is “lots of people in bed together.” This hypersexualization of polyamory might be normalized, but it’s far from harmless. Because we live in a sex-negative society, presenting poly relationships as “just” sex is a powerful way of signaling that these relationships don’t deserve to be taken seriously.
...On the whole, we tend to think that “real”-love relationships are serious — and should be shored up with social and legal privileges — whereas sex is “just” sex. When poly relationships are hypersexualized, they are also shuffled out of the realm of what we are taught to respect.
...A few months ago I gave an interview to a journalist for an article about polyamory in the print edition of Cosmopolitan UK. Her article was well-written and well-researched; it addressed various issues that can come up in poly relationships, like scheduling, jealousy, misrepresentation, and stigma. The journalist included some material from my interview on how polyamory is often stigmatized through hypersexualization and sex-negativity.
So perhaps you can imagine how demoralized I was when I saw that Cosmo had chosen to illustrate this article with full-page, full-color, graphic images of a pile of naked people in mid-orgy. And that the article itself was presented under the subheading “Young, hot and…polyamorous. Why everyone you know is getting multiple action.” Not only that, the front-page headline was “Greedy Lovers: Is a Foursome the New Threesome?” This bore no connection to the article; it was only used to play up the stereotype that poly people are sexually greedy.
Whoever was in charge of these editorial decisions made the Cosmo article into a perfect example of the exact problem I described in it. Either they didn’t read my quotes, or they didn’t care about what I said. I suppose giant orgy photos sell magazines, and what happens to people like me doesn’t matter much to Cosmo. But it matters to me. This kind of harmful imagery is partly to blame for the fact that I get called a “cum-dumpster” and a “cheap skank that bones a bunch of dudes” when I talk openly about being in two loving relationships. It’s what makes strangers feel okay about saying that my partners and I are trash, that our relationships are hopeless, that I’m only pretending to be married, that they hope I get STIs, that I already have STIs, that I’m disgusting.
It’s important to note that the harms caused by the hypersexualization of polyamory are not equally distributed among its targets. As a poly woman, you stand to be labeled a “slut” without a second thought, and there is no male equivalent. Being poly doesn’t necessarily entail having any sex (never mind nightly orgies!): It’s also consistent with being asexual, not being in any relationships, or just, you know, not having sex — like how monogamous people are sometimes allowed to be not having sex. But that’s irrelevant to how stereotypes and stigmas work....
Due to the gendered norms for sexual behavior, everything about this harms poly women far more than men. In fact, any kind of privilege can help protect you from the costs of being openly poly. It’s less costly for rich white people to be out as poly, which reinforces another stereotype: that poly people are all rich and white. (In the examples of The Photo that I listed above, you might have noticed that the feet in the bed are all as white as the bourgeois bedding from which they emerge....
Strategically devaluing disfavored relationships by “reducing” them to sex is nothing new. The same strategy has long been deployed against same-sex relationships and interracial relationships. It’s effective not only as a way of inciting disgust and disapprobation, but more insidiously as a means of othering — making the people in those relationships seem weird and alien and not like us. We fall in love and have serious relationships, but those people are lust-driven animals. It’s okay to treat them like garbage.
It is tempting to push back by demanding that poly relationships be treated as “real” love, and distanced from sex.... But it also throws sex under the bus. When sex-negativity is weaponized against us, we can run from the weapon — reinforcing its effectiveness — or we can work on disarming it....
Carrie Jenkins is a polyamorous philosophy professor currently based in Vancouver, Canada. She previously lived in Scotland, England, Wales, the U.S., and Australia so that her accent would be confusing and nobody would be able to figure out where she was from. Her book What Love Is And What It Could Be comes out in January.
This was recommended to me as a meta article about poly in the media. Yes, the white duvets.It appeared in the online feminist magazineI imported the pix from the other places that the author references in the text.Read the whole text (July 27, 2016).And once again: Photographers, please supply the stock agencies with some better poly pix! Anyone with a camera and a good eye can do it.
Labels: feminismThe Government of Canada has been thinking about electoral reform, and talking to citizens about it.
We hope this citizen-run website can be a place to improve the ongoing conversation among citizens, complementing government efforts.
References on electoral reform. (All are welcome to contribute!)
How to Vote If you don’t know, or think it’s a badly written comment, just PASS.
How to Comment Best to view all existing comments before adding new ones. Please click “Share your perspective…” to add your comments. Your “perspective” can be either feelings or facts – start with “I think…” or “I am…” Comments should be standalone. They shouldn’t respond to other comments. For complicated perspectives, please split them into simpler comments. These will be easier for others to vote on. Do not use questions.
But what are the goals? In a general sense, the goal is understanding our fellow citizens. But more concretely, we as citizens can use this to tease apart the debate and discover new and unexpected Majority Opinions. Comments shared by a majority carry the most weight, and so would be most impactful to pass along to representatives.
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Note: This system is not for counting the number of people holding each opinion, but to understand both the diverse “opinion groups” and also the “majority opinions” shared by all. It’s about understanding consensus. People with the same opinions are represented as a single group. We welcome everyone to share their views.
For further information on the who, what, where, when and why, please see our FAQ.First of all, as many others already said, your.gitignore should be tracked by Git (and should therefore not be ignored). Let me explain why.
(TL;DR: commit the.gitignore file, and use a global.gitignore to ignore files that are created by your IDE or operating system)
Git is, as you probably already know, a distributed version control system. This means that it allows you to switch back and forth between different versions (even if development has diverged into different branches) and it also allows multiple developers to work on the same project.
Although tracking your.gitignore also has benefits when you switch between snapshots, the most important reason for committing it is that you'll want to share the file with other developers who are working on the same project. By committing the file into Git, other contributers will automatically get the.gitignore file when they clone the repository, so they won't have to worry about accidentally committing a file that shouldn't be committed (such as log files, cache directories, database credentials, etc.). And if at some point the project's.gitignore is updated, they can simply pull in those changes instead of having to edit the file manually.
Of course, there will be some files and folders that you'll want to ignore, but that are specific for you, and don't apply to other developers. However, those should not be in the project's.gitignore. There are two other places where you can ignore files and folders:Photo courtesy Shakers Brother Arnold Hadd, one of the last three surviving Shakers, checks on beef cattle at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community in Maine, the last remaining Shaker settlement. Photo courtesy Shakers Brother Arnold Hadd, one of the last three surviving Shakers, checks on beef cattle at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community in Maine, the last remaining Shaker settlement. Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close One of last Shakers talks about 'the life' 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
COLONIE — Brother Arnold Hadd, one of three remaining Shakers, lives a monastic lifestyle at the only surviving Shaker community, at Sabbathday Lake in Maine.
He will speak about Shaker beliefs and his semi-cloistered settlement via an online video connection Saturday at Siena College in an event sponsored by the Shaker Heritage Society.
"I thought about leaving long ago, but I know in my heart of hearts this is where I'm supposed to be and want to be," Hadd said by phone during a break from his farm chores. Hadd, 56, grew up in western Massachusetts and joined the Shaker community 35 years ago. He lives communally on a 1,800-acre farm and apple orchard near New Gloucester with the two others, Sister Frances Carr, 85, and Sister June Carpenter, 72.
The only other member in recent years, Brother Wayne Smith, 49, left the community about six years ago after becoming romantically involved with a female newspaper reporter who came to interview the Shakers.
"Nay, he has not regretted it," Hadd said of Smith, his speech peppered with archaic usage. "It made sense for him and he's now where he wanted to be."
Hadd's talk will be followed by a question-and-answer period with audience members. It is part of the Capital Region celebration for Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee's 227th birthday.
She was born on Feb. 29, 1736, in Manchester, England, and founded America's first Shaker settlement at Watervliet (now Colonie) and died there on Sept. 8, 1784. She is buried on the Shaker site, which closed its last operations in 1936, near the Albany County International Airport.
Membership in the Shakers — known initially in "Shaking Quakers" because of their whirling dances and ecstatic worship services — peaked at about 6,000 in the 1850s. The Watervliet community topped out at about 350 people. The Sabbath Day Lake settlement is the last of about 20 major Shaker communities that existed between Florida and Ohio.
"Americans have been fascinated with the Shakers since the 1800s and there is still a strong fascination," said Starlyn D'Angelo, executive director of the Shaker Heritage Society. "There's a strong element of voyeurism in it."
During the Victorian era, it was considered entertainment to watch the Shakers at their 1848 Meeting House. "They wanted to see these strange people worship," D'Angelo said. "The fascination was that the Shakers went against the grain, they accepted blacks and any ethnicity as equals, men and women were equals and they created remarkable music and art."
In the last surviving Shaker community in Maine, converts have dried up, but interest endures. The Shakers are a religious sect that espouses celibacy, the spiritual value of manual labor, communal ownership of property, confession of sins and the notion that God could be male and female. Hadd receives about 100 emails, calls and letters each week.
About two dozen people from the Capital Region belong to the 500-member Friends of the Shakers. They visit the Maine community for work parties in the spring and fall that draw about 50 helpers. More than 100 typically travel to an annual Friends weekend in August.
The Shakers are still trying to recruit. In the past 35 years, only about three dozen people have decided to undergo a yearlong trial period and only Hadd and Brother Wayne chose to stay.
More Information If you go What: Shaker Brother Arnold Hadd speaking via online video connection, with audience Q&A. When: 2 p.m. Saturday. Where: Key Auditorium, Roger Bacon Hall, Siena College campus, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville. Info.: http://www.shakerheritage.org or 456-7890. No entrance fee, but donations are encouraged to support the Shaker Heritage Society.
"We had two novices last year, a male and female," Hadd said. "They both stayed approximately a year to see how they fit into the life. Both concluded it was not for them."
Surprisingly, celibacy is rarely the deal-breaker. "The larger problem tends to be the life itself," Hadd said. "It's the communal living that people have the most trouble with in the end."
Seekers find their way to the Shaker settlement. "Some are looking for a communal lifestyle or are part of the back-to-the-earth movement," he said.
Hadd's own path was indirect. "My initial intent was not to become a Shaker," he said of his novice trial at age 21. "It was something that grew on me gradually. I felt I was being called or led here."
The Shakers keep a schedule that includes awakening at dawn, communal meals, long blocks of work time, morning and afternoon prayers and individual free time.
They like to watch TV and spend time on the Internet.
"The Shakers have always embraced technology," Hadd said.
D'Angelo believes the enduring appeal of the Shakers is their fierce faith. "They have absolute faith that the Shakers will endure in the future, despite their current challenges," she said.
Hadd said his community is challenged by rising property taxes, encroaching suburbia, a lack of new converts and a decline in production of their cash crops: apples, yarn spun from sheep's wool, dried herbs, vegetables and beef.
Even if the last Shaker settlement eventually closes, the sect's philosophy of life will survive, D'Angelo said.
"There are 10 Shaker museums in the country, including three in our area," she said. "We will always continue to study and learn from them."
pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahlThe debate over Zidane's coaching credentials has taken a turn for the worse in recent weeks. On 30th August, MARCA reported that the RFEF Coaches' Committee intended to monitor the situation with the Frenchman following a complaint filed by the schools director of the Centro Nacional de Formación de Entrenadores (National Coaches' Training Centre, CENAFE).
It all boils down to Zizou allegedly violating the rules by assuming the role of head coach of Real Madrid Castilla without being in possession of the necessary qualification. What started out as merely a monitoring exercise has now led to an investigation being opened by the Federation's Competition Committee that could see the Frenchman and even Real Madrid itself landed with a ban.
Zidane and Real could face stiff penalties. Article 104 states that such violations carry the punishment of a ban for four to 20 games, or one to six months. The initial CENAFE complaint has been added to with a report sent to the Competition Committee by the Coaching Committee.
MARCA has been told that the report includes videos and photos which show that Zidane may have been performing the duties of head coach. Even articles published on Real Madrid's own website talk about 'Zizou' as the team's 'numero uno'.I wasn't actually surprised to learn that public officials in Toronto had agreed to install "smart toilets" in the city's convention center so they could analyze public, um, data. As a privacy researcher, the idea fascinated me.
Only problem: It wasn’t true.
But a fake toilet company’s publicity stunt has me thinking, which is what Quantified Toilets intended. Smart toilets are just the kind of product you expect to encounter at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing, or CHI, an annual event where researchers discuss the latest science of how people interact with technology. This is my favorite conference to attend. There are always new and cool projects that make me think.
So when Quantified Toilets debuted at CHI this week, it was an immediate hit. The company claimed to have installed sensors in the Toronto Convention Center and other civic venues that would automatically analyze “deposits” in the toilets to detect a person’s gender, drug and alcohol levels, pregnancy status, sexually-transmitted-infection status, and… smell.
There were signs in the bathrooms that read: “Behavior at these toilets is being recorded for analysis.”
The accompanying website featured a live stream (ha) of toilet data being collected in real time.
The idea isn’t as absurd as it may sound, especially to a cohort of conference attendees who spend their days thinking about these sorts of technologies. “Smart toilets” have been around for a while, and in a survey by Intel and market researcher Penn Schoen Berland, 70% of people said they would be willing to share their smart toilet data if it led to lower healthcare costs. But this was different. And it's worth exploring why. If the government installs smart toilets in public venues, the option to opt out isn’t necessarily available. Bathroom access is essential in public spaces, and leaving a convention center to find an unmonitored toilet is a burden. There’s also something troubling about health data that’s not collected for use by a physician—or even an insurance company—but gathered in public by and for the government. This is the kind of data that public officials or marketers would love to obtain. Let’s imagine a couple scenarios: At a convention or concert, an organization could determine whether attendees have high rates of pregnant women with positive drug or alcohol tests, then use that knowledge to target public health messages to the demographic.
In stadiums, an organization could see which sections had higher blood alcohol levels, and even the peak levels during the game. They could market more beer to that section—or make it harder for people in that section to buy drinks. They might even sell this data to beer vendors willing to pay for such demographic information.
Other ideas from the Quantified Toilets website: “We use this data to streamline cleaning crew schedules, inform municipalities of the usage of resources, and help buildings and cities plan for healthier and happier citizens.” If sensors were to be as easily deployed as the website suggests, they could be used in not-so-anonymous settings like offices. Your employer could find out which drugs employees are taking, check to see if anyone shows up to work drunk, and figure out which female employees are expecting babies. As individuals, we are already tracking our physical activity with Fitbits, our physical locations with cell phones, our eating habits with websites like MyFitnessPal, and even our genomes with services like 23 and Me. But there’s a critical line between the “quantified self movement”—in which people record as much personal metadata as possible—and public monitoring of our data. A sensor in the convention-center toilet is a lot more like a public surveillance camera than it is a private fitness app. But it wasn’t until I reached out to Quantified Toilet to learn more that I found out what was really going on. An excerpt from the auto-reply email I received: “As you may have worked out, Quantified Toilets is indeed a fake company and all data reported were equally fake. It was a thought experiment at CHI 2014, designed to engender thought and discussion regarding the issues of surveillance, data, and privacy.” It worked. Quantified Toilet got me thinking about issues that are integral to the way we assess the interplay between technology and privacy. The concerns these hypothetical toilets raise will only continue to come up as smart technologies become more integrated with daily life. While the project may have been a hoax, surveillance in public spaces is rising—and it isn’t restricted to cameras. There are sophisticated sensors for monitoring all kinds of activities. My colleague Jon Froehlich designed a sensor that can detect water use in each of a house’s fixtures—including the toilets—by screwing the sensor into the outdoor garden-hose spigot. Sensors of all types are easily connected to the Internet. They can collect vast amounts of data, which can then be shared widely. As citizens, we don’t always know what data is being collected, who can access it, or how it will be used. Even seemingly secure networks can be comprised. We should be leading conversations about the legal privacy protections we need to establish for what once seemed to be private activities. In a data-rich connected world, even the most intimate spaces are becoming public.When Frank Gore signed up with the Indianapolis Colts in 2015, the franchise was coming off back-to-back division titles and three straight playoff appearances.
It was supposed to be a team primed to take a step forward. Instead, coach Chuck Pagano's squad has crashed, going 8-8 last season and starting this year 2-4.
Following Sunday night's disheartening collapse to the Houston Texans, Gore lamented the situation while talking to Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyle.
"I didn't come here for this," the former 49ers running back said. "I came here to get into the tournament."
According to Doyle, while the rest of the players talked in platitudes about getting back to work and putting the loss behind them, Gore seemed frustrated almost to tears.
With the loss, the Colts fell to last place in the AFC South. In the cellar of the worst division in the NFL isn't a place that a team with playoff aspirations should find itself six games into the season.
"We'll go back to work tomorrow," Pagano said Sunday. "What else are you gonna do?"
The Colts have come unhinged due to a defense that can't get stops when it matters, an inconsistent offense and a coaching staff that perpetually mismanages games.
Gore didn't join |
. Bullying victims showed greater likelihood of agoraphobia, where people don't feel safe in public places, along with generalized anxiety and panic disorder.
People who were both victims and bullies were at higher risk for young adult depression, panic disorder, agoraphobia among females, and the likelihood of suicide among males. Those who were only bullies showed a risk of antisocial personality disorder.
Reporting cyberbullying
Since everything we do online has a digital footprint, it is possible to trace anonymous sources of bullying on the Internet, he said. Patchin noted that tangible evidence of cyberbullying may be more clear-cut than "your word against mine" situations of traditional bullying.
Patchin advises that kids who are being cyberbullied keep the evidence, whether it's an e-mail or Facebook post, so that they can show it to adults they trust. Historically, there have been some issues with schools not disciplining if bullying didn't strictly happen at school, but today, most educators realize that they have the responsibility and authority to intervene, Patchin said.
Adults can experience cyberbullying also, although there's less of a structure in place to stop it. Their recourse is basically to hire a lawyer and proceed through the courts, Patchin said.
Even in school, though, solutions are not always clear.
Turley's mother called the school on his behalf, but the students involved only got a talking-to as punishment. Cyberbullying wasn't considered school-related behavior, at least at that time, he said.
"I was just so afraid of people," says Turley, explaining why he went to different middle schools each year in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. He stayed quiet through most of it, barely speaking to other students.
Fighting back by speaking out
Turley started slowly merging back into "peopleness" in eighth grade when he started putting video diaries on YouTube. Soon, other students were asking him to help them film school project videos, track meets and other video projects.
In high school, Turley discovered an organization called WeStopHate.org, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping people who have been bullied and allow them a safe space to share their stories.
Emily-Anne Rigal, the founder of the organization, experienced bullying in elementary school, getting picked on for her weight. Although she and Turley lived on opposite sides of the country, they became friends online, united by their passion for stopping bullying.
WeStopHate.org has achieved a wide reach. Rigal has received all sorts of honors for her efforts, from the Presidential Volunteer Service Award to a TeenNick HALO Award presented by Lady Gaga.
Turley designed the WeStopHate.org website and most of its graphics, and is actively involved in the organization. In additional to Rigal, he has many other friends in different states whom he's met over the Internet.
"I got cyberbullied, and I feel like, with that, it made me think, like, well, there has to be somebody on the Internet who doesn't hate me," he said. "That kind of just made me search more."
Parental controls
Ashley Berry, 13, of Littleton, Colorado, has also experienced unpleasantness with peers online. When she was 11, a classmate of hers took photos of Ashley and created an entire Facebook page about her, but denied doing it when Ashley confronted the student whom she suspected.
"It had things like where I went to school, and where my family was from and my birthday, and there were no security settings at all, so it was pretty scary," she said.
The page itself didn't do any harm or say mean things, Ashley said. But her mother, Anna Berry, was concerned about the breach of privacy, and viewed it in the context of what else was happening to her daughter in school: Friends were uninviting her to birthday parties and leaving her at the lunch table.
"You would see a girl who should be on top of the world coming home and just closing herself into her bedroom," Berry said.
Berry had to get police involved to have the Facebook page taken down. For seventh grade, her current year, Ashley entered a different middle school than the one her previous school naturally fed into. She says she's a lot happier now, and does media interviews speaking out against bullying.
A classmate of Ashley Berry took photos of her and created an entire fake Facebook page.
These days, Berry has strict rules for her daughter's online behavior. She knows Ashley's passwords, and she's connected with her daughter on every social network that the teen has joined (except Instagram, but Ashley has an aunt there). Ashley won't accept "friend" requests from anyone she doesn't know.
Technical solutions to technical problems
Parents, extended relatives, Internet service providers and technology providers can all be incorporated in thinking about how children use technology, Holt said.
Apps that control how much time children spend online, and other easy-to-use parental control devices, may help, Holt said. There could also be apps to enable parents to better protect their children from certain content and help them report bullying.
Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on an even more automated solution. They want to set up a system that would give bullying victims coping strategies, encourage potential bullies to stop and think before posting something offensive, and allow onlookers to defend victims, said Henry Lieberman.
Lieberman's students Birago Jones and Karthik Dinakar are working on an algorithm that would automatically detect bullying language. The research group has broken down the sorts of offensive statements that commonly get made, grouping them into categories such as racial/ethnic slurs, intelligence insults, sexuality accusations and social acceptance/rejection.
While it's not all of the potential bullying statements that could be made online, MIT Media Lab scientists have a knowledge base of about 1 million statements. They've thought about how some sentences, such as "you look great in lipstick and a dress," can become offensive if delivered to males specifically.
The idea is that if someone tries to post an offensive statement, the potential bully would receive a message such as "Are you sure you want to send this?" and some educational material about bullying may pop up. Lieberman does not want to automatically ban people, however.
"If they reflect on their behavior, and they read about the experience of others, many kids will talk themselves out of it," he said.
Lieberman and colleagues are using their machine learning techniques on the MTV-partnered website "A Thin Line," where anyone can write in their stories of cyberbullying, read about different forms of online disrespect, and find resources for getting help. The researchers' algorithm tries to detect the theme or topic of each story, and match it to other similar stories. They're finding that the top theme is sexting, Lieberman said.
"We're trying to find social network sites that want to partner with us, so we can get more of this stuff out into the real world," Lieberman said.
Turley and Rigal, who is now a freshman at Columbia University, are currently promoting the idea of having a "bully button" on Facebook so that people can formally report cyberbullying to the social network and have bullies suspended for a given period of time. They haven't gotten a response yet, but they're hopeful that it will take off.
In the meantime, Turley is feeling a lot safer in school than he used to.
"Times have changed definitely, where people are becoming slowly more aware," he said. "At my school, at least, I'm seeing a lot less bullying and a more acceptance overall. People just stick to their own."UDPATE: The Cubs have placed Fowler on the disabled list, according to a team announcement. The team promoted Carl Edwards Jr. in his place.
ORIGINAL: It’s not easy to lose a player like Dexter Fowler - though the Cubs have a way of making everything look easy. But Chicago may have to go without their center fielder for a time as the 30-year-old deals with right hamstring soreness.
Something clearly wasn’t quite right as Fowler ran to first base in the first inning of the Cubs’ 4-3 Saturday win over the Pirates. He exited the game, was kept out of Sunday night’s contest as well, and underwent an MRI, the results of which will determine the Cubs’ course of action, manager Joe Maddon told reporters.
"It would not be good if we had to miss him for a bit," Maddon said. "I think we could cover, but he's been all of that."
The Cubs’ talent pool at the moment is feeling a bit limitless, so Maddon’s confidence in someone else stepping up to fill Fowler’s position is understandable. However, his production has made replacing him all the more challenging; slashing.290/.398/.483, he is among the NL’s top ten in getting on base. He’s been drawing walks (35), knocking extra base hits (29), and occasionally hitting for power with seven home runs, all from the top spot in the most powerful lineup on the planet. Fowler has credited the repetition of playing every day as one of the things that has helped him find such a deep, effective groove, making his absence all the more damaging.
Rookie Albert Almora Jr., having recently joined the Cubs and appeared in 11 games, already has nine hits and four doubles in that span. He is a candidate to see an uptick in playing time, and served as Fowler’s back-up when the injury initially occurred. The Cubs also have Jason Heyward - who manned center on Sunday, with Kris Bryant moving to right - and Matt Szczur to shuffle around in the outfield.WASHINGTON, D.C. – Special Counselor Robert Mueller’s case is in danger of being thrown out of court when the FBI is forced to admit FISA court authority to conduct electronic surveillance on former Trump campaign Paul Manafort was based on the fraudulent Fusion GPS “Russia dossier” that the FBI, the Clinton campaign, and the Democratic National Committee paid to be produced.
On Sept. 19, 2017, CNN reported that U.S. investigators conducted electronic surveillance on Manafort both before and after the election under a FISA court warrant.
The CNN article cites only unnamed sources, strongly suggesting the leak was based on an illegal leak to the press that could end up being traced back to the FBI, to Mueller’s Special Counselor office, or to both.
Under the “fruit of the poison tree doctrine” established by the Supreme Court in Fourth Amendment illegal search and seizure cases, the FBI and/or Mueller may have compromised their entire investigation of Paul Manafort by either using the fraudulent “Russia dossier” paid for in part by the FBI, or by illegally leaking information derived from the FISA-authorized electronic surveillance to CNN and other mainstream media publications known to be partisan “Never Trump” mouthpieces.
CNN reported the secret FISA warrant was obtained after Manafort became the subject of the FBI investigation that began as early as 2014 under then FBI Director James Comey, and centered upon work Manafort conducted consulting with Ukraine.
“Some of the intelligence collected includes communications that sparked concerns among investigators that Manafort had encouraged the Russians to help with the campaign, according to three sources familiar with the investigation. Two of these sources, however, cautioned that the evidence is not conclusive,” CNN reported.
“Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, which is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election, has been provided details of these communications,” the CNN report stressed.Thousands have pledged their support to a German vigilante group which has vowed to protect women from migrants in the wake of the New Year's Eve attacks in Cologne.
A week after a mob of 'drunk and stoned' migrants sexually assaulted and robbed 100 women on the streets of Cologne, a group known as 'Dusseldorf is Watching' has gained more than 8,000 Facebook members.
The group says it wants to make the streets safer through 'presence' alone but police have warned that'searching for offenders is not a job for citizens'.
German police have said 18 of the 31 suspects arrested in connection with the Cologne attacks were asylum seekers.
Police stand guard outside Cologne Cathedral, where hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed by a mob of migrant and refugee men on New Year's Eve
German police have said 18 of the 31 suspects arrested in connection with the Cologne attacks were asylum seekers
'Performance artist' Milo Moire (pictured) today stood naked outside Cologne Cathedral, where the attacks took place on December 31, with a sign that read: 'Respect us! We are not fair game, even when we are naked'
They were arrested on suspicion of committing crimes ranging from theft to assault, and one case of verbal abuse of a sexual nature, Interior Ministry spokesman Tobias Plate told reporters in Berlin.
They were among an aggressive mob of up to 1,000 people in front of Cologne's main railway station on Thursday evening.
Two of the men were found carrying threatening, handwritten notes in German and Arabic.
The messages, which they are thought to have handed to women, included the phrases, 'I am going to kill you', 'I want to f***', 'I'm only joking with you' and 'nice breasts'.
Mr Plate said the suspects included Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and the United States.
None of the 31 suspects were accused of committing the kind of sexual crimes that have outraged Germany this past week.
Police arrest a man in Cologne in the early hours of New Year's Day, where migrants attacked women and hurled fireworks at police just over one week ago
The migrants threw fireworks at the police and taunted them by saying: 'I am Syrian... Mrs Merkel invited me here!'
At least 121 women have since filed criminal complaints for robbery and sexual assault in Cologne on New Year's Eve
The 1,000 attackers, who were described as being of 'Arab or north African origin', surrounded their victims before attacking them
FEARS OF SEX ATTACKS SPREAD ACROSS EUROPE Sex attacks similar to those in Cologne have also been reported in neighbouring Austria and Switzerland, where six women reported identical crimes in Zurich on New Year's Eve. Swedish police say at least 15 young women reported being groped by groups of men on New Year's Eve in the city of Kalmar. Kalmar police spokesman Johan Bruun on Friday said groups of men surrounded women on a crowded square and groped them. He said no one was physically injured but that many of those targeted were terrified. He said two men, both asylum-seekers, were informed through interpreters that they're suspected of sexual assault and that police are trying to identify other suspects. Swedish police say at least 15 young women have reported being groped by groups of men on New Year's Eve (pictured, the capital Stockholm) Finnish police said that they had been tipped off about plans by groups of asylum seekers to sexually harass women following an unusually high level of sexual harassment cases in Helsinki (pictured) When asked about similarities to the assaults in Germany, Bruun said: 'We are aware of what happened in Germany but we are focusing our investigation on what happened in Kalmar.' In Finland, security guards hired to patrol the city on New Year's Eve told police there had been 'widespread sexual harassment' at a central square where around 20,000 people had gathered for celebrations. Finnish police said that they had been tipped off about plans by groups of asylum seekers to sexually harass women following an unusually high level of sexual harassment cases in Helsinki. 'Police have... received information about three cases of sexual assault, of which two have been filed as complaints,' Helsinki police said in a statement. 'The suspects were asylum seekers. The three were caught and taken into custody on the spot,' said Helsinki deputy police chief Ilkka Koskimaki.
Police in Cologne have received 170 criminal complaints from victims of the to New Year's attacks, including 120 of a sexual nature.
The city's police chief was sacked from the post today, following intense criticism of the way he handled the violent clashes, a state government source said.
Women had to literally 'run the gauntlet' of very drunk men... In the course of the operation numerous crying and shocked women / girls approached officers and told them of sexual assaults by male migrants / groups Senior police officer's report
Wolfgang Albers, 60, said on Tuesday there was no 'information at all about who the attackers were'.
It later emerged that a report compiled by a senior officer mentioned that many of the people they detained 'had with them their registration papers indicating they were asylum seekers'.
The attacks were carried out despite a heavy police deployment in the western German city, and officers have admitted that they did not realise what was happening.
The incident triggered calls for tighter immigration laws, particularly from politicians opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy that allowed nearly 1.1million refugees to enter the country last year.
Under current laws, asylum seekers are only deported if they have been sentenced to jail terms of at least three years, as long as their lives are not at risk in their countries of origin.
'We need more police, a better equipped judiciary and tougher laws, among other things to more quickly expel criminal foreigners,' said Volker Kauder, the parliamentary leader of Merkel's Christian Democrats.
Cologne's police chief was sacked from the post today, following intense criticism of the way he handled the violent clashes, a state government source said
The Cologne attacks were carried out despite a heavy police deployment in the western German city, and officers have admitted that they did not realise what was happening
The incident triggered calls for tighter immigration laws, particularly from politicians opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy that allowed nearly 1.1million refugees to enter the country last year
He added: 'Citizens expect that those without a right to stay really do leave the country.'
As police tried to regain control of Cologne's streets on New Year's Eve, the attackers taunted them by saying: 'You can't do anything to me – I will get myself a new one in the morning.'
They touched our behinds and grabbed between our legs. They touched us everywhere. So my girlfriend wanted to get out of the crowd Anonymous female victim
Outside the city's historic cathedral, where women were groped and one raped, another man told them: 'I am Syrian, I must be handled in a friendly manner. Mrs Merkel invited me here!'
Some of the victims have told of their 'truly terrible' experience, and how they felt completely helpless as they were surrounded, groped and raped by their intoxicated attackers.
One victim, who remains anonymous, said: 'All of a sudden these men around us began groping us.
'They touched our behinds and grabbed between our legs. They touched us everywhere. So my girlfriend wanted to get out of the crowd. When I turned around one guy grabbed my bag and ripped it off my body.'
Another young female victim of the mass attack said: 'I thought to myself that if we stay here in this crowd they could kill us, they could rape us and nobody would notice.
Some of the victims (pictured) have told of their 'truly terrible' experience, and how they felt completely helpless as they were surrounded, groped and raped by their intoxicated attackers
A victim known only as Evelin M said she ran to police cars to get help but 'there was no one there'
DID GERMAN POLICE TRY TO COVER UP ATTACKERS' REFUGEE STATUS? The German police has been plunged into scandal after a report, written by a senior officer, admitted they knew the sex attackers in Cologne on New Year's Eve were mostly asylum seekers. Police chief Wolfgang Albers, 60, said on Tuesday they did not have 'any information at all about who the attackers were'. But police reports from January 2 said 71 people had been stopped, 11 held temporarily and at least four arrested. A police insider told the Welt Am Sonntag newspaper that most of the attackers were asylum seekers, adding: 'Only a small minority were from North Africa, the large majority of those controlled were from Syria.' The senior police officer who compiled a report after the incident wrote: 'Around 22:48... it was observed that there were thousands of people who could not be specifically identified but who had an immigrant background, and were most probably refugees.' A police insider claimed that most of the New Year's Eve attackers were asylum seekers 'The vast majority of those who were checked only had with them their registration papers indicating they were asylum seekers from the BAMF (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees) as proof of identity. They had no other identity papers at all.' References to the refugee status of the attackers were said to be removed from the original report. The officer went on to say police did not have enough transport to move the number of people who were arrested that night, contradicting the police chief who said the operation went smoothly. The city's mayor Henriette Reker, 59, said it was irresponsible to speak about the origins of the attackers as the was no information at all supporting suggestions that it was refugees who carried out the attacks. Federal police spokesman Jens Floeren confirmed the authenticity of the report, but noted that it represented one officer's'subjective assessment' of the incident three days after it happened.
'I thought we simply had to accept it. There was no one around us who helped or was in a position to help. All I wanted was to get out.'
One girl, who cannot be named, said she has had nightmares since the attack and struggles to get to sleep.
They [the attackers] felt like they were in power and that they could do anything with the women who were out in the street partying. They touched us everywhere. It was truly terrible Victim, Busra A
She added: 'I am too scared to go outside on my own and of course I'm now scared to go to big cities.'
A victim known only as Evelin M said she ran to police cars to get help but 'there was no one there'.
She added: 'We know very well that the police at that moment were so understaffed that they couldn't deal with this, that we women had to go through something like that
'I tried to somehow defend myself. I tossed my arm backwards. Because of that, I almost fell down the stairs.
'There were so many people there that I no longer was in control of myself where to go or how to defend myself.'
Another woman, Busra A, said: 'They [the attackers] felt like they were in power and that they could do anything with the women who were out in the street partying. They touched us everywhere. It was truly terrible.'
Investigators are trawling through CCTV footage and examining witness accounts to bring the suspects to justice
It emerged today that three Syrians were arrested for gang raping two teenage girls on the night of the attacks, as reports of sexual assaults flood in around the country
A report of the incident, compiled by an unidentified senior police officer, told of how'several thousand male persons with a migrant background' threw fireworks and bottles into crowds of revelers outside Cologne Cathedral.
It added: 'Women had to literally 'run the gauntlet' of very drunk men. In the course of the operation numerous crying and shocked women / girls approached officers and told them of sexual assaults by male migrants / groups. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to identify them anymore.'
Since these things are happening again and again in our beautiful city and have increased in recent months, we want to and we must do something about it Dusseldorf is Watching vigilante group
Investigators are trawling through CCTV footage and examining witness accounts to bring the suspects to justice.
Another 70 complaints of sexual assault were filed in the northern city of Hamburg, 260 miles from Cologne, with 23 also reporting they had been robbed.
The Dusseldorf Is Watching group, which launched two days ago and is now trying to open up a second branch in Stuttgart, has urged its members to patrol the cities.
It said on its Facebook page: 'After the events at Cologne Central Station... we decided to mobilise in Dusseldorf.
'Since these things are happening again and again in our beautiful city and have increased in recent months, we want to and we must do something about it.
'Each of us has a girlfriend, sister, mother, cousin, aunt, sister or wife. The idea is, on weekends and on various event days, to pass through the town to make it clear with presence that violence to humans is something that will absolutely not be tolerated in our beautiful city!'
Police officers survey the area in front of the main train station and the Cathedral in Cologne almost one week after the New Year's Eve attacks
Police separate the supporters of left and right wing groups in Cologne as tempers and tensions flare over a wave of sexual assaults against women
After the group was launched, and gained thousands of followers overnight, a Dusseldorf police spokesman told local media that German police is responsible for public security.
He said the police had no problem with people acting bravely in the face of crime but they were against'self proclaimed vigilantes'.
As reports of sexual assaults flood in from around the country, it has emerged that four Syrians were arrested for gang raping two teenage girls in southern Germany on the night of the attacks.
A 21-year-old man, who is a long term German resident, a 15-year-old boy and two 14-year-olds are being held in Weil am Rhein, on the country's border with Switzerland, for the alleged rape of two girls.
They locked up and abused the girls known as Maria, 15, and Aische, 14, after they had all attended a party in the nearby village of Friedlingen, prosecutors said.
None of the suspects were asylum seekers and prosecutors have said they do not believe the incident is connected to the wave of attacks against women in Cologne and other German cities over the New Year.
The girls said they knew and trusted the 21-year-old, who has been named by German media as Mohammed A.
After the events of New Year's Eve when more than 100 women were attacked in the area, the police have bolstered their presence at Cologne Main Station (pictured)
The Dusseldorf Is Watching group, which launched two days ago and is now trying to open up a second branch in Stuttgart, has urged its members to patrol the cities (pictured, police on the streets of Cologne)
They said he persuaded them to come back to his apartment, where he and the others turned violent and subjected them to a two hour long attack.
After they escaped and phoned the police, neighbours told of seeing the Syrians being removed from their house in their underpants and handcuffs.
The feeling women had in this case of being at people's mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well... And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table German Chancellor Angela Merkel
The local council leader in the city Annette Huber said she was completely shocked by the crime which took place on December 31, but was only confirmed yesterday.
Meanwhile Germany's under fire Chancellor Angela Merkel, who condemned the attacks as'repugnant criminal acts, has admitted the country is reviewing whether everything was done to kick out migrants 'who do not respect our law'.
She said: 'We need to re-examine if everything necessary has been done with regards to expulsions to send a clear signal to those who do not respect our law.
'The feeling women had in this case of being at people's mercy, without any protection, is intolerable for me personally as well... And so it is important for everything that happened there to be put on the table.'
The German leader said the country needs to have a 'fundamental' debate about how to integrate new migrants as police identified 16 people suspected of a shocking rash of sexual assaults blamed on migrants.
A victim of the Cologne New Year's Eve attacks, known only as Jenny (pictured), was left with horrific burns on her shoulder after a firework was shoved into the hoodie she was wearing
Another victim Michelle (pictured), 18, told of how she was surrounded by a group of 30 'angry' men who groped her and her friends
As outrage grew over the Cologne assaults, which included two alleged rapes and several accounts of groping, Merkel said citizens were right to raise serious questions.
Merkel said Germany was faced with'very serious questions that go beyond Cologne' and the attacks showed there was 'in some quarters, contempt for women'.
'We need to confront that with utmost determination,' she said, adding that she did not believe that the cases were isolated.May 27, 2009
Will the creation of a new society be shaped by the example we set in our lives today?
AT THE Left Forum in New York City in April, anarchist Harjit Singh Gill spoke on a panel on prefigurative politics (Gill's presentation can be watched on YouTube). He began by quoting a column I wrote for SocialistWorker.org called "Refusing to be ruled over":
Anarchism makes the error of believing that the means to achieving a classless, stateless society must prefigure the end result. Thus, if we want to achieve a society based on free association, without coercion and without bureaucratic centralism, we must build forms of organization today that prefigure the future society.
Mr. Gill followed this up with a comment that drew hearty laughter from the audience:
If you remove the [word] "error," it's the best definition I've ever heard of what I think needs to happen, and how we're actually going to do this. Because I'm like, well, wait--you want to build a bureaucratic, statist system built on coercion to get to one that isn't?
To make his point, Gill noted that parents who want their children to behave in a certain way must be models of that behavior, because as everyone knows, "Do as I say, not as I do" doesn't work very well. "Why would it work any differently in politics?"
Columnist: Paul D’Amato Paul D'Amato is managing editor of the International Socialist Review and author of The Meaning of Marxism, a lively and accessible introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx and the tradition he founded. Paul can be contacted at [email protected].
According to Gill, the starting point for determining what kind of activity we should engage in must be these questions: What would we like anarchism to look like? What do we want our classless future society to look like? He adds, "We're ultimately trying to build this world we want to see."
To be fair to myself, I wrote more on this question than that:
One does not expect the plow to prefigure the wheat; nor should we expect our methods of organizing to fight for a better world to prefigure or look exactly like the world we plan to achieve. The confusion comes in believing that a new society is established by the example we set by how we live today, whereas in reality, a new society must be built by millions of people engaged in struggle before such a new world can be erected.
Frederick Engels, writing in the late 1870s during a battle in the First International with the followers of anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, criticized the idea that the International should "be the nucleus of the future human society":
Just now, when we have to defend ourselves with all the means at our disposal, the proletariat is told to organize not in accordance with the requirements of the struggle it is daily and hourly compelled to wage, but according to the vague notions of a future society entertained by some dreamers. Let us try to imagine what our own German organization would look like according to this pattern. Instead of fighting the government and the bourgeoisie, it would meditate on whether each paragraph of our General Rules and each resolution passed by the Congress represented the true image of a future society.
Belief in the absolute freedom of each and every member of the International would lead to reactionary and dangerous results, argued Engels. According to the principle of no hierarchy or authority, the Prussian police could enter the organization in order to wreck it, but any attempt to expel them would amount to authoritarian and hierarchical heresy.
In reading this, I am reminded of Victor Serge's account in Revolution in Danger of the anarchist group in the Russian city of Petrograd in 1919, which found counterrevolutionary White infiltrators in its ranks, intent on blowing them all up, and ended up releasing them. The veteran anarchist who let them go did so because, by Serge's account, he was horrified by the idea that he, who had spent his life in prison fighting authority, would have to imprison or execute anyone else.
"If it had occurred at all frequently," Serge writes, "such magnanimity would have meant the suicide of the revolution." Clearly, in revolution its participants are forced to engage in certain behavior that in no way resembles "the world we want to see."
GILL EXPLAINS that he came to prefigurative politics through John Holloway, author of Change the World Without Taking Power. To get a sense of what Gill and Holloway mean by prefigurative politics, I'll quote Holloway himself:
It has been said that the transition from capitalism to communism, as opposed to the transition from feudalism to capitalism, would not be able to develop in the interstices of the old society; that there was no way in which communism could grow inside the structure of capitalism. This idea was based on the concept of the revolution as a Great Event... This ignores the fact that the revolution is inconceivable unless what not yet exists already exists, and exists, in contradictory and antagonistic form, in the alternative sociability that is so deeply rooted in the routines of our lives, in the love, in the friendship, in the solidarity, in a million forms of cooperation, in everything that we have learned of what the Zapatistas call Dignity. The elaboration of these embryonic forms of direct sociability constitutes the process of the revolution.
Revolution is, according to Holloway, creating in the "interstices" of the system alternative ways of living and relating to each other. It would be far more pleasant not to have to "deal with capital on capital's own terms" (to quote Holloway again), but sadly, this is impossible. In the end, the capitalist system must be reckoned with, that is challenged, not by piecemeal experiments, but in and through a revolutionary "event."
Such an event doesn't emerge out of nowhere, but comes as the culmination of a series of partial struggles in which workers develop the confidence and consciousness to pose an alternative to the social crises of the system. The solidarity of the working class and the oppressed, born of struggle, is a key component in the success of the struggle, and in the shape of any future society. But this is not the same as seeing "alternative sociability" as a way to resist capitalism.
In the course of class and social struggles, there are definite actions that working-class and social movements must take that do not prefigure the future society. On the most basic level, workers' struggles require some lying and subterfuge toward employers and the state that defends them.
There will be no chance that Wal-Mart will ever be unionized without the ability of workers, for example, to work clandestinely, which must involve lying. The success of the Flint sit-down strike hinged upon creating a decoy that deceived GM management and the police about which plant was about to be occupied. Without this lying and deception, the strike would have failed.
The same holds true for another non-prefigurative means--violence. Flint workers' use of metal hinges and frozen water to defend themselves against police efforts to break their factory occupation had a role in their eventual victory.
Our history is full of examples of workers being forced to defend themselves with whatever weapons were on hand against the armed attacks of company thugs, private guards, police, militia and troops. The same goes for the struggle for racial equality. Leon Trotsky, the Marxist that anarchists love to hate, put it well:
That the aim of socialism is the elimination of force, first in its crudest and bloodiest forms, and then in other more covert ones, is indisputable. But here we are dealing not with the manners and morals of a future communist society, but with the concrete paths and methods of struggle against capitalist force. When fascists disrupt a strike, seize a newspaper's editorial offices and its safe, and beat up and kill workers' deputies, while the police encircle the thugs with a protective ring, then only the most corrupt hypocrite would advise workers not to reply blow for blow, on the pretext that force would have no place in a communist system. Obviously, in each particular case, it is necessary to decide, with respect to the whole situation how to answer the enemy's force, and just how far to go in one's retaliation. But that is a matter of tactical expediency which has nothing to do with the acknowledgement or denial of force in principle.
THERE CERTAINLY must be a thread that connects the current struggle with its final goal. For example, an elected strike committee can, in certain circumstances, develop into a mass, democratic organ of control when it unites with other committees and forms a system of workers' councils (as happened in Russia in 1917, Germany in 1919 and Hungary in 1956, among other examples).
And in general, mass struggle helps to create in people the capacity to run society, by building their confidence and breaking down the divisions of racism, sexism and nationalism.
But it would be suicidal to forget that the old order cannot simply be wished away or presented with organizations that prefigure the future society, for such organizations would be incapable of mounting a challenge to capitalism.
For Marxists, the means must lead to the desired end. As such, forms of organization that tend to weaken, divide or treat the working class as a passive stage army are to be rejected. Hence, socialists reject individual terrorism or any acts by small groups that substitute themselves for the mass action of workers themselves. Trotsky put it this way:
When we say that the end justifies the means, then for us, the conclusion follows that the great revolutionary end spurns those base means and ways which set one part of the working class against other parts, or attempt to make the masses happy without their participation; or lower the faith of the masses in themselves and their organization, replacing it by worship for the "leaders." Primarily and irreconcilably, revolutionary morality rejects servility in relation to the bourgeoisie and haughtiness in relation to the toilers--that is, those characteristics in which petty bourgeois pedants and moralists are thoroughly steeped.
There is some contradiction between means and ends in the struggle because we are attempting to move from a society founded on exploitation and violence to one with neither. Therefore, transitional forms of action and organization are necessary that must at least in some way mirror what we are fighting against rather than what we are fighting for.
As Trotsky once noted, to inflict blows on each other's opposing armies must have some symmetry. The end of slavery as a result of the American Civil War was not prefigured by the weaponry of the North, which was almost identical to the weaponry of the South.
That does not mean, of course, that means cannot come to overshadow and defeat the ends they were meant to achieve. Certainly, the plow is necessary to grow wheat. But if the plow is too big and the soil too rough, the wheat may not grow.
If the violence and coercion common to all revolutions is not subordinated to mass institutions of democratic control from below, a revolution can come to |
many balls but when the ball did come my way, I made my best to catch the ball but I put the best out there in blocking and that's how I got here. And since I got here, I've been trying to step my game up."
The Raiders took a real flier on him because of how great a blocker he was. They hope he could develop the receiving part of his game and become a more complete tight end. Last season, he ended up in the same situation as he had at Miami. This time it was the fullback position which needed a fill in. The result was one catch for Gordon the entire season. Now he's no longer going to be content with just paving the way for others.
"I came in as a blocker. In training camp last year, I showed a couple catches and everything. I had a big game against Seattle in the preseason so I think I forced to coaches to see that I could receive the ball rather than in Miami I was just ‘alright coach, I just wanna block coach, I'll just block all day' and didn't really care about catching the ball but now I think trying to get to the next level in my game and trying to catch the ball."
"Always been developing. I work with the receivers. I worked with Antonio Brown from the Pittsburgh Steelers, I work with Chad Johnson, everybody down in Miami, I work out with Andre Johnson. So I take things from them and then when I'm here I see [Darrius] Heyward-Bey, I look at his when he runs through the ball... just taking skills from everybody and trying to put it together."
That hard work has been showing dividends in training camp. The lumbering tight end has developed into a surprisingly good receiver. He still has the occasional concentration drop but no more than any other receiver on this team and sometimes less than many of them.
The staff showed their faith in him by naming him the second team tight end coming into camp and despite his being out the first week with an injury, he retained his spot at the primary backup once he returned.
"I was in a rush to get back. You can't stay out too long. In this game you stay out too long, somebody's gonna step up, somebody's gotta step up, the team gotta keep moving."
The next move for this team comes Monday night when they face the Cowboys in their preseason opener. Brandon Myers was slated to start but he went down in practice Friday with a shoulder injury and hasn't practiced since. So unless David Ausberry leapfrogs him, Gordon is in line to be the starter.
Whether Gordon is technically the starter or not, he will see the field a lot. His blocking skills are invaluable to the team on offense and special teams. But now he can be a receiving threat as well. Monday night will be his first big test to see how far he has come as a receiver. And if what we have seen in training camp is any indication, he is could be ready.This article is about the US military research agency. For other uses, see DARPA (disambiguation)
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Agency overview Formed February 7, 1958 ; 61 years ago ( ) (as ARPA) Headquarters Arlington, Virginia, U.S. Employees 240 Annual budget US$ 2.97 billion[1] Agency executives Dr. Steven Walker, Director [2]
Dr. Peter Highnam, Deputy Director Parent agency U.S. Department of Defense Website DARPA.mil
DARPA's former headquarters in the Virginia Square neighborhood of Arlington. The agency is currently located in a new building at 675 North Randolph St.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), the agency was created in February 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in response to the Soviet launching of Sputnik 1 in 1957. By collaborating with academic, industry, and government partners, DARPA formulates and executes research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, often beyond immediate U.S. military requirements.[3]
DARPA-funded projects have provided significant technologies that influenced many non-military fields, such as computer networking and the basis for the modern Internet, and graphical user interfaces in information technology.
DARPA is independent of other military research and development and reports directly to senior Department of Defense management. DARPA has about 220 employees, of whom approximately 100 are in management.[4]
The name of the organization first changed from its founding name ARPA to DARPA in March 1972, briefly changing back to ARPA in February 1993, only to revert to DARPA in March 1996.[5]
Mission [ edit ]
Currently, DARPA's mission statement is "to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security".[6]
History [ edit ]
DARPA achievements for the past 50 years
Early history (1959–1969) [ edit ]
The creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 for the purpose of forming and executing research and development projects to expand the frontiers of technology and science, and able to reach far beyond immediate military requirements,[3] the two relevant acts being the Supplemental Military Construction Authorization (Air Force)[7] (Public Law 85-325) and Department of Defense Directive 5105.15, in February 1958. Its creation was directly attributed to the launching of Sputnik and to U.S. realization that the Soviet Union had developed the capacity to rapidly exploit military technology. Initial funding of ARPA was $520 million.[8] ARPA's first director, Roy Johnson, left a $160,000 management job at General Electric for an $18,000 job at ARPA.[9] Herbert York from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was hired as his scientific assistant.[10]
Johnson and York were both keen on space projects, but when NASA was established later in 1958 all space projects and most of ARPA's funding were transferred to it. Johnson resigned and ARPA was repurposed to do "high-risk", "high-gain", "far out" basic research, a posture that was enthusiastically embraced by the nation's scientists and research universities.[11] ARPA's second director was Brigadier General Austin W. Betts, who resigned in early 1961. He was succeeded by Jack Ruina who served until 1963.[12] Ruina, the first scientist to administer ARPA, managed to raise its budget to $250 million.[13] It was Ruina who hired J. C. R. Licklider as the first administrator of the Information Processing Techniques Office, which played a vital role in creation of ARPANET, the basis for the future Internet.[14]
Additionally, the political and defense communities recognized the need for a high-level Department of Defense organization to formulate and execute R&D projects that would expand the frontiers of technology beyond the immediate and specific requirements of the Military Services and their laboratories. In pursuit of this mission, DARPA has developed and transferred technology programs encompassing a wide range of scientific disciplines that address the full spectrum of national security needs.
From 1958 to 1965, ARPA's emphasis centered on major national issues, including space, ballistic missile defense, and nuclear test detection.[15] During 1960, all of its civilian space programs were transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the military space programs to the individual services.
This allowed ARPA to concentrate its efforts on the Project Defender (defense against ballistic missiles), Project Vela (nuclear test detection), and Project AGILE (counterinsurgency R&D) programs, and to begin work on computer processing, behavioral sciences, and materials sciences. The DEFENDER and AGILE programs formed the foundation of DARPA sensor, surveillance, and directed energy R&D, particularly in the study of radar, infrared sensing, and x-ray/gamma ray detection.
ARPA at this point (1959) played an early role in Transit (also called NavSat) a predecessor to the Global Positioning System (GPS).[16] "Fast-forward to 1959 when a joint effort between DARPA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory began to fine-tune the early explorers’ discoveries. TRANSIT, sponsored by the Navy and developed under the leadership of Dr. Richard Kirschner at Johns Hopkins, was the first satellite positioning system."[17][18]
During the late 1960s, with the transfer of these mature programs to the Services, ARPA redefined its role and concentrated on a diverse set of relatively small, essentially exploratory research programs. The agency was renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972, and during the early 1970s, it emphasized direct energy programs, information processing, and tactical technologies.
Concerning information processing, DARPA made great progress, initially through its support of the development of time-sharing (all modern operating systems rely on concepts invented for the Multics system, developed by a cooperation among Bell Labs, General Electric and MIT, which DARPA supported by funding Project MAC at MIT with an initial two-million-dollar grant).[19]
DARPA supported the evolution of the ARPANET (the first wide-area packet switching network), Packet Radio Network, Packet Satellite Network and ultimately, the Internet and research in the artificial intelligence fields of speech recognition and signal processing, including parts of Shakey the robot.[20] DARPA also funded the development of the Douglas Engelbart's NLS computer system and The Mother of All Demos; and the Aspen Movie Map, which was probably the first hypermedia system and an important precursor of virtual reality.
Later history (1970–1980) [ edit ]
The Mansfield Amendment of 1973 expressly limited appropriations for defense research (through ARPA/DARPA) only to projects with direct military application. Some[who?] contend that the amendment devastated American science, since ARPA/DARPA was a major funding source for basic science projects of the time; the National Science Foundation never made up the difference as expected.
The resulting "brain drain" is also credited with boosting the development of the fledgling personal computer industry. Some young computer scientists left the universities to startups and private research laboratories such as Xerox PARC.
Between 1976 and 1981, DARPA's major projects were dominated by air, land, sea, and space technology, tactical armor and anti-armor programs, infrared sensing for space-based surveillance, high-energy laser technology for space-based missile defense, antisubmarine warfare, advanced cruise missiles, advanced aircraft, and defense applications of advanced computing. These large-scale technological program demonstrations were joined by integrated circuit research, which resulted in submicrometer electronic technology and electron devices that evolved into the Very-Large-Scale Integration (VLSI) Program and the Congressionally-mandated charged particle beam program.
Many of the successful programs were transitioned to the Services, such as the foundation technologies in automatic target recognition, space based sensing, propulsion, and materials that were transferred to the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO), later known as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO), now titled the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).
Recent history (1981–present) [ edit ]
During the 1980s, the attention of the Agency was centered on information processing and aircraft-related programs, including the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) or Hypersonic Research Program. The Strategic Computing Program enabled DARPA to exploit advanced processing and networking technologies and to rebuild and strengthen relationships with universities after the Vietnam War. In addition, DARPA began to pursue new concepts for small, lightweight satellites (LIGHTSAT) and directed new programs regarding defense manufacturing, submarine technology, and armor/anti-armor.
On October 28, 2009 the agency broke ground on a new facility in Arlington, Virginia a few miles from the Pentagon.[21]
In fall 2011, DARPA hosted the 100-Year Starship Symposium with the aim of getting the public to start thinking seriously about interstellar travel.[22]
On June 5, 2016, NASA and DARPA announced that it planned to build new X-planes with NASA's plan setting to create a whole series of X planes over the next 10 years.[23]
In July 2016, it was announced that DARPA would bring a group of top-notch computer security experts to search for security vulnerabilities and create a fix that patches those vulnerabilities and it is called the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC).[24]
In June 2018, DARPA leaders demonstrated a number of new technologies that were developed within the framework of the GXV-T program. The goal of this program is to create a lightly armored combat vehicle of not very large dimensions, which, due to maneuverability and other tricks, can successfully resist modern anti-tank weapon systems.[25]
DARPA history
The formative years
(1958–1975)
The Cold War era
(1975–1989)
The Post-Soviet years
(1989–present)
Organization [ edit ]
Current program offices [ edit ]
DARPA has six technical offices that manage the agency's research portfolio, and two additional support offices that manage special projects and transition efforts.[clarification needed] All offices report to the DARPA director:
Former offices [ edit ]
Information Awareness Office: 2002–2003
The Advanced Technology Office (ATO) researched, demonstrated, and developed high payoff projects in maritime, communications, special operations, command and control, and information assurance and survivability mission areas. [ citation needed ]
The Special Projects Office (SPO) researched, developed, demonstrated, and transitioned technologies focused on addressing present and emerging national challenges. SPO investments ranged from the development of enabling technologies to the demonstration of large prototype systems. SPO developed technologies to counter the emerging threat of underground facilities used for purposes ranging from command-and-control, to weapons storage and staging, to the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction. SPO developed significantly more cost-effective ways to counter proliferated, inexpensive cruise missiles, UAVs, and other platforms used for weapon delivery, jamming, and surveillance. SPO invested in novel space technologies across the spectrum of space control applications including rapid access, space situational awareness, counterspace, and persistent tactical grade sensing approaches including extremely large space apertures and structures.
The Information Systems Office (ISO) in the 1990s developed system applications of advanced information technologies. It was a predecessor to the Information Exploitation Office.[ citation needed ]
A 1991 reorganization created several offices which existed throughout the early 1990s:[29]
Reorganization in 2010 merged two offices:
The Transformational Convergence Technology Office (TCTO) mission was to advance new crosscutting capabilities derived from a broad range of emerging technological and social trends, particularly in areas related to computing and computing-reliant subareas of the life sciences, social sciences, manufacturing, and commerce. The TCTO was folded into the I2O in 2010. [27] [30]
The Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) focused on inventing the networking, computing, and software technologies vital to ensuring DOD military superiority. The IPTO was combined with TCTO in 2010 to form the I2O.[31]
Projects [ edit ]
A list of DARPA's active and archived projects is available on the agency's website. Because of the agency's fast pace, programs constantly start and stop based on the needs of the U.S. government. Structured information about some of the DARPA's contracts and projects is publicly available.[32]
Active projects [ edit ]
Past or transitioned projects [ edit ]
Notable fiction [ edit ]
DARPA is well known as a high-tech government agency, and as such has many appearances in popular fiction. Some realistic references to DARPA in fiction are as "ARPA" in Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X (DARPA consults on a technical threat), [108] in episodes of television program The West Wing (the ARPA-DARPA distinction), the television program Numb3rs [109] (DARPA research into creating the first self-aware computer), and in the motion picture Executive Decision (use of a one-of-a-kind experimental prototype in an emergency).
(DARPA consults on a technical threat), in episodes of television program (the ARPA-DARPA distinction), the television program (DARPA research into creating the first self-aware computer), and in the motion picture (use of a one-of-a-kind experimental prototype in an emergency). DARPA is depicted in the visual novel/anime series Steins;Gate 0 as DURPA, a shadowy government organization that has been researching time travel in order to gain an advantage against Russia, which is also developing time travel in the upcoming World War III.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston has filed a response and counterclaim to the lawsuit filed against him over an alleged sexual assault. The original lawsuit was filed on April 16 by Erica Kinsman, who accused Winston of sexual assault in Dec. 2012. The counterclaim was filed in federal court as Winston recently filed a motion to remove the lawsuit from state to federal court, claiming the diversity of citizenship and amount in controversy requirements had been satisfied.
Winston is suing Kinsman for defamation, defamation per se and tortious interference with prospective business advantage.
Winston was investigated over the incident by Tallahassee police, and in late 2013 by the state attorney's office, but no charges were filed. Florida State held a conduct hearing related to the incident but he was ultimately cleared there as well -- all three investigations concluded there was a lack of evidence supporting Kinsman's claims.
A lawsuit was not unexpected, however. Winston's attorney, David Cornwell, said following the results of the investigations that they would counterclaim against the accuser and her attorneys over the statements being made about the 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick if any lawsuit were to be filed.
After filing the initial lawsuit, Kinsman's attorney John Clune released a statement claiming his client had to deal with a "delinquent police investigation, a hostile FSU athletic department and Mr. Winston's bullying lawyer."
"Erica hopes to show other survivors the strength and empowerment that can come from refusing to stay silent no matter what forces are against you," Clune said. "Jameis Winston in contrast has proven time and time again to be an entitled athlete who believes he can take what he wants. He took something here that he was not entitled to and he hurt someone. There are consequences for that behavior and since others have refused to hold him accountable, our client will."
Winston's attorney David Cornwell also released a statement after the initial filing.
"This stunt was expected," said Cornwell. "Ms. Kinsman's false accusations have already been exposed and rejected six times. This time will be no different. Mr. Winston welcomes the opportunity to clear his name with the truth."
On April 30, the Buccaneers selected Winston with the top pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. Winston's first NFL practice was held Friday with the start of the Bucs' rookie minicamp.I was just handed this photo of Joe Morrissey -- by Joe Morrissey. #BreakTheInternet pic.twitter.com/5H89jyX5ZT — Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) May 14, 2015
Let’s dissect this, shall we?
To the right stands former Virginia delegate Joe Morrissey, 57, a Democrat running for a Virginia state Senate seat as an Independent after Democratic Party officials rejected his attempt to seek office. Joining Morrissey are his 19-year-old receptionist, Myrna Pride, and their 9-week-old son Chase, a child Morrissey publicly acknowledged as his son for the first time Wednesday.
The image shows Morrissey, who is white, and Pride, who is black, in what some reporters have described as “period” dress — without mention of the fact that said period would appear to be the antebellum South or that said photo was taken in Virginia Beach, a city that sits about two hours from Richmond, the onetime capital of the Confederacy.
[Former Virginia lawmaker publicly admits paternity for the first time]
The picture also depicts Pride seated with Chase in her arms, gazing up at Morrissey. Morrissey returns Pride’s gaze from several feet above, with a hand planted firmly on Pride’s shoulder.
While a biracial family's antebellum-themed photo may raise eyebrows under any circumstances, this one carries additional meaning. On Wednesday, Morrissey told a Richmond radio show audience that Chase was conceived when Pride was 18. Last year, Morrissey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with his relationship with Pride — while she was 17 — but denied the original charges. Prosecutors initially charged Morrissey with multiple felonies, alleging that he had sex with Pride while a minor and shared nude photos of her.
In December, Morrissey agreed to a plea deal on a misdemeanor charge in which he admitted no guilt and avoided conviction on the felony charges.
He agreed to serve a six-month jail term that was reduced to a 90-day work-release sentence. Morrissey resigned from the House as a Democrat and later declared himself an independent candidate for his old seat. After easily winning back his seat, he left office this year to run for state Senate.
The Post typically does not identify victims of sexual crimes, but Pride, who is now 19, gave The Post her permission to be named.
The family photo first became public when Morrissey shared it with a Richmond-area television reporter May 14. When asked whether the photo amounted to confirmation that Chase is his son, Morrissey offered a definitive, “no.” Then, on Wednesday, during a discussion about the image on WLEE (990 AM) radio, Morrissey described Chase as his son.
Yes, that’s W... L-E-E radio, in Richmond.
On Thursday, Morrissey also distributed copies of the photo at a news conference and informed reporters that he and Pride plan to marry.
Enough said.On Wednesday’s “Varney & Co.” Fox Business Network anchor David Asman claimed that the New York Times was “taking orders” from Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) when they wrote an op-ed criticizing the police for turning their backs on the mayor.
“The mayor’s office reached out to all his political allies, urging them to stand up to the police union and to stand behind the mayor, that is to reject the cops and put their faith behind the mayor. Well, a lot of people, even Democratic politicians, don’t want to do that because they realize the importance of police in New York” he said.
Asman continued, “some people did bow and kowtow I would say, to the mayor’s office, and one of those was the New York Times. We had this atrocious editorial in the New York Times yesterday blaming cops, putting the onus on cops who are standing up for themselves calling cops ‘snarling, sense of victimhood.’ That’s what they say the cops are, that the cops, their grievances are a ‘snarling sense of victimhood.’ So, cops being gunned down in cold blood are not really victims, but criminals are. that’s what the New York Times said. We couldn’t really understand how they could say something like this, but now we know why because they were taking orders from the mayor’s office.”
He concluded, “the real job of journalists is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Well, in this case they were just kowtowing to the mayor’s office.” And “you expect NPR to take their talking points from authority, not the New York Times.”
Asman did not say what his source for the claim that the Times caved to pressure from de Blasio, on Tuesday the New York Post reported that de Blasio “urged political allies to attack the police unions,” but neither the story in the Post, nor the one DNAinfo.com that was cited in the Post‘s piece, indicated that the Times was contacted by or gave into pressure from the mayor. The mayor’s office said that it contacted “public officials,” but did not ask them to bash the police. The Times said that Asman’s report was “ludicrous.”
.@NYTeileen tells me the claim that the New York Times took orders from de Blasio’s office is “ludicrous.” http://t.co/denJ8Gzj6k — Tom Kludt (@TomKludt) December 31, 2014
(h/t Mediaite )
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchettRep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, on Tuesday announced his support for the DREAM Act, becoming the 200th House member to endorse the legislation, The Hill reported.
"The president, rightfully so, reversed or rescinded President [Barack] Obama's executive order, because he didn't think it was constitutional and I agree with that. But the underlying issue I think still deserves to be dealt with," said Barton, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.
The bill, first proposed by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., would protect people brought to the U.S. illegally as children from deportation. The dreamers would also receive work permits and be granted permanent legal status.
President Donald Trump's cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program earlier this month gave supporters of the DREAM Act an increased sense of urgency. Trump asked Congress to act quickly to resolve the issue, a major reason Barton is supporting the bill.
"The president asked Congress to act within six months so I felt it was appropriate to get on a bill or two, that's what I did," he said.Tottenham Hotspur saw one of their greatest seasons in recent memory last season. Although we did not progress too far in any cup competitions, our league success was something that many teams envied. A poor end to the season though slightly tarnished our campaign by losing out on second spot with poor performances. It was evident that the absence of Dele Alli and Mousa Dembélé was something that the side sorely missed as we lost twice on the bounce in games against Southampton and Newcastle United. Although Mason and Son stepped into the starting line up for our final games, the dynamic of the team appeared to change showing how the depth is there within the Tottenham squad but is not rich in its strength. With a campaign in the Champions League on the horizon, Pochettino and his staff must assess who is to stay; who is to come in and who is to leave.
It has become apparent in Pochettino’s first two years as Tottenham manager that he is a fan of pragmatic rotation. During the winter period of Tottenham’s season, our regular full-backs of Kyle Walker and Danny Rose were being rotated with Kieran Trippier for every game with little difference to our defensive record. The Argentine was also forced to replace Jan Vertonghen with Kevin Wimmer after the Belgian picked up a knee injury at Selhurst Park in January. Despite this, Wimmer barely put a foot out of place with just 6 Premier League goals conceded when the Austrian started. With high quality rotational players like Davies, Trippier and Wimmer, Tottenham’s defensive depth seems practically complete with the addition of another centre-back perhaps to follow in the transfer window. However, with games against some of Europe’s finest next season, a tight defence must not be overlooked.
The depth is there within the Tottenham squad but is not rich in its strength During cup games against Borussia Dortmund, Pochettino experimented with a central midfield partnership of Ryan Mason and Tom Carroll. The risky moved proved costly with 5 goals conceded over the two legs. With little defensive discipline between the pair, it became clear that this was not a viable central midfield partnership, especially in big games. With Eric Dier being the only truly defensive minded midfielder in the Tottenham squad, it is evident that if Pochettino is to continue his methodical rotation in this area of the park, new players will have to come in. That begs the questions of the fates of Mason and Carroll. Saying farewell to two academy products would be done with a heavy heart but their futures at Tottenham are unclear. If we are to compete in Europe’s most elite competition then the quality of the team must run throughout the entirety of the squad.
Attacking midfielders if something in which Tottenham are blessed with. Although operating alongside Eric Dier, Mousa Dembélé has become the player we all knew he could in a sense of an attacking effort. Spurs fans got familiar with seeing Eriksen, Alli and Lamela playing just behind Harry Kane in our league fixtures this season with each proving to be real attacking threats. All three of these attacking midfielders boasted fantastic statistics last season in terms of their contributions with goals and assists which will prove a great asset in seasons to come.
Despite arguably having a disappointing début season, Heung-Min Son is sure to develop over the next few years into a real attacking threat and a suitable striker when called upon. Pochettino’s talent of making footballers better is rare in managers nowadays and this is sure to rub off on the Korean international; a full pre-season will prove wonders with a talent such as Heung-Min Son. Furthermore, many players have described Son as a character which is an asset to any team’s dressing room. The versatility of players such as Son and N’Jie shows the glimpses of Tottenham’s strength in depth and their development will only progress.
If we are to compete in Europe’s most elite competition then the quality of the team must run throughout the entirety of the squad.
Nacer Chadli proved to be a real impact substitute in the 2015/16 season. After losing his spot as a regular in the starting line up after an injury against Liverpool, Chadli was limited to substitute appearances and a rare start in the league. Scoring goals late on against Crystal Palace and Swansea proved to be important goals in our season but a below par performance in a start at Upton Park proved Chadli too unreliable to start in big games. It was sad to see that he did not step up in the absence of Dele Alli and Mousa Dembélé but the Belgian’s inconsistent performances perfectly exhibited Pochettino’s high demand for regular quality.
There are few strikers in the world like Harry Kane. A 20 plus goal striker is an envy of any team. Tottenham Hostpur played with fire last season by having just one striker. Devastation almost occurred when it was reported that Harry Kane had broken his nose and would be absent for the next few game. Much to the relief of Spurs fans, Kane did not miss a Premier League game all season showing the Englishman’s true worth to Tottenham Hotspur. There are few strikers in the world like Harry Kane. A 20 plus goal striker is an envy of any team so any form of back-up would need to show their quality. With the transfers of Son and N’Jie in last summer’s transfer window, Spurs fans were reassured that they could play as lone strikers but this was something we rarely saw. The temptation to deploy Kane was done carefully last season; the highlight being his last ditch penalty against Leicester City in the FA Cup’s third round. Finding a quality striker who would be aware that they would have to play second choice to one of our own is a difficult job for any managerial team so this could be considered the most important transfer for Tottenham’s summer. The European Championship should provide an excellent scouting ground to find such a striker on the big footballing stage. Pochettino will be bearing in mind the kind of attacking strength needed to compete in multiple competitions next season.
The integration of academy products should not be dismissed next season. The talents of Harry Winks and Josh Onomah mainly featured in Tottenham’s cup competitions with the latter mentioned featuring in the Premier League too on some occasions. This process should and will most likely continue next season with Pochettino being a firm favourite of promoting academy talent. These appearances may come in group games against teams we should be comfortably winning against but it is more likely that their senior minutes will come in the League Cup and the FA Cup. These academy products should not feel disheartened by this however as Pochettino’s nurturing of youth has proved effective with various players such as Harry Kane. It is important that these players proved to the manager that they are good enough and then will get their chance.
Overall, the strength in the depth of the squad must be broken down position by position in order to prepare for next season. Many Spurs fans were disappointed that we, Tottenham, did not put out our strongest team in some of the seasons’ biggest cup games; however, Pochettino’s methods of rotation proves can sometimes dictate choices in the starting line up. The ability to change the starting line up with little impact on the team’s performances would be something to treasure but Tottenham Hotspur must do this bit-by-bit.The IAU frequently receives requests from individuals who want to buy stars or name stars after other persons. Some commercial enterprises purport to offer such services for a fee. However, such "names" have no formal or official validity whatsoever. Similar rules on "buying" names apply to star clusters and galaxies as well. For bodies in the Solar System, special procedures for assigning official names apply (see the IAU theme "Naming Astronomical Objects"), but in no case are commercial transactions involved.
Some bright stars have proper names, with mostly Arabic, Greek, or Latin etymologies (e.g. Vega), but otherwise the vast majority of stars have alphanumeric designations — consisting of an acronym plus either an index number or celestial position (e.g. HR 7001, 2MASS J18365633+3847012). The IAU supports a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) under Division C which is cataloguing the names of stars from the world’s cultures, and maintaining a catalogue of approved unique proper names (e.g. Sirius, Proxima Centauri, etc.). After ongoing investigation of cultural star names from around the world, the WGSN may adopt “new” official IAU star names from this list for those stars currently lacking official IAU names. This will help preserve astronomical heritage while providing new unique names for the international astronomical community. Names for exoplanets and their host stars may be also approved by the IAU Executive Committee Working Group on the Public Naming of Planets and Planetary Satellites, as was done in 2015 via the NameExoWorlds contest.
As an international scientific organization, the IAU dissociates itself entirely from the commercial practice of "selling" fictitious star names, surface feature names, or real estate on other planets or moons in the Solar System. Accordingly, the IAU maintains no list of the (several competing) enterprises in these businesses in individual countries of the world. Readers wanting to contact such enterprises despite the explanations given below should search commercial directories in their country of origin.
In the past, certain such enterprises have suggested to customers that the IAU is somehow associated with, recognizes, approves, or even actively collaborates in their business. The IAU wishes to make it totally clear that any such claim is patently false and unfounded. The IAU would appreciate being informed, with appropriate documentation, of all cases of illegal abuse of its name, and will pursue all documented cases by all available means.
Thus, like true love and many other of the best things in human life, the beauty of the night sky is not for sale, but is free for all to enjoy. True, the 'gift' of a star may open someone's eyes to the beauty of the night sky. This is indeed a worthy goal, but it does not justify deceiving people into believing that real star names can be bought like any other commodity.
Nevertheless, the IAU continues to receive requests for naming stars regardless. You may contact iauinfos@iap.fr if you have more questions. Further informal/humorous explanations of some of the issues involved are offered in the section below.
Layman's Guide to Naming Stars
The following lists some frequently asked questions and simple, informal answers about naming stars and other celestial bodies (for more serious scientific explanations, see the theme Naming Astronomical Objects). For purposes of discussion of stellar nomenclature, astronomers usually refer to alphanumeric designations (e.g. HR 7001, HD 172167, Alpha Lyrae) and proper names (e.g. Vega). All stars have designations, often many, however very few stars have proper names - usually only ones of cultural, historical, or astrophysical interest.
Q: Who is the International Astronomical Union (IAU)? By what authority does the IAU name stars?
A: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) was founded in 1919. Its mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. Its individual members — structured in Divisions, Commissions, and Working groups — are professional astronomers from all over the world, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, and active in professional research and education in astronomy. The IAU has over 12,000 Individual Members from more than 90 countries worldwide. There are 79 National Members represented by national science academies and/or national astronomical organizations, and those nations comprise three-quarters of the Earth’s population.
Since its inception, one of the IAU’s activities has been to standardize nomenclature of celestial objects among the international astronomical community. Over the past century, various IAU working groups comprised of astronomers from around the world have standardized nomenclature for constellations, surface features on the Moon, planets, planetary satellites, and small bodies; planetary satellites, asteroids, and objects outside the Solar System. These efforts have stemmed from necessity as sometimes designations/names have been ambiguous or confusing.
The names approved by the IAU represent the consensus of professional astronomers around the world and national science academies, who as “Individual Members” and “National Members”, respectively, adhere to the guidelines of the International Astronomical Union. The IAU is organized into an Executive Committee, and several Divisions, Commissions, and Working Groups. Every three years, the IAU General Assembly votes for members of the Executive Committee which leads and organizes the Union’s activities. Most relevant to the issue of nomenclature, there are IAU Working Groups which carry out well-defined tasks on behalf of the IAU (these tasks are spelled out in Terms of Reference approved by IAU leadership).
Q: Why don't stars get real names instead of these boring numbers?
A: The reason to give a celestial object a designation or name is to facilitate locating, describing, and discussing it. Alphanumeric designations are usually sorted by position, which historically made them easy to look up in catalogues. Precise coordinates (positions in the sky), possibly found via a catalogue number, provide an exact identification. |
the country is laughable. It is possible to envisage a Gandhi-mukt Congress, since it is only about delinking the party from one family, but trying to separate India from its much, much larger family – the Sangh Parivar – is highly improbable. Even the Sangh’s enemies do not wish to see it disappear, because the RSS provides a perfect foil for their own “secular” politics.
Third, Nitish Kumar has his own balancing act to do. If he seeks a national stage, it can come only at the cost of Bihar. It is unlikely that Lalu Prasad will ever agree to see Nitish grow bigger than him unless the latter is willing to let Lalu (or his son) run Bihar. Will Nitish give up the bird in hand for a national prize in the bush, when that prize depends on heading a shaky coalition? The logic of a rainbow coalition is that it must have a weak leader; a strong leader like Nitish cannot head a hydra-headed coalition with many other leaders of equal stature.
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Fourth, Nitish’s ambitions on the national scene will be circumscribed by two other parties with national claims or hopes. The Congress under Rahul Gandhi can’t allow Nitish to grow beyond Bihar; and this holds true for Arvind Kejriwal, too. Three leaders with the same ideas and same antipathy to the Sangh is two too many. Three is a crowd in any leadership stakes. And we haven’t even counted Mulayam Singh or Mayawati, who too nurture prime ministerial ambitions. Outside the BJP and Congress, there are simply too many PMs-in-waiting to allow anyone to remain at the top for long.
Fifth, the last time someone attempted a Sangh-mukt Bharat strategy – in 1980, when the Janata Party fell apart on this issue - Indira Gandhi romped home. In 1990, when Mandal politics indirectly attempted the same idea, the Sangh and the BJP emerged stronger. In 1996, and 1998, when the same logic was applied to prevent Vajpayee from becoming or remaining PM, the BJP came to power two years later.
You may or may not like the BJP or its mentor, the Sangh, but there is no wishing them away.
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Nitish Kumar will discover that soon enough. His best bet is, in fact, to kiss and make up with the BJP in Bihar, and ensure longevity as Chief Minister. Vying for Prime Ministership will reduce him to a footnote in history – like Deve Gowda and IK Gujral.Nazareth-born political and social activist Abir Kopty has objected to her inclusion in Haaretz's "66 Israeli Women You Should Know" project, a tribute to women marking Israel's 66 years of independence.
"I was included in this list without knowing about it," Kopty wrote on her blog. "Firstly, it is NOT an honor to me, at all, to be included in anything that has to do with the day Israelis celebrate colonialism of my land and displacement of my people.
"Secondly, I’m not an 'Israeli woman,' not an 'Israeli Arab.' How many times should we repeat this?"
Haaretz described Kopty as "an Israeli Arab political and social activist [with] more than 18,000 followers on her blog and roughly the same number on Twitter, where her main message has been: 'Down with the occupation.'
”Born in Nazareth in 1975, she served on the city’s municipal council and was spokeswoman for the Mossawa Center, which promotes equality for Israel’s Arab citizens. Kopty is also active in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, better known as BDS, which many consider to be the bane of Israel’s existence these days. During the social protests that swept through Israel in summer 2011, Kopty helped set up 'Tent 48,' drawing attention to the ills of the occupation.
"She holds a master’s degree in political communication from the City University of London and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Berlin, where she is exploring (no big surprise here) the role of social media in the political participation of young Palestinians."by DAVID AXE
The U.S. Air Force quietly keeps a small, inconspicuous spy ship in the Persian Gulf, presumably in order to keep an eye on Iran’s missile launches.
Technically speaking, USNS Invincible—a 224-foot vessel displacing a mere 2,800 tons—belongs to Military Sealift Command, the quasi-civilian branch of the Navy that operates America’s military logistics ship and other specialist vessels.
But Invincible is just a hull—unremarkable, painted white and maintained by 18 civilian contractors. It’s what’s inside and atop the hull that really matters. A sophisticated, dual X- and S-band radar called Gray Star that belongs to the Air Force.
No one says much about Invincible or Gray Star. Military Sealift Command refers to the vessel as a “missile range instrumentation ship” whose job it is to “monitor missile launches and collect data.”
The Air Force’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, in its official history for 2012, lumps Gray Star in with its sea-based systems that collect “scientific and technical data of foreign military capabilities and systems.”
War Is Boring obtained a copy of the history through the Freedom of Information Act.
The word “Iran” does not appear in any official description of Invincible or Gray Star.
But it’s apparent from the ship’s deployments that she spends most of her time keeping tabs on the regime in Tehran—specifically, Iran’s expanding arsenal of medium-range ballistic missiles.
The Air Force ISR Agency admits that Invincible “typically” deploys to Central Command’s area, which includes the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean. But there’s not a lot of actual evidence of the ship’s presence overseas. The military seems keen to downplay Invincible’s activities.
In May 2012, Invincible—which has no official home port in the U.S.—passed through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf in a convoy of U.S. Navy and British vessels. An official photo depicts the transit.It’s official: The old Corsair Gaming swords logo is dead, replaced with the newer, sleeker version of the Sails logo. You’ll see it emblazoned across all of Corsair’s new peripherals, which it unveiled at Gamescom this week in Germany.
In addition to a new “silent” mechanical keyboard switch, Corsair’s putting out a new line of headsets and a new Scimitar mouse.
Void
Corsair’s got a hell of a lot of headsets coming out, all under the umbrella “Void” name. The Void line replaces the Corsair H1500 and H2100’s standard headset shape with a more angular design—one that’s more “ear-shaped,” even though it looks weird as hell. All four versions are backed by solid construction though, with a thick headband that rests a bit forward on the head.
I’m most impressed by the Void Wireless, which Corsair claims gets up to 16 hours of battery life and 40 feet of range. If those claims pan out, that’s a huge step above other wireless options like the SteelSeries H Wireless or Astro A50. The Void Wireless also packs in Dolby 7.1 Audio, though I haven’t heard it yet—I hope it works better than the H2100.
The microphone also gets an upgrade, with an LED to indicate mute and one to indicate the battery level and which EQ profile you’re using on the headset. And as you’d expect with a wireless headset, all the controls are built into the frame—there’s a volume rocker on the left side, which doubles as a select button to cycle through EQ presets.
What’s more interesting is that those headset controls transfer onto the standard wired USB version too. Many companies go with inline (a.k.a. attached to the wire) controls for the USB version, but Corsair’s Void USB headset is pretty much identical to the wireless version. Except, you know, with a wire.
The Void USB and Void Wireless (as well as the Best Buy exclusive Void Wireless SE, which comes in yellow and has a USB range extender) also feature 16.8 million color RGB lighting, visible under the Sails logo on each ear.
The new Corsair Void microphone, with embedded LEDs.
The Void Stereo is the last of the four, and it’s a more stripped-down version of the headset. It attaches through a simple 3.5mm audio jack, and thus doesn’t have the same RGB lighting effects.
The Void Wireless SE will retail for $150, the standard Void Wireless for $130, the Void USB for $100, and the Void Stereo for $80. That’s a bit of a jump over the H1500 and H2100, but hopefully improved audio quality will make up for the higher price.
Scimitar
Also on the docket is a new MMO mouse for Corsair. Yes, an MMO mouse in 2015. Corsair’s bucking the trend of “fewer mouse buttons” to bring back the ol’ telephone-pad side, same as Razer’s recent Naga refresh.
And Corsair is kicking Razer’s ass with the Scimitar. I’m not a fan of the MMO-style mouse—I don’t really need twelve buttons under my thumb—but Corsair’s done its best to bring the design into 2015.
The key feature? A numberpad that slides back and forth about a centimeter in either direction, allowing you to get it in the most comfortable position for your thumb before locking it in place. It’s a huge improvement that makes the Scimitar way more comfortable than any other MMO mouse I’ve used, if only because I don’t need to stretch my thumb to hit the last row of buttons.
Other than that, it’s a standard palm-grip MMO mouse with a sensor that goes up to 12,500dpi in software, and multi-zone RGB lighting.
Speaking of which…
CUE
Corsair’s also overhauled its Corsair Utility Engine software. Thankfully.
First and foremost, the new Void headsets work with the same software as the keyboards and mouse, so no need to run two bits of Corsair software on your computer at the same time. Phew.
Corsair’s also simplified setting up lighting. All of the advanced features are there, but you can also just pick a preset pattern or easily start adjusting key colors—similar to the functionality both Logitech and Razer launched with last year.
And as a bonus, you can now link all three of your Corsair devices if you’ve got them (mouse, headset, and keyboard) and have the same pattern play out across all three simultaneously. It looks fancy, though it of course requires you to be all-in on the Corsair ecosystem.
We’ll have more official reviews once all these peripherals come in for review, but things are looking a damn sight better for Corsair this year than last year. Plus, that new logo. It’s so much better.Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is a game where we can be a.. Sniper.. Ghost.. and Warrior? As we run through its dialogue and scenes for context, we discover core gameplay trapped beneath atrocious dialogue, story, and characters. The tutorial especially oozes with potential after a not-so-oozing cutscene. So, the question beckons: What did Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3’s tutorial and opening missions do right and wrong?
Opening Cutscenes
There are two opening cutscenes that are complete polar opposites.
The game begins “19 years ago” with one brother (Rob) practicing shooting his rifle while the older brother (Jon) pops up to spend the day with his brother before Jon had to leave for Afghanistan. This scene actually builds the relationship with well-written dialogue and without dragging on for too long.
Zoom into the future to “23 months ago”: the brothers are in a helicopter ETA 2 minutes. Your brother (Rob) picks up a medal that you (Jon) somehow dropped without noticing until ETA 2 minutes. Of course, with inexperienced writers, we have Rob taunting Jon with the medal by saying some obscure line, “You still using it to beat yourself up, Altar Boy? Hanging yourself on a bent and tarnished cross?” This back and forth banter happens during the whole ride, thankfully only for 2 minutes.
It’s obvious what the developers are trying to do. They’re trying to show how much Jon and Rob’s relationship has gone downhill in its stereotypical brother rivalry fashion. It doesn’t work. The entire scene is simply the two brothers arguing and bickering. I would imagine they, being in the military together, would be very close, especially in such a dedicated and cooperative field. The way they were developed makes them out to be… well… insignificant. Who cares what happens to his brother Rob at the end of the tutorial? They were downplayed through unrealistic, malicious dialogue.
The Tutorial
A key aspect to game design and tutorials is making sure the player learns what they need to learn and in a safe environment. This tutorial does so in droves.
Our first obstacle is to simply climb up. The brothers then look across to their target location, seeing that they’re too far to scout anything, so they plan their next move thanks to Jon scouting with his scope and seeing a better vantage point. This was well-incorporated and didn’t feel like a tutorial as much as it did a meaningful interaction with his partner. We jump onto a ledge and Uncharted our way across.
A wolf runs at us. Although I have yet to see wolves or quick-time events in the actual game itself, here we are introduced to a quick-time event to punch the crap out of a wolf. However, I’m afraid this breaks the “safe environment” rule because it’s not necessarily scripted. The wolf can be shot or it can just attack.
Sniper Tree
The burnt tree is one of the best tutorial moments. Here we learn about different bullet types, shooting, and possibly different future environmental interactions (although unlikely from what I’ve played; again, could be in future missions). We must switch our ammo type to explosive and shoot the tree to get across the large gap. The dialogue shows real personality here as they figure it out and work together. Rob ends up complimenting Jon for the shot, which felt like a natural, normal line that felt good to hear instead of the constant bickering.
It’s very important to note here how we learned to shoot without the possibility of being spotted or dying. That’s a huge game design win.
As we continue and hide in some bushes, something peculiar caught my ears. When close to Rob, we hear his voice directly instead of through the radio. It’s such a nice touch that helps with the immersion.
Jon is introduced as being the tracker in the family. He proceeds to analyze the footprints and determines that two men were carrying something heavy, probably weapons. This scene is well-done since it sets up how or why Jon is able to track footprints in the open-world game. It makes it feel more genuine.
After taking out two guards where are destination lies, Rob suddenly spouts, “Here, take it.” We grab a drone from Rob, although a little sudden and unexpected.
Ghost Drone
The drone is a great tool. Recon is important as a sniper, and so being able to recon the area yourself feels like part of the mission and adds depth to the gameplay. There are enemies guarding the area including two enemies on the buildings, so it has a nice variety of locations for drone practice.
The area is clearly contained. The dome keeps the tutorial area focused without it feeling forced, although it makes you wonder what that dome even is.
The first two targets are impossible to fail since Rob shoots them if you miss. That’s a great way to add leniency to the new concept of shooting real targets where distance and wind matter. Next, we wait to shoot a group of two enemies. As a sniper, sometimes being patient is worth it if it means an easier target.
We climb down, sneak in, learn about interrogation and gain additional intel for doing so, continue forward into a building, and get spotted by a camera since Rob is reckless and didn’t shoot the cameras. It’s unavoidable, which is disappointing, but it had to be scripted in order to introduce the player to different aspects of the game.
Warrior FPS
Once we’re spotted, we’re introduced to combat in the more typical FPS style, although not something I ever employ in the actual game. The good news is enemies die in only a few hits (or fewer well-placed shots), so it feels more realistic and less like Call of Duty, especially when being so reckless in this game usually kills you because of non-regenerating health.
Notice that recoil. That’s an important feature to have for both realism and for the fact that the secondary weapon should only be a last resort weapon at best. Imagine how the game would pan out if we were given a machine gun with no recoil in a stealth, sniper game?
Finally, we hack into the CCTVs to scout out enemies, finish them off, plant the bomb, and roll on outta there into one of the worst villain voice actors I’ve ever heard.
Steal My Brother Please
Oh no, the brother is being stolen, and we barely got away from that meddling maniac by our sheer 1/3 luck of the barrel. Alright, well… who cares?
So the game set up this brother-brother relationship only to completely tear it down. This isn’t The Last of Us where the story and characters become the central focus; no, the game set up these situations that required cooperation and teamwork with a who-cares kind-of story overlay. Or maybe it’s just the fact that the game started with the brothers hating each other. Maybe that’s when I stopped caring.
Not to mention nothing from this scene with the villain Vasilisk makes any sense. The dialogue is that bad. It’s so unrealistic and fake that it’s painful, and that’s considering games are already unrealistic.
The Open-World Aspect
In any case, I stepped through the tutorial not only to display certain game design features, but to showcase what the tutorial showcases, or rather, what the tutorial teaches you and how. We learned everything we needed to learn and more all within an environment that remains completely safe for a long while. None of what we learned feels jammed, forced, or unreasonable. They nailed it pretty well, only to drop me into an open-world. Is that bad? Not necessarily, although rather shocking.
The big part of the open-world aspect is positioning and scouting, which is complimented by the fact that it is an open-world game. Watch the video for Max’s take on the open-world matter, since he’s all for the open-world (or scroll down to watch his video clip).
Shawn, on the other hand, found the open-world pointless (at least from a First Impressions standpoint). Positioning and scouting is a great feature implemented for the missions themselves, so why didn’t they dedicate their resources toward missions, story, dialogue, characters, and so on? Sure positioning and scouting CAN matter in the open-world between missions, but the mission gameplay is where the game shines.
Which begs the question: What’s in-between these open-world missions? Roads, random enemy camps, fast-travel, well… all you’re gonna do in-between missions in the open-world is either fast-travel or drive your truck. I mean, the game even gives you a truck if you fast-travel anywhere. So what’s the point when everything is localized with fast-travel and roads everywhere?
One, Two, Three Missions
Mission One – The Tutorial After The Tutorial?
The missions, as previously mentioned, are where the game shines. For the first mission, we are led by the mission objective to a perch. So despite the tutorial we just went through, the game eases us in and helps us adjust by providing a short, simple mission that leans us into scouting the area, making sure we’re aware of our surroundings, and taking the high ground or at least taking a reasonably external approach.
We receive an amazing reward too: A one-way trip to Lydia’s terrible dialogue that makes no logical sense. They have a history back in Afghanistan. Something happened that made her hate him. So what else would she do, but completely change everything around and help him while cursing his very name?
Mission Two – Hostages & Patrol Pathing
For the second mission, we have to save hostages that are digging their own graves. Although the enemies are scattered in the general sense of building, backyard, and outside building patrols, there’s a group of them in the backyard with the civilian hostages. Despite this grouping, the pathing is well-done.
The patrols outside of the building are easy to take out, but if you’re not careful and on top of things, others patrolling will notice the body eventually.
The enemy watching from the edge of the cliff is an isolationist, but we must be aware of our surroundings to notice.
Approaching from the rocks allows either a stealth knife or silenced pistol kill on the poor sap who patrols around our post.
The last two offer two opportunities: Either take them out when one is walking away and nobody will notice, or take them both out with one bullet.
Of course, we could approach from the other side as well if we wanted and we’d have similar opportunities. This is a crucial combination and takeaway from this mission: What makes this mission well-made is not only the variety of approaches we can take — both in direction and vantage points — but the variety of opportunities we have as well.
Optional Mission One – Chainsaw, Please Buzz In My Ear
There’s a chainsaw that buzzes constantly, which sums up this mission. This mission comprises an awkwardly placed building surrounded by high cliffs and close to no vantage points.
The keys to the truck are hidden somewhere as well if you do successfully make it to the truck unseen, so.. best solution.. kill them all, which defeats the purpose of the core gameplay. This isn’t how missions usually play out, however. Usually there are many vantage points and different approaches to take.
Max’s TakeTo all those ready to turn their bodies into human weapons. Super Saiyan Goku.It was originally titled "Go hard or Go home," but almost symbiotically me and my friend Charles thought that this would be a better title. Neat though, 'cus the "Ku" in Goku means "empty." So literally, go hard or you've got nothing!He's the hardest muther around. Though he is a fictitious character, I think I draw more inspiration from him than recommended by local physicians. Getting ready for Fan Expo 2013 and this will be my first every DBZ print. Hope ya'll dig.I really got what I was going for in this piece; super HDR lighting like for the old Super Nintendo game covers. They were dope!Pencils done in 6B, colours digitally.MP3: Super Saiyan Goku SSJ3 - Bruce Faulconer www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DyHxC...Since season one, I have waved the flag for Steven Universe, going so far as to introduce it to my WWAC co-writers. Naturally, I was as excited as any devoted viewer when Cartoon Network announced the “Summer of Steven” in which we’d get at least two weeks of nightly episodes, including a couple of 22 minute specials.
I brought that same enthusiasm into the 100th episode “Bismuth,” and after viewing it, I stepped back from my immediate reaction. It is now several weeks and a few episodes later and my feelings of profound dismay remain. It was a painful blow to watch “Bismuth,” which was a fine episode, but the problematic elements prevented it from being a truly great one.
The Story
On the surface, the episode tells a multifaceted story about a joyous reunion among long parted friends. It is the story of a war veteran discovering that many of her friends had lost their lives in the war she never got to see the end of. It is about the grief, guilt, and rage in Bismuth from not being there to fight or fall with the Crystal Gems. It strongly illustrates post traumatic stress and places a bold underline beneath the saying “War Is Hell.” It is about trust and making new companions, but also about misunderstandings, broken friendships, distrust, and sad partings.
All of these topics are dealt with in the usual sensitivity by the Steven Universe team. No one person is ever just one thing and heroes are flawed, even the beloved and compassionate Rose Quartz. That the creative team gets so much right is why it’s a major shock to the system when they get things as astonishingly wrong as they did with this episode. That they get so much right is why it’s a major shock to the system when they get things as astonishingly wrong as they did with this episode.
Race Coding in Gemkind
Steven Universe, for all the good it does with the racial coding, occasionally missteps, so this wasn’t the first time we’ve seen a race issue treated ham-handedly. The first time was the appearance of Sugilite, voiced by special guest Nicki Minaj. This fusion is not unearthly beautiful like Opal before her, Garnet, or Rainbow Quartz. Sugilite was an ugly, multi-eyed neanderthal-browed monstrous creature. She was ferocious and loved violence. She reveled so much in her strength that she looked for fights and refused to stand down. Her sense of “style” had elements of Garnet and Amethyst’s outfits, only shredded and ripped up haphazardly. Most of the other fusions have real, put-together outfits, but not Sugilite.
The ugly and rather unevolved appearance of Sugilite was explained as Garnet and Amethyst not being in sync with each other mentally, so the fusion manifests that way physically, with the less controlled qualities being amplified. Sugilite is messy, violent, and out of control to the point that Garnet thinks it’s a bad idea to fuse as her again. Sardonyx, which is the black-coded Garnet fused with the white-or-Asian-coded Pearl, is a “much cooler” character, more poised, with more self control, and who sneers “playfully” at Sugilite. She is tidy, fastidious, and a literal performer whose fusion outfit is a tuxedo of sorts, while Sugilite is the worst of Garnet and Amethyst (the Latina-coded character) magnified.
Garnet, in the episode that introduces Sardonyx, is treated like an appliance for Pearl so she can feel like the strong one and feel the sense of intimacy she’s lacked ever since Rose went away to birth Steven. The white-or-Asian-coded character gets to do whatever she wants to the black-coded character without even considering the consequences of using someone she calls a friend as well as someone she looks up to. Amethyst even backs Pearl up in her contention that fusion makes them feel stronger. The connotations of using a body coded as black for its strength are staggering in their insensitivity. The show’s implication that Rose Quartz rescued Pearl from literal slavery (the Pearl gems are created to serve) makes this even worse. We get to see Garnet’s sense of betrayal, so strong that it disrupts Garnet’s stable fusion and splits her into Ruby and Sapphire. For Pearl, there’s no remorse. Pearl comes off more sorry that Garnet is mad at her rather than realizing she’s committed a serious violation against someone she’s supposed to care about and respect. Pearl doesn’t seem to get that you don’t treat people that way no matter how lonely and bereft you feel.
As if these two fusions and their implications weren’t bad enough, the show introduces another black-coded character in the same ham-handed, ill-considered way.
Bismuth, the Crystal Gem introduced in the episode bearing her name, shares several black coded traits with Sugilite and Garnet. Garnet’s afro racially codes her as black. So do Bismuth’s dreadlocks. Like Garnet and Sugilite, Bismuth’s voice actress is a black woman, the incredible Uzo Aduba, who played the hell out of the role. To their credit, Bismuth was given some positive traits. She’s funny, open to new experiences, and generous; however, this doesn’t balance out the problems with the character.
When we see Bismuth form her body–from having been in a bubble since viewers first met Lion way back in season one–the first thing she does is take a fighting stance and keen eyed viewers will realize this may not be our first look at her. We saw someone who looks very much like Bismuth several episodes earlier, in a flashback from Lapis Lazuli in “Same Old World” as the gem who brutally attacked her from behind, hitting her hard enough to crack her gem. This illustrates her as ready to pick up a fight where she thinks it left off.
Bismuth is drawn as large and beefy to underscore her choice to be a blacksmith. From a queer standpoint, it’s a fine physique for a butch woman. From a feminist angle, it’s great for a woman to not have that wasp waist thin figure. Unfortunately, the choice of physique plus the same less evolved cast to Bismuth’s features displays a stunning failure to consider intersectionality. Garnet is coded black, but doesn’t look like Bismuth. Nonwhite characters, like the Pizzas, the Maheswarans, and Mr. Smiley, don’t either. Only Sugilite seems to bear a resemblance.
I have to believe that it was a lack of mindful consideration. The presence of Ian Jones-Quartey and Lamar Abrams, who are black, did not seem to be enough to catch these terrible messages before they made it into the episode. The large body and those features paint a literal picture of “black woman as unfeminine” and “black person as subhuman” that is impossible to ignore and painful to see on a show that is usually much more respectful.
Real World Reflections of Race and Power
Bismuth and Sugilite aren’t the only victims of the show’s dicey attention to racial situations. Connie, who is otherwise treated respectfully, is submitted to brutal training by Pearl who teaches her to think “I am nothing.” Although Connie is coded South Asian, not black, it’s still problematic. As with Sardonyx, we see this treated as “Pearl’s issues cause her inability to see what harm she’s doing” rather than “the former slave treats someone else like they’re worthless.” There’s no indication whether slavery as we know it took place in the world of the show. But it’s troubling that a character who has experienced it first hand is oblivious to how she treats others.
Bismuth is full of deep-seated, seething hatred for the Homeworld Gems, who oppress any Gem who doesn’t follow their mandate to obey without question. This is a clear parallel to racial violence perpetrated on black people for centuries, dating from the colonial days of slavery up to the present. Bismuth has a right to her emotional response. Emotional responses are valid. We’ve seen how cruel the Homeworld Gems are, how brutal their response is to any rebellion, and how punitive and petty they are. Combine those factors, though, and you get another ugly picture. Bismuth is a big, loud, boisterous black woman enraged at her oppressors. She is willing to go to an unconscionable extreme in taking the fight back to those same oppressors.
Take into consideration how negatively black anger is portrayed by entertainment and news media through the angry, scary black man and the sassy black woman tropes. I’ve already mentioned elsewhere that “sassy” tends to be used in the context of when a black person rises up out of their place against white authority. Through “respectability politics,” black people have been told for centuries not to fight for our rights, not to demand them, but to gently and respectfully ask for them. This is a disingenuous dodge on the part of the existing power structure or institution who, when asked politely, can appear sympathetic and concerned but ultimately give lip service to change, all the while postponing it for “more immediate” concerns.
Through Lapis’ flashback, we see that the Diamond Authority–the Gem institutional power–is made up of sore losers who will sacrifice their own people in order to punish their enemies: The rebels. We’ve seen through Peridot that they don’t allow any backtalk, even when a servant has a genuine point. Bismuth sought to kill Rose for being unwilling to take the fight to the bad guys using the methods the Diamonds used (shattering their gems). She felt Rose valued the lives of the enemy over the lives of her friends and took this as a betrayal, as many people do when being told “don’t fight, ask nicely.” As a result, she was willing to kill Rose and Steven for finding her lethal solution one they couldn’t support. She perceived being bubbled as an indication that Rose didn’t care about her feelings. Her rage is still fresh from being bubbled after her fight with Rose (and unwittingly re-ignited by Steven), and rather than consider ways to talk her away from her extreme approach, the Crystal Gems just sadly accept that she’s too far gone. They put her away with all the other bubbled gems that they “can’t help.” Notably, this makes Bismuth the first and only bubbled Gem who isn’t a victim of the corruption the Diamonds caused–that we know of.
Gems are magic. Intent is not.
The numerous racial coding failures prove that racism can be so internalized that racist messages appear unconsciously. That none of the Crewniverse caught them indicates how entrenched into the psyche it is; no one thinks to look closely for it, so only obvious racism is caught and anything else slips by. This is how racism appears without anyone consciously choosing to perpetuate it.
For a brilliant blacksmith, Bismuth apparently never considered protecting her friends’ gems with armor. The Forge is full of weapons and only weapons. Bismuth talked a good game about protecting the Crystal Gems and liberating the oppressed gems from Homeworld, but the fact that there was nothing in her entire creative work was built for protection speaks volumes. More importantly, she doesn’t seem to be aware that as gemstones go, Diamonds are considered unbreakable. Her deadly device would work on Homeworld foot soldiers like Ruby, but stood a very good chance of failing against the Diamonds. (I’m aware of the reveal about Rose and Pink Diamond. It comes to us second hand from a biased source the team spent two episodes establishing as easily tricked). Her “solution” meant shattering gems who worked for the Diamonds without giving them a chance to change sides, an opportunity Bismuth herself was given.
Is she incapable of thinking things through because she’s coded black, or is she simply too full of wrath to think through her chosen solution and its consequences? Neither possibility is a good look, as they still come right back to those racial tropes.
By the end of the episode, this loud, angry black woman–with dreadlocks, animated with distinctly harsher features and an unfeminine physique as compared to the rest of the Crystal Gems, righteously angry at her oppressors, but whose methods are too extreme, and who willingly tars every Homeworld gem with the same brush (This is keeping in mind that Bismuth knows Ruby, Sapphire and Pearl were all Homeworld gems at one time)–has been written off as a lost cause! There’s no changing her mind, so no one bothers to try after Steven fails. They just put her away and accept that there’s nothing more they can do.
The Unkindest Cut
Yes, it is true in the lexicon of the show “bubbled gem” doesn’t mean dead and gone forever. Any Gem in that condition can come back. The original trio has all been “poofed” as Steven describes it, only to reform a new body later. The same has happened to Peridot, starting off her Heel Face turn as of “Catch and Release.” So while Bismuth can return, there’s a meta consideration that will have in-story effects. Uzo Aduba gave an incredibly poignant, nuanced performance with the role she was given and her return could become a budget issue like it was with Nicki Minaj. If Bismuth returns at all, she could very well, as it happened with Sugilite’s second appearance, be literally stripped of her voice.
The Crewniverse Issued Their Own Challenge
The team has proven, repeatedly, that they’re competent and capable of handling important issues in eleven to twenty-two minutes. They have consistently been able to deal with complex issues in a respectful and thoughtful manner. That’s why their lack of foresight with Bismuth hits such a jarringly discordant note. They can do better. They have done better. It isn’t a dealbreaker, not for me, though it was for several fans of color. It was disillusioning to encounter a sensitive, emotionally-charged topic they didn’t treat with the same care. I will continue to watch and to call the team out when warranted. That’s the only way to help the show improve.
What Would Steven Do?
The show polarized the fandom into extreme re actions over whether Rose was wrong or Bismuth was. The truth is neither of them was wholly right or entirely wrong. I urge devotees of the show to step back, as I did, from an instant reaction–whether it is to declare Steven Universe perfect and without fault, to defend Rebecca Sugar and her team against what may feel like an attack, or to insist that Bismuth’s episode had no racism because it wasn’t intended to have any.
I encourage fans to follow the example the show itself provides: Be compassionate. Reach inward and find your empathy rather than your anger. Don’t dismiss things just because you dislike them or how they make you feel. The Crystal Gems learned they weren’t always right and their knowledge may not account for new information like in “Warp Tour” and have differed to Steven’s POV ever since. We viewers can take that lesson to heart.
The show has so many positive messages to share, and it is important to make sure that when they miss the mark, we speak up so they can get back on the right path.Trend of Maximum U.S. General Copyright Term
My recent paper, Escape From Copyright: Market Success vs. Statutory Failure in the Protection of Expressive Works, includes an argument that the Copyright Act does not strike a delicate balance between public and private interests. The paper describes how federal legislation has steadily increased the term of copyright, the subject matter covered by copyright, and the remedies for infringement of copyright. Even the Copyright Act itself has expanded over the years. The evidence suggests that federal lawmakers favor expanding the rights of copyright owners over all else--including the public interest. I conclude that the Copyright Act suffers from statutory failure and describe a way to escape its reach.
The above chart illustrates the most easily quantified evidence of the expansion of U.S. copyright law: the trend of the general copyright term (that is, for works not created anonymously, pseudonym |
. Because home workers decide their own procedure, it was on her.
Strange cases in German social courts Ice cream gone bad Enjoying ice cream on his way home from a work appointment, one man swallowed a chuck as he entered a subway car. It got lodged in his esophagus, setting off a lightning jolt of pain - that was later determined to have been a heart attack. Berlin's social court ruled though that it didn't count as a work-related accident. Ice cream is consumed for pleasure, not work.
Strange cases in German social courts And when sex goes wrong Speaking of pleasure. One civil servant's sex got a bit out of hand on a business trip. A lamp was ripped out of the wall and its shards injured her. She demanded compensation, including for the post-traumatic stress syndrome she developed in the event's aftermath. But the court ruled against her claim, saying sex was not expected by the employer.
Strange cases in German social courts Look before you leap At breaktime during an occupational training course, a 27-year-old's collegues tried to soak him with an animal squirt gun. Fleeing to safety, he jumped out of the window. In hindsight, this may have been a poor decision: he crashed through a plexiglass awning. The social court of the German state of Hesse ruled against his claim, saying the jump was not necessitated by workplace conditions.
Strange cases in German social courts Falling asleep on the job A bar worker fell asleep at the counter - and then fell off her chair, injuring herself. Was it a workplace accident? The social court ruled no, because overwork wasn't the reason she fell asleep.
Strange cases in German social courts Choose your battles wisely One claimant was on a business trip in Ibiza and met customers at a beachside club, which he left drunk past midnight. He later wanted to go back in, but instead got into a fight with the bouncer, who struck the man a blow. He ended up with serious head injuries. But, while business travelers are protected by insurance, this doesn't apply when they're drunk at night, the social court ruled.
Strange cases in German social courts And look both ways before you rescue a cow A cow got caught in its chain and was at risk of suffocating. The brother of the cow's owner came to the rescue, but in the process was stepped on by a different cow, who broke his leg. The court ruled that - although the brother wasn't on the job while injured - neither are people who help out after a disaster, granting his claim.
Ever more counterclaims
In 2015, a candidate put forward by the Greens sued when she twice failed to secure a position at the Federal Court of Justice, and a CDU ally won it instead. To add insult to injury, she was unsuccessful in the legal proceedings as well.
She claimed the process violated the "best choice" principle. It was another example the smaller political parties use to push for reforming judicial selection, which they claim lacks transparency.
Decisions are made based on candidate's files, without interviewing them.
The secrecy required following a vote is also dangerous, opponents say.
Judicial candidates who fail to secure their appointments are increasingly calling into question the selection committee's objectivity in its decision-making. "Certain people are undesired," a lawyer told German newsmagazine Der Spiegel in 2014 on condition of anonymity. "But are not told why they have been rejected."
Read more: Five-year neo-Nazi trial collapses as judge retires
The Constitutional Court, based in Karlsruhe, is Germany's highest court
Constitutional court also under scrutiny
Germany's highest court, the Constitutional Court, is also vulnerable to public criticism. Judges for this court are chosen by a closed-door panel of 12 parliamentarians.
It is a method that has long been under fire, including by the current president of the court, Andreas Voßkuhle. "A not insignificant amount of study has shown that this method can quite rightly be described as unconstitutional," he wrote in an opinion piece.
Norbert Lammert (CDU), a lawyer and longtime president of the Bundestag, criticized how little "legitimacy" judges have for gaining a seat on the country's highest court, calling it "astounding" that the selection process has a lower bar than that for Germany's data privacy or armed forces commissioners.
Read more: Man who exposed Nazi judiciary honored in Berlin
Rarely criticized is the party-political control of judicial placement, which was implemented as a response to the abuse of the judiciary by the Nazis. However, it seems to have run its course.
The chair of the German Association of Judges, Jens Gnisa, suggested as much to DW when referring to the Polish government's attempt to reform its own judiciary. These would have "enabled the ruling nationalist party to deeply influence Poland's judiciary and direct courts according to its own wishes."
Read more: What are the Polish judicial reforms?Set 1
Foolish Heart
Little Red Rooster
Stagger Lee
Me And My Uncle ->
Big River % Brown Eyed Women
Victim Or The Crime ->
Don't Ease Me In
Set 2
Estimated Prophet ->
Blow Away
Dark Star ->
Drums ->
Space ->
The Wheel ->
All Along The Watchtower ->
Stella Blue ->
Not Fade Away
Encore
And We Bid You Good Night
Notes:
-- 2nd Set is seamless
-- Thanks to Paul Scotton and Joani Walker for the tapes
-- Tape flips in Dark Star and Not Fade Away patched with DSBD
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Reviewer: mcgrupp216 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 3, 2019
Subject: 24th Trip Around the Sun Phenomenal show. By far the best up to now- working back from 95 in the 30 trips series. I loved this show from back in the day and still love it today. High energy, one hour first set is followed a monster second that never lets up. The Blow Away is featured on the 30 trips definitive live story- with good reason. This must-listen show will do just that- blow you away! Or melt your face, whichever you prefer. Sixth We Big You Goodnight since it's decade-long absence; would only be played five more times and last played on 9/26/91. - January 3, 201924th Trip Around the Sun
Reviewer: kbmill - - May 9, 2018
Subject: bread crumb I sang a little while and then flew on. - May 9, 2018bread crumb
Reviewer: Ron2112 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 19, 2016
Subject: Possibly the highlight of a great year I'm always astounded at the relative lack of attention given to 1989 by live Dead fans. Perhaps because it's sitting the in between the two relative peaks formed by '87 and '90-'91? Whatever the reason, even after hearing dozens of shows from this year, I still get amazed at how good the playing was whenever I pop in one of these tapes.
And this show is no exception.....rather, it might be a prime example to point to as to why 1989 was such a year of late-era greatness for the GD.
Set 1 is fairly typical for this era, although the "Foolish Heart" opener is unusual, and does a great job kicking things off to a good start. Then, in less than an hour, the band is off the stage -- it's as if they know what coming up after the break, and want to get going fast.
Sure enough, it's a fantastic "Estimated Prophet" that starts things off. I always love the Brent-era versions of this song. His harmonies just bring out all the greatness that got left on the table when Donna was still in the mix. But wait -- what's this? Yep, one of only a half-dozen "Dark Stars" performed that entire decade (four of which were in 1989, if I needed more ammo to prove my point about the greatness of that year). And after a half-hour of psychedelic noodling, everything resolves into a wonderful "The Wheel'.
Mic dropped. Walk off stage. Be happy.
But nope -- there's more: "All Along the Watchtower" and "Stella Blue" for a perfect cap to the evening, with NFA ending it all off.
Really, just get a copy of this. - May 19, 2016Possibly the highlight of a great year
Reviewer: grateful phishmon - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 15, 2016
Subject: It doesn't get much better...
Rest of the show is pretty solid; DS puts it over the top. Check out the long NFA -- it's not 12 minutes and change, but it's about than this Dark Star>Jam. Dark Star itself is gorgeous and mellow, but the really DARK stuff starts in the outro jam. Newbies in the audience must have been wondering what in the world they got themselves into! Swirling left-right effects, and at times, sheer white noise.Rest of the show is pretty solid; DS puts it over the top. Check out the long NFA -- it's not 12 minutes and change, but it's about 7:30 with a much longer Jerry solo than is typical for that time. Also, the band comes back for the encore with Jerry noodling in time with the crowd's chanting. Cool stuff. - May 15, 2016It doesn't get much better...
Reviewer: kee-zee - favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 28, 2014
Subject: The meltdown in Miami Pretty nice sound here...I did a bunch of shows but didn't go down for this..My bother went for this and the stories he came back with made me wish I'd gone..They made to the Keys for Fantasy Fest..The keys version on Mardi Gras..back to the music and good it was~!!The boys capped off a hell of a fall tour and this is one of my favorite Dark Stars~ it's just pure scary,,,Forever>Grateful Forever.Dead..GIVE IT A WHIRL - October 28, 2014The meltdown in Miami
Reviewer: stellabluetoo - favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 28, 2013
Subject: can you tell by my name that i'm going to love the stella blue? - October 28, 2013can you tell by my name
Reviewer: upNorth - favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 27, 2011
Subject: Dark Star -> Jam I was there for this one - a kind brother who was sick could not make it so he miracled me! SO cool! We really did look out for our family. I hope he hears this recording... I remember being afraid outside and inside. heh.
I think maybe the setlist should read:
Dark Star ->
Jam ->
Drumz...
...they fell out of Dark Star as soon as Jerry hit the last word of the lyrics on the 2nd verse.
Eh... it all rolls into one. - October 27, 2011Dark Star -> Jam
Reviewer: njpg - favorite - October 26, 2011
Subject: No labels, no track numbers. - October 26, 2011No labels,
Reviewer: East Coast Dave in WA - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 29, 2010
Subject: Best Dark Star of the tour This is a great one. What a way to end the tour. The whole show is strong from start to finish, but the second set really takes it over the top. Of the shows on this tour that I saw, my favorites are the first and last. This show and the FIRST night of Hampton. This Dark Star just destroys everything in it's path. This was my final tour, though this was not my final show. I consider it one of my favorite personally attended shows ever, and as already said, I think this Dark Star is the best of the 80's....... Jerry's voice is still a little froggy, but the jamming makes up for it. Not a weak performance this entire show. - July 29, 2010Best Dark Star of the tour
Reviewer: Pu Tzu - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 25, 2010
Subject: A few of my favorite things... I missed this one...but thanks to Stephanie Starr for turning me onto it...did I notice a little "A Few of My Favorite Things" right after 1:09.
This is a smokin show on tape...heh heh...I just said tape...I did have the tape right afterwards tho...I used to be on top of that, man. - June 25, 2010A few of my favorite things...
Reviewer: BIG_R - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 6, 2010
Subject: 10-26-89 Excellent. I love '89. I have a lot of shows in '89 that I like better than this but Dark Star made me give this 5 stars. Excellent sound too. Thanks Joani, Paul and of course Mr. Charlie Miller. - June 6, 201010-26-89
Reviewer: cringle - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 14, 2009
Subject: The Last Epic Dark Star And a killer show to boot. - June 14, 2009The Last Epic Dark Star
Reviewer: Sir-Mix-Alot - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 14, 2009
Subject: Killer Dark Star Killer Blow Away & Dark Star....the swirling LR stereo effects are very trippy...Healy was the man...good performance and crispy sound quality. - April 14, 2009Killer Dark StarAnimal rights group PETA has called on authorities to investigate whether Dallas Cowboys star receiver Dez Bryant is in illegal possession of a baby monkey, asking for the animal to be transferred to a sanctuary.
Bryant posted a photo on his Instagram account last week of the monkey, along with the message "My new best friend.... Dallas Bryant world."
My new best friend.... Dallas Bryant world #throwupthex A photo posted by Dez Bryant (@dezbryant) on Oct 21, 2015 at 3:40pm PDT
PETA identified the monkey as a capuchin in a letter to animal control authorities in DeSoto, Texas, where Bryant owns a home.
Brittany Peet, PETA's deputy director of captive animal law enforcement, said Monday in a statement that the "baby capuchin was torn away from his mother shortly after birth and needs special care that can now only be provided by wildlife experts."
"Monkeys belong in the wild -- not in the hands of football players who acquire exotic animals just to make a splash on Instagram," Peet said in the statement.
PETA's letter to DeSoto animal control cited a municipal code that says that Bryant is not legally eligible to own the monkey unless he has a special-use permit, which usually is granted only to public zoos, schools, retail pet distributors, rodeos or circuses.
"If Bryant or any other individual is found in illegal possession of this infant capuchin, please seize this animal," PETA requested in the letter.
PETA also offered to help DeSoto Animal Control identify an accredited sanctuary for the monkey.
"Captive monkeys should be cared for by wildlife experts who understand their physical and psychological needs and in facilities where they can live in natural social groups -- they should not be in the hands of an NFL football player," the letter said. "This infant animal must be urgently relocated to a reputable animal sanctuary, where he or she can be provided with appropriate care."
Asked Monday if the monkey has made a visit to Valley Ranch, Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said, "I have not met Dallas. Uh, I've heard stories that he has a monkey. There has been visual evidence of that."
Bryant is coming off an eventful week during which he returned to the Cowboys after being sidelined since Week 1 with a foot injury.
The two-time Pro Bowler had two receptions in Sunday's 13-12 loss to the Seahawks and went on a profanity-laced postgame tirade while denying that he made derogatory remarks to an injured Seattle player.
Information from ESPN Cowboys reporter Todd Archer was included in this report.It is feared all eight on board - seven Poles and one Philipino - are dead
The ship is no longer visible after sinking below the surface
Eight people were on board the Cypriot-
A cargo ship found overturned off the Scottish coast has sunk below the water's surface as coastguard rescue teams continue searching for the eight missing crew members feared dead.
While lifeboats involved in the search effort have been stood down, air and coastal searches are continuing.
The operation was mounted after the upturned hull of the Cypriot-registered Cemfjord was spotted in the waters of the Pentland Firth, north of Scotland.
This afternoon a spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said the vessel was no longer visible after having submerged below the water's surface.
Scroll down for video
A major air and sea rescue operation was mounted after the overturned hull, above, was spotted yesterday
The search operation was called off last night after dark. A tug boat remained behind to illuminate the scene
But she said'sadly' there had not been any sign of the missing crew, made up of seven Poles and one Filipino.
Two helicopters, four lifeboats and five coastguard rescue teams had this morning resumed the search for the eight people who were on Cemfjord.
A spokesperson for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said 'every effort' was being made to find them.
The search was sparked after the crew of a passenger ferry raised the alarm when they spotted the upturned hull of the vessel in the Pentland Firth, north of Scotland.
After darkness fell last night it was called off, although passing vessels were asked to scan the area.
The MCA spokesperson said: 'The search has resumed this morning, with two helicopters, four lifeboats and five coastguard rescue teams. There is no sign of any of the crewmen.
'It is early in the day so we will see how the day progresses, but every effort is under way.'
German shipping company Brise of Hamburg confirmed yesterday that there were eight people on the ship, seven Poles and one Filipino, adding that there had been no distress call.
The Cemfjord was drifting at 5.2 knots, roughly 6 mph, according to readings recorded yesterday
The RNLI searched a large area of ocean, marked in blue, looking for survivors from the sinking vessel
The 83-metre bulk cement carrier had been bound for Runcorn, Cheshire, on the west coast of Britain.
Shetland Coastguard was alerted by the NorthLink ferry Hrossey which spotted the vessel around 10 miles east of the Pentland Skerries, about 15 miles from Wick.
Passenger Caitlin Ditchfield told the BBC: 'After a while the captain made an announcement that he had called the three closest coastguards but they had asked that the ferry conduct a search while the lifeboats made their way to us.
'The ferry started to circle the ship looking for any debris. We were at the scene for two-and-a-half hours before the coastguards said we could carry on with our journey.'
The Cypriot-registered Cemfjord, a cargo ship carrying cement, pictured, was last seen Friday afternoon
She said it had been a rough crossing but conditions were decent when they spotted the overturned vessel.
A spokesman for Brise of Hamburg said yesterday that the 'crew of eight are missing following a severe accident in the Pentland Firth, off the north of Scotland on Friday January 2'.
The statement said: 'The crew consists of seven Polish seafarers and one Filipino mariner. The company is in the process of informing the families.'
An MCA statement said: 'The search has begun again this morning for eight crew missing from the cement carrier Cemfjord, which capsized and sank in the Pentland Firth.
'The two helicopters and four lifeboats have resumed their search and will be joined by coastguard rescue teams from Kirkwall, St Margaret's Hope, Duncansby, Scrabster and Wick. HMS Somerset and her helicopter have also joined the search.
The crew of Northlink ferry Hrossey, pictured, reported that there were no survivors in the immediate area
'The search has been ongoing since 2.30pm yesterday afternoon when the vessel was found capsized by a passing ferry. Sadly no sign has yet been found of the missing crew.'
Last night a spokesman for the MCA said it 'was not looking particularly encouraging' that the crew would be found.
The search last night was co-ordinated by Shetland coastguards. Four RNLI lifeboats from Wick, Thurso, Longhope and Stromness were sent to the area.
The coastguard rescue helicopter from Shetland and an RAF rescue helicopter were also scrambled. As darkness fell, other vessels in the area joined in the hunt.
A Maltese registered tug, the Herakles, remained on station last night illuminating the area and warning other shipping about the danger posed by the semi-submerged cargo ship.
The Cemfjord was drifting at 5.2 knots, roughly 6 mph, according to readings on marinetraffic.com that were recorded yesterday. It left port in Aalborg, Denmark on December 30.
The Pentland Firth is a channel between the north tip of Scotland and Orkney that is known for strong tides and requires careful planning to sail, according to Sail North Scotland.
Eight people were on board the vessel, pictured partially-submerged in the seaWednesday, Dec. 21, 2016
EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- The 11th Circuit Solicitor's Office in Edgefield said the man accused in the October murder of a husband and wife is not expected to have a hearing of any kind until the April term of court.
Dameion Edwin Thomas, 36, was arrested in October on two counts of murder in the deaths of Charles and Andrea Deas.
Friday, Dec. 16, 2016
EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- A man has been arrested in connection to the October murder of an Edgefield couple.
Edgefield County Sheriff's Office investigators arrested Dameion Edwin Thomas, 36, of Aiken on two counts of murder in the deaths of Charles and Andrea Deas.
The incident happened on October 9, 2016, and both victims were found deceased following a fire at their Marigold Street home.
Thomas is currently being held at the Edgefield County Detention Center awaiting an appearance in court for a bond hearing.
Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016
EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- The family and loved ones of the Edgefield couple found dead in their home are set to gather Friday.
Family of Charles and Andrea Deas will greet friends on Friday, Oct. 14, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Hatcher Funeral Home & Cremation Service on Jefferson Davis Highway in Graniteville.
A Celebration of Life Service is set for Saturday, Oct.15, at 2 p.m. at Bethel Baptist Church in Aiken with Pastor Brancie Stephens officiating. Interment, with Veterans Honors performed by a United States Army Honor Guard, will follow in Langley Cemetery, Langley, SC. Pallbearers will be Timothy Deas, Nicholas Deas, Pat Heneghan, Lucky Gray, John Skipper, Michael Daniels and Monty Bates, according to Hatcher Funeral Home.
The family has requested that all in attendance be in casual attire.
It has been requested by the family, that if so desired, memorials be made to the Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare, (www.letlovelive.org) due to Buddy and Andie's love for animals.
News 12 NBC 26 News at 11 O'Clock | Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2016
EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- The family and friends of Charles and Andrea Deas are still waiting for answers after the couple are found dead. There are still no suspects and no arrests a day after the Edgefield County couple died from gunshot wounds before a fire destroyed their home.
Andrea's father, like many, are still in shock.
"He was good for my daughter, my daughter loved him to death and he loved my daughter," says Jimmy Sanford, the father of Andrea Deas. "So that's all that mattered."
A few pictures a walk around an empty trailer are a few of the lasting memories Jimmy has of his daughter and her husband, Charles. The two were found dead inside their burned-out home with gunshot wounds earlier this week.
All he can do now is remember the good times the family of five spent together at Andrea's childhood home in Saluda. But he says he'll never forget the moment he received the call that would change the lives of all who knew them.
"I get a call and they tell me to call my wife, it's an emergency and I call my wife and my wife didn't answer the phone, the coroner answered the phone," Sanford says. "And the coroner was here with my wife and he had told her that Andy had passed away."
The couple were found dead inside their Edgefield County home Sunday evening around 6:40 p.m. from gunshot wounds. Their home was also set on fire the same night.
But Sanford says they lived a full life before Sunday night. Everyone who called Andrea and Charles Deas friends knew them as Andy and Buddy.
They met four years ago while working at nearby Amick Farms after living in the same town almost all their lives. Andy, who would have turned 26 next week, was an operator while Buddy, in his early thirties, was a mechanic. While they didn't know it at the time, their worlds would soon come together.
Two years later they'd be married with everyone, including Sanford, there for the best moment of their lives so far. The young couple, on the verge of celebrating their second wedding anniversary, shared plenty of laughs and memories with folks across their area for years.
Sanford says Andy loved being the leader, no matter the task. She lead her marching band in high school and helped with local Special Olympics events during her time in school.
He says she always thought she was right, leading to several arguments between the two over the years. But at the end of the day, they would always end their conversation with a quick "I love you."
As for Charles, Sanford says he was a naturally quick-learner thanks to his time at Amick. He says he never missed a day of work in his life and used that learning ability to make sure Andrea was always taken care of at the house.
But he says the two had plenty of great moments waiting ahead of them, including two big projects they'd been working on for the past few months.
"They were remodeling their house," Sanford says, "and once they got the house remodeled, they're was going to start trying to have kids, raise a family. That's what the first priority was, was getting the house stable and remodeled. They were doing it from the ground up."
That ground is now scorched and answers as to why they were murdered are still nowhere to be found.
Sanford says the pain will be with his family for a long time.
He says the worst part is still not knowing who took the lives of a couple with so much life left to live.
"I'm more mad and upset than I am hurt but that's going to come later until we catch him or them or whoever did this," Sanford says. "Then I'm going to be mad and it's not a good thing, it's not a good feeling."
Sanford says there are no plans for a funeral at this time, but they could starting making those plans as early as Thursday.
Deputies with the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office are working with SLED agents to piece together what could have lead to those gunshots inside the home on Merigold Street. Investigators are still looking into leads, but no arrests have been made and a suspect is not in custody.
If you have any information, call the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office at (803) 637-5337. Callers with any information on the case can remain anonymous.
News 12 at 11o'clock / October 11, 2016
EDGEFIELD, SC. (WRDW/WAGT) -- It's normally a quiet neighborhood on Marigold Street where everyone keeps to themselves. But that changed on Sunday when one home went up in flames.
"It was a blaze. You could see the flames shooting up in the sky," said neighbor, George Abney.
Abney has lived in this neighborhood for 25 years.
"I was shocked," said Abney.
The Edgefield Fire Department got to the scene just after 6:30pm. They later found two bodies in the home.
"I was hoping nobody was home," said Abney.
The two have been identified as Charles and Andrea Deas, who neighbors said, had moved to the neighborhood within the last year.
"After half hour, the whole street was filled with fire trucks and police cars, and so I kind of figured something tragic had happened," said Abney.
But what no one expected was finding out the two had died of gunshot wounds, turning a fatal fire into a murder investigation. Investigators returned to the scene earlier today and left with bags of evidence. They also took a gray Hyundai Sonata to the Sheriff's Office Impound.
"At the end of the day, after they had got the fire under control, they went in, and they found the two bodies," said Abney.
A shock that many neighbors said, they didn't expect.
UPDATE: Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016
EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- Edgefield County deputies are following leads after an autopsy revealed two people found in a burning home were shot.
David Burnett, Chief Deputy Coroner for Edgefield County, identified the victims as Charles Deas and Andrea Deas.
Burnett said both died after being shot.
The Edgefield County Sheriff's Office said they are not investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.
The couple was pulled from a home on Marigold Street in Edgefield.
Firefighters were called to the home for a house fire around 6:40 p.m. Sunday.
Deputies say they are following leads in the death investigation. They have not release any names of possible suspects yet.
If you have any information, call the Edgefield County Sheriff's Office at (803) 637-5337.
Monday, Oct. 10, 2016
EDGEFIELD COUNTY, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) -- Two people have died in a house fire on Marigold Street in Edgefield.
According to Edgefield County Chief Deputy Coroner David Burnett, the call was received around 6:40 p.m. Sunday. The two bodies found inside the home are believed to be one male and one female.
More details on the victims will be released after an autopsy is performed on Tuesday. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.New weekly report from Ben. I’ve decided to just go ahead and publish the report as Ben has posted it, namely, as the full report. Enjoy.
“People who are aware are noticing very weird stuff going on with the world information grid -especially inside the Anglo Saxon world- as contradictions and bizarre events multiply. These are all signs of a collapsing power matrix; the sort of thing seen around the time of the fall of the USSR. “…the US was hit for the first time since 2005 with a hurricane. US President Donald Trump tweeted the code phrase for weather warfare “once in 500 years” to describe Hurricane Harvey. The fact that it hit the Bush clan homeland of Texas, in particular the city of Houston, with devastating floods, makes it likely this is some sort of revenge for the Bush engineered Hurricane Katrina attack on New Orleans. “…a high level, esoteric power struggle is continuing. This power struggle is also being revealed in strange and contradictory news announcements concerning US Senator John “Daesh” McCain… we had media reports that McCain had been diagnosed with malignant brain cancer?… followed immediately with reports that McCain had recovered and rallied the Senate to stop Trump plans to repeal Obamacare… after that the USS “John McCain” was rammed by a cargo ship… “There are many others signs other than contradictory reports about madman McCain to indicate a high level power struggle is raging in Washington DC. “There is also incredible pressure being put on the rogue state of Israel. Satan worshipping Israeli leader Benyamin Netanyahu went to visit Russia to warn of Israeli “red lines,” being crossed by Russia… followed up with a massive offensive by the Israeli/Saudi Arabian Daesh proxy army inside Syria. Russia’s answer was to place Iranian and Hizbollah troops right on the Israeli border… Russian forces also, according to the official Tass news agency “destroyed more than 1,000 facilities belonging to international terrorist groups in Syria in the past week,” thus crushing the Israeli/Saudi proxy offensive. “…Qatar has rubbed salt into the wounds of the Israeli/Saudi alliance by restoring diplomatic relations with Iran and keeping its money out of Khazarian mafia pockets. “Unlike in the past, the Israelis can no longer run crying to the US for protection because the de facto Trump military government is sick and tired of that rogue states trouble-making. “New whistleblowers are now emerging with detailed, concrete descriptions of how the international drug trade became indispensable to the US military industrial complex in the post-war era… it dovetails almost exactly with what this writer has been hearing from his own CIA and Asian secret society contacts. “Multiple Asian and other sources involved in this nexus say they expect some sort of major shift this autumn… Please enjoy the last week of summer and get ready for what is likely to be a very eventful autumn.”
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High level weirdness in US as Khazarian control matrix crumbles
Posted by benjamin, August 28, 2017
People who are aware are noticing very weird stuff going on with the world information grid -especially inside the Anglo Saxon world- as contradictions and bizarre events multiply. These are all signs of a collapsing power matrix; the sort of thing seen around the time of the fall of the USSR.
The first thing to note about last week in particular is that the US was hit for the first time since 2005 with a hurricane. US President Donald Trump tweeted the code phrase for weather warfare “once in 500 years” to describe Hurricane Harvey. The fact that it hit the Bush clan homeland of Texas, in particular the city of Houston, with devastating floods, makes it likely this is some sort of revenge for the Bush engineered Hurricane Katrina attack on New Orleans.
It may also be related to the fact that 16 US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba suffered brain injuries from some kind of “Sonic attack.” They may well have been hit because of their involvement in cutting of the Bush clan drug money that was being laundered through Cuba. It is also interesting that “Sonic attacks” are now being reported by world media instead of being dismissed as delusions by people “wearing tin foil hats.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-25/mystery-deepens-after-us-confirms-16-diplomats-suffered-traumatic-brain-injury-cuban
In any case, all of this indicates a high level, esoteric power struggle is continuing.
This power struggle is also being revealed in strange and contradictory news announcements concerning US Senator John “Daesh” McCain. Remember recently we had media reports that McCain had been diagnosed with malignant brain cancer? These were followed immediately with reports that McCain had recovered and rallied the Senate to stop Trump plans to repeal Obamacare. Then after that the USS “John McCain” was rammed by a cargo ship, killing many US sailors. Now we are being told that McCain has been wire-tapping the White House and leaking all of the Trump administrations’ plans to hostile media.
http://itmakessenseblog.com/2017/08/27/the-rat-in-the-white-house-that-has-been-leaking-was-just-exposed-look-who-it-was-omgjohn-mccain/
As the oft-used phrase aptly puts it “you can’t make this up,” but then again it looks as if two opposing forces are indeed making this stuff up.
There are many others signs other than contradictory reports about madman McCain to indicate a high level power struggle is raging in Washington DC.
Inside the Trump administration, the removal of Steve Bannon has now been followed by the ouster of adviser Sebastian Gorka. These are the folks who were pushing for a hard line against “radical Islam”(=Khazarian agents) and China.
Now the “make America great again” alt-right faction in the administration is fighting back. Pentagon sources say Trump chief of staff General John Kelly “may be forced to fire globalist democrats Gary Cohn, Jared Kushner and Dina Powell to even the score and appease the Trump base.”
“Jared is under fire for his failure as peacemaker, with no two-state solution based on 1967 lines, while getting no love from Egypt, Palestine, or even Isreal,” the sources note. Meanwhile “Goldmanite Gary Cohn is already under massive pressure to resign, he puts his tribe first, opposes tariffs, supports antifa and the Jewish fake news media in his interview with the Financial Times that made Trump explode,” they add.
There is also incredible pressure being put on the rogue state of Israel. Satan worshipping Israeli leader Benyamin Netanyahu went to visit Russia to warn of Israeli “red lines,” being crossed by Russia allowing Iranian influence to increase in Syria. This was followed up with a massive offensive by the Israeli/Saudi Arabian Daesh proxy army inside Syria. Russia’s answer was to place Iranian and Hizbollah troops right on the Israeli border.
http://www.debka.com/article/26200/Russians-brings-Iranians-Hizballah-to-Quneitra
Russian forces also, according to the official Tass news agency “destroyed more than 1,000 facilities belonging to international terrorist groups in Syria in the past week,” thus crushing the Israeli/Saudi proxy offensive.
http://tass.com/defense/961925
The oil and gas rich nation of Qatar has rubbed salt into the wounds of the Israeli/Saudi alliance by restoring diplomatic relations with Iran and keeping its money out of Khazarian mafia pockets.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/world/middleeast/qatar-iran-boycott-saudi-arabia.html
Unlike in the past, the Israelis can no longer run crying to the US for protection because the de facto Trump military government is sick and tired of that rogue states trouble-making. The Pentagon sources say the US military is working with the Russians on this and other issues noting that “Russia supports the |
flow through a wire by the exact number of electrons that actually flow through a wire. Recently, a team of researchers from German National Metrology Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig developed a Single Electron Pump. Electrons are generated on one side of a circuit, become trapped as they pass through a series of gates and then are released one at a time on the other side where they can be easily counted. Using this, we can define the ampere as the specific number of single electrons passing through a wire for a given length of time.
Kilograms are equally quirky. The International Prototype Kilogram (IPK) is a cylinder of platinum-iridium sitting in a Paris Vault and is what all other kilograms are measured against. Problem is, materials have a habit of gaining and losing atoms due to chemical interactions with the atmosphere. Of the six official copies of the IPK, one has lost about 5 micrograms while two others have gained more than 50 micrograms of mass. You'd be hard-pressed to notice if someone dropped a 50 microgram weight on your toe but for the scientific community, those fluctuations make a big difference.
The IPK isn't just susceptible to atmospheric reactions. Being a physical object, it can be stolen or damaged. However, "you can't steal Planck's Constant," Quinn quipped.
"If I were to drop [the IPK] on the floor and chip a piece off, the definition of mass would have to be changed because it is defined as this hunk of metal," Dr. Willie May, former director of NIST and current VP of the CIPM, said.
"But, by definition, it can't change," Quinn interjected. "And so what would happen, had Dr. May dropped it on the floor and knocked a piece off, it would have remained the IPK and the mass of the rest of the universe would have changed."
That's where the Kibble Balance comes in. Now on normal balancing scales, you determine the mass of an object by adding mass to the opposite side until they are in equilibrium. In the Kibble balance, the gravitational force generated by the weight on one side is countered with electromagnetic force on the other. With this method, and a bit of math, researchers can measure something called the Planck Constant. Thus we can define kilograms in terms of the Planck Constant rather than a lump of metal.
Kelvin, thankfully, is a bit more straightforward. It's the measure of temperature, terminating at absolute zero when all molecular motion stops. That absolute nature is important, since, unlike mass, relative temperatures don't stack. For example, smash two 10-pound blobs of clay, each heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit together, the result will weigh 20 pounds but it won't be any hotter. As such, measuring temperatures in Kelvin is more accurate than Fahrenheit or Celsius though it's still being framed in an outdated model.
Should the CGPM approve the redefinition of Kelvin next year, the unit will be defined using an acoustic thermometer. These devices measure the speed of sound waves travelling through a low-gravity gas sphere. Since the speed of those waves is fixed for a set temperature, you can calculate that by measuring the frequency of the resonating sound waves and the volume of the sphere.
Even the mole is getting a makeover. This fundamental unit measures the amount of substance known as the Avogadro constant. Moles are used to bridge the gap between the micro- and macroscopic worlds. It provides a usable frame of reference when dealing with minuscule items. Or, as XKCD once pointed out, a mole of moles would be 602,214,129,000,000,000,000,000 animals (602 trillion trillion moles). That's also the number of sand grains needed to bury the entire UK to a depth of about 40 centimetres, according to the NPL, or the number of human cells on Earth.
The Mole is defined using an experiment known as the "primary method," which involves weighing a material of known composition. However, because this system bases the value of the mole on the mass of the prototype kilogram, the CGPM is considering redefining the unit.
Instead, the group wants to drop carbon (the reference substance for moles) altogether and replace it with a 1Kg, 94-mmm wide, nearly spherical mass of 99.9995-percent pure silicon-28. Since the physical characteristics of the sphere -- weight, diameter, size of the individual crystal lattices -- are known, as well as how much a single silicon atom weighs, these measurements can be used to calculate the total number of atoms in the sphere and, in turn, a revised Avogadro's constant.
This isn't the end of the BIPM's efforts. The group is eyeing the atomic second ahead of the unit's 50th anniversary of being tied to the radiation cycles of Cesium-133. "At the time we used the best atomic clock we could possibly have," Quinn explained. "But a lot of science has taken place, and there are now ways of making atomic clocks 100 times better. And in the next 10 years, I would say, there will be a new definition of the atomic second that is 100 times better."
Such an advancement will have implications in everything from space exploration and cutting-edge physics research to more accurate GPS navigation in your car.
"If we allow the art of the possible," May said, "you open up the future to things you've never even thought of."[rust-dev] mode removal
Here is my proposed plan for mode removal. The eventual goal is to pass all parameters by value. The idea is to proceed in two steps. In the first phase, we migrate the codebase over so that only two modes are in use: the default mode or the by-copy mode (+). By-copy will be used for unique pointers (including vecs, strs, fn~) which are expensive to copy and which the callee wishes to take ownership of. The default mode will be used for all other values. If you wish to borrow a unique pointer, then you use a borrowed pointer. This migration will be done piecemeal. There will be a lint mode (I am working on it now) which warns you about arguments that do not follow this convention. I'll send e-mail when it's ready. The idea will be to migrate modules or functions one at a time and then set the lint mode to prevent regression. Once the migration is complete, we can simply pass all arguments by value. There is one other factor, which is the changing of alt bindings to make by-ref explicit. I imagine this will proceed in a similar fashion. I will add an optional ref keyword that (currently) has no significance and a lint mode that warns if it is not used in the appropriate places. We can then switch over once refs are added where they need to be. Sound good? Niko0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
I do declare, Rhett! You speak about me as if I haven’t any character at all….And that was before I showed you the pictures from the National Federation of Republican Women’s annual fall Board of Directors meetin’!
The National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) held its annual fall Board of Directors meeting in Charleston, S.C. last weekend and naturally, trouble ensued.
Of the Confederate kind. And the tax-payers paid for this little shindig. Nothing like celebratin’ slavery to say “freedom and liberty”, eh?
FITSnews reports:
“One of the pictures shows S.C. Senate President Glenn McConnell – who FITS readers will recall enjoys dressing up as a Confederate General – posing in his Rebel garb with a pair of African-Americans dressed in, um, “antebellum” attire.
The event in question – dubbed “The Southern Experience” – was held last Friday evening at the Country Club of Charleston. Hosted by the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women, it was included on the national conference’s official itinerary.
In addition to McConnell, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford attended (and spoke at) the event – although it was not listed on his weekly public schedule. S.C. Republican Attorney General nominee Alan Wilson also attended.
Invited speakers to the NFRW conference included U.S. House Majority Leader John Boehner, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Rep. Joe Wilson, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, former U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins and GOP gubernatorial nominee Nikki Haley.”
Yes, indeedy, the gangs all here. Governor Sanford took a break from hiking so that he could hand the ladies a certification of appreciation. Uh huh.
PoliticusUSA’s South Carolina political analyst Jamie Sanderson adds this:
“South Carolina Senate President Glenn McConnell has a hard-on for Confederate nostalgia. He is the one who pushed so hard to dedicate millions of South Carolina tax dollars to preserve a Confederate submarine, The Hunley, while cutting public education by millions. He was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Secession Camp 4, 1986-2004. He plays dress-up annually for Civil War reenactments.
This is nothing new, although it’s pretty much the first I’ve seen of such in-your-face activity with all these names involved. I suppose they are not afraid with people knowing that this is how the prefer the country to be, or suggest it should return to such a state.”
My, my the bubbas were out in force, celebrating their heritage as slave owners. You know, the good old days. And the ladies were right there helping them do it. Now don’t you get all high and mighty about the South; this was the National Federation of Republican Women. You know, the Mama Grizzlies standing up for our freedoms!
Now what’s all the fuss about? Who you callin’ a racist, boy? We just don’t like your policies, boy. We think you’re socialist, anti-colonialist is all. No one ever said nothin’ about your color, boy. Now get us white folks some more water.
I have a case of the vapors. My only question is why do the tax payers fund this?
Hat tip to Twitter friend @FrancoIKU
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:News in Science
New twist on solar cell design
Scientists in the US have developed a new flexible and lightweight solar cell, which uses a fraction the amount of silicon used in conventional cells, while still achieving high light conversion rates.
Reporting in journal Nature Materials Professor Harry Atwater of the Caltech and colleagues believe their new design could be used in applications ranging from car sun roofs to devices in clothing.
The key is to the cells high efficiency is its use of small micrometre sized rods of silicon instead of traditional silicon wafers.
Incoming light bounces back and forth multiple times between the rods in the panel until it's absorbed.
Small alumina nano-particle reflectors are placed between the rods to ensure the light is guided as efficiently as possible.
The scientists claim up to 85% of usable sunlight is absorbed by the new panels, compared to approximately 17% efficiency with current commerically available solar cells.
Atwater says the silicon wire arrays offer a mechanically flexible alternative to conventional silicon wafer photovoltaics, and are much better at absorping in the near-infrared spectrum.
This allows overall sunlight absorption to exceed that of an equivalent volume of randomly textured silicon panels over a wide range of sunlight angles.
'Interesting' result
Professor Martin Green of the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at the University of New South Wales says "the good absorption demonstrated using the sparse array of silicon wires is interesting."
""The challenge with silicon wires has been getting good voltage output, because surface areas are large and this ultimately limits voltage," says Green.
"However, the sparse array's total surface area need not be a lot more than a thin conventional cell of the same volume, and that gives some hope here."
But Green believes thinner versions of current solar cell technology could prove to be just as effective.
"Although volume is a reasonable metric to compare devices, low volume is of interest not only to reduce material costs, but also manufacturing time," he says. "It is not obvious that you would get much benefit in the latter area with this sparse array approach.
"I imagine a thin conventional cell could have been deposited much more quickly with the techniques used."In 2010, the editors at Vogue Paris made a design decision that could soon lead to a wide-sweeping change in French law. A spread in the December issue starred a model named Thylane Blondeau. In one picture, she was sprawled on a tiger-skin rug, her dress exposing one shoulder, as a jewel-encrusted leg props up a high-heel slipper and her heavily made-up eyes stare intensely into the camera. This would be a typical magazine fashion shoot if Blondeau had not been nine years old.
The photos caused outrage — 84 per cent of respondents in one French poll found them demeaning — and led the French politician Chantal Jouanno to write a parliamentary report entitled ‘Against Hyper-Sexualisation: A New Fight For Equality’. The report requested a ban on child-size adult clothing and on beauty pageants for children younger than 16. In September this year, the French Senate voted in support of the pageant ban; it awaits confirmation from the lower house. ‘At this age, you need to concentrate on acquiring knowledge,’ Jouanno told the Associated Press. ‘Yet with “Mini Miss” competitions and other demonstrations, we are fixing the projectors on their physical appearance.’
The US — home of the popular reality TV show Toddlers & Tiaras — seems unlikely to follow France’s lead. Our focus on beauty and sexuality, even in children, does not bode well for the treatment of girls and women in general. A report from the American Psychological Association in 2010 notes that sexualisation leads us to value people only for their sexual appeal at the exclusion of other traits, encourages unwanted sexual advances, and causes objectification, wherein a person’s capacity to direct his or her own life is ignored.
Objectification has been defined in feminist literature to include several elements, including the denial of autonomy and the denial of subjectivity — we see the person as lacking self-determination and feelings. He or she becomes, in the viewer’s mind, an object, a ‘piece of meat’, devoid of any internal life.
At least that’s what we thought. Recent research, however, would suggest that there is a more complex, though no less disturbing, process at play when we objectify not only girls and women, but boys and men as well. In contrast to popular belief, when we ‘objectify’ we don’t treat people as objects with no intelligence or emotions of their own. Several notable psychologists are beginning to argue that, when we objectify someone, we don’t assume that they have less mind overall, but that they have a different type of mind.
We spend much of our day pondering other peoples’ minds. They can love us, hate us, help us, or harm us — but we can never experience them directly, a fact that drives the work of the psychologist Kurt Gray. In his Mind Perception and Morality Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the 32-year-old assistant professor began a research project into how we piece together incomplete data to build an idea of another person. This question led him to research attitudes toward persistent vegetative states, torture and judgments of guilt, robot-human interactions, belief in God, the fundamental structure of morality, and, most recently, objectification — the influence of embodiment on mind-perception. His findings offered what Gray calls ‘a significant twist on objectification’. What emerged was that we see the capacity for feelings, whether pleasure or pain or happiness or anger, as distinct from the capacity for intellectual thought and planning. Namely, that we treat those we objectify as less intelligent, yet simultaneously we endow them with a greater ability to feel things.
All of his work grew out of one anomalous finding. When I spoke to him, he told me that a couple years into his PhD at Harvard he ‘was running a silly survey on the moral rights of robots’, in which he asked individuals to make judgments of humans and machines, but didn’t find much that surprised him: robots deserve less moral rights than humans. No surprise there. But one of the case studies that his subjects were asked to judge was a person with mental disabilities. They rated him as having reduced moral responsibility compared with other people, but enhanced sensitivity to pain and pleasure. ‘And that’s a wild thing, right?’ Gray said to me. ‘Why should someone who is given less of a mind in some sense be given more of a mind in another sense?’
Naked porn stars are also seen as having less competence but more sensitivity than their clothed selves
At around the same time, Gray was conducting another study with his colleague Heather Gray (no relation) and his adviser Daniel Wegner, which was published as ‘Dimensions of Mind Perception’ in the journal Science in 2007. Participants were presented with 13 ‘characters’ (a man, a dog, a robot, etc), and were asked to rate the degree to which each ‘character’ had mental capacities such as joy, rage, or self-control. The researchers found that the capacities neatly clustered into two distinct categories — experience and agency, or what we might call sensitivity and competence. For example, babies and dogs were seen as highly sensitive (they were assumed to feel hunger, fear, and pain) but not very competent (they were considered to have little self-control, memory, or thought). God was competent but not sensitive. Robots were medium-competent, but not sensitive. Healthy adults were high on both.
Gray noticed that the findings of the two studies converged, which suggested that, when we assess others, we don’t see their amount of ‘mind’ as being on a linear spectrum: from, say, a lump of rock to a healthy adult. Instead, we perceive mind as having two distinct dimensions.
At the same time as Gray was doing this work at Harvard, Joshua Knobe, an experimental philosopher currently at Yale University, was independently exploring similar issues in mind-perception. In 2008, Knobe and Jesse Prinz, now professor of philosophy at the City University of New York, published the paper ‘Intuitions About Consciousness’, which found that people readily attribute intellectual states (such as deciding, intending, or believing) to a bodiless corporation, but not more emotionally felt states (such as experiencing an urge, vividly imagining, feeling pain). Their subjects might say ‘Acme Corp intends to release a new product this January’ but not ‘Acme Corp is getting depressed’. They clearly saw at least two categories of mind: the capacity for abstract cognition, and the capacity for subjective experience, or competence versus sensitivity. Knobe and Prinz’s explanation was that corporations don’t have bodies. Perhaps then, a body seems necessary for both physical sensation and emotion.
In 2008, Gray watched an online clip of Knobe debating embodiment and mind perception with Paul Bloom, professor of psychology at Yale, who studies belief in Cartesian mind-body dualism — the notion that consciousness or the soul can exist independently of the brain. Knobe was suggesting a new kind of mind-body dualism. He argued that we see part of the mind — sensation and emotion — as actually tied to the body rather than to the rest of the mind. Knobe and Bloom didn’t agree; they suggested an experimental challenge to settle the matter.
Soon after, Gray approached Knobe at a conference in New Hampshire and said he’d already done some unpublished research on the issue, with Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. In one experiment, subjects saw a photograph and a short description of a man or a woman. The photo showed either just the head or also the shirtless torso. When presented shirtless, targets were seen as having less competence. This is just what you might expect from research on objectification: we’re easily induced to see others as mere objects, pieces of meat without thoughts of their own. But it wasn’t that simple. Shirtless targets weren’t seen as devoid of all thought. They were actually seen as being more capable of emotions and sensations than their less exposed selves. They didn’t have less mental life but a different mental life. Objectification is apparently a misnomer. ‘I was completely taken aback by all of the results he had obtained,’ Knobe told me when I emailed him.
‘So, right there in that conference, we started talking about what would happen if people were exposed to more pornographic images,’ Knobe continued. Surely there was a limit, and eventually we would objectify people if they were sexualised enough. We would see them as objects devoid of feeling. To test this was a challenge. The problem was that the researchers needed a set of clothed and unclothed photographs, and they weren’t about to pose for the photo shoot themselves.
Luckily, just this had already been done in the book XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits (2004). The photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders had shot 30 stars, first fully clothed, then naked, in the same position and with the same expression. The researchers used these images in a series of experiments and, in 2011, Gray, Knobe, Bloom, Feldman Barrett, and Mark Sheskin, a research student at Yale, published the results as ‘More Than a Body: Mind Perception and the Nature of Objectification’ in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. It turned out that naked porn stars are also seen as having less competence but more sensitivity than their clothed selves. And when one actress was shown in an especially sexual pose, the trend only increased, presumably due to greater focus on her body and its pleasures. True objectification, as traditionally conceived of, just did not happen.
In most cases, thinking of a person as a body does not lead to objectification in a literal sense, in which the person becomes an object. Rather, he’s dehumanised — he becomes a sensitive beast
The research also looked at how embodiment affects how we dish out moral rights and responsibilities. In another experiment, individuals were given two character descriptions: one about Michael, who has double-jointed wrists, type-A blood, and a heart rate of 80 beats per minute; and Jeffrey, who remembers names by associating other words with them and creates a mental map before driving someplace new. They judged that double-jointed Michael would deserve less blame than Jeffrey for walking out on a restaurant bill but would suffer more if they were each mugged. In the minds of those questioned, Michael was more embodied, and he was judged less competent and more sensitive because of it. Focusing on his body made subjects think about his sensitivity to experience (including pain). And because of a sensitivity-competence trade-off in our perceptions, he was also seen as less in control of his actions and thus less morally responsible for them.
But if we think embodied entities lack agency, do we think disembodied agents have extra agency? Perhaps. Gray directs our attention to the cosmologist Stephen Hawking, a brilliant mind disenfranchised from his wayward anatomy due to motor neuron disease. We might presume extra luminance in the bargain. In Gray’s words: ‘We think he’s just all mind.’
The suggestion that reducing focus on the body actually increases attribution of competence needs some empirical fleshing out. But if this balance-scale relationship between agency and experience does exist (wherein embodiment weighs down the experience side), where does it come from? If you’re attributing more sensitivity, why wouldn’t you also attribute more competence, and if you’re attributing more competence, why wouldn’t you also attribute more sensitivity? The perceived trade-off might result from a general tendency to frame events as having a subject and an object — someone who does, and someone who is done to; we tend to distinguish between a mind that thinks and plans an action, and a mind that feels its effects, typically through the body. Usually they are not the same person, and so we assume that if you’re one, you can’t be the other.
In their 2011 paper, Gray and his co-authors suggest that the current conception of people as intuitive Cartesian dualists — those who see the mind as independent of the body — is wrong. The reigning idea might be that we think of the body as one type of stuff and the mind as another, but we actually don’t. Instead, their results suggest that we see the body together with some of the mind – the part that feels things – as one type of stuff, and the remainder of the mind — abstract cognition — as another. A sensitive body versus a competent mind. They say we’re Platonic dualists, as Plato believed our eternal minds knew the universe’s ideal forms before we became implanted in and corrupted by the body, which came with sensation and desire.
In most cases, thinking of a person as a body does not lead to objectification in a literal sense, in which the person becomes an object. Rather, he’s dehumanised — he becomes a sensitive beast. In the terminology of Nick Haslam, professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne, the opposite of this competence-denying animalistic dehumanisation is mechanistic dehumanisation, in which someone is seen as lacking emotional warmth. Highly competent people might be susceptible to this treatment.
Seeing others as incompetent has well-documented consequences: discrimination, paternalism, and violence. Gray and colleagues found in their experiments that men and women were equally dehumanised (and dehumanised by male and female subjects equally) but in our culture women’s bodies receive greater attention, so they suffer this kind of dehumanisation more frequently.
Being seen as having more capacity for feelings might be a surprising benefit of receiving attention to your body. Focusing on a politician’s embodiment could make him or her seem warmer. But it has its downsides, too. He or she might be considered reactive and emotional, further reducing attributions of competence. And being seen as vulnerable to pain could induce overprotection and a reduction of freedoms, as in benevolent sexism.
Feminist theorists have given extensive thought to objectification — often in the context of pornography. It’s not universally assumed that men treat sexy models as devoid of feeling. ‘In pornography all sorts of emotional states and desires are imputed to women,’ says Martha Nussbaum, professor of law and ethics at the University of Chicago, who has written widely on the topic. ‘The point that feminists make is that it is a construct: far from being interested in what the real woman is thinking and feeling, men think of her emotions in terms of a stock scenario familiar from porn, and don’t inquire further.’ Rather than discerning her real desires, they project fantasised feelings, which often include the wish to be used. ‘It’s similar to the sort of objectification of slaves that is portrayed in Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ Nussbaum adds. ‘White owners impute to them all sorts of emotions but just not the ones they actually have.’
If we are to focus on our bodies, better to emphasise what we can do with them in pursuit of our own goals
But while men (and women) might consider the real or imagined feelings of a sexualised target, feminist theorists generally don’t propose that objectification actually increases the attribution of feelings over non-objectified individuals. Nor, in general, do they argue that it’s a cognitive phenomenon displayed equally in men and women, and equally toward male and female individuals. Gray’s work contributes something novel to this literature.
Some researchers — notably Peter Glick, professor of psychology at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and Susan Fiske, professor of psychology at Princeton University — have explored what’s called benevolent sexism, the placing of women on a pedestal, where they’re cherished and offered special protection. Many men do see women as especially sensitive and vulnerable, but feminist theorists have not empirically tested the relationship of this view to stereotypes about women’s intelligence and self-control, nor have they discussed the common role of embodiment in both types of perception. Again, Gray’s research fills this gap.
Gray and his co-authors note a couple of situations in which you might want to see someone as a body. In the bedroom, focusing on your partner’s sensitivity to pleasure (or pain, if that’s what you’re into) will enhance your ability to please. Equally, for doctors and those working in palliative care, a greater awareness of your patient’s experiential body will help you calibrate pain management. One might also guess that if there were some way to make a corporation seem embodied (perhaps by using a bikini-clad spokesmodel?) then it might be seen as less competent but also less blameworthy when things go wrong.
Yet it doesn’t make sense to teach people from a young age that they are most highly valued as bodies. Sexualisation — resulting from beauty pageants or the general media landscape — leads girls and women (and sometimes boys and men) to be dehumanised by others, and it also leads to self-objectification, where that dehumanisation is internalised. Focusing on one’s worth to others as a body can lead to eating disorders, reduced self-esteem, and depression. Girls can also fall prey to sexual stereotypes, avoiding other, more intellectual pursuits.
If we are to focus on our bodies, better to emphasise what we can do with them in pursuit of our own goals — be they athletic achievement, expression through dance, or merely moving through the world with confidence, comfort, and good health. Better to be subjects for ourselves than the objects of others.Even an historic park needs an update from time to time. So says the City of Kalamazoo, which is proposing a host of changes to Bronson Park, the oldest and most iconic in town.
Those range from providing shade for event-goers at one end, to rearranging the park’s monuments and restoring Alfonso Iannelli’s Fountain of the Pioneers.
An interview with Parks and Recreation's Sean Fletcher about plans for Bronson Park
The city also wants to add seating – in the park’s reflecting pool. In an interview with WMUK, City Parks and Recreation Director Sean Fletcher explains how that works.
Fletcher says a committee that met for several months to make recommendations for the park also took up the fate of one of the park’s most distinctive features – a 1940 concrete fountain by sculptor Alfonso Iannelli. It needs repairs.
WMUK's full interview with Sean Fletcher
But some find its imagery, which includes a pioneer figure facing and standing above a Native American, offensive. Fletcher explains the city’s plans.Select Page 1 - AMD Radeon RX 470 2 - PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 470 3 - Test Setup 4 - Clock Speed Consistency 5 - DOOM Vulkan 6 - Hitman 2016 DX12 7 - Rise of the Tomb Raider DX12 8 - The Witcher 3 DX11 9 - Battlefield 4 DX11 10 - Power 11 - Conclusion
Date: Thursday, August 04, 2016 Author: Brent Justice Editor: Kyle Bennett
PowerColor Red Devil Radeon RX 470 Video Card Review AMD’s next generation Polaris architecture based GPU is released today in the form of the AMD Radeon RX 470 priced below the Radeon RX 480. Instead of a reference video card we have a full custom cooled and factory overclocked retail video card with the PowerColor Red Devil RX 470 video card.
Introduction
From the start of this summer 2016 to now here in August this has been an action filled summer of video card launches from AMD and NVIDIA. It has kept us extremely busy, and it has provided gamer’s with a lot of new choices for their new shiny computer builds or upgrades. There are new choices from NVIDIA up and down the price ranges from the mainstream to the extreme enthusiast level where money is no concern. AMD has taken a different stance this summer in releasing its 4th generation GCN architecture known as Polaris.
Instead of starting at the high-end or enthusiast level AMD launched the AMD Radeon RX 480 on June 29th in the $199-$239 price range, the more affordable mainstream gamer. This price range is certainly more appealing and has a wider install base, but of course you cannot expect that a GPU in this price range will provide high-end enthusiast level gaming performance. That said, what we have seen from the Radeon RX 480 shows promise. There is no question that AMD has a leg up on next generation APIs like DX12 and Vulkan. The big question is will this give AMD the boost it needs in next generation game titles to give the competition a run for its money.
AMD Radeon RX 470 and AMD Radeon RX 460
Continuing in the line of the new Polaris 4th generation GCN architecture is AMD's next couple of video cards continuing the RX 400 series. These two new video cards being announced today fulfill the lower-end of the price range, beneath the AMD Radeon RX 480. The two cards being announced today are the AMD Radeon RX 470 supposedly available today, and the AMD Radeon RX 460 available on August 8th.
The AMD Radeon RX 470 will have an AMD suggested retail price of $179. Naturally pricing will vary on add-in-board partner video cards depending on features and clock speeds. At $179, this places the AMD Radeon RX 470 at only $20 less than the "stock" 4GB AMD Radeon RX 480 video card. Compared to the 8GB AMD Radeon RX 480 it is about $40-$50 cheaper. Today’s evaluation will focus on the AMD Radeon RX 470 GPU specifically using a full retail custom video card from PowerColor.
AMD Radeon RX 470
Let’s first talk about what is the same between AMD Radeon RX 470 and AMD Radeon RX 480. All of the new specifications and features present with the AMD Radeon RX 480 are true with the AMD Radeon RX 470. You can think of AMD Radeon RX 470 as a cut down or lessened AMD Radeon RX 480. The technology is based on the 14nm FinFET manufacturing process and contains all the features present in the 4th generation of the GCN architecture.
You will find the same three Async Compute features present on the AMD Radeon RX 470 same as the AMD Radeon RX 480. As we move down the scale in GPU performance games that utilize these Async Features in DX12 may potentially perform better than "higher performing" GPUs as Async Compute really has a greater benefit on lower-end GPUs where performance is more constrained. If these features are utilized well in games it could give the AMD Radeon RX 470 a leg up in performance in games.
Considering that the AMD Radeon RX 470 is geared for the more budget minded user or computer user looking for other attributes such as video and output support the AMD Radeon RX 470 is well equipped. It is capable of all the latest video formats in the popular streaming services including HEVC and H.264 encode. You will also find the latest display technologies like DisplayPort 1.3 and 1.4 ready as well, and HDMI 2.0.
AMD claims the AMD Radeon RX 470 is built for 1080p gaming at 60+ FPS with anti-aliasing enabled. This will certainly be something we will test in our evaluation to see if it is true.
Here is what makes it tick. In terms of TFLOPS the RX 470 is up to 4.9, for comparison RX 480 is 5.8. There are 32 CUs and 2048 Stream Processors on the Radeon RX 470. The AMD RX 480 has 36 CUs and 2304 Stream Processors. The AMD Radeon RX 470 has 32 ROPs and 128 Texture Units. The AMD Radeon RX 480 has 32 ROPs and 144 Texture Units. The AMD Radeon RX 470 will run at a base clock of 926MHz with a boost clock of 1206MHz. For comparison the AMD Radeon RX 480 runs at a base clock of 1120MHz and a boost clock of 1266MHz. The TDP is 120W on the RX 470 versus 150W on the RX 480.
On the memory system the Radeon RX 470 will have 4GB of GDDR5 running at 6.6GHz on a 256-bit memory bus. This provides 211GB/sec of memory bandwidth. For comparison the RX 480 can have 8GB of GDDR5 providing 256GB/sec of memory bandwidth or 4GB providing 224GB/sec of memory bandwidth. As you can see, the two 4GB versions are actually pretty close to each other in terms of memory bandwidth. The memory bandwidth on the RX 470 isn’t cut down that much, it still has a 256-bit bus and high speed GDDR5.President Obama Rejects Keystone XL Pipeline Plan
Enlarge this image toggle caption Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Ending a process that has lingered for much of his time in the Oval Office, President Obama announced Friday that the U.S. has rejected TransCanada's application for a permit to complete the Keystone XL pipeline.
The president said that "after extensive public outreach" and consultations, the State Department determined that the proposal "would not serve the national interests of the United States." He added, "I agree with that decision."
YouTube
Back in February, Obama vetoed congressional legislation that approved the project. The Senate failed to override that veto in March. The first application for approval of TransCanada's plan was filed in September of 2008.
After the formal rejection was announced, TransCanada issued a statement saying it's reviewing the U.S. administration's reasons for denying the permit, and that it might reapply.
We've updated this post with today's news.
Saying he's "disappointed" with the U.S. decision, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau adds, "The Canada-U.S. relationship is much bigger than any one project, and I look forward to a fresh start with President Obama to strengthen our remarkable ties in a spirit of friendship and cooperation."
Trudeau, who won his leadership post last month, added that his government "will work hand-in-hand with provinces, territories and like-minded countries to combat climate change, adapt to its impacts and create the clean jobs of tomorrow."
Proposed And Existing TransCanada Pipelines
Obama made the announcement in the White House's Roosevelt Room, alongside Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry, whose agency has been conducting a review of the project for more than seven years. The statement came shortly after Obama and Kerry met privately Friday morning.
In rejecting the proposal, Obama said the Keystone debate has played an "overinflated role in our political discourse" — something for which he blamed both parties.
The president also disagreed with what he described as critics' claims that the completed pipeline would be "the express lane to climate disaster."
Discounting Keystone supporters' claims that the pipeline would boost the U.S. economy, Obama later added, "Shipping dirtier crude oil into our country would not increase America's energy security."
Obama also said that American industries have moved quickly to adopt renewable energy.
"Today, the United States of America is leading on climate |
above.
And to continue reading the rest of the series:
Ring of Judgment Chapter 1
Ring of Judgment Chapter 2
Ring of Judgment Chapter 3
Ring of Judgment Chapter 4
Ring of Judgment Epilogue
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RelatedFake News! Washington Post Claims Trump Vets Appointees Based on Looks
RUSH: “Trump Wants Appointments to ‘Look the Part.‘” Washington Post. Fake news, it’s total misdirection. It gives an entirely incorrect impression of a singular quote from one of the Trump spokespeople.
First paragraph of the story: “President-elect Donald Trump is taking appearances into consideration as he crafts his administration, according to a new report. Trump’s aides have accepted he may rule out candidates who do not satisfy his image of what represents particular roles, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. ‘That’s the language he speaks,’ said a source familiar with the Trump transition team’s internal deliberations.”
Again, one source, name not mentioned. “He’s very aesthetic. You can come with somebody who is very much qualified for the job, but if they don’t look the part, they’re not going anywhere.”
So, once again, fake news. We’re being asked to believe an anonymous source whose nose is probably out of joint ’cause he didn’t get a gig with Trump. I guaran-damn-tee you that’s what this is. I actually can’t guarantee you. But my wild guess is that the source for this story is somebody who wanted a position and didn’t get it, and their nose is out of joint for some reason.
A source supposedly close to Trump is telling all this to the Washington Post. You think people that work for Trump are secretly blabbing to the news media? Not people close to him, no way. Maybe people that he has not chosen. Maybe people whose nose out of joint for one reason or another.
Here is the basis for this story in this next paragraph. “A Trump transition spokesman said the president-elect considers how officials representing his administration will appear in public. ‘Presentation is very important because you’re representing America not only on the national stage, but also the international stage depending on the position,’ Jason Miller said. ‘People who are being selected for these key positions need to be able to hold their own, need to be doers and not wallflowers, and need to convey a clear sense of purpose and commitment.'”
Now, folks, there’s absolutely nothing that Jason Miller said that supports the claim that Trump’s picking people that are only good-looking. And this is classic. This is exactly what fake news is. This is why people are fed up with the media. This is why they’re losing readers, why they’re losing page views, why they’re losing advertisers, and why they are gaining distrust. Because this is an out-and-out juvenile misrepresentation of what Jason Miller said.
Jason Miller’s talking about stature. He’s talking about confidence. He’s talking about passion. He’s talking about knowledge. He’s talking about ability in how somebody presents themselves. The keyword here is “wallflower.” They don’t want anybody that can’t explain themselves. They don’t want anybody who’s not confident. They don’t want anybody who isn’t qualified. And this becomes, “Trump is such a heathen, such a surface individual that if you’re not a model, if you’re a woman, if you don’t like a model, then Trump’s not interested.” That’s what they want people thinking.
This is media malpractice, and it’s much like this story in the hill, “GOP Considers Holding Off On Repealing Obamacare Taxes.” We have some ticked-off lobbyist as the source for that. Not saying it isn’t true, but there isn’t any source authority here that backs up the story. And it’s designed to make you irritated when there isn’t any reason to be irritated yet. Quite the opposite. The people that are irritated are the people that should be irritated: Obama, Michelle, Hillary, Bill, Podesta. The people that should be irritated are, and they resent that, and they’re trying to make you think that you’re being sold out, that you’ve been lied to.
There’s not a thing Jason Miller said here that has anything to do with how someone looks! And then the next paragraph: “Trump reportedly –” that word is being bandied about like the word “conclusively” is. Trump reportedly ruled out John Bolton for secretary of state because of his mustache. The source, the anonymous Trump source told the Washington Post, “Yeah, Donald was not gonna like that mustache.” We’re really supposed to believe that somebody close to Trump would say something like this?
If this stuff has actually been said, I guarantee you this is somebody that wanted a position with Trump and didn’t get it, their nose is out of joint, they’re running around, nah-nah-nah-nah, didn’t like John Bolton ’cause he didn’t like the mustache. Well, it’s not gonna end, either, folks. We’re literally prisoners to a bunch of juvenile delinquents. They’re kids. They really are bunch of juvenile delinquents in these positions.[Excerpted from the Independent Review (Winter 2010). An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Colin Hussey, is available for download.]
As the recession has deepened and the financial debacle has passed from one flare-up to another during the past year and a half, commentary on the economy's troubles has swelled tremendously. Pundits have pontificated; journalists and editors have reported and opined; talk radio jocks have huffed and puffed; public officials have spewed out even more double-talk than usual; awkward academic experts, caught in the camera's glare like deer in the headlights, have blinked and stumbled through their brief stints as talking heads on TV. We have been deluged by an enormous outpouring of diagnosis, prognosis, and prescription, at least 95 percent of which has been appallingly bad.
The bulk of it has been bad for the same reasons. Most of the people who purport to possess expertise about the economy rely on a common set of presuppositions and modes of thinking. I call this pseudointellectual mishmash "vulgar Keynesianism." It's the same claptrap that has passed for economic wisdom in this country for more than 50 years and seems to have originated in the first edition of Paul Samuelson's Economics (1948), the best-selling economics textbook of all time and the one from which a plurality of several generations of college students acquired whatever they knew about economic analysis. Long ago, this view seeped into educated discourse, the news media, and politics, and established itself as an orthodoxy.
Unfortunately, this way of thinking about the economy's operation — in particular its overall fluctuations — is a tissue of errors of both commission and omission. Most unfortunate have been the policy implications derived from this mode of thinking: above all, the notion that the government can and should use fiscal and monetary policies to control the macroeconomy and stabilize its fluctuations. Despite having originated more than half a century ago, this view seems to be as vital in 2009 as it was in 1949.
Let us consider briefly the six most egregious aspects of this unfortunate approach to understanding and dealing with economic booms and busts.
Aggregation
John Maynard Keynes persuaded his fellow economists (and then they persuaded the public) that it makes sense to think of the economy in terms of a handful of economy-wide aggregates: total income or output, total consumption spending, total investment spending, and total net exports. If people remember anything from their introductory economics course, they are most likely to remember the equation Y = C + I + G + (X − M).
Sometimes Q • P is equated to the variables on the right-hand side of the equation. So the idea is that aggregate supply (physical output times the price level) equals aggregate demand equals the sum of four types of money expenditure for newly produced final goods and services.
This way of compressing diverse, economy-wide transactions into single variables has the effect of suppressing recognition of the complex relationships and differences within each of the aggregates. Thus, in this framework, the effect of adding a million dollars of investment spending for teddy-bear inventories is the same as the effect of adding a million dollars of investment spending for digging a new copper mine. Likewise, the effect of adding a million dollars of consumption spending for movie tickets is the same as the effect of adding a million dollars of consumption spending for gasoline. Likewise, the effect of adding a million dollars of government spending for children's inoculations against polio is the same as the effect of adding a million dollars of government spending for 7.62-millimeter ammunition. It does not take much thought to conceive of ways in which suppression of the differences within each of the aggregates might cause our thinking about the economy to go seriously awry.
"I keep recalling an old country song whose refrain was 'older whiskey, faster horses, younger women, more money.'"
In fact, "the economy" does not produce an undifferentiated mass we call "output." Instead, the millions of producers who bring forth "aggregate supply" provide an almost-infinite variety of specific goods and services that differ in countless ways. Moreover, an immense amount of what goes on in a modern market-oriented economy consists of dealings among producers who supply no "final" goods and services at all, but instead supply raw materials, components, intermediate products, and services to one another. Because these producers are connected in an intricate pattern of relations, which must assume certain proportions if the entire arrangement is to work effectively, critical consequences turn on what in particular gets produced, when, where, and how.
These extraordinarily complex microrelationships are what we are really referring to when we speak of "the economy." It is definitely not a single, simple process for producing a uniform, aggregate glop. Moreover, when we speak of "economic action," we are referring to the choices that millions of diverse participants make in selecting a course of action and setting aside a possible alternative. Without choice, constrained by scarcity, no true economic action takes place. Thus, vulgar Keynesianism, which purports to be an economic model or at least a coherent framework of economic analysis, actually excludes the very possibility of genuine economic action, substituting for it a simple, mechanical conception — the intellectual equivalent of a baby toy.
Relative Prices
Vulgar Keynesianism takes no account of relative prices or changes in such prices. In this framework, there is only one price, which is called "the price level" and represents a weighted average of all the money prices at which the economy's countless actual goods and services are sold. (There is also the rate of interest, which is treated as a price in a limited and misleading way, and about which I say more later.) If relative prices change — which of course they always do to some extent, even in the most stable periods — these changes are "averaged out" and affect the calculated change, if any, in the aggregate price level only in a shrouded and analytically irrelevant manner.
So if the economy expands along certain lines, but not along others, and the configuration of relative prices has changed, the vulgar Keynesians know that "aggregate demand" and "aggregate supply" have risen, but they have no idea why or in what manner they have risen. Nor do they care. In their view, the economy's aggregate output — the only output they treat as worthy of notice — is driven by aggregate demand, to which aggregate supply responds more or less automatically; and it matters not whether only the demand for cucumbers has risen or, to cite an example Keynes himself used, only the demand for pyramids has risen. Aggregate demand is aggregate demand is aggregate demand.
Because the vulgar Keynesian has no conception of the economy's structure of output, he cannot conceive of how an expansion of demand along certain lines but not along others might be problematic. In his view, one cannot have, say, too many houses and apartments. Increasing the spending for houses and apartments is, he thinks, always good whenever the economy has unemployed resources, regardless of how many houses and apartments now stand vacant and regardless of what specific kinds of resources are unemployed and where they are located in this vast land. Although the unemployed laborers may be skilled silver miners in Idaho, it is supposedly still a good thing if somehow the demand for condos is increased in Palm Beach, because for the vulgar Keynesian there are no individual classes of laborers or separate labor markets: labor is labor is labor. If someone — whatever his skills, preferences, or location — is unemployed, then in this framework of thought we may expect to put him back to work by increasing aggregate demand sufficiently, regardless of what we happen to spend the money for, whether it be cosmetics or computers.
This stark simplicity exists, you see, because aggregate output is a simple increasing function of aggregate labor employed: Q = f(L), where dQ/dL > 0.
Note that this "aggregate-production function" has only one input, aggregate labor. The workers seemingly produce without the aid of capital! If pressed, the vulgar Keynesian admits that the workers use capital, but he insists that the capital stock may be taken as "given" and fixed in the short run. And — a highly important point — his whole apparatus of thought is intended exclusively to help him understand this short run. In the long run, he may insist, we are "all dead," as Keynes put it, or he may simply deny that the long run is what we get when we place a series of short runs back to back. The vulgar Keynesian in effect treats living for the moment, and only for it, as a major virtue. At any given time, the future may safely be left to take care of itself.
The Rate of Interest
The vulgar Keynesian may care about the rate of interest, but only in a restricted sense. For him, the rate of interest is the "price of money" — that is, the rental rate paid on borrowed money. Such borrowing is always good, and more of it is always better because individuals use borrowed money to purchase consumer goods, thereby "creating jobs," and a job is the finest thing in the known universe. Hence, the lower the rate of interest, the more people will borrow and spend, and the better the economy will function, again so long as any unemployment exists anywhere in the country.
Because some unemployment always exists, the vulgar Keynesian always wants the rate of interest to be lower than it is. If it can be lowered artificially by central-bank action, he strongly favors such action. The Federal Reserve System has recently pushed its target for the interest rate on "federal funds" — overnight balances the banks borrow from one another — to a range that begins at zero, and esteemed economists have toyed with the crackpot notion of aiming for a negative rate of interest (see, for example, Mankiw 2009). (Where do I sign up for a loan?)
The vulgar Keynesian does not understand what the rate of interest really is. He fails to comprehend that it is a crucial relative price — namely, the price of goods available now relative to goods available in the future. Remember, he does not think in terms of relative prices at all, so it is entirely natural that he fails to recognize how the rate of interest affects the choice between current consumption and saving — that is, acting so as to make possible more future consumption by not consuming current income. In a free market, a reduction in the rate of interest reflects a desire to shift more consumption from the present to the future.
A free market would comprise private suppliers and demanders of loanable funds, and the prevailing market rate of interest would be that at which the amount demanders want to borrow equals the amount suppliers want to lend. Both borrowers and lenders, however, are making their choices in the light of their "time preference," which is to say the rate at which they are willing to trade present goods for future goods. People with a "high rate of time preference" are keen to consume now rather than later, and to induce them to give up present consumption, borrowers must compensate them by paying a high rate of interest for the use of their funds.
Although vulgar Keynesians recognize that a lower rate of interest will spur business firms to borrow more money and invest it, they imagine that business investment plans are naturally volatile and essentially irrational — driven, as Keynes said, by the entrepreneurs' "animal spirits" (1936, 161–62). Hence, the degree to which investment responds to a change in the rate of interest is small and may be more or less disregarded.
For the vulgar Keynesians, the importance of the rate of interest is that it regulates the amount that individuals will borrow to finance their purchases of consumer goods. Those purchases, in their view, are the essential element in the determination of how much firms want to produce and how much they want to invest in expanding their capacity to produce. Again, however, in this framework, it matters not what kind of investment takes place: investment is investment is investment.
Capital and Its Structure
As noted already, the vulgar Keynesian views the capital stock as "given." If he thinks about it at all, he considers it a sort of massive inheritance from the past and assumes that nothing that might be added to or subtracted from it in the short run will change it enough to warrant concern. But if he gives little thought to capital, he gives none at all to its structure: the fine-grained patterns of specialization and interrelation among the countless specific forms of capital goods in which past saving and investment have become embodied. In his framework of analysis, it matters not whether firms invest in new telephones or new hydroelectric dams: capital is capital is capital.
Because in this framework the structure of the capital stock is disregarded — even sophisticated economists, such as Frank Knight, have insisted that the capital stock is essentially an undifferentiated glob of monetary value, any part of which may be substituted perfectly for any other part of equal monetary value (Hennings 1987, 330) — no attention is given to how changes in the rate of interest bring about changes in the structure of the capital stock. After all, what possible difference can such a change make? This willful blindness has caused many economists, including the recent Nobel laureate, Paul Krugman (1998), to misinterpret the Austrian theory of the business cycle as a theory of "overinvestment," which it definitely is not.
Instead, the theory pioneered by Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek in the first half of the 20th century — a theory that fell into near oblivion after the Keynesian revolution in macroeconomics — is a theory of malinvestment, which is to say a theory of how an artificially reduced rate of interest leads business firms to invest in the wrong kinds of capital, in particular the longest-lived capital goods, such as residential and industrial buildings, as opposed to inventories, equipment, and software with a relatively short life. Thus, in the Austrian view, Fed-induced low rates of interest, like those between 2002 and 2005, led firms to overvalue longer-term capital projects and to shift their investment spending in that direction — producing booms in building construction, among other things. This shift would make economic sense if the interest rate had fallen in a free market, thereby signaling that people wish to defer more consumption by saving more of their current income.
Vulgar Keynesians believe that the government should "try something," and if it doesn't work, try something else.
But if people have not changed their preferences in this way and continue to prefer present consumption relatively as much as they did previously, then businesses will make mistakes by choosing these kinds of investment projects, which are, in effect, attempts to anticipate future demands that will never eventuate. When the projects ultimately begin to fail, the boom that the artificially lowered interest rates set in motion will collapse into a bust, with attendant bankruptcies and unemployed labor, as unsustainable projects are liquidated and resources are shifted — painfully in many cases — to more viable uses.
Because the vulgar Keynesian is blind to these microdistortions and to the need for their correction in the wake of an artificially induced boom, he fails to see any need for the bankruptcies and unemployment that necessarily attend a substantial economic restructuring. He supposes: if only the government stepped in and used its own deficit spending to make up for the reduced private investment and consumption spending, then business would be restored to profitability and workers reemployed without any economic restructuring.
It comes as no surprise, then, that people who think along such lines are currently working to continue a policy that contributed greatly to producing the unsustainable boom of 2002–2006, namely, subsidized lending to would-be homeowners who cannot meet normal commercial qualifications for receiving such loans. It does not occur to the vulgar Keynesians that too many resources have been directed into house and condo construction and that lending to homeowners who cannot afford to purchase homes unless they are subsidized to do so signals an uneconomic use of resources at the expense of the taxpayers who directly or indirectly finance these subsidies.
Malinvestments and Money Pumping
With their great, simple faith in the efficacy of government spending as a macroeconomic balance wheel, vulgar Keynesians disregard malinvestment, past and future, and support government spending in excess of the government's revenues, the difference being covered by borrowing. Of course, they favor central-bank actions to make such borrowing cheaper for the government. In fact, they chronically prefer "easy money" to more restrictive central-bank policies.
As noted previously, they prefer easy money, not only because it lowers the visible cost of financing the government's deficit spending, but also because it induces individuals to borrow more money and spend it for consumption goods — such increased consumption spending's being viewed as always a good thing, notwithstanding the near-zero rate of saving by individuals in the United States in recent years. Reflecting on the vulgar Keynesian attitude toward Fed policy, I keep recalling an old country song whose refrain was "older whiskey, faster horses, younger women, more money."
Vulgar Keynesians do not spend much time worrying about potential inflation; on the contrary, they are obsessed with an irrational fear of even the slightest hint of deflation. If inflation should become an undeniable problem, we may count on them to support price controls, which, on the basis of sketchy knowledge of such controls during World War II, they are convinced can be made to work well.
Regime Uncertainty
Vulgar Keynesians are nothing if not policy activists. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, they believe that the government should "try something," and if it doesn't work, try something else (Roosevelt 1933, 51). Better still is that the government try a bunch of things at once and, if they don't turn the trick, then continue to pour more money into them anyway and try something else to boot.
The eras they esteem as the most glorious ones in US politico-economic history are Roosevelt's first term as president and Lyndon B. Johnson's first few years in the presidency. In these periods, we witnessed an outpouring of new government measures to spend, tax, regulate, subsidize, and generally create economic mischief on an extraordinary scale. The Obama administration's ambitious plans for government action on many fronts fill vulgar Keynesians with hope that a third such Great Leap Forward has now begun.
The vulgar Keynesian does not understand that extreme policy activism may work against economic prosperity by creating what I call "regime uncertainty," a pervasive uncertainty about the very nature of the impending economic order, especially about how the government will treat private-property rights in the future (Higgs 1997). This kind of uncertainty especially discourages investors from putting money into long-term projects. Such investment, which almost disappeared after 1929, did not recover fully until after World War II.
More than one observer has commented in recent months that regime uncertainty has resulted from the government's frenetic series of bailouts, capital infusions, emergency loans, takeovers, stimulus packages, and other extraordinary measures crammed into a period of less than a year (see, for example, Boettke 2008, Gonigam 2009, and Lam 2009). With the Obama administration in the saddle, prospects appear favorable for a continuation of this kind of frantic policy activism. It cannot help, and it may hurt a great deal.Nations don’t have friends, they have interests. Thanks De Gaulle! Such an idea underpins much in foreign relations. Nobody out there is friends with your country, much as you might think they are. And yet, quite stubbornly, the U.S.-Israeli relationship continues to be categorized not as a strategic one but one based on fraternal bonds of whateverness.
I was fascinated to watch the comments section of George Friedman’s most recent post descend into chaos. The post was about how it made a great deal of sense to improve American relations with Iran, even if that hurt relations with Israel. The comments accordingly went after Friedman for a variety of sins – from being naive to incomprehensible. Meanwhile, peppering the board just to keep it interesting was someone bashing Israel for even existing while being bashed by Israel supporters in return.
Why does Israel, a small state of only 8 million or so, get people so hot and bothered so quickly? The answer is less about religion and more about people misunderstanding how states behave.
Nobody is friends with your country, and nobody ever will be
Friendship is an equitable relationship that involves give or take, trust and love, history and decency, etc. None of this applies to foreign relations. States establish relationships to gain advantage, power, and security; they reduce or break relationships for the same reason. Despite that sticker I saw in Jerusalem in 2011, Israel would not send forces to save New York from an alien invasion out of loyalty and fidelity but only if they believed it would guarantee them further security in the future. This is not to slag off Israel. Rather, this is to say that this is the completely reasonable and acceptable thing to do.
States are collections of elites who, combined with their middlemen, organize large groups of people into countries, governments, and societies. They cannot act like your best friend because the psychology is vastly different. They can’t keep promises and they can’t be trusted to be the same after just a few years, let alone a generation, because elites in most states are constantly being cycled out and replaced by either death, coup, election, or internal wrangling. Each elite group brings with it its own set of priorities which always seek more advantage, power, and security. How a state can accomplish that is based on its geography, demography, ruling system, and cultural psychology.
Israel is in the same position all states have been that base themselves out of Canaan
All states – from ancient to modern – have the same geographic problems securing themselves in that portion of territory. It’s not very big, and so can’t support populations as large as neighbors in Syria, Egypt, or Turkey. It’s natural barriers aren’t very good, so it can’t play the Greek card and hold up behind mountains should those larger and more powerful neighbors get an itch to conquer it. It must always seek a qualitative advantage over a quantitative one. If you can’t have ten soldiers, you’d better arm one so well that he can kill at least nine of them.
And so all successful states in the region survived because foreign powers supported them with such an edge. Israel has found the absolute best one in the world – the lone superpower. So long as that relationship survives, Israel believes its security is assured.
But what does America get from it (besides its flag being burned alongside the Israeli one)?
Israel once served a vital strategic interest for the United States – it tied down Soviet-backed Arab states. The defeats Israel inflicted on Egypt forced Egypt to reevaluate its partnership with the Soviets, culminating in their about-face to the Western camp in the 1970s. That in and of itself was worth all the hassle of supporting Israel in the 1960s and 70s. In the 1980s, Israeli forces continued to keep Syria, still Soviet-backed, busy, and ensured no communist force emerged in Lebanon.
After the end of the Cold War, however, and the collapse of communism, Israel’s usefulness has waned. Because of all the blowback America has gotten and will continue to get, American elites talk openly of changing the current relationship to one that burns fewer bridges.
That rightly worries Israel
Israel knows its most secure with its superpower patron. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon have all, one by one, de jure or de facto, accepted that Israel is going nowhere because to attack Israel means to go up against superior American military technology (and most likely lose). Anything that threatens access to those weapons is a threat to Israel’s security.
Thus Israel has long focused nearly its entire diplomatic effort on keeping American support. Israel loudly supports the United States in many of the efforts it undertakes in hopes that this will keep American friendship alive.
A lot of this effort involves myth-making and distorted histories
Like all states, Israel selects facts and stories that serve state interests first. (No state will ever start its school history book with a paragraph describing why its such a shitty place for doing nasty things to people in the past). Israel has successfully tied its creation to the Holocaust, in spite of the fact that Zionism is almost older than Hitler. Ariel Sharon tied Israel’s security operations in the West Bank in 2002-5 to America’s War on Terror. Israel reminds people that it’s the only democratic state in the Middle East.
All of this tries to undermine the emerging geopolitical reality that’s been coming along since 1991. America no longer needs Israel to counterbalance anyone. Syria’s dissolution takes them off the threat map; Egypt remains firmly pro-American, and if they do slip out of it, where will they go for military goods? Lebanon is hopelessly divided and Jordan’s king rules partially because he keeps Western aid coming.
Alas, a lot of people mistake international relations for friendships in school
Shortly after the American Revolutionary War, America fought a Quasi-War with its former ally France. Why? Because alliances shift and relationships change based on interests. Why is Britain one of America’s closest allies, despite being the former colonial overlord? For the same reasons.
Israel’s diplomatic efforts have not been wasted, but are increasingly less effective. As they become less effective, supporters become more shrill – hoping that if they shout loud enough they can keep the crowd from wandering away (the right part to start is around 4:45). American elites used to be unified in the knowledge that Israel served American purposes, but that’s no longer true. Only Iran and Syria remain outside the American camp (and Syria probably shouldn’t count anymore). Their government forms, religions, and cultures are irrelevant to American interests, which are hinged on energy and international security (the House of Saud continues to get American cooperation by keeping the oil spigot going and smashing up Al Qaeda).
Israel can’t serve much of a purpose against Iran because they share no borders. America can’t use Israel as much to tie down Iranian resources in expensive arms races or bloody proxy wars. Year by year, the bang for each American buck that goes towards Israeli security delivers smaller and smaller returns.
This is not to say America will totally abandon Israel
The U.S. desires a divided Middle East underneath an American security umbrella. It wants powers unable to challenge one another without American permission and would like, eventually, to see the region turn into a proto-EU – toothless but economically vibrant and willing to trade with the U.S. There’s no reason that Israel can’t fit into this American-drawn map. But there’s increasingly less and less use for Israel in the process of drawing it.
The shouting will get louder
Each election cycle in the U.S. will weaken support for Israel as the years go by. This will cause those who are emotionally or religiously attached to the state to grow louder in their condemnations of Americans who, by accident or design, reward politicians who vote this way. Israel will continue to believe it must have a special relationship with America for years to come. But America will increasingly believe that Israel’s existence will not be threatened should it reduce its military support.
This will be because America will start to believe it will have sorted the Middle East’s border problems that have plagued it since 1917. This won’t mean the Middle East won’t have many, many problems, but it will mean that no states will attempt to absorb or destroy one another. (Likely, the U.S. will encourage further Balkanization).
The final hinge will be bringing Iran into the American camp. Should this happen, Israel’s relationship will be accordingly downgraded, because the final piece of the map will be in place and America will have no need for any one national army to be stronger than any other. On that day, expect the shouts to be loudest – but expect the crowd to wander away just the same.
AdvertisementsThe Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is busy making sure people have access to cannabis for personal use if they want it once it becomes legal in July 2018.
As previously announced, the Liberals will have the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corp. (NLC) provide all of the cannabis needed in the province, as obtained from Health Canada-certified suppliers and sold through the NLC and NLC-certified retailers.
Questions coming now from the province’s Progressive Conservatives are, who will be the initial suppliers, for how much and for how long?
The PCs want to know if the agreements for initial supply will allow for N.L.-based suppliers to enter the market.
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N.L. to sell cannabis through liquor corporation
PC Leader Paul Davis pressed the subject in question period Monday, asking if the government will issue a formal request for proposals for NLC’s marijuana supply.
The province has announced there will be a public call for businesses interested in becoming front-end retailers, but the same cannot be said on the supply side.
Justice Minister Andrew Parsons previously noted the certification of safe suppliers is a federal process, and he repeated it again in responding to questions Monday.
“What we can say is that there are significant regulations when it comes to this and it is federally controlled who gets production, but we will continue to work with entrepreneurs to ensure that we have production here in this province,” he said.
There have been talks already between the government and potential suppliers based outside of the province — certified and in a position to supply the NLC.
Names have not been released, but Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation Minister Chris Mitchelmore said in November further information will be released when the province has signed on a supplier or suppliers.Britain has expelled Mossad's chief representative in London and has described as “intolerable” the Israeli spy agency's alleged use of British passports to aid the assassination of a senior Hamas operative in Dubai.
The Foreign Secretary, David Milliband, made a special statement in the House of Commons overnight, accusing Israel of a “profound disregard” for Britain and its sovereignty.
"No country or government could stand by in such a situation. I have asked that a member of the embassy of Israel be withdrawn from the UK as a result of this affair and this is taking place," Mr Milliband said.
"The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury."
Mr Milliband refused to identify the diplomat to be expelled or even if he or she was an intelligence officer, but newspapers in London reported that senior Foreign Office sources have confirmed it was Mossad's top representative at the embassy.Abstract The Nigeria Urbanization Review serves the critical and timely purpose of understanding the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in Nigeria. The country’s rapid urban population growth and expansion is examined in relation to the account of its recent urban economic growth in order to seek for ways to finance urban development, particularly the provision of urban public goods and services. The objective of this analytical program is to provide diagnostic tools to inform policy dialogue and investment priorities on urbanization. This report serves the critical and timely purpose of focusing attention on the challenges and opportunities of urbanization in Nigeria. The executive summary at the front summarizes the key trends of Nigeria’s urbanization and sets out a framework to structure core urban challenges in view of underlying causes. Detailed analyses follow in the subsequent four chapters. In Chapter 1, the dynamics of Nigeria’s urbanization process are presented, with particular attention to the country’s rapid urban population growth, the very large-scale urban expansion, and the stubborn persistence of high levels of urban poverty, inequality and regional disparity. Chapter 2 provides an account of Nigeria’s recent urban economic growth, in view of the nature of the concentration of economic activity across the country’s states and cities, and of the limited performance of urban and regional economies in generating higher levels of employment and improving business climates. Chapter 3 turns to description and assessment of land management, urban planning and housing provision procedures and systems, which face a variety of challenges with regard to costs, affordability, capacity, equity and efficiency. Finally, Chapter 4 deals with the financing of urban development, particularly the provision of urban public goods and services, which is in need of both substantial finance and institutional and systemic improvements and reform.
Citation “World Bank Group. 2016. From Oil to Cities : Nigeria's Next Transformation. Directions in Development--Countries and Regions;. World Bank, Washington, DC. © World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24376 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”The Cadillac ELR and Chevy Volt share the same underpinnings. The Chevy Volt, which isn't selling super fantastically, starts at $34,185. The ELR, when it hits dealers in January, will start at $75,995. Jeepers.
Cadillac seems to be hoping that the tech and style of the ELR will bring people in to the dealers since it is their techiest offering and, I guess, their only Tesla rival. And tax credits can possibly get the price down to $68,495.
The issue is that, at that price range, the person better really want a Cadillac. If they're in the electric vehicle market at that price range, then the Model S is what they want. And even though this is an extended range electric vehicle, Cadillac says that it's an electric car.
The ELR has a theoretical total range of 300 miles with gas and electric factored in. The Tesla 85kW, which costs $73,570, has a 265 mile range. And charging for Teslas is now super fast.
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I'm not a detective, but I think I see an issue here. Hopefully, Cadillac knows something that I don't. The ELR is gorgeous, but that might not be enough.For Terri White, editing lads' mags, with their topless pictures of "real women", was a fast track to success. After years defending her career, she confronts the "monster" she helped create – and returns to face the women who bared all for her
As the sound of jazz filled the air in the office that night I diligently got on with the task at hand. It was slow. It was laborious. It was tedious. It was decapitating topless women. I was associate editor on the best-selling men's weekly magazine Nuts and tomorrow was the launch of Assess My |
claimed that not only was it the fault of Baskin Robbin, but also the Dubai Municipality was to blame.
This is an allegation that is taken very seriously by the Dubai Municipality and they had launched a very in depth investigation into the matter. Food establishments in Dubai have a very strict rule set that they must abide by and this investigative committee found that this rumor was in fact false.
As stated in their official facebook page, the Dubai Municipality had this statement to make
“Dubai Municipality confirms that it has an integrated system consisting of strict procedures to ensure control of all traded food in the emirate. The Municipality also uses the self-monitoring method on food institutions to ensure full compliance with all specifications and legislations adopted in the country.”
So not only has the Municipality cleared Baskin Robbins from any blame, you can also rest assured that their ice cream is following all the necessary rules and safe to consume. In fact the investigation in which the International Ice Cream giant actively cooperated, has brought to light that the video was taken is some other Gulf country and not in Dubai or UAE.
Along with that, DM had some very strong words for the perpetrator who floated these allegations against them. They have spoken out against the fad of blaming the DM in spite of ‘lack of knowledge’ about the truth of the entire situation. Adding to that they have also said that the Dubai Municipality condemns this vile act of spreading misinformation and tarnishing their good name without any credible sources.
As for all of us we are glad that we can get back to enjoying our cold ice cream and sweet desserts among the melting summer sun. And as for Baskin Robbins, the world’s largest chain of ice cream specialty shop restaurants is glad to get their name cleared of this rumor.
They have forever operated under a motto of serving 31 flavours, one for each day of the month, and I am sure that mould isn’t going to make it’s way into that list any time soon! So go ahead fellow residents of Dubai and get your tubs of BK ice cream! They’re completely safe, as they always have been!Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Food Network star Anne Burrell has confirmed she is gay after she was apparently outed by fellow network star Ted Allen.
Charismatic, spiky blond-haired Burrell, who hosts “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef” and also appears on “Iron Chef America” and “Worst Cooks in America,” says she was not ruffled when “Chopped” star Allen revealed on Romaine Patterson’s Sirius XM show, “I am not going to put a label on Anne, but she is dating a woman right now.”
Burrell’s rep told Page Six: “Anne doesn’t feel she was outed. She has made no secret of her relationship. Her significant other is a very private woman. They have been together for a couple of years and spend a lot of time together. It is no secret in the culinary world.”
Sources tell us Burrell’s girlfriend is another top James Beard Award-winning chef. Sources also said Burrell — an instructor at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education — appeared alarmed when she learned of Allen’s comments while shooting her show.
She was filming at Old Homestead Steakhouse in the Meatpacking District last Thursday, but bolted out — telling the production crew she had “a situation to deal with” and sped off on her bicycle, returning to the set the next day.
While an Old Homestead rep confirmed the restaurant was closed for two days while Burrell was filming, and, “She was gracious, fun-loving and every bit the personality that has made her a favorite,” our source added, “The place was buzzing, but no one dared to ask her about Allen’s comments.”
Burrell’s sexuality has been the subject of speculation, but until now she’s been quiet about it. Last year, Out magazine noted that while the Food Network counts a sizable gay audience, none of its major stars have publicly come out. “We’re always looking to broaden the diversity of our hosts,” said Bob Tuschman, general manager and senior vice president of the the network.CLOSE On the heels of Obama's pointed comments, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton gave his first television interview to CNN, saying "We have not caved. We have not given in." VPC
Then Sony Entertainment CEO and Sony Pictures Entertainment chairman and CEO Michael Lynton speaks at the company's headquarters in Tokyo on November 18, 2014. He's now chairman of Snap. (Photo: Toshifumi Kitamura, AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Sony did the wrong thing when it backed down and pulled The Interview in the face of North Korean hacker threats, President Obama said at his new conference Friday.
"I wish they had spoken to me first," he said. "I would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you're intimidated by these kinds of criminal attacks."
But on the heels of Obama's pointed comments, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton gave his first television interview to CNN. "We have not caved. We have not given in. We have persevered," he told Fareed Zakaria.
CNN began airing excerpts of the interview Friday. In it, Lynton disputed Obama's assertion that they didn't talk with him. "We definitely spoke to a senior adviser in the White House to talk about the situation," he said.
Friday evening, Sony Pictures issued a follow-up statement. The company said that although free expression "should never be suppressed by threats and extortion," it "had no choice" but to halt distribution.
"Let us be clear – the only decision that we have made with respect to release of the film was not to release it on Christmas Day in theaters, after the theater owners declined to show it. Without theaters, we could not release it in the theaters on Christmas Day."
"After that decision, we immediately began actively surveying alternatives to enable us to release the movie on a different platform. It is still our hope that anyone who wants to see this movie will get the opportunity to do so," the statement concluded.
Earlier Friday, the FBI confirmed that North Korea was behind the cyberattacks on Sony Pictures. "As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. Government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions,'' an FBI statement said.
"While the need to protect sensitive sources and methods precludes us from sharing all of this information, our conclusion is based, in part, on similarities in specific lines of code, encryption algorithms, data deletion methods, and compromised networks," the FBI said in a brief statement
Sony Pictures Entertainment's computer network was attacked by hackers on Nov. 24. Sony's computer network was crippled and almost 38 million files were stolen. Since then, highly damaging and embarrassing files stolen from Sony have been doled out on file-sharing websites.
The hack was apparently in response to the planned release of The Interview, a comedy about an assassination attempt against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that featured James Franco and Seth Rogen as tabloid TV journalists. Sony on Tuesday killed the film's release.
Obama said he was sympathetic to the damage and threats Sony has dealt with. " "Having said all that, yes I think they made a mistake," Obama said.
"We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States," he said. "Because if somebody is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don't like or news reports that they don't like."
Even worse, Obama said, "imagine if producers and distributors and others started engaging in self-censorship because they don't want to offend the sensibilities of somebody whose sensibilities probably need to be offended."
"That's not who we are. That's not what America's about," he said.
Lynton seems to indicate that while he didn't specifically ask the White House whether the studio should cut The Interview, "the White House was certainly aware of the situation."
SONY CEO CITES THREAT TO AUDIENCE
The crucial decision point came when the hackers began threatening audiences who planned on going to theaters to see the film, Lynton said. "The movie theaters came to us one by one over the course of a very short time. We were very surprised by it," the CEO added. "They announced that they would not carry the movie. At that point in time we had no alternative to not proceed with a theatrical release on the 25th of December."
Lynton said he didn't regret making the movie. "I would make the movie again. For the same reasons we made it in the first place--it was a funny comedy, it served as political satire...Knowing what I know now, we might have done something slightly differently, but I think a lot of events have overtaken us in a way that we had no control over," he told CNN. Still, "we would still like the public to see this movie, absolutely," he said.
The United States will act on the cyberattack, but Obama did not go into detail about how. "We will respond, we will respond proportionally, and in a place and time that we choose. It's not something that I will announce here today at this press conference," he said.
CLOSE President Obama said he wished Sony would have talked to him before deciding to put 'The Interview' on the shelf. VPC
In the FBI statement, the agency said that, "further, North Korea's attack on SPE (Sony Pictures Entertainment) reaffirms that cyber threats pose one of the gravest national security dangers to the United States.''
The FBI said that it had "determined that the intrusion into SPE's network consisted of the deployment of destructive malware and the theft of proprietary information as well as employees' personally identifiable information and confidential communications.'
While it has seen a rising number of cyber breaches, "the destructive nature of this attack, coupled with its coercive nature, sets it apart," the FBI said.
In addition to the coding similarities, the FBI said it had found other evidence of North Korea's involvement, including the discovery of several Internet addresses "associated with known North Korean infrastructure communicated with IP addresses that were hard-coded into the data deletion malware used in this attack."
Also, the FBI found that tools used in the Sony attack were similar to an attack launched last March against South Korean banks and media outlets carried out by North Korea.
Former senator Chris Dodd, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, called the hack "a despicable, criminal act."
HACKERS RESPOND
Late Thursday, Sony received conflicting messages purportedly from the hackers. One, posted publicly, told the studio it has "suffered enough" and is free to release The Interview.
At the same time, a private message sent to some Sony executives Thursday night told them they had made a "very wise" decision when they canceled the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy, an official at Sony told USA TODAY on background. The official would not be identified because the person was not authorized to speak on the record.
The dueling messages are diametrically opposed.
The private message read, "Now we want you never let the movie released, distributed or leaked in any form of, for instance, DVD or piracy," adding "And we want everything related to the movie, including its trailers, as well as its full version down from any website hosting them immediately."
That's a very different one from the a public posting, also made late Thursday night, to Pastebin, an online file-sharing website. The hackers have been using Pastebin to release their messages for the past several weeks. That message read, "You have suffered through enough threats. We lift the ban. The Interview may release now."
It is impossible to know if the Pastebin message is actually from the Guardians of Peace, the shadowy hacker group that claims to have infiltrated Sony's computer network and stolen millions of files.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1AOnOHIA university Islamic Society said it is shocked one of its centres is to close.
The centre at the University of East Anglia is used for Friday prayers and is often visited by students at other times of the week.
The university said that the arrangement was always temporary and that permission had now lapsed.
Mohammed Patel, of the Islamic Society, said no-one knew closure was imminent and claimed a multi-faith chaplaincy was too small.
Mr Patel said: "When I first heard about the plan last Friday I went straight to the students' union to ask for details.
"No-one there knew about the move and no-one in the university's Islamic Society had been informed.
"It's a pretty shocking way to handle it.
"We already share the chaplaincy especially when students do not have time to reach the Islamic Centre on the campus to pray.
"The space there, however, is too small to accommodate those who want to attend Friday prayers."
Multi-faith building offered
One of the pro-vice chancellors at the university Professor Tom Ward said: "The centre was always going to have to move at the end of the planning permission.
"We are adapting the building so that space in the chaplaincy can be used especially so that separate rooms can accommodate men and women."
"I can understand they are unhappy but there has been no ambiguity. The facilities were always temporary and we've come to the end of that time.
"The centre was used by people not from the university and while we welcome them on campus our obligation is to students and staff.
"The answer is to use the multi-faith building where each should accommodate the others."BOSTON (CBS) — A homeless man turned in a backpack with $2,400 in cash, $39,500 in travelers checks and a passport that he found at South Bay Mall in Dorchester.
Boston Police officers at South Bay Mall were flagged down by the man in front of the TJ Maxx Store.
The man said he found a black backpack that contained a large sum of money and a passport in the front of the store.
Update BPD To Honor Homeless Man Who Returned Cash-Filled Backpack
Officers took the backpack and its contents.
The Good Samaritan could only provide officers with his name and the address of the shelter where he currently lives, Boston Police said.
Officers notified store security at the South Bay Mall about the backpack.
Later Saturday night, police were contacted by an employee of Best Buy who said a customer lost his backpack.
The passport matched the customer’s identity and his backpack was returned to him.It's being called the industrial Internet of things (IIoT), an emerging business at the intersection of hi-technology and big machinery.
The concept is simple: making industrial machines smarter, through the adoption of sensors, software and big data analytics. As consumers become increasingly reliant on the information provided by mobile devices and smart technology, IIoT seeks to do the same for business by streamlining operations and making them more efficient.
To be sure, the industrial Internet is very much in its infancy. Yet a report by Accenture says the potential economic impact of industrial web spending is huge: IIoT expenditures may reach $500 billion by 2020, and could even add $15 trillion to global growth by 2030. Companies from a wide spectrum of industries such as oil, mining and agriculture, are dedicating resources to the concept.
General Electric, meanwhile, is one of the companies at the forefront. Since 2012, the industrial giant has poured billions of dollars into the burgeoning space, which is called, simply, the Industrial Internet.
For GE, the industrial Internet generated just over $1 billion in revenue last year, a tiny 1 percent fraction of its $107 billion in industrial sales. Still, the company has high hopes for growth prospects.
"We started with this idea that the world of software and machines was really coming together, and we felt that software was going to transform industrial machines," said Bill Ruh, vice president of the GE Software Center.Android supports mice, keyboards, and even gamepads. On many Android devices, you can connect USB peripherals to your device. On other Android devices, you may need to connect them wirelessly via Bluetooth.
Yes, this means you can connect a mouse to your Android tablet and get a mouse cursor, or connect an Xbox 360 controller and play a game, console-style. You can even connect a keyboard and use keyboard shortcuts like Alt+Tab.
USB Mice, Keyboards, and Gamepads
Android phones and tablets don’t have standard, full-size USB ports, so you can’t plug a USB peripheral directly into it. To actually connect a USB device to your Android device, you’ll need a USB on-the-go cable. A USB OTG cable is an adapter that plugs into the Micro-USB port on your device and allows you to connect full-size USB peripherals. These cables can be purchased for a dollar or two on a site like Monoprice, or a few bucks more on Amazon.
A USB OTG cable may also allow you to use other USB devices with your Android. For example, you can connect a USB flash drive to your Android phone or tablet.
Important Note: Not every Android device supports peripherals with a USB OTG cable. Some devices don’t have the appropriate hardware support. For example, you can connect USB mice and keyboards to a Nexus 7 tablet, but not a Nexus 4 smartphone. Be sure to Google whether your device supports USB OTG before purchasing a USB OTG cable.
Once you have a USB OTG cable, just plug it into your device and connect the USB device directly to it. Your peripherals should work without any additional configuration.
Bluetooth Mice, Keyboards, and Gamepads
A USB OTG cable isn’t the ideal solution for many devices. Wires add a lot of clutter to what should be a portable device. Many devices also don’t support USB OTG cables.
If your device doesn’t support USB OTG or you just don’t like wires, you’re still in luck. You can connect wireless Bluetooth mice, keyboards, and gamepads directly to your phone or tablet. Just use your Android’s Bluetooth settings screen to pair it with your device, just as you’d pair a Bluetooth headset. You’ll find this screen at Settings -> Bluetooth.
If you’re shopping for a mouse or keyboard to use with your Android tablet, you’ll probably want to purchase Bluetooth devices for convenience and compatability.
Using a Mouse, Keyboard, or Gamepad
Using your peripherals is surprisingly easy. All of these input peripherals should “just work” — no rooting or other tweaks required.
Mouse : Connect a mouse and you will see a familiar mouse cursor appear on your screen. The cursor can be used to navigate through Android’s interface, clicking on things you’d normally tap. It works just like it would on a computer. Of course, you can also still reach out and touch the screen while the mouse is connected.
: Connect a mouse and you will see a familiar mouse cursor appear on your screen. The cursor can be used to navigate through Android’s interface, clicking on things you’d normally tap. It works just like it would on a computer. Of course, you can also still reach out and touch the screen while the mouse is connected. Keyboard : Your keyboard should just work when typing in text fields, allowing you to type at a reasonable speed on a mechanical keyboard and see more of the screen by removing the need for the on-screen, touch keyboard. Many keyboard shortcuts work like they do on computers, including Alt+Tab for switching between recent apps and Ctrl + X, C, or V for Cut, Copy, and Paste.
: Your keyboard should just work when typing in text fields, allowing you to type at a reasonable speed on a mechanical keyboard and see more of the screen by removing the need for the on-screen, touch keyboard. Many keyboard shortcuts work like they do on computers, including Alt+Tab for switching between recent apps and Ctrl + X, C, or V for Cut, Copy, and Paste. Gamepad: The gamepad can be used to navigate through Android’s home-screen interface and launch apps, but that’s not the ideal use. You’ll need to use the gamepad with games that support controllers. Some games (like the Sonic platformer games for Android) beg for one and work much better with a controller than with the standard touch-screen controls.
We have also covered the opposite process — here’s how to use your Android device as a mouse, keyboard, or joystick for your computer.Robin Roberts made no attempt to hide her disdain for guest Omarosa Manigault on Thursday after she appeared on Good Morning America.
The aide to President Trump sat down with Michael Strahan for her first interview since reports emerged that she was fired from the White House, and managed to tell her side of the story with no real push back from the ABC morning show co-host.
That friendly chat proved to be too much for Roberts however, especially after the sit-down wrapped and Strahan joked: 'I don't know if she's ever going to have a relationship with [President Trump]. Fourth time could be the charm.'
Roberts responded by coolly turning her face towards George Stephanopoulos and saying: 'She said she has a story to tell and I'm sure she'll be selling that story.'
The legendary newswoman then paused for a beat, looked directly at the camera, and said: 'Bye Felicia.'
Omarosa was quick to engage however, writing in a text to Inside Edition just hours later: 'That's petty. It’s a black woman civil war.'
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I ain't sorry: Robin Roberts showed her disdain for Omarosa Manigault after the Trump aide stopped by Good Morning America on Thursday
Lady in red: Omarosa (above) sat down for a friendly interview with Michael Strahan in which she disputed all reports that she was fired from the White House on Tuesday
The line 'bye Felicia' comes from the 1995 film Friday, in which Felisha is a minor character who is widely disliked by the main characters portrayed by Ice Cube and Chris Tucker.
Ice Cube utters the famous line while Tucker shows Felisha away when she asks the two to borrow their car and have a joint in the film.
It has gained prominence over the past decade as a way of dismissing unwanted and disliked individuals.
The spelling of the character's name has also been changed to reflect the more popular version in the US.
Omarosa would not share her entire story with Strahan about her dismissal from the White House, saying it is 'a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.'
It was that claim which appeared to set Roberts off and prompt her later comment.
Roberts also sent out tweets teasing every single interview on GMA Thursday except Omarosa's earlier in the morning.
There has been no comment from Roberts or ABC about the low-key savage moment.
In her interview with Strahan, Omarosa said reports that she made a scene while being escorted from the White House grounds this week are '100 percent false,' and questioned why no photos or video of the alleged ruckus had surfaced if that was the case.
She claims that she resigned after a conversation with White House chief of staff John Kelly about some of her concerns and will remain on the staff through the administration's one-year mark.
The outgoing presidential adviser also alluded to seeing and hearing things during her 11 months in the White House that made her unhappy and uncomfortable, but declined to give specific examples.
The odd couple: Omarosa will stay on for the next month before departing her position in the White House (above in September 2016)
Apprentice all-stars: President Trump tweeted: 'Thank you Omarosa for your service! I wish you continued success'
'I resigned and I didn't do that in the residence as being reported, John Kelly and I sat down in the situation room, which is a very secure, very quiet room in the White House and we had a very candid conversation,' she explained to Strahan.
'But when I have a chance to tell my story, Michael, quite a story to tell as the only African-American woman in this White House, as a senior staff and assistant to the president.'
She continued: 'I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally that has affected my community and my people and when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.'
Roberts is not the first person to dismiss Omarosa in the wake of her firing, with political pundit Angela Rye going after the former Apprentice star on CNN Wednesday.
'Bye girl,' Rye said after learning Omarosa was out at the White House.
'Good bye, good riddance, good bye.'
Meanwhile Wednesday night President Trump meanwhile tweeted: 'Thank you Omarosa for your service! I wish you continued success.'
Omarosa, who worked for Vice President Gore's office during the 90s, was named communications director for the Office of Public Liaison in the White House soon after the election.
It is one of the highest paid positions in the administration, with Omarosa taking home $179,000 a year.An Old Man Hawkeye, a new Doctor Strange series and Ms. Marvel joining The Avengers are just some of the reveals Marvel has unleashed since unveiling its All-New All-Different initiative a few months ago. But with over 60 new titles, there’s still mystery surrounding some of Marvel’s most popular characters — such as the much-anticipated new Hulk that’s going to take over Bruce Banner’s mantle when Totally Awesome Hulk #1 hits stores in December.
So who is the new man in green? He’s different, he’s totally awesome…and he’s none other than kid genius Amadeus Cho.
A fixture of both the Marvel Universe and the Hulk stories for ten years, Cho seems like a natural choice, given that he mirrors his predecessor in a variety of ways — from his smarts to his impulsive nature. But the character serves a more significant purpose: crowning Cho with the Hulk title will mark the first time in Marvel history that the company will have a Korean-American lead character written and drawn by a Korean-American creative team (Greg Pak and Frank Cho, respectively.)
EW chatted with Pak and Marvel’s editor-in-chief Axel Alonso to get details on the obvious — why Amadeus Cho? — and what it means for Pak to return to the Hulk’s story.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: All-New All-Different Marvel is full of game changers, and Amadeus Cho as the new Hulk is no exception. So why Cho, and what was it about him that made you believe that he was a perfect fit for this role?
AXEL ALONSO: What happened is, we were at an editorial retreat, and we were talking about revitalizing individual titles and the types of things we could do to do that. As a former Hulk editor, I just felt like…we’ve seen Banner’s story for so long, and the burden that he carries, with the weight of the Hulk on his shoulders. Perhaps the most interesting thing is to see how someone else shoulders that burden, and immediately, Amadeus came to mind for a lot of different reasons. One of them is that physically, he’s like Banner: he’s the 98-pound weakling who’s had everything but the physical aspect to make him seem super cool. And secondarily is that he’s so different from Banner. He shares the monstrous intellect but he’s so different — he’s a teenage kid, who’s hasn’t lived much yet. When Banner inherited the burden of being the Hulk, he was an adult. And I think that it showed in the way that he responded to it. Amadeus is a plucky kid. He’s got a chip on his shoulder, he’s the fifth or sixth smartest guy in the world according to the official rankings, and I think he’s just going to carry himself very differently with that power.
GREG PAK: When [editor] Mark Pannica gave me a call, he said three words: “Amadeus Cho Hulk” and my head popped off. I said “I’m in! Let’s do it!” And Axel and Mark and I sat down and talked it all through, and it was immediately clear that we were all on the exact same page about this. I love Banner, I wrote Hulk stories for five and half years, and I loved writing Banner. Those stories mean a huge amount to me. At the same time, there’s a long tradition in Hulk stories of different people taking on that mantle, and with Amadeus in particular, it just set up a really great dynamic. Like Axel said, he’s going to be a very different kind of Hulk. He’s 19 years old, he’s on top of the world, he thinks he’s right about everything…and he might be. Or he might not be. But this is a kid who’s got a ridiculous amount of confidence. A lot of it has been justly earned, but he may be in over his head, and he’s going to come in here and he’s determined to be the best Hulk there’s ever been. He loves being the Hulk. And that may cause massive trouble for everyone else in the Marvel Universe. It’s just a great recipe.
ALONSO: For Banner, the weight was like a boulder. For Cho, it’s like a feather. And I think that’s the distinction here. He loves being the Hulk: that’s why he’s called the “Totally Awesome Hulk.” But I also want to say that he will be the only Hulk in the Marvel Universe. He will be the Hulk, the green Hulk, that will be him. Just like there’s one Thor in the Marvel Universe and she’s a she, there is one Hulk and it is Amadeus Cho. But I also want to say that there is a story to be told for Banner. Banner’s story is not over. And I don’t want people saying, “Oh, these guys hate Banner, and they don’t like him and they’re sick of him.” No — we love Banner. And in fact, that was one of the things that Greg and Mark and I discussed, how fascinating Banner’s life will become now that he no longer has this weight on his shoulders. What is his story? It’s far from finished. People shouldn’t think that we’re jettisoning Banner — he has a place in the Marvel Universe, and I think it’s going to become more fascinating what that place is in the coming months.
PAK: Yeah, there’s a big mystery of what exactly is going on with Banner and exactly what happened with Banner, and what state he’s in now. And as the series unfolds, that will be a big part of the story.
That was actually going to be my next question: if characters that we’re familiar with from the Hulk world, like Banner and She-Hulk and maybe even a few other new ones, will pop up in this series.
PAK: Amadeus is the main character of course, She-Hulk is right there in the very first issue — she’s got a great and big role to play in the first few issues. [Ed. Note: She-Hulk will appear as one of the leads in A-Force.] We’re also introducing some brand new characters, including one in particular that I’m just ridiculously excited about. It’s a young woman who’s sort of become a favorite very quickly; she’s serving as a really great foil for Amadeus. And Frank Cho, the artist — he’s a tremendous artist and he’s got a million great ideas and characters he’s been working on, and the big villainous of this story arc is a Frank Cho original. You’re going to see a pretty spectacular new villainous in this new storyline.
ALONSO: I just wanted to shout out to Frank Cho as well. When we were putting this together, Frank is extremely selective about what he does, and I called him with total confidence that he would jump on this. I know he loves Amadeus Cho, I know he loves Hulk, and he’s Korean, and I think that one of the things that’s going to be special about it is that in Greg, Frank and [colorist] Sonia Oback, you have three creators who are working on what I would consider to be most high-profile Asian-American superhero you’ve seen. Come December, arguably the strongest character in the Marvel Universe is going to be Asian-American. And I think that the only person who can dispute that is the female Thor, which I think says a lot about our line.
Marvel
Greg, can you talk about returning to the Hulk in this way and what it means to be able to work on a character that’s so close to your own heritage?
PAK: I actually co-created Amadeus back in the day, 10 years ago — it’s coming out around the 10th anniversary of the character’s first appearance. [Ed. Note: Cho’s first appearance was in Amazing Fantasy Vol 2 #15, January, 2006.] And Takeshi Miyazawa was the artist and I was the writer, and we introduced this Korean-American kid into the Marvel Universe. It’s been a blast to write ever since. We did a lot of stuff with him over the years in the Hulk universe. This is also a character, by the way, who has a long history with Banner and the Hulk. He basically started out as Hulk’s number one fan because he’s a crazy teenager with as little impulse control as the Hulk, so he kind of identified with him. But the character always meant a huge amount to me. When I had the opportunity to create this new character, I realized there aren’t specifically that many Asian-American characters at this time in the Marvel Universe, and it was sort of a niche. I also wanted to write a character who talks a lot. I was writing a lot of Hulk stuff, I was writing very closed-lip surly characters. But it’s been tremendous. I go to cons and people come up to me dressed as Amadeus Cho, and that blows my mind. And then the character’s also been picked up in some of the cartoons that Marvel puts out, and in one of the DVD movies they did. It’s kind of tremendous when anything you work on kind of resonates with people and goes on to be used by other creators as well.
The other thing is that this felt like a natural next step for both the Amadeus and the Hulk stories. It wasn’t what we imagined 10 years ago when we created the character, that this is exactly where he would end up. But just given the character’s history, it makes total sense. And the story is totally true for both the Hulk story and the Amadeus story, so it’s a lot of fun when those kinds of things can naturally come together for something this big.
ALONSO: Who hasn’t asked themselves at some point, how cool would it be to have the power of the Hulk? What we don’t always come to terms with is what the flip side of that would be — the monster in the trunk, so to speak, that you have to learn to control.
PAK: I remember reading a quote from Bill Bixby, years ago, when he was being interviewed about The Incredible Hulk TV show. And he said that wherever he went, the incredible range of people who love that show always blew him away. Because everyone has that experience of being serious and that fantasy of being powerful. It’s fun to be able to play with this with a younger character, who is almost ludicrously optimistic about his chances of doing a huge amount of good with this power. And we’ll see how that all pans out.
Let’s go back for a minute to Frank Cho and talk about how it’s been working with him, because his style is so specific. How has his work inspired your scripts?
PAK: I’ve admired his work forever and have been hungry to work with him forever…he’s got such a gorgeous, clean, confident mind, his characters feel so alive. He’s got that energy. Everything he touches just comes to life. And what I love about Frank is, he’s able to draw incredible action. Big, fun comic book action, in that visceral, mind-blowing comic book way. But at the same time, he’s got this great subtle sense of humor. It’s easy to think about Frank in terms of big slapstick humor, and he does that so well. But he’s incredible with just subtle, small emotion. And I think that’s so important. Particularly in a book like this…there’s a lot of humor in this book, but I can write a little moment in there and Frank totally gets that. He understands that in his bones, and just brings out the subtleties without overselling it. It’s like working with the greatest actor in the world: he’s able to bring all those different levels.
ALONSO: And the design he brought to the character, the way the character looks now — from the board shorts, the MMA-inspired board shorts, which any self-respecting hip-hop influenced 19-year-old genius is going to wear — to the K-Pop hairstyle…those are the things that Frank shows. Frank isn’t the type of artist that you can say, “Shut up and draw.” He’s a storyteller. Any editor hopes that you’ll great a great script and it’ll get ever greater once the artist is drawn, and I think that’s what we’re looking at.
PAK: We like to pretend we’re all geniuses, but it’s a bunch of people working together who make these things really pop. So having collaborators who really bring you that extra something is really something special.
Marvel
Just how hard has it been keeping this reveal a secret from everyone?
PAK: [laughs] It’s been excruciating, because I just wanted to scream it because I was so excited about it. But it’s also been a blast. That’s one of the fun things about comics, right? The teases, and people have fun thinking it through and guessing and imagining different possibilities…that’s part of the fun of comics, the suspense and the big question of what happens next. It feels like it’s all in that tradition.
Aside from the fact that we know Amadeus is going to be TOTALLY AWESOME as the new Hulk, what else can you tease about the series?
PAK: The story is working on three levels: we’ve got the big crazy action level — the big monster hunt — that’s what our big story arc is. Which is also up Frank Cho’s alley, because if you know Frank Cho, you know he draws monsters like nobody’s business, and he’s going nuts with this. So, we’ve got the monster hunt, we’ve got the mystery of what happened to Banner and what’s going on with Banner, and then there’s an emotional story, of course. My favorite kinds of stories are the ones that have these big crazy genre hijinks and then a real honest, meaty, emotional story where we’re watching a character grapple with some real things. And we’re going to see if Amadeus’ dream of being the greatest Hulk ever and his total confidence of that is really warranted. And we’ve got some great supporting characters that are going to be challenging him in some interesting ways.
ALONSO: The link to what happened to Banner, of |
current place in life.Bluebottle stings up 900 per cent in Queensland: Where did they all come from?
Updated
More than 38,000 people were stung by bluebottles in Queensland over summer, with warmer weather and wind conditions pushing thousands of jellyfish towards beaches.
Surf Life Saving Queensland's annual summer statistics show an increase in reported stings of 900 per cent from 2016 when just 3,500 stings were recorded.
Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin, director of the Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services, said the conditions this season were perfect for making "jellyfish go nuts".
"We've had hotter than normal and odd weather in Australia this summer," she said.
"The warmer weather makes them breed more, live longer, and the right wind conditions bring them in.
"Bluebottles sit out in the middle of the ocean in vast armadas and when the wind comes it simply picks them up."
Dr Gershwin said the large number of bluebottles, also known as Portuguese man-o'-war jellyfish, came from eastern Australian waters and are also widespread in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
"This has been a big year for stingers with an enormous amount of all kinds of jellyfish going a bit nuts this year.
"There has been bluebottles everywhere you look and I'm shocked at the number of jellyfish.
"But I'm not surprised at the number of stings considering the number of jellyfish that were in the water."
She said although winds had been pushing the jellyfish to shore, not all bluebottles travelled that way.
"The wind doesn't pick all of them up as some are right and some are left-handed," Dr Gershwin told ABC Radio Brisbane's Craig Zonca.
"It only picks up the ones that have the correct-facing sail for whatever that breeze is doing.
"They sail along that wind until it drops off or they hit land and they come in in vast numbers."
Where do they go in winter?
The cooler weather will see the bluebottles drift elsewhere.
"They will become less numerous over the coming months as they do tend to be more during the heights of summer," Dr Gershwin said.
"We will still get some influxes of bluebottles but hopefully we won't get those sort of numbers.
"I think we've gotten hammered enough this year."
Are Irukandji jellyfish moving south?
Despite numerous media reports, Dr Gershwin said there had been no credible data to show that tropical species of Irukandji jellyfish were moving south.
"We do know that there is a rising tide of awareness in southern waters, but they have been around forever but in very low numbers," she said.
"They've been south for a long time and there has been clusters in the 1930s in Moreton Bay and Botany Bay in New South Wales of Irukandji syndrome cases."
She said Irukandji referred to the syndrome, not the species, therefore any species that caused the syndrome could collectively be called Irukandji.
"There are native species that live everywhere," Dr Gershwin added.
Topics: marine-biology, animals, surf-life-saving, brisbane-4000
First postedLike most kids of the 80’s and 90’s, I spent a lot of time in places with arcade games. There was Showbiz Pizza, Chuck E Cheese, and Putt-Putt Golf and Games. I also can’t forget playing Ms. Pac Man on a tabletop in Pizza Hut, driving Cruisin’ USA at Walmart, or the many quarters I spent in various gas stations and laundromats. It was a great time to be alive. If you had a few quarters in your pocket, you could probably find an arcade machine somewhere nearby to play. If you were lucky, you could even find someone able and willing to face off against.
I have fond memories of gaming in all of those places, but I wouldn’t consider any of them a hangout. They were just places I’d end up gaming for a few minutes at a time. I wasn’t particularly loyal to any of those locations because I already had my own arcade at the mall.
Armed with a pocket full of quarters and several crumpled one dollar bills, I was dropped off at the arcade by my grandmother while she spent the afternoon department store shopping each week. It acted as both a babysitter and a gateway into a world that no longer exists. A world of competition, trash talking, and being ripped off.
The bright neon pink sign was simple; it said “Arcade.” No corporate owners, no mascot... just “Arcade.” Take a trip with me as we tour a place from my past, the mall arcade circa 1993.
The first thing you notice when approaching the arcade is the sound. The change machines are cashing out and dropping quarters into the metal bins. The pinball machine flappers are going wild and the bumpers are firing off. You hear the sound of joysticks being abused and the erratic tapping of buttons. There is the thud of Skeeballs hitting the ramps. The rowdy laughter and cheers by dozens of children and teenagers, all celebrating and mourning their wins and losses. Then there are the sounds of the games themselves, the chomping of Pacman, the announcer from NBA Jam, the music of Street Fighter II, the Uzi from Terminator 2, and the roar of the engine in Daytona USA create a beautiful melody. The melody is backed by the other ambient sounds to create a symphony of fun. A sound you can never forget.
Your senses have already picked up on all of that excitement and you haven’t even stepped foot into the arcade. Once you cross the threshold that takes you from a boring mall into the atmosphere of fun you notice how dim the room is. The majority of the light comes from the arcade game screens and the flashing lights of the cabinets and other games. A lot of light isn’t necessary and would drown out the colors on the screen, or worse create a glare off the glass.
On the left wall is eight pinball machines lined up side-by-side. Popular titles such as The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Elvira are separated by unbranded machines that aren’t nearly as popular. If there are adults in the arcade, this is usually where you find them trying to set a new high score, feeding quarter after quarter into the machines. The flappers inside the pinball machines make the loudest noise in the entire arcade. It’s always loud standing near the pinball machines, but no one seems to mind. No one talks while playing pinball and everyone knows the unwritten rule to never bother someone playing pinball. It is the more sophisticated and trying machine that requires absolute concentration.
At the end of the line of pinball machines sits a change machine, a common sight in an arcade. Many of these machines take one dollar, five dollar, and sometimes even ten dollar bills and breaks them down into quarters. However, some locations exchange tokens for your dollars depending on how their machines are set up. Sadly, none of the machines will take nickels and dimes in exchange for quarters. I know the feeling all too well of reaching in the bottom of my pocket only to find a few nickels that are totally useless in the arcade. They are large enough to be mistaken for quarters and it's extremely disappointing when you realize they aren't.
Next to the change machines is a row of what I refer to as the “second tier” arcade games. These are the tried and true games that are still popular, although they may be a few years old. Games like Mortal Kombat will end up in this section once Mortal Kombat II comes out. Aerosmith’s game Revolution X always seems to be permanently installed in the “second tier”, and occasionally you’ll find a Vs. Super Mario Bros. arcade machine that really seems out of place. Everyone attempts this arcade game at least once, but soon after realize they can play the same thing for free at home, and move onto something better.
The left wall turns into the back wall of our rectangular shaped room. The back wall is furthest from the door, but that doesn’t mean the games are bad. The games along the back wall are the classics: Pac Man, Galaga, Centipede, and Asteroids. These games are always just one quarter to play, and despite being ten or fifteen years old they are still challenging and fun. Everyone reluctantly ends up against the back wall, and then loses themselves for hours. They emerge with a new appreciation of the classics, having officially been schooled in those games that looked so simple and archaic.
Curving around into the right side wall, we are greeted with the more physically active games. There is a basketball game, where the goal is to sink as many shots within a minute with over or under inflated basketballs. Next to the basketball game are the Skeeball machines. Surprisingly, Skeeball is the simplest of games, but also one of the most enjoyable. You always have a goal, since the top score is proudly displayed in red above the lane you are about to play in. Of course, sometimes there are some crazy high scores that were created by cheaters walking up the ramp or standing to the side and just placing the balls in the 100 over and over again. I hate those people, and I’m pretty sure there is a special place in Hell for them.
Another change machine is between the Skeeball lanes and the prize counter. The physical games like Skeeball, basketball, and sometimes football, award you with little red prize tickets. These tickets can be exchanged for the cheapest of the cheap toys like rings that look like spiders, an egg of slime, paper Chinese finger cuffs, kazoos, rubber bouncy balls, or candy like Warheads and Dots. On the wall behind the counter are huge stuff animals, video games, stereos, and other big ticket items displayed, that are there to encourage you to keep playing and save up your tickets. Of course, you’ll spend triple the money playing Skeeball to get a Super Nintendo than to just buy one outright. Still, we all glare up with stars in our eyes for a few seconds, before the urge for instant gratification kicks in and we exchanged our forty-five tickets for a rainbow bouncy ball and a stale white mystery flavored Airhead.
Right next to the prize stand is the main change/token machine area. This part of the wall is closest to the outside of the mall and contains six different machines to exchange your dollars for little metal tickets to video game paradise. There are so many machines to accommodate anyone new coming into the arcade and to also to provide backups in case the bright orange “Out of Change” light of doom is lit up.
So, where were the good games you ask? Well… those games like Street Fighter II, Terminator 2, NBA Jam, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, NFL Blitz, The Simpsons, along with the driving games like Outrun, Cruising USA, and Daytona USA are all set up in little circular pods across the center of the room. They are laid out this way to allow more room to play the bigger games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, After Burner, and Lethal Enforcers, and to also provide room to watch. The popular games are always surrounded with a mob of people. Everyone will be jockeying their way to the front in an attempt to slap their quarter down to claim the next game. You can’t do that when the games are packed like sardines against the wall like the “second tier” section or where the classics are against the back wall.
These center pods are always the busiest. If you enter the arcade in a lull, you might see the classics, Skeeball, pinball, or the “second tier” empty, but you’ll never see the middle empty. Some games like Street Fighter II have people battling from the opening of the large metal grate at 11 AM till the closing of it at 9 PM. Unless you came on one of those very sad days, when the machines are out of order, it always has someone in front of it hammering out Hadouken after Hadouken.
This concludes our little tour of the mall arcade. Before you go, let me tell you about some of my favorite games.
I’m not any good at Street Fighter II. I can hold my own playing as E. Honda against the computer, but once you put me against a real life competitor, I’m done for. Mortal Kombat is my fighting game of choice. It appeals to me like most ten year olds, due to the violence and blood that you see on the screen. It truly is the most brutal game you’ll find the in the arcade or anywhere else for that matter.
The NBA is great right now, and so is NBA Jam. The game features disproportioned basketball players (and sometimes politicians and celebrities) facing off in a two-on-two battle with no rules, flaming basketball nets, and alley-oops from the top of the arena. If that wasn’t fun enough, the announcer makes comments throughout the game like, “Is it the shoes?” “Boooomshaklaka” and “Jams it in!”
Konami has mastered the four player arcade experience with the obvious choice for a four person co-op game in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. They also took that game engine and created the fantastic X-Men game which is the only place in the world that Cyclops is ever superior to Wolverine. Cyclops' ability to shoot enemies across the map with his visor is way better than Wolverine’s close combat fighting style.
Konami also used that same game engine and created an unlikely hit with The Simpsons. Some genius thought it was a good idea to have Homer, Lisa, Bart, and Marge fight their way across levels and surprisingly it works, and works well! Like the X-Men game, the best character to play as in The Simpsons is not whom you’d expect, it’s Marge. Marge rocks a big vacuum cleaner she uses to clean up the enemies. Pun totally intended.
Crusin’ USA uses real life models to portray the girls waving the start and finish flag for each race. For us prepubescent boys, this alone is worthy of a few quarters. But Cruisin’ USA’s most unique feature is the ability to change the radio and pick the style of music you want to race with. I always go with the cheesy country/western station.
I can’t tell you what game is best, because it’s different for everybody. That dusty machine that nobody plays in the corner might be the game that brings you the most joy. At least while here at the arcade, if someone sees you playing that old dusty machine, and they like it too, they’ll probably come over and watch you play or challenge you. It’s an awesome feeling to get this face-to-face connection and is something that won’t exist in just a few short years.
So, take a look around.
Listen closely to the organized chaos that is the sound of an arcade.
Watch the flashing lights, the smiling faces, and the looks of determination, while you hear the laughter that fills the room.
Watch someone try a new game and fail horribly within seconds. Watch a young boy sling his first Skeeball up the ramp, and look at his face when the tickets start coming out.
Go hover near the pinball machines, and watch the pinball wizards at work. Just be sure to not get too close and tilt the table by accident.
One day, you’ll be older and you’ll walk by this space in this very same mall.
Gone will be the bright neon “Arcade” light.
Gone will be the change machines, prize counter, and games.
There will be no more laughter, smiling faces, nor looks determination.
In fact, there will be no evidence that an arcade ever existed.State Sen. José RodrÍguez, D-El Paso (Photo: Times file)
AUSTIN — Some Texas Democrats are accusing the Texas Department of Public Safety of distributing “propaganda” to the Legislature in an attempt to justify a $400-million-a-year expenditure on border security.
The department, which has surged police to the border, on April 8 sent lawmakers an article titled “America’s immigration system fails, but one state succeeds.” Published by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, the piece details what it calls failures in the U.S. immigration system, including possible corruption of Border Patrol agents and an antiquated visa system.
“The only bright spot appears to come out of Texas and the activities by the Texas Department of Public Safety,” the article says. “Given federal failures to secure the border, the Texas Legislature included nearly $1 billion in the Texas State Budget for border security.”
It later adds, “DPS works closely with federal and local partners along the border to disrupt border activities and keep Texans safe. It is a long slog, but Texas is slowly winning the fight. In this case, state action is succeeding where the federal government fails.”
State Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, said the article uses some questionable sources and reaches dubious conclusions.
“Since when are government organizations relying on a right-wing organization for research?” he asked.
Conservative claims that the border is a war zone have been a sore subject for many El Pasoans at least since 2010, when then-Gov. Rick Perry twice claimed that car bombs had exploded in the city.
They hadn’t. One actually exploded across the border in Juarez at the height of the cartel war, but a spokeswoman only said the governor “misspoke.”
El Paso has consistently been rated one of the safest large cities in the United States and some experts have said that with federal spending on border enforcement far higher than it was a decade ago, the so-called “immigration crisis” is a myth.
Despite that, the Republican-led Texas Legislature last year appropriated $800 million for border security for 2016 and 2017.
Texas Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, said that instead of protecting Texans, the expenditure was intended to grow DPS and the Texas GOP.
“The growth of DPS in recent years has essentially been a political exercise in agency-building based on the success of ‘border security’ as a means to mobilize primary voters,” Rodriguez, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said in an email. “No other state agency has received so much funding — nearly one billion dollars —- and an expansion of its scope of powers with such little oversight and accountability.”
Blanco said dissemination of the American Enterprise Institute article appears to be a prelude to DPS officials asking for even more when the Legislature convenes in January.
He said its premise —- that Texas is succeeding in immigration policy — is at odds with repeated admissions by DPS Director Steve McCraw that the agency has no power to enforce immigration policy.
“At the end of the day, DPS can’t enforce immigration law, so how is Texas a bright spot?” Blanco asked.
For its part, the agency said it is only trying to keep lawmakers informed.
“The article has a homeland security and national security expert recognizing Texas DPS and the Texas Legislature for its efforts in helping our U.S. Border Patrol partners with border security and addressing cartel drug-related criminal activity,” spokesman Tom Vinger said in an email. “We felt that was worth sharing with the members of the Legislature.”
In a response to questions from Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, DPS Deputy Director Robert J. Bodisch said, “The source of this article is Mr. Matt Mayer, former senior official with the Department of Homeland Security and a 2007 Lincoln Fellow with The Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy and a 2006 American Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States.”
Some of the sources Mayer relied on in his report are controversial, right-wing outlets such as Breitbart.
And Mayer misstates what is said in a mainstream media article he cites.
“The failure of US Customs and Border Protection to secure the border is so severe that ranchers who live along the border are routinely subject to kidnappings and other threats,” Mayer’s article says.
Rather than detailing routine kidnappings, however, the Albuquerque Journal article is about a single, alleged kidnapping in the New Mexico Bootheel.
Asked if DPS would correct the inaccurate statement it had passed along to lawmakers, Vinger said, “We did not write or approve the article. It was open source material that anyone could find and read.”
Blanco also noted that the article distributed by DPS says Border Patrol agents are vulnerable to being corrupted by drug cartels. That again highlights DPS’s ambivalent relationship with federal immigration enforcement, Blanco said.
During last year’s legislative session, Blanco got into a high-profile fight with DPS Director McCraw over statistics McCraw was touting to claim that the DPS border surge was working.
State leaders claimed the surge, which started in 2014, was needed because the federal government had failed miserably in its responsibility to secure the border.
However, McCraw would only release stats showing combined arrests and drug interdictions by federal, state and local agencies. The DPS director said all the agencies were part of “Operation Strong Safety,” so they all deserved credit for the stats.
In response to an inquiry from U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, however, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowski said that his agency was not part of the operation. He also released statistics showing that federal agents were responsible for the great majority of the enforcement activity McCraw was taking credit for.
This year, the name of the border operation has been changed to Operation Secure Texas, and McCraw and his lieutenants have been showing lawmakers a Border Patrol video that touts “the unprecedented integration between Border Patrol and DPS,” including officers from both agencies “riding and working together” as part of the new program.
But now, Blanco said, DPS has disseminated an article describing how Border Patrol agents are ripe for corruption.
“One week they say ‘Our cooperation is phenomenal,’” he said. “Now they’re saying Border Patrol is corrupt. Which is it?”
Asked about the ambiguity, Vinger said, “DPS and the U.S. Border Patrol are outstanding partners in the fight to secure the border. And both of our agencies know that Mexican cartels seek to corrupt law enforcement officers and public officials in Mexico and the United States to benefit their operations.”
He added, “Specific to DPS, we hold all of our employees to a high standard, and those who fail to meet those high standards are held accountable and disciplined as appropriate.”
Rodriguez said has unfortunately come to expect politicized information from the state’s top law officers.
“In this case, I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that DPS would share what essentially is an opinion-oriented blog post as though it were a legitimate news article,” he said. “I'm concerned that DPS is spending time and resources on what amounts to little more than self-promotion in order to curry favor with legislators in advance of budget discussions next session.”
Marty Schladen can be reached at 512-479-6696; mschladen@gannett.com; @martyschladen on Twitter.
Read or Share this story: http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2016/04/17/dems-slam-latest-dps-border-claims/83097642/THAT a man responsible for killing 77 people in bombing and shooting attacks was insane may not sound like news. Yet yesterday's conclusion, by a pair of court-appointed psychiatrists, that Anders Behring Breivik suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and was in a psychotic state during his killing spree in Oslo and Utøya island in July has unsettled many Norwegians.
Under Norwegian law, offenders given such diagnoses are committed to psychiatric treatment in secure medical facilities rather than to prison cells. As Norway has abolished life sentences, had he been given a clean bill of health Mr Breivik would have faced a maximum sentence of 30 years. Should the psychiatrists' diagnosis hold (it still awaits ratification by Norway's board of forensic medicine), he could spend the rest of his life locked up.
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Yet offenders in psychiatric care have their cases reviewed by the courts every three years. Were doctors to judge Mr Breivik no longer a threat to society, he could, in theory, be freed far sooner.
That seems unlikely. Still, Brynjar Meling, a lawyer representing several families of the victims of July's killings, has called for a fresh psychiatric investigation, as have several politicians. All say they refuse to believe that crimes so long in the planning could be the work of a temporarily disturbed person.
Some expressed concern that the insanity diagnosis would distract from the political aspects of Mr Breivik's murderous acts. Mr Breivik specifically chose to target a youth camp of Norway's Labour Party; a calculated decision by a right-wing extremist, they say.
Details of the extent of Mr Breivik's delusions, released yesterday, make for chilling reading. He imagined himself a future monarch of Norway, planned to establish reservations for breeding ethnically pure Norwegians, and said he carried out his crimes out of love for “his people”.
Earlier leaks to Norwegian newspapers detailed his plans to kill hundreds more people and listed dozens of potential bombing targets: an oil rig, a nuclear reactor, the royal palace, political-party headquarters and offices of newspapers.
Meanwhile, Norway's exposure to other attacks remains a worry. Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister, has set up a commission to examine the various security agencies' responses to the July attacks. By August 2012 it must produce proposals for preventing and responding to future attacks.
Some think action is needed sooner. Last week a green paper on the future of the armed forces was released by the chief of defence. It contained no proposals for the co-ordination of army and police forces during and after a terrorist attack.
Most alarmingly to some, neither were there any plans to reinstate a crack unit of the home guard that was disbanded less than a year before the July attacks. This unit, HV-016, was founded in 1985 specifically to stop terror attacks. Its personnel worked part-time but had substantial military experience, including stints in Afghanistan, and were primed for rapid response.
One area in which they excelled was sharpshooting from moving helicopters, exactly what was needed during the shooting spree on Utøya. With no helicopters at their disposal, the police were forced to make a lengthy boat journey to the island while Mr Breivik continued his killing.Wilson Greatbatch, an electrical engineer who helped develop the first implantable pacemaker, a revolutionary device that since the 1960s has pumped life into millions of people, died Sept. 27 at a nursing home in Williamsville, N.Y. He was 92.
He had renal failure, said his daughter Anne Maciariello.
Mr. Greatbatch, an incurable tinkerer who constructed a radio transmitter at 16, held more than 300 patents, and his inventions largely shaped modern cardiology.
“He was one of the greatest American inventors of the 20th century,” Kirk Jeffrey, who wrote the 2001 book “Machines in our Hearts: The Cardiac Pacemaker, the Implantable Defibrillator and American Health Care,” said in an interview. “The work he did saved a great many lives.”
Beyond the implantable pacemaker, Mr. Greatbatch introduced the use of compact, long-lasting lithium batteries to the device. His company’s batteries at one time provided power to 90 percent of all pacemakers and were used by NASA to power equipment for space shuttle missions.
Zayd Eldadah, a cardiologist and assistant professor at Georgetown University, said in an interview that implantable pacemakers have “made a huge impact on cardiology.”
“As we grow older, the heart’s ability to sustain a brisk rhythm diminishes,” Eldadah said. “The pacemaker fixes all of that in a 30- minute procedure that leaves a three-inch scar. It’s been a revolutionary change for hundreds of thousands of people every year.”
The first pacemakers were built in the early 1950s. Some early designs were the size of a television and needed to be plugged into a wall socket. Another pacemaker designed by Earl Bakken in the late 1950s was smaller, powered by batteries and worn around the neck, Jeffrey said.
Mr. Greatbatch was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Buffalo when, in 1956, he accidentally devised what is considered one of medicine’s most significant achievements.
At the time, he was tasked with building equipment to monitor heart sounds when he placed the wrong transistor into the instrument. The transistor — 100 times more powerful than those he usually used — emitted an electrical pulse that mimicked the rhythm of the human heart. He immediately realized the device’s potential as a new kind of pacemaker. His idea was to use new transistor technology to make a pacemaker that could survive inside the patient’s body.
Working in his barn workshop, warmed by a wood-fire stove, Mr. Greatbatch spent two years developing his prototypes.
In 1958, he presented his devices to William Chardack, a surgeon at Buffalo’s Veterans Administration Hospital, and the two became collaborators.
That year, Mr. Greatbatch and Chardack wired a pacemaker composed of two Texas Instruments transistors to the heart of a dog. The device, which was slightly larger than a hockey puck and weighed half a pound, flawlessly controlled the animal’s heartbeat.
“I seriously doubt if anything I ever do will ever give me the elation I felt that day when my own two cubic inch piece of electronic design controlled a living heart,” Mr. Greatbatch wrote in a diary afterward.
Mr. Greatbatch and Chardack continued to experiment with the design to make it more efficient. One dog lived 104 days with one of the devices.
But the device had its flaws, Jeffrey said. Bodily fluids often permeated through the pacemaker’s protective casing and destroyed the electronics.
Despite their device’s imperfections, Mr. Greatbatch and Chardack began implanting the pacemakers into humans in 1960. Those considered for the surgery had only a 50 percent chance of surviving without intervention.
“The argument was that the people were close to death and would not survive many days or even hours without help,” Jeffrey said. “Even though the pacemaker was untested and had its problems, Greatbatch and Chardack said it was better than the alternative.”
The first patient, a 77-year-old man, lived 18 months with the pacemaker. Another patient was a young man who had collapsed at his job in a rubber factory. The pacemaker enabled him to live 30 more years and enjoy a new profession as a hairdresser.
Mr. Greatbatch licensed his device to Medtronic, which was co-founded by Bakken. Today, Medtronic is one of the world’s largest medical device companies and a leading manufacturer of pacemakers — all derived from Mr. Greatbatch’s first designs.
Wilson Greatbatch was born Sept. 6, 1919, in Buffalo. He became fascinated with electronics as a teenager and trained as an amateur radio operator. During World War II, he served as a Navy radio repairman and rear gunner on bomber sorties.
On the GI Bill, he graduated from Cornell University in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Buffalo in 1957.
Mr. Greatbatch was inspired to research new battery technology after observing that standard pacemaker batteries filled with zinc and mercury had to be replaced every two years.
In 1970, Mr. Greatbatch formed his own company to make lithium iodine batteries for pacemakers. His batteries often lasted more than 10 years.
For his contributions to science, Mr. Greatbatch received the National Technology Medal in 1990 from President George H.W. Bush. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1986.
Mr. Greatbatch’s wife of 66 years, the former Eleanor Wright, died in January. Their son Peter Greatbatch died in 1998.
Survivors include four children, Anne Maciariello of Sarasota, Fla., Warren Greatbatch of Buffalo, Kenneth Greatbatch of Swanzey, N.H., and John Greatbatch of Paris, Ky.; 12 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
In his later years, Mr. Greatbatch researched renewable energy. On his 72nd birthday, he sailed 150 miles in New York’s Finger Lakes in a solar-powered canoe he invented.NewsCatholic Church
October 13, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis’ recent statements about the death penalty being “contrary to the Gospel” seem to be a departure from previous Catholic teaching, a Catholic professor says.
“When Pope Francis says that capital punishment is ‘in itself contrary to the Gospel,’ and ‘inadmissible … no matter how serious the crime,’ he seems to be contradicting traditional teaching,” said Dr. Edward Feser, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College in California, to LifeSiteNews.
Pope Francis made his controversial remarks during an October 11 speech to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the Catechism of the Catholic Church promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II (read full speech here).
Dr. Feser is an expert on the morality of capital punishment. Together with Dr. Joseph M. Bessette, who is an ethicist at Claremont McKenna College in California, he published in March a Catholic defense of capital punishment titled By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed.
“The Church teaches that scripture is divinely inspired, that it cannot teach error where matters of faith and morals are concerned, and that it must always be interpreted in the way the Church traditionally has understood it. But many passages of scripture clearly teach that capital punishment is legitimate, and have always been interpreted by the Church as teaching this,” he said.
Both the Old and New Testaments indicate that the death penalty can be legitimate. For instance, Genesis 9:6 states: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” Or again, St. Paul in his Letter to the Romans teaches that the state “does not bear the sword in vain (but) is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.”
Feser said previous popes have “consistently” reaffirmed the legitimacy of capital punishment and have “insisted that accepting its legitimacy is a requirement of Catholic orthodoxy.”
One such pope would be Pius XII, who in 1955 defended the authority of the State to punish crimes, even with the death penalty. He argued that capital punishment is morally defensible in every age and culture because “the coercive power of legitimate human authority” is based on “the sources of revelation and traditional doctrine.”
“Even Pope St. John Paul II taught that capital punishment is not always and absolutely wrong,” said Feser.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his classic defense of capital punishment in the Summa Theologica, argued that “if a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good.”
The Catholic professor said the Church also has “always taught that popes are obligated to preserve traditional teaching and never to contradict it.”
“When Pope Francis says that capital punishment is ‘in itself contrary to the Gospel,’ and ‘inadmissible … no matter how serious the crime,’ he seems to be contradicting traditional teaching,” he said.
“If that is what he is doing, then he is flirting with doctrinal error, which is possible when a pope is not speaking ex cathedra, even though it is extremely rare. There are only a handful of cases in Church history of popes who are possibly guilty of this, the best known cases being those of Pope Honorius and Pope John XXII,” he added.
Feser said that if Pope Francis is reversing past teaching on capital punishment, then he is “implicitly saying that every previous pope and scripture itself were wrong.”
“This would completely undermine the authority of the Church, and of Pope Francis himself. For if the Church could be that wrong for that long about something that serious, why trust anything else she says? And if all previous popes have been so badly mistaken, why should we think Pope Francis is right?” he said.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is morally permissible.
“The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense … Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor,” states the Catechism (bold added).
The Catholic professor said that if what the Pope said is true that he, in the Pope’s own words, is “not in any way contradicting past teaching” and that his statements “in no way represents a change in doctrine,” then he “ought to issue a clarification, so as to ensure the credibility of the Church’s claim to preserve the deposit of faith.”
The Pope said during his speech that he would like the Catechism of the Catholic Church to change, adding that only a “partial vision can think of ‘the deposit of faith’ as something static.”
The “harmonious development of doctrine demands that we cease to defend arguments that now appear clearly contrary to the new understanding of Christian truth,” the Pope said.LAKE CITY, Florida — If it were that easy, everybody would be doing it.
A Florida woman ended up behind bars after trying to pass off bogus $20 bills she made herself with a cheap home printer at local stores, police said.
Lake City cops say 30-year-old Brandi Harden walked into the Wal-Mart last week and tried to pay with a stack of glaringly phony cash. When the cashier asked her what it was, Harden ran, the Gainesville Sun reported.
Two days later, police say Harden left some more of the fake cash as payment for her dinner bill at Applebee’s. But this time, she left behind her cell phone, allowing cops to track her down.
Cops traced her back to the Crystal Inn in Lake City and when she opened the door to her room to get her phone back, the officers handed her a bag containing the bogus bucks and asked her what was going on.
According to police, “Harden immediately became embarrassed and began to stammer as she spoke,” the Sun reported. She then admitted using the funny money at Applebee’s.
Officers later discovered, “numerous counterfeit bills, along with blank paper and a printer,” in Harden’s room.
“It was determined that Harden had not only been passing counterfeit bills, but that she had been producing them herself,” police said.
They also found marijuana and drug paraphernalia. She was charged with possession of counterfeit bills, possession of |
center of a galaxy. During this phase, they are the most luminous objects in the Universe, shining hundreds of times brighter than their host galaxies, which themselves contain hundreds of billions of stars.
But these hyper-luminous episodes last only a tiny fraction of a galaxy's lifetime, which is why astronomers need to be very lucky to catch any given galaxy in the act. As a result, quasars are exceedingly rare on the sky, and are typically separated by hundreds of millions of light years from one another. The researchers estimate that the odds of discovering a quadruple quasar by chance is one in ten million. How on Earth did they get so lucky?
Clues come from peculiar properties of the quartet's environment. The four quasars are surrounded by a giant nebula of cool dense hydrogen gas, which emits light because it is irradiated by the intense glare of the quasars. In addition, both the quartet and the surrounding nebula reside in a rare corner of the universe with a surprisingly large amount of matter.
"There are several hundred times more galaxies in this region than you would expect to see at these distances," said J. Xavier Prochaska, professor at the University of California Santa Cruz and the principal investigator of the Keck Observatory observations.
Given the exceptionally large number of galaxies, this system resembles the massive agglomerations of galaxies, known as galaxy clusters, that astronomers observe in the present-day universe. But because the light from this cosmic metropolis has been travelling for 10 billion years before reaching Earth, the images show the region as it was 10 billion years ago, less than 4 billion years after the big bang. It is thus an example of a progenitor or ancestor of a present-day galaxy cluster, or proto-cluster for short.
Piecing all of these anomalies together, the researchers tried to understand what appears to be their incredible stroke of luck. "If you discover something which, according to current scientific wisdom should be extremely improbable, you can come to one of two conclusions: either you just got very lucky, or you need to modify your theory," Hennawi said.
The researchers speculate that some physical process might make quasar activity much more likely in specific environments. One possibility is that quasar episodes are triggered when galaxies collide or merge, because these violent interactions efficiently funnel gas onto the central black hole. Such encounters are much more likely to occur in a dense proto-cluster filled with galaxies, just as one is more likely to encounter traffic when driving through a big city.
"The giant emission nebula is an important piece of the puzzle since it signifies a tremendous amount of dense cool gas," said Fabrizio Arrigoni-Battaia, a PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy who was involved in the discovery.
Supermassive black holes can only shine as quasars if there is gas for them to swallow, and an environment that is gas rich could provide favorable conditions for fueling quasars.
On the other hand, given the current understanding of how massive structures in the universe form, the presence of the giant nebula in the proto-cluster is totally unexpected.
"Our current models of cosmic structure formation based on supercomputer simulations predict that massive objects in the early universe should be filled with rarefied gas that is about ten million degrees, whereas this giant nebula requires gas thousands of times denser and colder," said Sebastiano Cantalupo, currently at ETH Zurich, that led the imaging observations a the Keck Observatory during his previous research appointment at UCSC.
"It is really amazing that this discovery was made the same night of the Slug Nebula while we were hunting for giant Lyman alpha nebulae illuminated by quasars - my first night at Keck Observatory and definitely the most exciting observing night I have ever had!"
"Extremely rare events have the power to overturn long-standing theories" Hennawi said.
As such, the discovery of the first quadruple quasar may force cosmologists to rethink their models of quasar evolution and the formation of the most massive structures in the universe.
The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.
The W. M. Keck Observatory operates the largest, most scientifically productive telescopes on Earth. The two, 10-meter optical/infrared telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii feature a suite of advanced instruments including imagers, multi-object spectrographs, high-resolution spectrographs, integral-field spectrographs and world-leading laser guide star adaptive optics systems.
The Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) is a very versatile visible-wavelength imaging and spectroscopy instrument commissioned in 1993 and operating at the Cassegrain focus of Keck I. Since it has been commissioned it has seen two major upgrades to further enhance its capabilities: addition of a second, blue arm optimized for shorter wavelengths of light; and the installation of detectors that are much more sensitive at the longest (red) wavelengths.
Each arm is optimized for the wavelengths it covers. This large range of wavelength coverage, combined with the instrument's high sensitivity, allows the study of everything from comets (which have interesting features in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum), to the blue light from star formation, to the red light of very distant objects. LRIS also records the spectra of up to 50 objects simultaneously, especially useful for studies of clusters of galaxies in the most distant reaches, and earliest times, of the universe.Les Miserables is one of the greatest artistic expressions of grace and redemption ever created. The novel was written by the great Victor Hugo, who also penned The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The story has been told in nearly artistic medium since it was first published 150 years ago this year.
A new adaptation of the stage musical is being developed for the big screen and it looks like it’s going to be amazing. The cast includes Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, and others. Although the cast will provide the magic, the director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech), came up with the method that will push this film over the top.
Instead of lip-syncing to a pre-recorded soundtrack, the actors and actresses are singing it live to film. In the filming, each actor is fitted with a tiny ear piece through which they can hear a pianist who is playing the score. The pianist allows the actor to set the tempo of the music – to ebb and flow with the emotion of their performance instead of sticking to a pre-recorded track. The impact on the performance will be stunning.
I’ll be honest. I’ve never taken some of these actors that seriously before: Anne Hathaway, and to a certain extent Hugh Jackman. If Hathaway pulls off “I Dreamed a Dream” the way it looks like she does in this trailer, she’s way more legit than I ever realized. I think this film could end up being something really special.
This is one of those stunning examples of how the Mission of God is so much bigger than the church. The folks involved in making this film are going to tell the gospel story and my guess is that most of them don’t even realize it. But, I have a feeling Tom Hooper knows. To pick this film as the follow up to The King’s Speech? Maybe there’s something deeper going on there. From the looks of this trailer, it’s going to be powerful. Granted, I made my living as a musician for much of my life. But anytime a trailer can make you weep, I think it’s safe to anticipated that we might be dealing with something very special.Fun Lovin' Criminals and 6 Music DJ Huey Morgan storms off BBC Two quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks tonight after falling out with hosts Rizzle Kicks.
The singer started sulking after Rizzle Kicks used Fun Lovin' Criminals lyrics in the 'Next Lines' round of the competition, a standard practice on the comedy music show.
Watch the video of Huey Morgan's Buzzcocks strop:
> Preston storms off, Dappy flies in: 15 outrageous Never Mind the Buzzcocks moments
Noticing that Morgan was unhappy, Rizzle Kicks asked: "Are you alright with that?"
Morgan replied: "I'm totally alright with that, I just thought you guys might do something different for a change."
The hip-hop duo reply: "It's part of the game Huey... It's next lines mate."
Growing increasingly frustrated, Morgan ends the game by smashing his mug on the desk, with pieces shattering across his desk near teammates Phill Jupitus and Laura Whitmore.
"Huey, it's the game bro, I say a line, you sing the other line. You don't have to smash a mug in my hair," laughs Jordan Stephens afterwards.
Morgan continued to grow restless as Rizzle Kicks joked about the incident and rival team captain Noel Fielding mocked the mug smashing incident. As the final shot of the episode was filmed, Morgan walked out of the studio, appearing to be annoyed with the presenters' behaviour.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks airs tonight (November 4) at 10pm on BBC Two.The ruling, by a Moscow court, is a rare victory for Russia's embattled liberal elite who believe the Kremlin is using Stalin's strongman image to boost patriotic fervour and legitimise its own tough tactics today.
In a case as surreal as it was absurd, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, Stalin's grandson, had sued Novaya Gazeta, a liberal newspaper, for printing an article that referred to Stalin as a "bloodthirsty cannibal."
Mr Dzhugashvili, who lives in neighbouring Georgia and never appeared at the trial himself, alleged the article had offended his late relative's honour and dignity.
In particular, he took issue with a claim that Stalin had personally signed the death warrant of hundreds of thousands of "enemies of the state" shot during the "Great Terror" in the 1930s.
Mr Dzhugashvili's legal team argued that Stalin did not personally sign the warrants, that many of the people killed really were enemies of the state and that ill-wishers had besmirched the dictator's image unfairly since his death in 1953.
Stalin's great-grandson, Mr Dzhugashvili's son, claimed Stalin was the victim of "historical propaganda." Novaya Gazeta and many others were amazed that a court even deigned to hear such a case.
Yesterday Yury Mukhin, Mr Dzhugashvili's lawyer, said he was furious about the ruling. "We did not expect it to go any other way," he said, arguing the judge had been biased.
A hard-core group of elderly Stalin supporters cried "shame" after the verdict became known.
"What should have happened, happened," Anatoly Yablokov, the author of the Novaya Gazeta article and the newspaper's co-defendant, said before swiftly leaving the courthouse. "It is a decision based on the law."DONALD Trump boasted he has accomplished “almost everything we set out to” in his first month of office.
The US President toasted the nation's governors at the White House on Sunday, teasing that they have “such an easy job”.
Reuters 9 Donald Trump boasted he has accomplished “almost everything we set out to” in his first month of office
Barcroft Media 9 His wife Melania looked glamorous in a black gown as she watched from the audience
Reuters 9 The US President toasted the nation's governors at the White House on Sunday
He told the audience: "I can say that after four weeks it's been a lot of fun.
“We’ve accomplished almost everything we've started out to accomplish. The borders are stricter, tighter," Trump said, praising Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly.
He added: "We're very happy with the way things are working but, again, we've made a lot of promises over the last two years and many of those promises already are kept so we're very honoured by that."
Trump made more than 100 promises during his campaign, according to fact-checking website Politifact.com.
And of the 19 promises examined, he has kept just five, with 11 others falling into the category of ‘In the Works’, the website claimed.
Getty Images 9 He told the audience: "I can say that after four weeks it's been a lot of fun"
AP:Associated Press 9 Trump made more than 100 promises during his campaign
One of his most controversial promises was to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.
Trump signed an executive order which was followed up by a memo that ordered federal workers to "immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall."
But the plan appeared to hit a sticking point after Mexican president insisted his country would not foot the bill.
Getty Images 9 Melania helped organise the lavish dinner at the White House
EPA 9 Melania was dressed in a long black evening gown
Trump also repeatedly vowed one of his first actions as president would be to replace Obamacare “immediately after we go in”.
But in a Fox News interview he admitted the process may last until next year.
“In the process and maybe it will take till sometime into next year, but we are certainly going to be in the process. It’s very complicated,” Trump said.
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During his toast on Sunday, the president mentioned his Monday meeting with the governors at the White House, saying, "Perhaps health care will come up".
His biggest setback came on his promise to stop immigration from terror-prone countries, including Syria and Libya.
He faced a worldwide backlash over his executive order temporarily banning travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
But despite the turmoil and legal challenges over his 'Muslin ban', Trump told the governors he had already made strides.
Reuters 9 Despite the turmoil at the start of his administration and legal challenges to his 'Muslin ban', Trump told the governors he had already made strides
Getty Images 9 The governors, their guests and members of Trump's Cabinet sat at long tables topped with white floral centrepieces
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat and longtime ally of Trump's campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, led the governors in a toast of Trump.
McAuliffe said they all shared the common goals of jobs, education, quality health care and infrastructure across the nation.
"We want to work with you to build on those ideals," McAuliffe said.
The governors, their guests and members of Trump's Cabinet sat at long tables topped with white floral centrepieces and candles in the State Dining Room.
Trump addressed the guests from a lectern near a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.
The president wore a black tuxedo while Melania was dressed in a long black evening gown.It’s always lovely when you stumble upon an example of the internet gaming community being wonderful place. Reddit user Lastrogu3 has posted on Imgur the story of his brother, Taylor, who died in a tragic accident in 2013.
Taylor was a passionate Skyrim player and Lastrogu3 took to loading up Taylor’s Skyrim save on Xbox to see the last thing that his brother saw in game. “I never move his character, save or do anything since it wouldn’t be his character anymore. He is frozen in time just like my young brother was.”
Taylor was always with his sidekick Bear, who never left his side and the two would explore together. Lastrogu3 posted Taylor’s final location just outside Riften on the map in case anyone would like to pay their respects in their own version of Skyrim.
Understandably the story has touched players around the world, with people travelling to Taylor and Bear’s spot in their own game and building shrines, laying down flowers and leaving gifts. PC modders have been hard at work to celebrate Taylor and there is a beautiful collection of Skyrim modders paying their respects here. It’s a poignant reminder of how our shared passion for our gaming worlds allows us to come together and celebrate a life just like our own.Do Not Track will not be enabled by default in future versions of Microsoft web browsers, the company says. The decision comes in response to the latest draft of the World Wide Web Consortium's DNT standard which states "in the absence of user choice, there is no tracking preference expressed".
Microsoft is concerned that if the setting is enabled by default in Internet Explorer or Project Spartan, sites would have a loophole permitting them to ignore a DNT signal. In the future users will need to manually enable the feature, and Microsoft says that clear information will be provided about how to do this.
Do Not Track was implemented in Internet Explorer 10 a couple of years ago, but the changing landscape of web standards means that Microsoft has had to move on to try to avoid confusion and misunderstandings. The change of position means that sites are more likely -- although not guaranteed -- to honor DNT requests due to the fact that they have been purposely selected by users.
In a blog post, Microsoft's Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch said:
Put simply, we are updating our approach to DNT to eliminate any misunderstanding about whether our chosen implementation will comply with the W3C standard. Without this change, websites that receive a DNT signal from the new browsers could argue that it doesn’t reflect the users’ preference, and therefore, choose not to honor it.
Moving forward, users setting up a new PC, installing a new version of Windows or a new version of Internet Explorer will be offered the chance to choose their DNT preference.
Photo credit: Iliana Mihaleva / ShutterstockCaptured in a test tube, blood may look like a static liquid, but it’s alive, as animate and intelligent as the rest of you. It also makes up a great deal of you: of your 50 trillion cells, one-quarter are red blood cells. Two million are born every second. On their way to maturation, red blood cells jettison their nuclei―their DNA, their capacity to divide and repair. They have no future, only a task: to carry the hemoglobin that will hold your oxygen. They don’t use the oxygen themselves–they only transport it. This they do with exquisite precision, completing a cycle of circulation through your body every twenty seconds for a hundred days. Then they die.
The core of hemoglobin is a molecule of iron. It’s the iron that grasps the oxygen at the surface of your lungs, hangs on through the rush of blood, then releases it to wanting cells. If iron goes missing, the body, as ever, has a fallback plan. It adds more water to increase blood volume; thin blood travels faster through the fine capillaries. Do more with less.
All good except there’s less and less oxygen offered to the cells. Another plan kicks in: increased cardiac output. The heart ups its stroke volume and its rate. To keep you from exploding, the brain joins in, sending signals to the muscles enfolding each blood vessel, telling them to relax. Now blood volume can increase with blood pressure stable.
But still no iron arrives. At this point, the other organs have to cooperate, giving up blood flow to protect the brain and heart. The skin makes major sacrifices, which is why anemics are known for their pallor. Symptoms perceived by the person―you―will probably increase as your tissues, and then organs, begin to starve.
If there is no relief, ultimately all the plans will fail. Even a strong heart can only strain for so long. Blood backs up into the capillaries. Under the pressure, liquid seeps out into surrounding tissues. You are now swelling and you don’t know why. Then the lungs are breached. The alveoli, the tiny sacs that await the promise of air, stiffen from the gathering flood. It doesn’t take much. The sacs fill with fluid. Your body is drowning itself. This is called pulmonary edema, and you are in big trouble.
I know this because it happened to me. Uterine fibroids wrung a murder scene from me every month; the surgery to remove them pushed me across the red cell Rubicon. I knew nothing: my body understood and responded. My eyes swelled, then my ankles, my calves. Then I couldn’t breathe. Then it hurt to breathe. I finally stopped taking advice from my dog―Take a nap! With me!–and dragged myself to the ER, where, eventually, all was revealed.
Two weeks later, the flood had subsided, absorbed back into some wetland tissue of my body, and I felt the absence of pain as a positive. Breathing was exquisite, the sweetest thing I could imagine. Every moment of effortless air was all I could ever want. I knew it would fade and I would forget. But for a few days, I was alive. And it was good.
Our bodies are both all we have and everything we could want. We are alive and we get to be alive. There is joy on the surface of the skin waiting for sunlight and soft things (both of which produce endorphins, so yes: joy). There is the constant, stalwart sound of our hearts. Babies who are carried against their mothers’ hearts learn to breathe better than those who aren’t. There is the strength of bone and the stretch of muscle and their complex coordination. We are a set of electrical impulses inside a watery environment: how? Well, the nerves that conduct the impulses are sheathed by a fatty substance called myelin―they’re insulated. This permits “agile communication between distant body parts.” Understand this: it’s all alive, it all communicates, it makes decisions, and it knows what it’s doing. You can’t possibly fathom its intricacies. To start to explore the filigree of brain, synapse, nerve, and muscle is to know that even the blink of your eyes is a miracle.
Our brains were two million years in the making. That long, slow accretion doubled our cranial capacity. And the first thing we did with it was say thank you. We drew the megafauna and the megafemales, sculpted and carved them. The oldest known figurative sculpture is the Goddes of Hohle Fels, and 40,000 years ago someone spent hundreds of hours carving Her. There is no mystery here, not to me: the animals and the women gave us life. Of course they were our first, endless art project. Awe and thanksgiving are built into us, body and brain. Once upon a time, we knew we were alive. And it was good.
__________
And now we leave the realm of miracles and enter hell.
Patriarchy is the ruling religion of the planet. It comes in variations―some old, some new, some ecclesiastical, some secular. But at bottom, they are all necrophilic. Erich Fromm describes necrophilia as “the passion to transform that which is alive into something unalive; to destroy for the sake of destruction; the exclusive interest in all that is purely mechanical.” In this religion, the worst sin is being alive, and the carriers of that sin are female. Under patriarchy, the female body is loathsome; its life-giving fat-cells vilified; its generative organs despised. Its natural condition is always ridiculed: normal feet must be turned into four-inch stubs; rib cages must be crushed into collapse; breasts are varyingly too big or too small or excised entirely. That this inflicts pain―if not constant agony―is not peripheral to these practices. It’s central. When she suffers, she is made obedient.
Necrophilia is the end point of sadism. The sadistic urge is about control–“the passion to have absolute and unrestricted control over a living being,” as Fromm defined it. The objective of inflicting pain and degradation is to break a human being. Pain is always degrading; victimization humiliates; eventually, everyone breaks. The power to do that is the sadist’s dream. And who could be more broken to your control than a woman who can’t walk?
Some nouns: glass, scissors, razors, acid. Some verbs: cut, scrape, cauterize, burn. These nouns and verbs create unspeakable sentences when the object is a seven-year-old girl with her legs forced open. The clitoris, with its 8,000 nerve endings, is always sliced up. In the most extreme forms of FGM, the labia are cut off and the vagina sewn shut. On her wedding night, the girl’s husband will penetrate her with a knife before his penis.
You don’t do this to a human being. You do it to an object. That much is true. But there is more. Because the world is full of actual objects—cardboard boxes and abandoned cars—and men don’t spend their time torturing those. They know we aren’t objects, that we have nerves that feel and flesh that bruises. They know we have nowhere else to go when they lay claim to our bodies. That’s where the sadist finds his pleasure: pain produces suffering, humiliation perhaps more, and if he can inflict that on her, it’s absolute proof of his control.
Behind the sadists are the institutions, the condensations of power, that hand us to him. Every time a judge rules that women have no right to bodily integrity—that upskirt photos are legal, that miscarriages are murder, that women should expect to be beaten—he wins. Every time the Fashion Masters make heels higher and clothes smaller, he smiles. Every time an entire class of women—the poorest and most desperate, at the bottom of every conceivable hierarchy—are declared legal commodities for sex, he gets a collective hard-on. Whether he personally uses any such women is beside the point. Society has ruled they are there for him, other men have ensured their compliance, and they will comply. He can kill one—the ultimate sex act for the sadist—and no one will notice. And no one does.
There is no stop to this, no natural endpoint. There is always another sentient, self-willed being to inflame his desire to control, so the addiction is forever fed. With other addictions, the addict bottoms out, his life becomes unmanageable, and the stark choice is stop or die. But the sadist isn’t hurting himself. There’s no looming bottom to hit, only an endless choice of victims, served up by the culture. Women are the feast at our own funeral, and he is happy to feed.
_____
If feminism was reduced to one word, it would be this: no. “No” is a boundary, spoken only by a self who claims one. Objects have neither; subjects begin at no. Feminists said no and we meant it.
The boundary of “no” extended outward, an insult to one being an injury to all: “we” is the word of political movements. Without it, women are cast adrift in a hostile, chaotic sea, holding our breath against the next Bad Thing. With the lens of feminism, the chaos snaps into sharp focus. We gave words to the Bad Things, then faced down denial and despair to see the pattern. That’s called theory. Then we demanded remedies. That’s what subjects, especially political subjects, do. Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffragettes, worked at the Census Office as a birth registrar. Every day, young girls came in with their newborns. Every day, she had to ask who the father was, and every day the girls wept in humiliation and rage. Reader, you know who the fathers were. That’s why Pankhurst never gave up.
To say no to the sadist is to assert those girls as political subjects, as human beings with the standing that comes from inalienable rights. Each and every life is self-willed and sovereign; each life can only be lived in a body. Not an object to be broken down for parts: a living body. Child sexual abuse is especially designed to turn the body into a cage. The bars may start as terror and pain but they will harden to self-loathing. Instilling shame is the best method to ensure compliance: we are ashamed—sexual violation is very good at that—and for the rest of our lives we will comply. Our compliance is, of course, his control. His power is his pleasure, and another generation of girls will grow up in bodies they will surely hate, to be women who comply.
_______
What has been done to our bodies has been done to our planet. The sadist exerts his control; the necrophiliac turns the living into the dead. The self-willed and the wild are their targets and their necrotic project is almost complete.
Taken one by one, the facts are appalling. In my lifetime, the earth has lost half her wildlife. Every day, two hundred species slip into that longest night of extinction. “Ocean” is synonymous with the words abundance and plenty. Fullness is on the list, as well as infinity. And by 2048, the oceans will be empty of fish. Crustaceans are experiencing “complete reproductive failure.” In plain terms, their babies are dying. Plankton are also disappearing. Maybe plankton are too small and green for anyone to care about, but know this: two out of three animal breaths are made possible by the oxygen plankton produce. If the oceans go down, we go down with them.
How could it be otherwise? See the pattern, not just the facts. There were so many bison on the Great Plains, you could sit and watch for days as a herd thundered by. In the central valley of California, the flocks of waterbirds were so thick they blocked out the sun. One-quarter of Indiana was a wetland, lush with life and the promise of more. Now it’s a desert of corn. Where I live in the pacific northwest, ten million fish have been reduced to ten thousand. People would hear them coming for a whole day. This is not a story: there are people alive who remember it. And I have never once heard the sound that water makes when forty million years of persistence finds it way home. Am I allowed to use the word “apocalypse” yet?
The necrophiliac insists we are mechanical components, that rivers are an engineering project, and genes can be sliced up and arranged at whim. He believes we are all machines, despite the obvious: a machine can be taken apart and put back together. A living being can’t. May I add: neither can a living planet.
Understand where the war against the world began. In seven places around the globe, humans took up the activity called agriculture. In very brute terms, you take a piece of land, you clear every living thing off it, and then you plant it to human use. Instead of sharing that land with the other million creatures who need to live there, you’re only growing humans on it. It’s biotic cleansing. The human population grows to huge numbers; everyone else is driven into extinction.
Agriculture creates a way of life called civilization. Civilization means people living in cities. What that means is: they need more than the land can give. Food, water, energy have to come from someplace else. It doesn’t matter what lovely, peaceful values people hold in their hearts. The society is dependent on imperialism and genocide. Because no one willing gives up their land, their water, their trees. But since the city has used up its own, it has to go out and get those from somewhere else. That’s the last 10,000 years in a few sentences.
The end of every civilization is written into the beginning. Agriculture destroys the world. That’s not agriculture on a bad day. That’s what agriculture is. You pull down the forest, you plow up the prairie, you drain the wetland. Especially, you destroy the soil. Civilizations last between 800 and maybe 2,000 years—they last until the soil gives out.
What could be more sadistic then control of entire continents? He turns mountains into rubble, and rivers must do as they are told. The basic unit of life is violated with genetic engineering. The basic unit of matter as well, to make bombs that kill millions. This is his passion, turning the living into the dead. It’s not just individual deaths and not even the deaths of species. The process of life itself is now under assault and it is losing badly. Vertebrate evolution has long since come to a halt—there isn’t enough habitat left. There are areas in China where there are no flowering plants. Why? Because the pollinators are all dead. That’s five hundred million years of evolution: gone.
He wants it all dead. That’s his biggest thrill and the only way he can control it. According to him it was never alive. There is no self-willed community, no truly wild land. It’s all inanimate components he can arrange to this liking, a garden he can manage. Never mind that every land so managed has been lessened into desert. The essential integrity of life has been breached, and now he claims it never existed. He can do whatever he wants. And no one stops him.
__________
Can we stop him?
I say yes, but then I have no intention of giving up. The facts as they stand are unbearable, but it’s only in facing them that pattern comes clear. Civilization is based on drawdown. It props itself up with imperialism, conquering its neighbors and stripping their land, but eventually even the colonies wear out. Fossil fuel has been an accelerant, as has capitalism, but the underlying problem is much bigger than either. Civilization requires agriculture, and agriculture is a war against the living world. Whatever good was in the culture before, ten thousand years of that war has turned it necrotic.
But what humans do they can stop doing. Granted every institution is headed in the wrong direction, there’s no material reason the destruction must continue. The reason is political: the sadist is rewarded, and rewarded well. Most leftists and environmentalists see that. What they don’t see is the central insight of radical feminism: his pleasure in domination.
The real brilliance of patriarchy is right here: it doesn’t just naturalize oppression, it sexualizes acts of oppression. It eroticizes domination and subordination and then institutionalizes them into masculinity and femininity. Men become real men by breaking boundaries—the sexual boundaries of women and children, the cultural and political boundaries of indigenous people, the biological boundaries of rivers and forests, the genetic boundaries of other species, and the physical boundaries of the atom itself. The sadist is rewarded with money and power, but he also gets a sexual thrill from dominating. And the end of the world is a mass circle jerk of autoerotic asphyxiation.
The real brilliance of feminism is that we figured that out.
What has to happen to save our planet is simple: stop the war. If we just get out of the way, life will return because life wants to live. The forests and prairies will find their way back. Every dam will fail, every cement channel, and the rivers will ease their sorrows and meet the ocean again. The fish will know what to do. In being eaten, they feed the forest, which protects the rivers, which makes a home for more salmon. This is not the death of destruction but the death of participation that makes the world whole.
Sometimes there are facts that require all the courage we have in our hearts. Here is one. Carbon has breached 400 ppm. For life to continue, that carbon needs to get back into the ground. And so we come to grasses.
Where the world is wet, trees make forests. Where it’s dry, the grasses grow. Grasslands endure extreme heat in summer and vicious cold in winter. Grasses survive by keeping 80 percent of their bodies underground, in the form of roots. Those roots are crucial to the community of life. They provide physical channels for rain to enter the soil. They can reach down fifteen feet and bring up minerals from the rocks below, minerals that every living creature needs. They can build soil at an extraordinary rate. The base material they use to make soil is carbon. Which means the grasses are our only hope to get that carbon out of the sky.
And they will do it if we let them. If we could repair 75 percent of the world’s grasslands—destroyed by the war of agriculture—in under fifteen years, the grasses would sequester all the carbon that’s been released since the beginning of the industrial age. Read that again if you need to. Then take it with you wherever you go. Tell it to anyone who will listen. There is still a chance.
The grasses can’t do it alone. No creature exists independent of all others. Repairing the grasslands means restoring the ruminants. In the hot, dry summer, life goes dormant on the surface of the soil. It’s the ruminants who keep the nutrient cycle moving. They carry an ecosystem inside themselves, especially the bacteria that digests cellulose. When a bison grazes, she’s not actually eating the grass. She’s feeding it to her bacteria. The bacteria eat the grass and then she eats the bacteria. Her wastes then water and fertilize the grasses. And the circle is complete.
The grasslands have been eradicated for agriculture, to grow cereal grains for people. Because I want to restore the grasses, I get accused of wanting to kill six billion people. That’s not a random number. In 1800, at the beginning of the Industrial Age, there were one billion people. Now there are seven billion. Six billion are only here because of fossil fuel. Eating a non-renewable resource was never a plan with a future. Yet pointing that out somehow makes me a mass murderer.
Start with the obvious. Nothing we do at these numbers is sustainable. Ninety-eight percent of the old-growth forests and 99 percent of the grasslands are gone, and gone with them was most of the soil they built. There’s nothing left to take. The planet has been skinned alive.
Add to that: all civilizations end in collapse. All of them. How could it be otherwise if your way of life relies on destroying the place you live? The soil is gone and the oil is running out. By avoiding the facts, we are ensuring it will end in the worst possible way.
We can do better than mass starvation, failed states, ethnic strife, misogyny, petty warlords, and the dystopian scenarios that collapse brings. It’s very simple: reproduce at less than replacement numbers. The |
ugus’s onetime pre-eminence in the knife-making trade.
Between his day job and his other hobbies — antique firearms, an Irish band — Mr. Cullen runs the Historic Cattaraugus Corporation, a nonprofit business that has purchased several buildings in town (the 1909 theater, the 1915 Ford dealership) and refurbished them and rented them out, or simply stopped them from deteriorating. The idea came to him in 1990, he said, when a schoolteacher left town and simply abandoned his house. Not long after, the garage collapsed.
The property was dangerous enough that the school district would not let students walk by. It was an eyesore; it was dragging property values down. “I went and camped out at his new place, and when he went to work, I said, ‘Listen, you can’t do this to our community,’ ” Mr. Cullen recalled. He persuaded the man to deed the house back to the bank. The bank paid for a renovation and eventually resold it — at a loss of only $500, Mr. Cullen said.
From 1990 to 2003, when the historical corporation was formed, Mr. Cullen invested nearly $1 million of the bank’s money in properties in the village, often getting it back, but not always. “Banks tend not to do that sort of thing,” he stated dryly. (His wife, more succinctly, said, “Growth isn’t Patrick’s thing.”) Now, however, with grants from the state, Mr. Cullen has bought, among other things, the glorious old moldering hotel in town, and he is patiently waiting for an opportunity to put it to use.
The corporation recently acquired Mr. Cullen’s most cherished local property: the 4.5-acre plot where Cattaraugus was founded (the same spot where, not coincidentally, the campaigning Teddy Roosevelt addressed townsfolk from the back of a train). Dreaming as only a small-town banker dreams, Mr. Cullen plans to rebuild the original buildings — from the shingle maker’s shop to the stagecoach station — and open them to the public as a Colonial Williamsburg-style theme park.
“If you look at Williamsburg’s Web site, they claim the park employs 3,800 people,” he said. “Give us 5 percent of that, I’ll claim success.”
Mr. Cullen hints that there is interest in his project among certain personages in Washington — he is a banker, after all, who knows other bankers, who know politicians — but it would contradict the very purpose of the project, he said, to finance it with federal money. Cattaraugans know Cattaraugus. The venture will be locally grown.
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“Everyone will be involved,” he said. “The bank, the church, local government, the people — everyone will have a stake. Creating that experience is what it means to be American, in a sense. It’s what it means to be from a place.”Lady Gaga’s “The Cure” is a big return to mainstream dance pop, and while the song may sound innocent enough, there might be more going on beneath the surface. Is Gaga making a clever commentary on the state of chart-topping pop music?
Lady Gaga debuted a new song called “The Cure” at Coachella this past weekend, an airy, synth-y, EDM-flavored dancehall track about love and devotion. Critics were quick to note that the song was very similar in style to many tracks heard on the radio today, including Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You,” Zedd and Alessia Cara’s “Stay,” and The Chainsmokers’ entire discography. While some may see “The Cure” as Gaga sincerely trying to get back to radio-friendly pop and blindly following trends, there may be more behind the song’s lyrics and production.
“The Cure” begins with familiar echo-y EDM production before Gaga starts singing in a breathy manner.
The pop star coos, “I’ll undress you, ’cause you’re tired / Cover you as you desire / When you fall asleep inside my arms / May not have the fancy things / But I’ll give you everything / You could ever want, it’s in my arms.”
The lyrics are universal, if nondescript, and not as specific as Gaga’s usual style. After all, this is the same artist who sang of “bluffin’ with my muffin” on “Poker Face,” referenced Alfred Hitchcock on “Bad Romance,” and talked about an “ear condom” on “Judas” — whatever that is. But when looking at the opening verse on “The Cure,” there’s hardly a trace of Gaga’s clever wordplay or unique references.
“The Cure” pre-chorus has Gaga repeating “Baby tell me yes” and urging to her partner that she will give them everything, leading into the catchy, hook-friendly chorus, where she explains how she will help heal her partner, even if they say they’re okay. The production then launches into the EDM breakdown featured in the intro. The bridge gives another familiar feeling for avid pop fans, with vocal distortion and building repetition. While Gaga has played with these dynamics before, the ingredients she combines here are arguably much more “radio” than “Gaga.”
Lady Gaga performs at Coachella 2017 [Image by Amy Harris/Invision/AP]
Ultimately, “The Cure” is a pretty harmless song with soft yet dynamic vocals from Gaga. It’s not as in-your-face as “Perfect Illusion,” the leadoff single from her latest album, Joanne, nor is it an analog, folky ballad the public may not be used to hearing from Gaga like “Million Reasons.” The song falls squarely in the current trend of pop music, with tropical vibes, EDM breakdowns, and a clean hook. Yet, to release this song in the middle of her more grounded Joanne era has some reviewers wondering why she’s going in this direction.
For an artist as smart and attuned as Lady Gaga, it may seem strange for her to move towards radio-ready fare again. Is Gaga truly just releasing this song in a desperate attempt to follow trends? Or is she making a kind of commentary about the vague, similar-sounding tracks that populate the radio today?
“It’s not parody, it’s commentary,” Gaga told the Independent in 2009 about her initial performance art as a pop star. “To use the words ‘have your cake and eat it’ implies something devious. For me, I just think I’m very good at what I do.”
Lady Gaga wears her trademark 'Joanne 'hat [Image by AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama]
Gaga has molded herself into many different forms throughout her decade-long career, from worldwide pop star to jazz artist with Tony Bennett to actress on American Horror Story, and most recently, to humble country rocker on Joanne. Now, on “The Cure,” we see a new form of Gaga — the earnest young singer who just wants to have a good time and fall in love. The typical clever irony featured on other Gaga tracks like “Paparazzi” or “The Fame” may not be as clear on “The Cure,” but the song’s straightforward lyrics and familiar production seem to suggest that Lady Gaga in her infinite pop-culture wisdom knows exactly what she’s doing.
[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Sep. 26, 2013, 6:23 PM GMT By Owen Jarus
The inhabitants of Easter Island consumed a diet that was lacking in seafood and was, literally, quite ratty.
The island, also called Rapa Nui, first settled around A.D. 1200, is famous for its more than 1,000 "walking" Moai statues, most of which originally faced inland. Located in the South Pacific, Rapa Nui is the most isolated inhabited landmass on Earth; the closest inhabitants are located on the Pitcairn Islands about 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) to the west.
To determine the diet of its past inhabitants, researchers analyzed the nitrogen and carbon isotopes, or atoms of an element with different numbers of neutrons, from the teeth (specifically the dentin) of 41 individuals whose skeletons had been previously excavated on the island. To get an idea of what the islanders ate before dying, the researchers then compared the isotope values with those of animal bones excavated from the island. [Photos of Walking Easter Island Statues]
Additionally, the researchers were able to radiocarbon date 26 of the teeth remains, allowing them to plot how the diet on the island changed over time. Radiocarbon dating works by measuring the decay of carbon-14 allowing a date range to be assigned to each individual; it's a method commonly used in archaeology on organic material. The research was published recently online in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
The researchers found that throughout time, the people on the island consumed a diet that was mainly terrestrial. In fact, in the first few centuries of the island's history (up to about A.D. 1650) some individuals used Polynesian rats (also known as kiore) as their main source of protein. The rat is somewhat smaller than European rats and, according to ethnographic accounts, tasty to eat.
"Our results indicate that contrary to previous zooarchaeological studies, diet was predominantly terrestrial throughout the entire sequence of occupation, with reliance on rats, chickens and C3 plants," the researchers write in their journal article, noting that the resources from C3 plants (or those that use typical photosynthesis to make sugars) would have included yams, sweet potatoes and bananas.
Rats, not fish
The islanders' use of rats was not surprising to the researchers. Archaeological excavations show the presence of the Polynesian rat across the Pacific. The Polynesian form commonly travels with humans on ocean voyages and, like any other rat, multiplies rapidly when it arrives on a new island. In some cases, the rats were probably transported intentionally to be used as food, something supported by ethnographic accounts stating that, in some areas of Polynesia, rats were being consumed at the time of European contact. Additionally, previous research has suggested the rats were at least partly responsible for the deforestation of Rapa Nui.
What was more surprising to the researchers was the lack of seafood in the diet of the islanders. "Traditionally, from Polynesian cultures you have a heavy predominance of using marine products, especially in the early phase of colonization," Amy Commendador of the Idaho Museum of Natural History at Idaho State University said in an interview with LiveScience.
One reason for the lack of seafood may have to do with the island's location and topography, Commendador said. The northern end contains steep cliffs and would be difficult to fish from. Additionally, the island's southerly latitude makes it somewhat cooler and may affect fishing. "Because of their geographic location and climate conditions, there just weren't as many marine products for them to get," Commendador said.
Rats should not be underestimated in their value as a resource, study co-author John Dudgeon, also at Idaho State University, told LiveScience. They could eat anything and multiply rapidly within a few generations. For the people who lived on Rapa Nui, "it was probably easier to go get a rat than it was to go get a fish," Dudgeon said.
Fish elites?
Though the study results showed the islanders' diet was mainly terrestrial, a few individuals, dating after A.D. 1600, appeared to have been eating more fish than the others. [The 7 Perfect Survival Foods]
These fish eaters may have lived on a part of the island where the fishing was easier, Commendador suggested. Another possibility the team raises in their paper is that access to marine resources varied due to the social and political constraints people faced. For the islanders, eating fish might have been a mark of "higher status" individuals, an elite person who was allowed more plentiful access to seafood.
Statues facing inland
One curious coincidence is that most of the Moai, the statues erected by the islanders, face inland rather than out to sea. Now, this new research suggests the people of the island also turned inland, rather than to the sea, to get their food.
Commendador and Dudgeon don't think any direct relationship between the Moai statues and the islanders’ diet exists. Previous research has suggested the statues were positioned facing inland due to ancestor worship, so that the statues could watch over their descendents.
Another, more speculative, idea is that by having the statues facing inland, the islanders were also "saying we're turning inwards and not turning outward," Dudgeon said. While this probably doesn't relate to the islanders' decision to eat rats rather than fish, it shows the mindset the people of Rapa Nui may have developed before the arrival of Europeans. Their lifestyle as well as their diet may have become focused on the land rather than the sea.
Follow us @livescience, Facebook and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.No one quite knew how to respond to Justin Trudeau’s big idea: rid the Senate of Liberals. Or at least stop calling them Liberal Senators, even if they still call themselves a Liberal Senate caucus.
And then, during this afternoon’s Question Period, when Trudeau asked the Prime Minister if he’d follow the Liberals’ lead and go non-partisan in the Senate, Stephen Harper basically made fun of his Liberal foe. He relished the opportunity to criticize the halved Liberal caucus, and in the process, looked more confident than he has in ages. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was also pretty happy to talk about taking the partisanship out of the Senate, and he and the PM engaged in a competition to see who could smile more indignantly about their various positions on Senate reform. Their benches joined in the revelry, and smiling faces greeted smiling faces as the leaders exchanged one-liners. The odd man out, after he stole the news cycle this morning, was Trudeau.
Perhaps the Liberal leader is playing a long game, and knows something no one else knows. The morning was all his. The afternoon was not. And still, he has no senators.Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox won't reunite for 'Friends' reunion after all. (Photo: Warner Bros.)
So much for the Friends reunion.
Matthew Perry's rep says the classic sitcom's co-star won't be part of a cast reunion to honor director James Burrows on a Feb. 21 NBC special, along with casts of other shows including Will & Grace.
"Matthew will not be attending as he is in London in rehearsals for his play, The End of Longing," says Lisa Kasteler, his spokeswoman. "NBC executives were aware of this prior to their (Television Critics Association) announcement" Wednesday. "Matthew may tape something for the tribute. In other words, this is not the reunion people have been hoping for."
In fairness to NBC, Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt, in making the announcement, said, "We'd like to get all six of them in room at the same time, but I'm not sure we can logistically pull it off."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1USoyp9It bears a slight, unfortunate resemblance to the AMC Gremlin - that funny box of a car produced for just a few years during the 1970s. And it certainly can't hold a candle to the sleek new Tesla. But Norway's electric car Buddy, which ElbilNorge AB just started producing in larger quantities at its factory near Oslo, has a few things going for it.
It's a good example of greener technology that doesn't necessarily cost more, for one. Right now Buddy is available in Norway for about 135,000 Norwegian crowns (US $25,000). That might seem spendy to a US buyer, but in Norway only three gas-driven models - Kia's 'Picanto', Peugeot's 'Urban' and Chevrolet 'Matiz' - are sold for less than the Buddy. And with the cost of gas in Norway at about 11 crowns (US$2) for a liter - that's right, more than US$7 per gallon - an electric car seems like a great investment if you have to drive. But wait - Buddy has some even cheaper competition!
Buddy is the latest generation of an electric car originally made in Denmark in the '90s. ElbilNorge bought the technology in 1999 and has been working on mass manufacturing. Meanwhile, Reva Electric Car Co. of Bangalore, India has a very similar car to the Buddy called the Reva City Car. Reva has been available for about a couple of years in Norway and the UK, but will now be offered to Norwegians in a stripped-down version (mainly no fancy stereo) for 91,000 Norwegian crowns (US$ 16,800).
At a top speed of 75-80 kilometers per hour, Reva and Buddy are really in-city vehicles. Both are officially classified in Norway as "electric four-wheeled motorcycles," that hold three passengers (that's including the driver), can drive between 40 and 80 kilometers on a single charge, depending on speed, and take around six hours to re-charge.
For Norwegian drivers, Buddy and Reva have three other distinct advantages to gas-driven brethren: they aren't subject to taxes or road tolls, they get free in-city parking, and they are allowed to drive in the bus lanes! And coming soon, a third electric car will be fighting for Norwegians' attention when THINK re-introduces its THINK City.Get the latest news and videos for this game daily, no spam, no fuss.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released on this date in 2010, meaning the real-time strategy game is now five years old. Developer Blizzard Entertainment is throwing a birthday bash to celebrate the anniversary.
First, everyone who plays StarCraft II between now and August 3 will receive the special emblem you see here.
In addition, Blizzard said it is bringing "truckloads" of virtual confetti to StarCraft II for the celebration. Check out the mesmerizing animated GIF below to get a glimpse of what you'll see in the game this week.
Although StarCraft II is now five years old, Blizzard isn't done supporting it just yet. The third and final chapter, Legacy of the Void, is currently in development and is on schedule to launch this winter. Preordering the PC game gets you immediate access to the Whispers of Oblivion prologue missions.
Blizzard also recently announced three different versions of Legacy of the Void, which are now available to preorder. The $60 Deluxe and $80 Collector's Editions come with a bunch of digital items for other Blizzard games; you can get all the details here.
What's your favorite StarCraft II memory of the past five years? Let us know in the comments below.The market today is full of opportunity and pitfalls. Given those conditions, let’s analyze five long term buys for long term investors:
#5 Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA)
Tesla is perhaps the most controversial and riskiest security on the list. While Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) isn’t exactly profitable, it has the most potential to change the world. Tesla’s target markets of automobile, energy production, and energy storage amount to trillions of dollars per year and are ripe for Silicon Valley-style disruption. Many of Tesla’s investors are not surprisingly Apple investors, and many see a similarity between Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. Fun fact: Both are 6′ 2. If Elon Musk is the next coming of Steve Jobs, Tesla has a lot more upside left.
Don’t forget to sign up for our free newsletter using market maker sentiment below. Volumebot is a website that shows market maker sentiment using the latest short volume data reported to FINRA. Short volume isn’t the same as short interest but can nevertheless be useful.
Click next to browse on:Last Updated Sep 23, 2016
“Affiliate Marketing” aka “Native Advertising” – the idea that a third party will promote a commercial VPN by creating content that closely resembles a review or feature. When a potential customer searches for a review of the service in question, legitimate reviews (if any exist) are drowned out by a sea of fake ones. This creates an environment in which inexperienced customers are usually fooled into thinking what they’re reading is impartial and unbiased, and in turn, saddles them with something they don’t need or want.
Let’s look at each party’s motivation in this model:
VPN Service – Wants to spread the word about their features, service, and to bring in new customers.
Affiliate – Wants to make money by selling VPN Service.
Customer – Wants an impartial and unbiased review of a given service. Wants a quality product.
When there isn’t full disclosure between the VPN Service and the Affiliate, which party gets shafted with this model? The Customer – because interests are misaligned. The VPN Service makes money as do Affiliates, but the Customer oftentimes ends up with a worthless VPN that neither has professionals running it nor the inclination to provide a truly excellent product. This isn’t just unethical, it’s illegal in most developed countries.
Shortly after the project started, several companies were quick to update their terms and policies. Some of them were honestly trying to make improvements in the light of renewed transparency, others just wanted to look better on the comparison chart and considered it a place they could show off their willingness to improve. A number of companies decided to update one such policy, which is: requiring affiliates to provide full and prominent disclosure of their financial relationship with the company they advertise for – as per FTC rules (regardless of country or jurisdiction).
“Secret Shopping” / Undercover Investigation
So, what is the point of this? The point is that I approached each of these companies in secret as a potential affiliate. I then asked questions about their policies to see if they were serious about enforcing them.
I want to focus on the 5 companies on the Chart who have a policy in their terms requiring their affiliates to provide full and prominent disclosure. These companies are:
BolehVPN
IVPN
Private Internet Access
SaferVPN
Trust Zone
The plan:
Send an initial email/support ticket to each company stating that I have questions about their affiliate policies.
When they reply, state that I don’t want to abide by their disclosure policy, and is it okay if I just ignore it.
If they say yes, it is okay to ignore it – approach the company (as TOPG), ask them to explain their decision, and what, if anything they plan to change for the future.
– approach the company (as TOPG), ask them to explain their decision, and what, if anything they plan to change for the future. If they say no, it is not okay to ignore it – point out that their existing affiliates don’t follow the policy and ask further questions.
Here were the relevant responses:
BolehVPN
(Tepid response, not okay to ignore disclosure policy, but no penalty if not in compliance)
“I would still prefer that it’s mentioned somewhere that it’s an affiliate link”
–Reubster
(Tepid response when confronted about existing affiliates in non-compliance)
“We are beginning to look through our affiliates list and although we won’t penalize, their earning level might be capped.”
–Reubster
IVPN
(Weak response – Yes, okay to ignore disclosure policy)
“You are welcome to handle the situation at your discretion. We have made the legal requirements available to you as per the FCC [US], the “call” as to whether they apply to you or have jurisdiction over you is your own.”
–John V.
(Strong response when confronted as TOPG)
“I’m disappointed at John’s response. He doesn’t have any authorisation to approve new affiliates and I’m betting he was not briefed on our new policy in which case our management is partly to blame. There is absolutely no ‘call’ to be made, the rules are clear and we intend on enforcing them strictly.
We’ve started the process of contacting our [existing] affiliates and are giving them until 31st August [2016] to comply [with this policy]. Failure to do so will result in [their] affiliate agreement with IVPN being cancelled.”
–Nick P.
(I’ll be following up on August 31st)
Update: 9-23-2016
I have been speaking to IVPN behind the scenes about the announcement that they finally made today – partially in response to this site’s inquiry, they have made the decision to close their affiliate program. This shows a tremendous commitment to both the industry and their potential customers to support an ethical and responsible business model. The VPN comparison chart has been updated as a result – Kudos to IVPN for making this big decision!
Private Internet Access:
(No direct response given)
Even though PIA did not directly reply to my question, it’s worth pointing out that they are consistently included in almost every affiliate operation I’ve ever seen. While certainly not alone, they are arguably the biggest abuser of this kind of marketing in the industry. Based on their track record, they show no desire to change.
SaferVPN
(Weak response – Yes, okay to ignore disclosure policy)
“Sure, you can do that. I am not aware of this clause in our terms. We work that way with most of our Affiliates (sponsored reviews, paid placements on ranking websites etc) so there shouldn’t be any issue at all”
–Anna F.
(Here’s the clause in your terms, Anna, see #4)
(No response when confronted as TOPG)
Trust Zone
(Weak response – Yes, okay to ignore disclosure policy)
“We will not penalize you in the event of non-compliance with this requirement”
–Mike
(Strong response when confronted as TOPG)
“Unfortunately, some affiliates try to avoid a disclosure. It’s not a good choice and may lead to ban. To be honest, we don’t ban our affiliates immediately but give them several chances and finally ask them to put texts like this at least:
When you buy VPN services by clicking links on our website, we sometimes earn affiliate commissions that support our work.
Recently, we banned our biggest affiliate… (named, but not mentioned here) and some other partners
The reasons of bans are not full disclosure and twitter spam (according to our terms: 5. FTC Endorsement Compliance and 3. Promotion of Affiliate Links)
If our affiliate ignores all our requests and requirements during 30 days – his account could be deactivated.
I have to notice that our tech specialist was not 100% correct. We don’t penalize our affiliate first time (immediately), but we will do that if he continued violations of term”
–Jack S.
A reminder that the purpose of this exercise is about industry improvement and transparency, not to stick it to any of the aforementioned companies. It just isn’t enough in my opinion to have a policy if it’s not enforced. We need better if this industry is going to create and form standout services. Representatives from these companies who may read this are free to respond, I will update this article with a relevant statement if they wish to provide one and it adds to the conversation.
I also want to give a message to companies who intend to change policies for the sake of looking better than those that don’t: Your reputation is at stake. I don’t take what you say as gospel – I intend to look into things a little deeper than you might be comfortable with if you’re just trying to score some easy credit on the chart. Follow through with your policies and everyone in the industry will be better off – except for those whose interests are not aligned with an ethical and transparent VPN industry.
If you like the project and find my work useful, please consider donating – your generous contributions help pay for the hosting, tools, and time I need to do my research and keep the data fresh.In what may be a sign that Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is set to move on from the Broadwell platform and focus on Skylake, it is being reported that the chip vendor will launch just two Broadwell SKUs for desktop, with the parts set to be announced at this year’s Computex.
The processors will be the Core i7-5775C and Core i5-5675C, and the 65W TDP offerings will be fully compatible with current Z97 motherboards following a BIOS update. The “C’ in the nomenclature is to denote the fact that the processors are unlocked, with Intel said to be moving away from the “K” naming convention.
The Core i7-5775C will feature a base clock of 3.3GHz along with a turbo clock of 3.7GHz. With four cores, eight threads and 6MB cache along with Iris Pro Graphics 6200, the i7-5775C will be the higher-end offering in this series.
The Core i5-5675C, on the other hand, will feature a slightly lower clock speed of 3.1GHz, with a turbo frequency of 3.6GHz. The CPU has 4MB cache and will also feature Iris Pro Graphics 6200. The LGA1150 Broadwell offerings are essentially a 14nm shrink of the Haswell die, and unlike previous years, Intel will not be offering a full gamut of CPUs across pricing tiers.
Instead, the vendor will focus its efforts on the Skylake architecture, the tock in Intel’s tick-tock release cadence cycle. Skylake will also be fabricated on a 14nm process, but will usher in significant CPU and GPU improvements along with lesser power consumption. To expedite the launch of Skylake, Intel is rumored to move up its annual Intel Developers Forum to mid-August, where it is officially set to unveil the new CPUs.
Skylake for the desktop will be offered as fully unlocked versions with TDPs of 65W and 95W, with a 35W SKU also planned for low-power devices. The chip vendor is set to begin producing the hardware in June or July, with retail availability set to commence from October.This guide is now permalinked at http://swiftjson.guide.
Swift 4 and Foundation has finally answered the question of how to parse JSON with Swift.
There has been a number of great libraries for this, but it is quite refreshing to see a fully-supported solution that is easy to adopt but also provides the customization you need to encode and decode complex scenarios.
It’s worth noting that everything discussed here applies to any Encoder / Decoder implementation, including PropertyListEncoder, for instance. You can also create a custom implementations of these if you need something different like XML. The rest of this blog post will focus on JSON parsing because that is the most relevant to most iOS developers.
The Basics
If your JSON structure and objects have similar structure, then your work is really easy.
Here’s an example JSON document for a beer:
{ "name": "Endeavor", "abv": 8.9, "brewery": "Saint Arnold", "style": "ipa" }
Our Swift data structure could look like this:
enum BeerStyle : String { case ipa case stout case kolsch //... } struct Beer { let name: String let brewery: String let style: BeerStyle }
To convert this JSON string to a Beer instance, we’ll mark our types as Codable.
Codable is actually what Swift calls a protocol composition type, consisting of Encodable & Decodable, so if you only care about unidirectional conversion you can just adopt the appropriate protocol. This is a new feature of Swift 4.
Codable comes with a default implementation, so for many cases you can just adopt this protocol and get useful default behavior for free.
enum BeerStyle : String, Codable { //... } struct Beer : Codable { //... }
Next we just need to create a decoder:
let jsonData = jsonString.data(encoding:.utf8)! let decoder = JSONDecoder() let beer = try! decoder.decode(Beer.self, for: jsonData)
And that’s it! We’ve parsed our JSON document into a beer instance. It didn’t require any customization since the key names and types matched each other.
Worth noting here is that we’re using try! for the sake of an example, but in your app you should catch any errors and handle them intelligently. More on handling errors later on…
So in our contrived example things lined up perfectly. But what if the types don’t match up?
Customizing Key Names
It is often the case that API’s use snake-case for naming keys, and this style does not match the naming guidelines for Swift properties.
To customize this we need to peer into the default implementation of Codable for a second.
Keys are handled automatically by a compiler-generated “ CodingKeys ” enumeration. This enum conforms to CodingKey, which defines how we can connect a property to a value in the encoded format.
To customize the keys we’ll have to write our own implementation of this. For the cases that diverge from the swift naming, we can provide a string value for the key:
struct Beer : Codable { //... enum CodingKeys : String, CodingKey { case name case abv = "alcohol_by_volume" case brewery = "brewery_name" case style } }
If we take our beer instance and try to encode it as JSON, we can see this new format in action:
let encoder = JSONEncoder() let data = try! encoder.encode(beer) print(String(data: data, encoding:.utf8)!)
This outputs:
{"style":"ipa","name":"Endeavor","alcohol_by_volume":8.8999996185302734,"brewery_name":"Saint Arnold"}
The formatting here isn’t very human-friendly. We can customize the output formatting of the JSONEncoder to make it a little nicer with the outputFormatting property.
The default value is.compact, which produces the output above. We can change it to.prettyPrinted to get more readable output.
encoder.outputFormatting =.prettyPrinted
{ "style" : "ipa", "name" : "Endeavor", "alcohol_by_volume" : 8.8999996185302734, "brewery_name" : "Saint Arnold" }
JSONEncoder and JSONDecoder both have more options for customizing their behavior. One of the more common requirements is customizing how dates are parsed.
JSON has no data type to represent dates, so these are serialized into some representation that the client and server have to agree on. Typically this is done with ISO 8601 date formatting and then serialized as a string.
Pro tip: nsdateformatter.com is a great place to snag the format string for various formats, including ISO 8601 format.
Other formats might be the number of seconds (or milliseconds) since a reference date, which would be serialized as a Number in the JSON document.
In the past we’d have to handle this ourselves, providing perhaps a string field on our data type and then using our own DateFormatter instance to marshal dates from string values and vice-versa.
With the JSONEncoder and JSONDecoder this is all done for us. Check it out. By default, these will use.deferToDate as the style for handling dates, which looks like this:
struct Foo : Encodable { let date: Date } let foo = Foo(date: Date()) try! encoder.encode(foo)
{ "date" : 519751611.12542897 }
We can change this to.iso8601 formatting:
encoder.dateEncodingStrategy =.iso8601
{ "date" : "2017-06-21T15:29:32Z" }
The other JSON date encoding strategies available are:
.formatted(DateFormatter) - for when you have a non-standard date format string you need to support. Supply your own date formatter instance.
.custom( (Date, Encoder) throws -> Void ) - for when you have something really custom, you can pass a block here that will encode the date into the provided encoder.
.millisecondsSince1970 and.secondsSince1970, which aren’t very common in APIs. It is not really recommended to use a format like this as time zone information is completely absent from the encoded representation, which makes it easier for someone to make the wrong assumption.
Decoding dates have essentially the same options, but for.custom it takes the shape of.custom( (Decoder) throws -> Date ), so we are given a decoder and we are responsible for hydrating that into a date from whatever might be in the decoder.
Handling Floats
Floats and are another area where JSON doesn’t quite match up with Swift’s Float type. What happens if the server returns an invalid “NaN” as a string? What about positive or negative Infinity? These do not map to any specific values in Swift.
The default implementation is.throw, meaning if the decoder encounters these values then an error will be raised, but we can provide a mapping if we need to handle this:
{ "a": "NaN", "b": "+Infinity", "c": "-Infinity" }
struct Numbers : Decodable { let a: Float let b: Float let c: Float } decoder.nonConformingFloatDecodingStrategy =.convertFromString( positiveInfinity: "+Infinity", negativeInfinity: "-Infinity", nan: "NaN") let numbers = try! decoder.decode(Numbers.self, from: jsonData) dump(numbers)
This gives us:
▿ __lldb_expr_71.Numbers - a: inf - b: -inf - c: nan
You can do the reverse with JSONEncoder's nonConformingFloatEncodingStrategy as well.
This is not likely something you’ll need in the majority case, but one day it might come in handy.
Handling Data
Sometimes you’ll find APIs that send small bits of data as base64 encoded strings.
To handle this automatically, you can give JSONEncoder one of these encoding strategies:
.base64
.custom( (Data, Encoder) throws -> Void)
To decode it, you can provide JSONDecoder with a decoding strategy:
.base64
.custom( (Decoder) throws -> Data)
Obviously.base64 will be the common choice here, but if you need to do anything
custom you can use on of the block-based strategies.
Handling URLs
For the most part URLs will work out of the box. If your object has a URL property,
the matching key from the JSON document will be used to create the URL (provided it
passes the URL(string:) initializer).
Given this JSON:
{ "title": "NSDateFormatter - Easy Skeezy Date Formatting...", "url": "http://nsdateformatter.com" }
We could map this to an object with no customization:
struct Webpage : Codable { let title: String let url: URL }
(Thanks to Ryan in the comments for suggesting this section.)
Wrapper Keys
Often times APIs will include wrapper key names so that the top level JSON entity is always an object.
Something like this:
{ "beers": [ {...} ] }
To represent this in Swift, we can create a new type for this response:
struct BeerList : Codable { let beers: [Beer] }
That’s actually it! Since our key name matches up and Beer is already Codable it just works.
Root Level Arrays
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and Hurricane Katrina.
Hedging emotions [ edit ]
As an emotion regulation strategy, people can bet against a desired outcome. A New England Patriots fan, for example, could bet their opponents to win to reduce the negative emotions felt if the team loses a game. People typically do not bet against desired outcomes that are important to their identity, due to negative signal about their identity that making such a gamble entails. Betting against your team or political candidate, for example, may signal to you that you are not as committed to them as you thought you were.[1]
Types of hedging [ edit ]
Hedging can be used in many different ways including foreign exchange trading. The stock example above is a "classic" sort of hedge, known in the industry as a pairs trade due to the trading on a pair of related securities. As investors became more sophisticated, along with the mathematical tools used to calculate values (known as models), the types of hedges have increased greatly.
Examples of hedging include:[5]
Forward exchange contract for currencies
Currency future contracts
Money Market Operations for currencies
Forward Exchange Contract for interest
Money Market Operations for interest
Future contracts for interest
Covered Calls on equities
Short Straddles on equities or indexes
Bets on elections or sporting events[1]
Hedging strategies [ edit ]
Tracker hedging. The fraction of open positions has to be within the (grey-blue) hedging corridor at every instance of time.. The fraction of open positions has to be within the (grey-blue) hedging corridor at every instance of time.
A hedging strategy usually refers to the general risk management policy of a financially and physically trading firm how to minimize their risks. As the term hedging indicates, this risk mitigation is usually done by using financial instruments, but a hedging strategy as used by commodity traders like large energy companies, is usually referring to a business model (including both financial and physical deals).
In order to show the difference between these strategies, let us consider the fictional company BlackIsGreen Ltd trading coal by buying this commodity at the wholesale market and selling it to households mostly in winter.
Back-to-back hedging [ edit ]
Back-to-back (B2B) is a strategy where any open position is immediately closed, e.g. by buying the respective commodity on the spot market. This technique is often applied in the commodity market when the customers’ price is directly calculable from visible forward energy prices at the point of customer sign-up.[6]
If BlackIsGreen decides to have a B2B-strategy, they would buy the exact amount of coal at the very moment when the household customer comes into their shop and signs the contract. This strategy minimizes many commodity risks, but has the drawback that it has a large volume and liquidity risk, as BlackIsGreen does not know how whether it can find enough coal on the wholesale market to fulfill the need of the households.
Tracker hedging [ edit ]
Tracker hedging is a pre-purchase approach, where the open position is decreased the closer the maturity date comes.
If BlackIsGreen knows that most of the consumers demand coal in winter to heat their house. A strategy driven by a tracker would now mean that BlackIsGreen buys e.g. half of the expected coal volume in summer, another quarter in autumn and the remaining volume in winter. The closer the winter comes, the better are the weather forecasts and therefore the estimate, how much coal will be demanded by the households in the coming winter.
Retail customers’ price will be influenced by long-term wholesale price trends. A certain hedging corridor around the pre-defined tracker-curve is allowed and fraction of the open positions decreases as the maturity date comes closer.
Delta hedging [ edit ]
Delta-hedging mitigates the financial risk of an option by hedging against price changes in its underlying. It is called like that as Delta is the first derivative of the option's value with respect to the underlying instrument's price. This is performed in practice by buying a derivative with an inverse price movement. It is also a type of market neutral strategy.
Only if BlackIsGreen chooses to perform delta-hedging as strategy, actual financial instruments come into play for hedging (in the usual, stricter meaning).
Risk reversal [ edit ]
Risk reversal means simultaneously buying a call option and selling a put option. This has the effect of simulating being long on a stock or commodity position.
Natural hedges [ edit ]
Many hedges do not involve exotic financial instruments or derivatives such as the married put. A natural hedge is an investment that reduces the undesired risk by matching cash flows (i.e. revenues and expenses). For example, an exporter to the United States faces a risk of changes in the value of the U.S. dollar and chooses to open a production facility in that market to match its expected sales revenue to its cost structure.
Another example is a company that opens a subsidiary in another country and borrows in the foreign currency to finance its operations, even though the foreign interest rate may be more expensive than in its home country: by matching the debt payments to expected revenues in the foreign currency, the parent company has reduced its foreign currency exposure. Similarly, an oil producer may expect to receive its revenues in U.S. dollars, but faces costs in a different currency; it would be applying a natural hedge if it agreed to, for example, pay bonuses to employees in U.S. dollars.
One common means of hedging against risk is the purchase of insurance to protect against financial loss due to accidental property damage or loss, personal injury, or loss of life.
Categories of hedgeable risk [ edit ]
There are varying types of financial risk that can be protected against with a hedge. Those types of risks include:
Commodity risk: the risk that arises from potential movements in the value of commodity contracts, which include agricultural products, metals, and energy products. [7]
Credit risk: the risk that money owing will not be paid by an obligor. Since credit risk is the natural business of banks, but an unwanted risk for commercial traders, an early market developed between banks and traders that involved selling obligations at a discounted rate.
Currency risk (also known as Foreign Exchange Risk hedging) is used both by financial investors to deflect the risks they encounter when investing abroad and by non-financial actors in the global economy for whom multi-currency activities are a necessary evil rather than a desired state of exposure.
Interest rate risk: the risk that the relative value of an interest-bearing liability, such as a loan or a bond, will worsen due to an interest rate increase. Interest rate risks can be hedged using fixed-income instruments or interest rate swaps.
Equity risk: the risk that one's investments will depreciate because of stock market dynamics causing one to lose money.
Volatility risk: is the threat that an exchange rate movement poses to an investor's portfolio in a foreign currency.
Volume risk is the risk that a customer demands more or less of a product than expected.
Hedging equity and equity futures [ edit ]
Equity in a portfolio can be hedged by taking an opposite position in futures. To protect your stock picking against systematic market risk, futures are shorted when equity is purchased, or long futures when stock is shorted.
One way to hedge is the market neutral approach. In this approach, an equivalent dollar amount in the stock trade is taken in futures – for example, by buying 10,000 GBP worth of Vodafone and shorting 10,000 worth of FTSE futures (the index in which Vodafone trades).
Another way to hedge is the beta neutral. Beta is the historical correlation between a stock and an index. If the beta of a Vodafone stock is 2, then for a 10,000 GBP long position in Vodafone an investor would hedge with a 20,000 GBP equivalent short position in the FTSE futures.
Futures contracts and forward contracts are means of hedging against the risk of adverse market movements. These originally developed out of commodity markets in the 19th century, but over the last fifty years a large global market developed in products to hedge financial market risk.
Futures hedging [ edit ]
Investors who primarily trade in futures may hedge their futures against synthetic futures. A synthetic in this case is a synthetic future comprising a call and a put position. Long synthetic futures means long call and short put at the same expiry price. To hedge against a long futures trade a short position in synthetics can be established, and vice versa.
Stack hedging is a strategy which involves buying various futures contracts that are concentrated in nearby delivery months to increase the liquidity position. It is generally used by investors to ensure the surety of their earnings for a longer period of time.
Contract for difference [ edit ]
A contract for difference (CFD) is a two-way hedge or swap contract that allows the seller and purchaser to fix the price of a volatile commodity. Consider a deal between an electricity producer and an electricity retailer, both of whom trade through an electricity market pool. If the producer and the retailer agree to a strike price of $50 per MWh, for 1 MWh in a trading period, and if the actual pool price is $70, then the producer gets $70 from the pool but has to rebate $20 (the "difference" between the strike price and the pool price) to the retailer.
Conversely, the retailer pays the difference to the producer if the pool price is lower than the agreed upon contractual strike price. In effect, the pool volatility is nullified and the parties pay and receive $50 per MWh. However, the party who pays the difference is "out of the money" because without the hedge they would have received the benefit of the pool price.
Related concepts [ edit ]
Forwards: A contract specifying future delivery of an amount of an item, at a price decided now. The delivery is obligatory, not optional.
Forward rate agreement (FRA): A contract specifying an interest rate amount to be settled at a pre-determined interest rate on the date of the contract.
Option (finance): similar to a forward contract, but optional. Call option: A contract that gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy an item in the future, at a price decided now. Put option: A contract that gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to sell an item in the future, at a price decided now.
Non-deliverable forwards (NDF): A strictly risk-transfer financial product similar to a Forward Rate Agreement, but used only where monetary policy restrictions on the currency in question limit the free flow and conversion of capital. As the name suggests, NDFs are not delivered but settled in a reference currency, usually USD or EUR, where the parties exchange the gain or loss that the NDF instrument yields, and if the buyer of the controlled currency truly needs that hard currency, he can take the reference payout and go to the government in question and convert the USD or EUR payout. The insurance effect is the same; it's just that the supply of insured currency is restricted and controlled by government. See capital control.
Interest rate parity and Covered interest arbitrage: The simple concept that two similar investments in two different currencies ought to yield the same return. If the two similar investments are not at face value offering the same interest rate return, the difference should conceptually be made up by changes in the exchange rate over the life of the investment. IRP basically provides the math to calculate a projected or implied forward rate of exchange. This calculated rate is not and cannot be considered a prediction or forecast, but rather is the arbitrage-free calculation for what the exchange rate is implied to be in order for it to be impossible to make a free profit by converting money to one currency, investing it for a period, then converting back and making more money than if a person had invested in the same opportunity in the original currency.
Hedge fund: A fund which may engage in hedged transactions or hedged investment strategies.
See also [ edit ]Author’s Note: The references and hyperlinks provided below have been chosen for both immediate accessibility and verifiability via the Internet. Other sources exist but are not readily accessible and verifiable by any and all readers.
You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. — Abraham Lincoln
The term “rape culture” has been bandied about since the 1970s. Its origin is from the title of the film Rape Culture™, produced in late 1974 and released in January 1975. The film’s 40th anniversary is upon us, so surely there must be plans in centres of academia, at the National Organization for Women (NOW), and across the universe and pantheon of feminism for such a momentous event’s ruby celebration.
Imagine the marketing opportunities for Ruby Slippers and Walk a Mile in Her Shoes. One can only hope that the world of feminism includes some competent marketing types who will grasp the links and not allow this promotional gift to pass the world by. It needs some expertise well above the capacities of the average academic type being sisterly on campus with marker pens, badly written signs, and a penchant for pulling fire alarms.
As an aside, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes has no Wikipedia page because the name is also a campaign launched in recognition of World Water Day, March 22, which started in 1993. World Water Day and A Mile in Her Shoes concern access to safe drinking water in underdeveloped nations, where children, predominately girls, take 10,000 steps per trip carrying water, often three times per day. The average US family uses over 150 gallons of water per day, while in developing nations families have available on average only 5 gallons, carried long distances by children.
The image of a child with a bucket on his or her head just can’t compete with hoards of entitled middle-class women attempting to convince the world that they are at risk of immediate sexual assault—living in constant fear—and cheering on grown men in six-inch red stilettos. Can’t have that, so there is no Wikipedia page that could undermine the image that so many entitled middle-class types use to prop up their social agendas and push them out globally. After all, the North American feminist fear of rape trumps Third World thirst every time.
The following two images illustrate just how warped the Googlearchy combined with social agendas can be: the first is an image search for the phrase “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” and the second simply adds the word “Water” to the search.
You can see that the first image is exclusively linked to First World fixations, with stiletto shoes and rapists hiding behind every shadow, and that in the second image the meme of First World female security even invades and overruns the basic necessities of life. Red stilettos pushed their way up the Googlearchy rankings and thirst was pushed out of the picture. Some are so privileged and they don’t even know it.
But back to the main issues and thrust of this article: the term “rape culture” has recently been pushed into the mainstream media in the USA through political activism. You can even chart its rise using Google Trends. It really got going in early 2012, which coincides with two political matters that are concurrent in very odd ways—but more of that later.
Rape culture: it just sounds so right that it has to mean what people think, doesn’t it? It’s been accepted and swallowed hook, line, and sinker, with journalists, pundits, and so many others failing to ask the basic questions—what does it mean and where did it come from?
Those failures and deliberate omissions are promoting sexism, racism, intellectual fraud, financial fraud, distorted perception, and are even distorting history. The Googlearchy has played its part, driving indifferently valid, indifferently accurate, and indifferently biased net content up its search rankings with no quality control or validation other than social pressure and financial gain. It is influencing politics and social perceptions globally. If you have the capacity, will, and herd-mentality supporters to link and quote content, you can define reality and then demand that the rest of the world follow you or be marginalised.
Many won’t even recognise that there is a difference between “Rape Culture” (upper case) and “rape culture” (lower case). There is. The main and simple difference is that “Rape Culture” (upper case) is the name of a film inspired by the work of a not-for-profit group called Prisoners Against Rape (PAR) founded September 9, 1973, by Larry Canon and William Fuller, inmates of Lorton Reformatory Virginia. “rape culture”(lower case) is what has been done to the equality and civil rights work of PAR since 1975. What academic terms mean and what Joe and Joanna Q. Public think they mean are very different, and so it is with “rape culture” and especially “Rape Culture.” Academic sources define rape culture as follows:
Rape culture is a concept of unknown origin and of uncertain definition; yet it has made its way into everyday vocabulary and is assumed to be commonly understood. The award-winning documentary film Rape Culture made by Margaret Lazarus in 1975 takes credit for first defining the concept. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007), Edited by: George Ritzer, Entry by Prof Joyce E Williams, Page 3791, ISBN: 9781405124331, DOI:10.1111/b.9781405124331.2007.x
Blackwell is available in both print and electronic versions: the e-format is updated three times per year. Reviewers say of Blackwell: “The most up-to-date work on this topic … Essential. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers.”*
So Blackwell is just about the most basic starting point for sociological academic sources, recognised widely across the globe as the best place to look up anything in sociology written in the English language and for everyone from the lowest student to the highest faculty member. Blackwell recognises the distinction of lower and upper case because “Rape Culture” is a proper name and is the name of the film Rape Culture™.
The actual truth and history of Rape Culture™ is fascinating, and it reveals many amazing people who deserve recognition and celebration for their work and courage in addressing inequality, racism, sexism, the normalisation of sexual assault as a control mechanism within institutions, and the mass indifference of those with privilege in society.
Larry Cannon, Black Male Prisoner, Lorton Reformatory
William Fuller, Black Male Prisoner, Lorton Reformatory
Loretta Ross, Black Woman, DC Rape Crisis
Yulanda Ward, Black Woman, DC Rape Crisis
Nkenge Toure, Black Woman, DC Rape Crisis
Loretta Ross, a woman of some standing in the area of reproductive rights, rape, and social justice, has even said this of the work with Prisoners Against Rape: “Oh, I’ve forgotten to tell you about Prisoners Against Rape. One of the more interesting things that happened when I was at the Rape Crisis Center is that we got contacted by a group of black men who were prisoners at Lorton Reformatory.—But I did enjoy dealing with Prisoners Against Rape” (Interview, 2004/5).
In the 1970s, the most raped and marginalised groups in US society were black men and women, and the most at risk of rape were black male prisoners in the US prisons systems. The use of rape and threat of rape as riot control and punishment is even a cultural joke in “Don’t Drop the Soap.” Rape of women in prison is seen as abhorrent, but rape of male prisoners is made into a joke and even a board game. You can buy your own box set of cultural misandry (not suitable for children) on Amazon. The Washington Post says of it: “A hilarious, yet artful romp in which five players vie to be the first out of jail” Kris Coronado, March 9, 2009.
I remain amazed that in these media-driven times with instant access to so much data, resources, and video, so few have noticed that Rape Culture™ exists. Given how easy it is to learn on the move, watching on a smartphone, hooked into Twitter or Facebook, and how easy it is to share media via webpages and email, it seems almost impossible to believe that the film has just been overlooked by so many. How Is That Possible?
Here is an excerpt from the film Rape Culture™. It was located through the website of the Academy Award–winning filmmaking organization Cambridge Documentary Films—they have a current webpage about the film.
The original excerpt in QuickTime format is located in the Internet archive Wayback Machine and was archived February 13, 2006. It’s amazing what net content has been recorded for posterity. You just have to know where it is and how to retrieve it. There was even contemporary reporting on the film in academic journals and other media:
Some, such as Friada Kleine, seemed to make careers out of organising screenings and discussions, especially in the Michigan area. In fact, there was an outburst or renewed interests in rape culture (lower case) in Michigan in the mid-’80s and then again in the mid-’90s.
A little known fact, which is so hard to find due to the Googlearchy, is that the first submission ever to Congress that used the term “rape culture” refers to the film Rape Culture™. That was due to the work of William Fuller of Prisoners Against Rape, who submitted evidence to Congress in 1978. It’s all there in the historical record, but you have to look for it.
Some interesting facts about the term “rape culture”: if you search for it using Google, the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology 2007 entry is not even in the top 100 results. If you use Google Scholar to search for it…, it simply does not exist. You have to ask Google for “rape culture”+definition before Blackwell even gets a mention, and the term is still absent from Google Scholar.
In Google Scholar you will find The Wiley-Blackwell Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology, which in its less than half-page entry on page 493 fails to mention any history or origin details. That is truly troubling, as it shows that scholars are deliberately not using Blackwell as a reference and going for lower quality sources. Could it be that they are showing bias and demand a definition that does not contain doubt? Or is it that once they grasp that the origin involves black male prisoners they seek ways to make both the male and racial issues vanish along with any doubt?
Rape Culture™ the film was noticed to be missing from Wikipedia in January 2011. A dialogue was started on the talk pages (now archived), and existing editors simply refused to address the issue. In the end, on May 7, 2012, a separate wiki page was created for Rape Culture™. The main wiki page was edited to include references to the film, and the objections began to heat up. Editors continue to claim that there are multiple sources for the term “rape culture,” and yet they can’t provide any academic or independent sources to support their claims. As such, it’s original research and not allowed. However, it’s defended and protested by a cadre of wiki editors because they have to have their reality and not the actual reality as set out under Wikipedia rules. It’s shocking too just how much these feminist editors push US-centric bias, not even looking for sources outside the USA, such as the work of Professors Upendra Baxi of India or Taboho Meitse of South Africa. The racial and systemic bias is quite disgusting.
The battle raged for days, with multiple reverts and editors being attacked on multiple fronts with accusations of racism, hate crime, and unwiki ways—and then they were blocked for all eternity because they used quality academic sources that a cadre of feminist editors could not allow to stand. It’s all there for review in Wikipedia if you know how to look for it. The reference to Blackwell managed to survive until 00:54, February 12, 2013, and then it was banished, never to appear again. One point that was of great contention were references to rape culture being a term in sociology, as that encourage others to look for references in that academic field, and of course the basic one is from the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology (2007).
Of most interest is how on May 2, 2013, an editor then attempted to cover up the issue by linking to The Wiley-Blackwell Concise Encyclopedia of Sociology and its far less detailed and less than half-page entry in an attempt to misdirect editors and the public as to sources and quality. Of course it also means that the doubt is removed as expressed by Professor Joyce E. Williams. It’s all standard smoke and mirrors and the psychology of abuse.
So it’s now clear to me why the 40th anniversary of the coining of the term “rape culture” will not be celebrated by the feminists of the developed world. They simply can’t risk all the truths coming out, the correction to texts and student mindsets and professors who have peddled less than scholarly knowledge in an effort to defend tenure as they look at the finishing line of a pension they can’t afford to lose. They also can’t afford the racism and bias to see the light of day.
#SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen anyone?
There are many who believe that feminism is a conspiracy theory, and I can see where they are coming from. Personally, I see the issue as one more of undue influence and the desperate need that many have to be liked and in the right. I have no doubt that there are small and very well-informed groups that have been using social psychology to get their own ways to control national groups by emotive misinformation. It’s all very clear when you study the Woozle effect that there are combinations of foolishness, mendacity, and deliberate exploitation at play. The history of moral panics linked to child battery, anorexia, domestic violence, and now rape all have the same pattern and evolution, except rape culture is the first to be significantly linked to the Internet.
One reason that so many will really not want any scrutiny of rape culture or its history is the recent publication by Lara Stemple and Ilan H. Meyer, “The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions,” in the June 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The commentary on the study alone raises many eyebrows: the authors’ analysis of how the CDC hid the truth of male victims is withering. The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) 2010 was publicly published after inexplicable delay in January 2012. It was an odd coincidence that just a few days earlier (January 6, 2012), the FBI had announced it was adopting a new definition of rape as well.
The fact that the new FBI definition coincided with the CDC definitions was not in any way seen as coincidental or linked in any way with the CDC’s delay in publishing the report. There were raised eyebrows, though, given the great number of people who had campaigned for rape by envelopment to be included in the new definition. But of course those details have been blocked too, and the CDC apparently knew of this while drafting its 2010 reports. Concerns raised by Stemple and Meyer’s findings are summed up here:
In one of the studies included in the analysis, the CDC found that an estimated 1.3 million women experienced nonconsensual sex, or rape, in the previous year. Notably, nearly the same number of men also reported nonconsensual sex. In comparison to the large number of women who were raped, nearly 1.3 million men were “made to penetrate” someone else. Despite the use of these two different categories, the CDC data reveal that both women and men experienced nonconsensual sex in alarming numbers. – Press Release, April 30, 2014
So the CDC found alarming numbers of both men and women subjected to sexual assault in the USA, the same number of men and women. Odd how the CDC ignored the alarm bells.
It puts those claims of “1 in 4” in context because surely it must mean that 1 in 4 college males are subjected to sexual assault during their college career, with the most likely assailant being college women? That agrees with a number of studies that have found that 43% of high school boys and young college men reported they had an unwanted sexual experience, and of those, 95% said a female acquaintance was the aggressor (Study, March 2014).
Rates of sexually aggressive behaviors among women vary from one segment of the United States to another, but the evidence presented here shows that as many as 7% of women self-report the use of physical force to obtain sex, 40% self-report sexual coercion, and over 50% self-report initiating sexual contact with a man while his judgment was impaired by drugs or alcohol (Anderson, 1998). Given these numbers, it is appropriate to conclude that women’s sexual aggression now represents a usual or typical pattern (i.e., has become normal), within the limits of the data reviewed in this paper. From Deviance to Normalcy: Women as Sexual Aggressors, Peter B. Anderson, Ph.D., and Dyan T. Melson, M.Ed. Electronic Journal of Human Sexuality, Volume 5, October 23, 2002.
And:
Almost 1 in 10 respondents (9.3%) reported having used aggressive strategies to coerce a man into sexual activities. Exploitation of the man’s incapacitated state was used most frequently (5.6%), followed by verbal pressure (3.2%), and physical force (2%). An additional 5.4% reported attempted acts of sexual aggression. WOMEN’S SEXUAL AGGRESSION AGAINST MEN, 2003
So now there is a real problem because those who have peddled and benefited most from the “rape culture” moral panic will have to address the sexually aggressive behaviour of American college women, and given that they sexually assault at the same rates as men are reported to, it will have to be an equality issue, equal for both genders, just as it was back in 1974/5 when a little known film was made called Rape Culture™.
Can’t we have a celebration, even if it has taken 40 years for the truth to come out and for the real equality and civil rights issues to take a step forward?
Feature image by PlindAuthorities said a member of the Harrisburg, N.C. Town Council shot his son in the leg Sunday night, after his wife said either he or his son had “too much to drink” at a Carolina Panthers football game.
Local TV station WCNC reported that police were called to the home of Phil Cowherd III after his son was shot and taken to a nearby hospital.
Details of the shooting are murky. Five people were inside the home at the time of the incident, according to WCNC, although it’s not clear if any of them witnessed it. Cowherd’s wife Shelia also laid out a confused picture of the scene for the 911 operator when she called in the incident.
“My husband is very sorry– this has never happened before, my son was beating down the door,” she said, as quoted by WCNC. “We had just came from a Panthers game; too much to drink, I don’t know why my son was banging and knocking my door apart, I don’t understand why, but my husband must have been afraid– he went and got the gun.”
It’s unclear whether Sheila Cowherd meant that her son or her husband had too much to drink.
Cowherd has served on the Town Council for more than a decade. Authorities were still investigating the shooting and had not yet filed any charges.
This post has been updated to reflect that it’s unclear whether Cowherd or his son had “too much to drink.”[Transcribed from the Libertarian Tradition podcast episode "The Anarchism of Peter Kropotkin"]
A little more than 90 years ago, on February 8, 1921, Peter Kropotkin died in Dmitrov, then a small town in Russia, about 40 miles north of Moscow. He had been born in Moscow itself almost exactly 78 years before, on December 9, 1842, but he had spent at least half of the 78 intervening years living abroad — a few years in Switzerland, a few more in France (though most of his time in France was spent behind bars), and, for more than 30 years, in England.
Kropotkin was of noble birth — Prince Kropotkin was the title he was born into — and, like his father and his father before him, he was expected to become an officer in the Czar's army and pursue a military career. The young Peter Kropotkin dutifully went to military school and, on graduation at the age of 19, accepted a commission in the Czar's army. But, to his father's disgust, he requested an assignment in Siberia, where he knew there was little or nothing military for the army to do, so that he stood a pretty fair chance of being attached to one of the various geographical expeditions that were busily mapping the region and documenting its flora and fauna. Geography and zoology, you see, were his true passions. Military service was just something he was doing to please his father.
And Kropotkin succeeded with his underhanded and self-serving plans. He became a military attaché on several geographical expeditions over the next few years, working alongside the geographers and zoologists and winning their respect for his conscientiousness and accuracy. In 1867, at the age of 24, he resigned his commission in the army, whereupon his father disinherited him, leaving him a "prince" with no visible means of support.
Nothing daunted, Kropotkin began putting himself through the University of St. Petersburg by working as a salaried employee of the Russian Geographical Society. In 1871, he led exploratory expeditions for the society in Finland and Sweden. But by then, his enthusiasm for geography and zoology, though still very strong, had begun to play second fiddle to a more recently acquired enthusiasm for radical politics. By sometime late in 1872, near the time of his 30th birthday it would appear, he decided he was an anarchist.
Under the influence of these new ideas, he joined an illegal society, the Tchaikovsky Circle, which had been named for one of its members, a younger brother of the celebrated composer. Though the circle's principal activity seems to have been the publication of foreign books in editions for Russian readers (Marx, Darwin, and John Stuart Mill were among the authors they made available) the members began gradually to be picked off — arrested by the Czar's secret police and tried on charges of belonging to a banned organization. In 1874, Kropotkin, now 31, was imprisoned for this "crime." After two years behind bars, he escaped and fled to Switzerland.
There he remained for the next five years, until, in 1881, after the assassination of the Czar, the Swiss caved in to pressure from the Russian government and agreed to expel all Russian "nationals" living on Swiss soil who were known radicals or revolutionaries. Again, Kropotkin fled, this time to France; but within a couple of years, thanks to the continuing machinations of his enemies in St. Petersburg, he was arrested again, this time by French authorities, who charged him with sedition and locked him up anew after his "conviction" on these charges.
By this time, however, Kropotkin was able to rely on his growing international reputation to protect him from the worst of the mistreatment various political authorities had in mind for him. Since his escape to Switzerland from Russia almost a decade before in 1876, when he was 33 years old, he had earned his living as a scientific journalist, contributing articles to magazines and newspapers. During these same years, the scholarly papers he had published during his time in Russia (based on his explorations) had gradually percolated through the scientific community. It proved very easy for his friends and supporters on the outside to organize petitions and letter-writing campaigns in which some rather eminent persons participated.
After three years, the French gave in to the pressure and released Kropotkin. Having tried Switzerland and France without much success, he decided to try England. And England worked out for him just fine. He lived there from 1886 to 1917, writing principally for Nature magazine, the Times of London, and an influential intellectual magazine of the day, the Nineteenth Century.
Yet, when the Czar's government fell in the February Revolution of 1917, and the way was cleared for him to return home, he seized the opportunity. He was 74 years old when he came back to a Russia he hadn't seen since he was in his mid-30s. Shortly after he arrived, the October Revolution installed the Bolsheviks in power — an event Kropotkin publicly deplored. Paul Avrich reports that he told one friend, "This buries the revolution," and commented further that the Bolsheviks were demonstrating "how the revolution was not to be made — that is, by authoritarian rather than libertarian methods."
Kropotkin didn't live to see the worst consequences of the Bolshevik takeover of the Russian Revolution, however. As we have seen, by the time conditions in the larger cities had become as bad as Ayn Rand portrays them in her novel We the Living, he was dead. And, of course, conditions became far worse after his death than they had ever been before it.
Kropotkin himself played no small part in bringing this catastrophe about. In the later years of the 19th century, his was one of the most influential of the voices raised in support of the economic absurdity of abolition of private property and the rule of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Early in his career, he had lent his support to what was often called back then "propaganda of the deed" — terrorist violence we would call it today, intended to arouse the sleeping masses to political awareness and political action. He abandoned these positions early on, but not before he had committed his early ideas to paper and thereby made certain of their influence over at least two generations of young European anarchists and communists.
Nonetheless, Peter Kropotkin is one of the half-dozen cases of famous anarchocommunists that I would say are worth a second look if you're seeking candidates for places in the libertarian tradition. I've previously said as much about Rudolf Rocker and Emma Goldman; I say it now about Peter Kropotkin. Not only did Kropotkin awaken pretty quickly to the folly of his early admiration for violence and force, but he was arguably the first to enunciate and systematically defend what has since become one of the key ideas of modern libertarianism. In order to understand this, it is necessary to understand first the intellectual world in which Kropotkin came of age in the early 1860s.
Like all good students of that era (and later eras as well), Kropotkin knew his Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes had written, 200 years before, in the middle of the |
armed former student with a grudge travelled thousands of miles to return to the University of California, Los Angeles campus to kill a former professor he once called a mentor. Another professor on his kill list was spared.
We tend to think that university campuses are among the safest places on Earth. But students are as competitive, and can be as violent, as anyone else. College may be the first time they are not only free to pursue their dreams, but also free to avenge a difficult assignment, or an average grade on an exam. Given that their pride, careers and lifelong well-being are seemingly at stake at university, students often feel as though drastic measures are warranted to ensure their success.
In more than 30 years of experience as a university professor, I have observed that threats and unsettling behaviour by students have not only increased in the last decade, they also seem to be more tolerated by the administration. The fact that universities are now opening their doors to anyone who wants a degree means that more and more students who may not be well-suited to a traditional academic environment are being welcomed.
Professors are commanded to quietly grant students the accommodations they ask for. As competition for Canadian post-secondary students has ramped up, institutions now view students as steady revenue-producing customers. Teachers are supposed to give them what they want and keep them happy. Annual enrolment and retention targets are to be met. Discernment, rigour and discipline belong to another era.
Post-modernism and humanism have washed over our educational institutions, so that today, we cannot even agree on what inappropriate student behaviour is, much less who, if anyone, is responsible for it, and what we might do to curtail it. I offer just a few examples from my own recent experience of behaviour on by students that would not likely be considered acceptable off campus.
One student who suffered from a brain injury enrolled in a full-semester course that was stuffed into one week. This intensive, block-week course is a serious challenge for students not suffering from brain injuries. Yet he repeatedly assured me it was his right to be in that course, although he rarely attended class that week. And why should he? Using paid note-takers was but one of 11 accommodations made for him, most of which I was required to put in place.
When he did attend class, he doubled down and made non-stop demands that hindered my ability to teach the course. When in attendance, he dominated the class. His frequent interventions were irreverent and irrelevant. He carried on as if he was the only student in the course. He goaded me about all his rights and harassed and threatened his way through the week. The learning experience of almost 60 other students in the course was degraded by this one student with rights.
On the last day, he dropped the course. I asked the administrator to channel these students away from the block-week course to the many 13-week versions of it. Yet he dismissed my concern, saying, “The human rights people would be all over that.” I could not convince him that no one, under the crown of rights and reasonable accommodation, is entitled to enroll in, and destroy for others, a week-long course.
Another student told me he had not only suffered a brain injury, he also had a criminal record. On the final exam, he met a question he did not appreciate. As his answer, he wrote that it was “a dirty question” and that he was “furious.” In the end, he passed the course, but apparently did not receive the grade he thought he deserved. “I know this is a malicious attempt from you to try to fail me in your class. I am in Montreal right now unfortunately … next week I am coming to see you,” he wrote. Nothing came of it, but I was not certain my employer would have protected me if he had come after me.
That lack of confidence stems from an event a few years earlier, when a student came into my office at the start of a course and asked me to “just give (her) an A in the course, like the other profs,” without having to do any work. I refused and soon found myself the target of her fury.
She did the work and passed with a good grade. But after the course was over, she embarked on a campaign of cruel cyber-harassment that my employer basically ignored. From a fake email account, she tormented me with anonymous, insulting and threatening emails. She called it “payback.” She did not deny the email harassment after I confronted her with it.
As far as I know, none of the university’s administrators were concerned enough to give her a call and have a chat. This experience sent the message to me that all the institutional nattering about safety and respect is about securing those things for students. Faculty members are on their own, if and when students want to rough them up. We just hope our names don’t make it onto a student’s kill list.
National Post
Peter Bowal is a professor of business law at the University of Calgary.Apple iPad mini with Retina display, the new tablet from the American devices major, will face shortage of supply, according to IHS.
Shipments of the new iPad tablet, which promises better performance than its earlier version, will be less than 3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2013. This means, Apple is likely to miss targets set for the new tablet.
IHS observed that there is a limited production of the tablet’s new Retina Display.
The shortage in supply means Apple will achieve one-third of the 8.9 million unit volume of the first-generation iPad mini shipments during the final three months of 2012, the first quarter when that product was sold.
Actual demand for the original mini was well above 8.9 million.
With demand for the new mini in the fourth quarter expected to equal or exceed the nearly 9 million units of its predecessor model, supply and demand will be severely out of balance, IHS said on Friday.
Apple iPhone 5s, one of the premium smartphones, also faced shortage, according to earlier media reports.
Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet research at IHS, said production is still ramping up on the 7.9-inch Retina panel with low yield rates limiting production. Supply will improve substantially in the first quarter of 2014, but with Chinese New Year falling at the end of January, supply difficulties on the new mini could linger into February or March of 2014.
This may be a good development for rivals of Apple – Samsung, LG, Sony, BlackBerry, Nokia, Micromax, etc.
IHS suggests that Apple could have launched iPad mini with Retina display, which is priced at $399 for the 16GB model, in the first quarter of 2014.
editor@telecomlead.comIn a victory for gun-rights advocates, the Colorado Supreme Court today struck down the University of Colorado’s campus gun ban, saying the CU Board of Regents overstepped its authority in blocking students from carrying licensed concealed weapons.
“We’re very, very happy,” said James Manley of the Mountain State Legal Foundation, which argued against CU’s ban. “The position of the Supreme Court was that they (the CU regents) were operating above the law.”
Justices ruled that the state’s Concealed Carry Act’s “comprehensive statewide purpose, broad language, narrow exclusions show that the General Assembly intended to divest the Board of Regents of its authority to regulate concealed handgun possession on campus.”
The Concealed Carry Act — passed by the state legislature in 2003 — states that a person with a permit may carry a concealed weapon “in all areas of the state,” with the exception of some federal properties, K-12 schools and buildings with fixed security checkpoints, such as courthouses. It also states that a “local government” may not enforce an ordinance or resolution that conflicts with law.
CU regents, however, said they have the authority to ban concealed weapons on campuses, leased buildings and any area under control of university police.
But in 2009, three students in El Paso County filed a lawsuit. The students — Students for Concealed Carry on Campus — argued the ban violated the Concealed Carry Act and the Colorado Constitution.
An El Paso District Court judge dismissed their suit, saying the Board of Regents is not considered a local government, but a “statewide authority with its own legislative powers over distinct geographical areas.
In 2010, the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed that decision, saying it was clear the Concealed Carry Act was intended to apply statewide.
In a unanimous decision, the State Supreme Court backed the appeals court. CU now must join Colorado State University in allowing students to carry licensed concealed weapons on campus, Manley said.
“My clients are extremely happy,” said Manley. “They will now be able to exercise their constitutional rights to carry on campus.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.comIn what may be a timely move, the FDA has issued clearance to RevMedX to introduce its XStat Rapid Hemostasis System for treating gunshot wounds in the civilian population. Last year the device received FDA clearance to be used on the battlefield, but now ambulances in the U.S. will have the option of carrying XStats as well.
The device contains a bunch of tablet-sized sponges that are injected, similar to using a typical syringe, deep into the wound. The tablets absorb blood and rapidly expand to fill the cavity that they find themselves in. The patient is then transported to a trauma ward where the sponges are removed and treatment can continue.
Each sponge contains a radiopaque marker that can be seen under X-ray imaging, making it easier to make sure all the sponges are cleared of the body.
The new indication for the XStat allows its use on both adult and adolescents suffering from acute ballistic lead poisoning.
Flashbacks: RevMedX Gunshot Hemostasis System and Tourniquet Belt at TEDMED 2014 (VIDEO)…; XStat Rapid Hemostasis System for Gunshot Wounds Works in 15 Seconds…; Xstat Gunshot Wound System Approved by FDA for Use on Battlefield…;
Product page: XStat…
Source: FDA…HTC is looking to merge the HTC One and HTC Butterfly product range of smartphones, a source close to the matter has told Pocket-lint.
Currently the metal-bodied One sits in parallel to the Butterfly models that are available across some Asian markets, both offering flagship specs. Our source has told us that HTC is looking to pull these together, most likely bringing about the end of the Butterfly line.
The result will be that there is a plastic-bodied HTC One in the pipeline, making a departure from the current metal model. We've been told that a plastic HTC One is definitely happening, but the device is unlikely to make an appearance until 2014.
The plan, it seems, is to have an all-encompassing HTC One offering, taking an approach that's similar to that of Samsung with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and its many siblings.
Our source couldn't confirm what the approach would be with regards to the plastic body design, whether it would be a unibody like we saw with the last-gen HTC One X, or if it will stick to the current design approach offered by the Butterfly models.
It means that in addition to the HTC One flagship model, you'll have the mini One, the max One, and then the plastic One. We're still waiting for the middle two devices to launch.
READ: HTC One review
We've no word on timelines, aside from 2014, and no confirmation of which territories the plastic HTC One will be launched into. Typically, HTC announces models for Europe and the US around February to coincide with Mobile World Congress. Phones destined for the Asian markets are more difficult to predict.
However, before the Butterfly dies, we've heard a final whisper that there could be another Butterfly handset to be launched in 2013, although our source couldn't confirm any details on what the additional handset might bring.
HTC has told us that it cannot comment on rumour and speculation.Spend enough time reading or writing gaming news and you'll quickly learn that PC gamers on the Internet have an irrepressible capacity to dig through, tweak, and just outright hack every nook and cranny of popular video games. While most of us scratch our heads and wonder why DirectX 10 is still exclusive to Vista—one industrious soul has found a way to enable DirectX 10 features and quality settings in the Crysis demo on Windows XP.
We have seen Vista-only games made to run under XP before but I've never seen anything like this enabled so easily.
If you tweak the configuration files in CVarGroups by copying and pasting the "very high" settings (1st paragraph) IN PLACE of the "high" settings (last paragraph) the game will load the highest possible settings even though the drop-down menus display "high."
Note to Microsoft and Crytek: When gamers find out that all that stands between them and DirectX 10 quality gaming on XP is a simple modification to a config file, your whole "Vista can do gaming things that XP can't" line sounds pretty manufactured—please stop jerking us around, kthx.
There is pretty much zero danger with this mod so I recommend you give it a try. Just make back up copies of any config files you plan to edit. If you get this working, be sure to let us know in the comments!Hadoop was born in the cloud, as a big data project designed to take advantage of Yahoo’s infrastructure, based on a paper from Google about the map/reduce algorithm.
It was never originally designed for on prem enterprise deployment. I recently wrote that some of the issues with Hadoop adoption are cultural, but management overheads are another problem – setting up clusters, capacity planning, maintaining and updating versions etc. Keeping cluster running, the basic care and feeding that any distributed system requires. Another management issue is the sheer pace of innovation in open source big data tooling. Hadoop is great for counting and sorting in batch mode and Hadoop Data File System (HDFS) is a powerful data reservoir, but then what? The query infrastructure is still immature, and targeted at highly skilled and expensive data scientists with language skills rather than common or garden SQL tooling. As data workloads increasingly became stream-based, Spark took off. Then we needed a message bus, and Kafka emerged as the platform of choice. But how is all of this stuff supposed to fit together? Enterprises, in general, don’t want to be systems integrators (except of course, the ones that do) and prefer to outsource the packaging of technology to third parties.
Cloudera, Hortonworks, Map/R were founded as Hadoop distribution providers, and have responded to the rate of change issue but broadening their story and embracing Spark and Kafka, positioning themselves as broad next generation data platforms
But many early deployments were on prem, which meant management overheads remained, especially in a world where new software versions off all of the pieces of the stack are emerging at a furious pace. Updating on prem software sucks.
Even in the cloud though it promises elastic scalability, capacity planning is an issue – what happens when your Hadoop cluster grows out of the sizing you have set up on AWS Cloud? Hadoop and associated tooling carries a fairly significant management overhead. While the distribution players can mitigate these issues to some extent, the alternative is managed serviced from AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
If lighthouse customers is anything to go by, Google may have found a sweet spot in picking up customers that are fed up with with running Hadoop, and are looking for an integrated set of offerings that don’t carry a management overhead. Google has its ducks in a row from a packaging perspective.
One of the first major GCP wins for its Big Data services was Spotify, which said loud and clear it was willing to trade openness for convenience and extra capability.
HSBC spent tens of millions of pounds standing up its own Hadoop infrastructure for anti-money laundering (AML) but was disappointed with the results. It has now migrated to GCP for AML, and is beginning to migrate other workloads there, such as finance liquidity reporting. The strategy is Cloud First and GCP is really well positioned there.
Ocado is an online grocery delivery platform, which also offers third party digital and fulfilment services. It’s a classic platform play and has gone all in on Google Cloud for data. Interestingly it would be even more aggressive about adopting Google infrastructure were it not for corporate restrictions on adopting beta versions.
Qubit is a startup offering personalisation services to retailer customers. It was running a massive Hadoop and HDFS cluster on AWS: 120k events per second, Over 1bn personalisations per day from hadoop and dedicated Hbase clusters. At the end of 2016 it ported all of its data to GCP because of manageability, particularly around capacity planning. Emre Baran, founder said:
With Bigtable and Bigquery we got rid of all the problems we used to have with Amazon, where we had to freeze the world, move the data to a new instance, then start the world again.
Qubit’s migration went like:
Storm to Dataflow Kafka to PubSub Hive to BiqQuery Hbase to BigTable Mesos to GCE
At Google NEXT 17 yesterday analysts were also got another couple of names that are currently confidential, but both are frankly very impressive – one in retail data management and one in automotive for managing warranties. Do lighthouse customers completely change a market? Obviously not, but it does point very clearly to a market sweet – or should be suite – spot. Positioning is such that Google’s sales teams can go into accounts and ask simply – why would you do anything else? The retail vertical in particular is a good target for GCP because retailers are afraid of relying too much on AWS, because Amazon is such a fierce competitor in pretty much every retail category.
This play is more about managed services, removing current management headaches, but of course Google has plenty more to offer – it has done an excellent job of creating integrated data pipelines, and there is upside in areas such as machine learning with Tensorflow. While a massive amount of data is flowing into AWS, with GCP Google is now in the game, with a differentiated set of managed data services based on open source code.
Amazon is set up the handle Hadoop Cloud migrations through Elastic Map Reduce (EMR), but much of its data management focus has been focused on its own proprietary tooling – notably RedShift for data warehousing and Kinesis for streaming and real time analytics. That is changing somewhat with support for tools such as Elasticsearch.
For the incumbent distro players (even with their platform specific services) the cloud presents significant challenges. Cloudera to some extent acknowledged this with the lower pricing of its recent IPO. Hortonworks had IPOd earlier. MapR remains privately held. All of these companies have partnerships with the major cloud players. Microsoft resells Hortonworks as HDInsight, and may end up acquiring the company.
There are obviously risks associated with partnering with cloud companies. Once the data is in the cloud Azure, AWS and Azure will be sorely tempted to go after the workloads themselves rather than leave margins to partners.
Data gravity is often touted as a potential problem in the cloud – once data is there, it’s likely staying there. But another way of looking at it is that gravity pulls all of your data together, to help you use it more effectively. The high speed networking, storage options, deployment flexibility make entirely new data approaches possible that just would not have made sense on prem. AWS has done some excellent work in that regard with QuickSight, a BI tool which you can point at any pretty much any AWS data service, which will check the metadata and makes recommendations about join and query possibilities.
But for customers the benefits of moving to the cloud are obvious to the point of being a no brainer. Data governance issues are being dealt with, and the upsides of getting data in the cloud from a manageability perspective are too significant to be ignored. Big data generally, and Hadoop specifically, is the latest enterprise workload that just makes more sense off prem.
AWS, Cloudera, Google and Microsoft are clients.By Catherine J. Frompovich
What’s happened to the Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which has been renamed Ebola virus?
According to this video
https://youtu.be/5z43173PgXY?
Ebola has been genetically engineered as something deviously sinister, which probably can be labeled as “Ebola Gate” according to Attorney Alfred Webre and the Exopolitics website.
I don’t wish to take Attorney Webre’s website’s “thunder,” so I heartily suggest readers study the right side panel titled “EbolaGate” for a better understanding of what’s in a probable future offering of medical false flags or possibly population control agendas.
According to that website,
Most of the new vaccines are DNA vaccines which don’t just give someone a bit of a virus so people’s bodies react. The DNA or GMO vaccines actually alter human DNA just as “food” GMOs do to plants. These vaccines have never been approved for human use. In addition, they are creating more virulent viruses with new characteristics and new dangers. http://exopolitics.blogs.com/ebolagate/2015/01/gmo-vaccines-creating-herd-contagion.html [CJF emphasis]
That particular website has some extremely interesting information regarding ‘vaccine politics’ healthcare consumers ought to know and factor into their informed consent criteria and enforcement, in my opinion.
Farther down on that website, there’s a most interesting topic “Mycoplasma,” which is a “hidden ingredient” in many, if not all, vaccines.
The researcher who contributed to that website found something folks have talked about and others claimed was “conspiracy theory,” but has been confirmed in the 2017 ICD-10-CM Codes regarding “execution, any method.” [1] However, something is missing; what’s missing? Vaccines and false flag events! Doesn’t that execution list resemble something the military would prepare?
In view of what’s known regarding FRAUD at the CDC/FDA regarding vaccine damage, e.g., Autism from whistleblower William Thompson, PhD, CDC epidemiologist, what we are learning about vaccines from independent research of vaccines’ sordid history, categorically, they ought to be classified as a “bioweapon,” in my opinion.
What do you think?
Reference:
[1] http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/EIndex/L/Legal#1439F
Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.
Catherine’s latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Don’t Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.
Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.
Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)
Catherine’s NEW book: Eat To Beat Disease, Foods Medicinal Qualities ©2016 Catherine J Frompovich is now availableSINDHUPALCHOWK, Dec 3: A bright yellow metal-like substance was found while the workers were demolishing a rocky hill in the source of the Melamchi River.
According to Ghanashyam Bhattarai, Executive Director of the Melamchi Drinking Water Project, the yellow substance studded with bright yellow particles was found in the course of constructing the much-talked multipurpose Melamchi Drinking Water Project on Thursday.
The bright yellow substance found in Melamchi has been sent to the Mines and Geology to determine whether it is gold.
Following the discovery of the substance the hill has been restricted from pulling down further.
A team of Nepal Police and Nepal Army have started guarding the hillock, assuming that the yellow metal-like substance could be gold.
With the discovery of the substance, the construction work has been halted for the last three days.
“It has not been ascertained yet whether it is gold or some other substance,” Bhattarai told Republica Online. It will be confirmed only after the lab test.
The bright yellow substance has been sent to the Department of Mines and Geology to determine whether it is gold.“Bizzaro World”, also known as htraE, has been a recurring location present in DC Comics’ Superman franchise. After seeing the increasing popularity of anime in the west, DC decided it was time to tackle what anime would be like on Bizzaro World. After much deliberation and research the various authors that contribute to the Superman franchise concluded that anime would be decidedly much better than it is on Earth.
The authors took no shortcuts in making Bizzaro-anime as different from this world’s anime as possible. Anime Maru attempted to compile a list of just some of the differences.
After the complete flop that was Lagann Gurren Toppa Tenga, studio Naigax turned around and became a powerhouse studio putting out hits every year. On that note, LGTT was considered so bad that cosplaying the main heroine, Yoko, is banned at most anime conventions.
One Peace is one of the most successful 12-episode series ever.
Wolf & Spice covered the entirety of the source material.
Every show produced by Bizzaro-Kyoto Animation is entirely voiced by Bizzaro-Kanye West.
Nobody has ever heard of Yoshitsugu Matsuoka.
The entire world collectively agrees that Pico is best girl.
Studio DEEN has never done anything bad and all employees are heralded as geniuses.
Anime Red-ray DVDs are incredibly affordable.
Animators are among the most well-paid people due to the mass consumption of enjoyable and cheap anime.
Our interest piqued, the Maru team sat down with David Abrim, the head writer for the Superman franchise, and asked him what his inspiration behind the latest issue was.
Abrim: WELL WHEN WE SAW ALL OF THE KIDS ENJOYING THEIR ANIMES, WE THOUGHT THAT IT WAS TIME FOR SUPERMAN TO GET HIP WITH THE TIMES!
WE THOUGHT THAT WE COULD EXPLORE A LOT ABOUT ANIMES IF WE SENT SUPERMAN TO BIZZARO WORLD AND THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT THE ANIMES WOULD BE LIKE THERE!
We were held aghast at all of this, and wanted to know more about such a crazy and messed-up alternate reality where anime is actually good and enjoyable. As such, all of the Anime Maru authors have started a crowdfund campaign to build a machine that can warp to Bizzaro World.It's part of an archaeological study, which is a required first step before the 2017 Highway 77 reconstruction project through the town.
About 3.5 miles of roadway will be redone, as well as the addition of pedestrian and bicycle trails.
Since a majority of the funding is coming from the state and federal government, the archaeological study is a needed step in order to evaluate the historical significance, said Frank Florin, owner and principal investigator of Florin Cultural Resource Services, which is heading the investigation along the west side of Gull Lake.
"We're gaining some good information that will enhance the understanding of the history of the area," Florin said.
Florin and his team of 10 people started the project in September and will finish up this week.
Using hand shovels and a mesh screen to sift, the group digs several test holes before evaluating which ones to explore deeper.
In those cases, they'll go down a couple of feet and sift through the dirt with hand-held screens, pulling out each new find.
The recently unearthed treasures are evidence of a series of campsites along the road from the Native Americans, Florin said.
The most exciting find for Florin so far is about 25 rare stone net weights, which were used to weigh down fishing nets several hundred years ago.
"I've been doing this for 25 years and this is the first time I've found them. They're just not that common," he said.
Tiny ceramic pieces have been sifted from the cold soil, which are leftover parts of pottery vessels dating back about 2,000 years.
The team also dug up several arrowheads, spear points, fire-cracked rocks (rocks split open from heat of cooking in fire pits), and stone chipping debris, all dating back about 500 to 800 years.
A few moose and elk bones dating back 1,000 years were found at the campsites as well.
Most of the artifacts are typical of the prehistoric people and area, Florin said.
"They are fundamental basic things people used to live," he said.
The state tracks known burial mounds, so human bones have not been found on this dig, and Florin doesn't expect to find any.
All of the artifacts the group finds along the Lake Shore road will be curated at the Minnesota Historical Society.
Meanwhile, Florin and his team will draft a report of their findings, which will be done this winter.
It's vital work, Florin said, because history is the key in moving forward in the world.
"It's about respecting and honoring traditions and the people that were here," he said. "It enriches our lives when we learn about other ways people have lived."
JESSIE PERRINE may be reached at jessie.perrine@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5859. Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/brainerdnews.INDIANAPOLIS — Two wedding expos set for the Indianapolis area will give same-sex couples the ability to choose businesses that support their right to marry.
The Indianapolis Star reports Indiana’s first same-sex wedding expo will be held Sunday at Indiana Grand Racing & Casino in Shelbyville. The second will be held next month in downtown Indianapolis.
The expos come on the heels of a recent fight over Indiana’s religious objections law that critics feared could be used to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The law sparked boycotts of the state and nationwide criticism.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence quickly asked lawmakers to draft changes to the law and clarify that it could not be used as a license for discrimination. He signed a revised version of the legislation last week.
But expo organizers say planning was in the works long before the law became a national gay-rights issue.
Article continues below
Indy Rainbow Chamber of Commerce Chairman Don Burrus said a wave of same-sex couples began planning big ceremonies in Indiana when gay marriage was legalized last year by federal courts.
The wedding industry has started to notice as well, and more than 30 businesses, including caterers, photographers and hair stylists, will be at Sunday’s expo.
“The community wants to work with people who are welcoming and accepting,” Burrus said. “It’s a very special time when you are planning a wedding. No one wants to be told by a vendor that they won’t serve you.”
Continue reading →
This Story Filed Under0 Governor Rick Scott kicks off $177 million road construction project in Jacksonville
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Florida Governor Rick Scott kicked off the I-95/I-295 North Interchange project Thursday in Jacksonville.
Scott was at the Hollywood Theater at 9 a.m. to talk about the project.
Related Link: Today's Top Stories
The design and construction of the $177 million project was funded with state and federal money, Scott said. The state of Florida invested $103 million into the project.
The project will improve and reduce traffic in Jacksonville, Scott said. He said the project would also enhance access to JAXPORT facilities.
Scott also commended the Florida Department of Transportation for its work during Hurricane Matthew.
FDOT will host a construction open house for the project on Nov. 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Oceanway Assembly of God church. People will be able to meet with project engineers and representatives from the department to have questions answered and review the plan details.
Visit FDOT's website for more information about the project.
Action News Jax is following the story. Watch Action News Jax and follow us on Twitter @ActionNewsJax for the latest.
Governor Scott just arrived for announcement about I-95/I-295 interchange @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/gsHi8NXD06 — Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) November 3, 2016
Gov. Scott: Jax has seen 29k new jobs in past year @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/wV9EM5qhZJ — Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) November 3, 2016
Project will reconfigure I-95/I-295 N interchange, & have dedicated thru and exit lanes @ActionNewsJax pic.twitter.com/Ne4CsICIY8 — Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) November 3, 2016
Gov. Scott will not greet @POTUS when he arrives in Jax for @HillaryClinton rally. Will be in Clay Co.for #HurricaneMatthew round table. — Beth Rousseau (@BethANJax) November 3, 2016
© 2019 Cox Media Group.I’m a big Facebook user. It’s where the bulk of the readers of my blog come from, and I love being able to stay connected with my friends across the country and the world. Of course, it comes with its problems. The biggest one (other than the tremendous time sink it can be) might be the fact that Facebook forces me to see what a lot of my friends and acquaintances really think.
It’s much easier to think the best about people when you’re not faced with a torrent of memes and political posts.
“But Bryce,” you say. “Don’t you do the same thing? You’re posting about politics and other current events all the time on this blog.”
True. But I’d like to think I’m pretty consistent in my views. Anyone who meets me in person will see and hear the same things I’m saying and thinking aloud on this blog. And I also liberally hide people from my Facebook feed. (Something I encourage everyone to do.) If you’re not someone I know well, I’ll happily add you as a friend, but that doesn’t mean you get a spot in my feed.
However, even with all the feed gardening, I still get a slew of posts by well intentioned people who, frankly, don’t know what they’re memeing about. In a way, I can’t blame them. Social media has made it all too easy to share information. You’d think I’d applaud that, as a librarian. Yay information!
But a whole ton of what gets shared isn’t true. In some cases, this is accidental. A quote is misattributed, and then that’s passed forward from share to share. In other cases, lies are presented as fact. That’s clearly a problem, but even the misattribution of quotes is an issue for me.
When we start playing loose with facts (including who said what when), then it becomes that much easier to play loose with bigger facts. We shift focus from the source and look only at the content. “It’s the idea that matters,” I hear. “What does it matter who said it?”
It matters so much! Not just who said it, but who they were speaking to. The easy example is anything written in the Onion. Some people don’t realize that’s satire, and it upsets them when that sails past them. But it’s more complicated than that, of course.
I personally don’t believe pretty much anything I read on partisan new sites. And I don’t just mean Fox or MSNBC. (If you follow those sites, fine. But please pair them with some opposing viewpoints.) N0, I mean sites like Drudge or Breitbart. Sites that unapologetically skew the news to present a worldview that just isn’t based in reality.
Information isn’t all of equal value. It needs to be sifted and analyzed. It needs to be validated. Facts are very different than opinions, no matter how much one might wish it were otherwise. Base your worldview on opinions, and you can be in for a rude awakening. Forming an opinion based on fact is fine, but opinions based on opinions gets you into dangerous territory.
We need to pay attention to the small things, because they lead to big things. A personal example: a few years ago, I shared something that basically talked about how frivolous law suits were driving up the cost of health care. I didn’t need to cite anything: everyone knew this was fact. At least, that’s what I believed. But then a lawyer friend spoke up and said that just wasn’t true.
I leapt into action to prove him wrong. I’m a trained librarian, dagnabbit. I can find information with the best of them. Except when I went looking, I discovered... he was right. The actual studies done said exactly the opposite of what I had been passing on as fact.
So I admitted I was wrong and changed my mind. Popular opinion doesn’t trump fact. (No pun intended, but it’s a convenient turn of phrase.)
These days, you can find something online that will confirm just about any previously held belief you have. Anything you want to believe, someone will be out there cheering you on and telling you how right you are. How do you tell if what you’re reading is reliable information or just a bunch of fluff?
Use the CRAAP test. It’s a series of questions librarians promote to help people evaluate information.
C is for currency. When did the information come out? Has it been outdated by new findings?
R is for relevance. Does the information actually relate the issue at hand?
A is for authority. Who provided the information, and why are they someone to be believed? What is their background and education, and do they have any ulterior motives?
A is for accuracy. Is the information corroborated by other sources? If five sources say one thing, and the sixth says the opposite, that doesn’t mean you can ignore the five. You have to figure out why it’s saying something different and if it can be believed.
P is for purpose. Why was the information created? Did someone pay for it to be publicized? If so, who? Is it designed to persuade? Is it unbiased?
The thing is, applying this test to everything can be a real pain in the rear. It’s so much easier to just share the post or the meme and forget about it. But if you keep doing that, you can end up having a skewed understanding of what’s actually happening. You end up living in an echo chamber where everything agrees with what you’ve always believed.
Here’s a pro-tip for you: if you haven’t ever had some basic assumptions proved wrong, |
using the platform to harass and threaten his rivals. There is no greater cyberbully on the Internet (sorry, Melania). The idea of Twitter C.E.O. Jack Dorsey ousting Trump is, more than anything else, pretty funny. But it also illustrates the limits of Twitter’s approach to harassment, revealing a Trump-sized loophole in the company’s policy.
The issue has become terrifyingly relevant again in the past several weeks as the president has ramped up his threats toward North Korea, which is currently engaged in a game of nuclear chicken with the Trump administration. On August 11, Trump tweeted, “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” A tweet on Saturday night made his earlier declaration look downright diplomatic. “Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N.,” he tweeted after North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho spoke on Saturday. “If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!”
North Korea interpreted the latter tweet as a declaration of war. “The U.N. charter stipulates individual member states’ rights to self-defense,” Ri told reporters outside the U.N. on Monday. “Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down the United States’ strategic bombers even when they’re not yet inside the airspace border of our country.” Rightly horrified by the prospect that the president’s tweets could land the United States in a nuclear-war situation, Twitter users have asked Twitter to remove Trump’s account or individual tweets for threatening violence—something that would seem to violate Twitter’s terms of service, which prevents users from making violent threats.
But Twitter, it seems, is still uninterested in booting its most famous customer. On Monday, the company explained—in a six-part tweet thread, no less—that it would make an exception to its rules for Trump because of the “newsworthiness” and “public interest” value of his tweets. In other words, Twitter has implied that it will never censor Trump. These factors, Twitter explained, are taken into account for all content posted to Twitter that would seem to violate its content policy. “This has long been internal policy and we’ll soon update our public-facing rules to reflect it,” Twitter wrote on Monday on its @Policy account. “We need to do better on this, and will.”
In other words: When you’re a star, they let you do it.
This newly public policy raises more questions than it answers. By establishing a standard of “newsworthiness,” all public figures’ tweets will theoretically be subject to a subjective threshold. It also is maddeningly unclear about what happens when a private individual’s “newsworthy” tweet goes viral, as often happens on Twitter. “We hold all accounts to the same Rules, and consider a number of factors when assessing whether Tweets violate our Rules,” the company explained. “Among the considerations is ‘newsworthiness’ and whether a Tweet is of public interest.” However, this would seem to directly contradict its decision not to act on Trump’s account—it’s clear under the rules Twitter laid out on Monday that some accounts are held to different standards and rules than others. The more egregious a Twitter T.O.S. violation is when someone like Trump does it, the more newsworthy it becomes, and Twitter finds itself stymied by inaction.I recently had a (teary) conversation with a mentor about my dissertation. I’ve done a lot of research, much of which I’m not even planning to include in my dissertation, but I know (and my dissertation committee said) that my dissertation could use more depth. I was attempting to pitch a new experiment to add in, and I received feedback that I was probably trying to squeeze moisture from a rock that might give me a few drops, but that other projects would probably result in better bang for my buck (more important results for the time I’d have to put in). She suggested I might be sacrificing quality for speed.
My first reaction was to feel defensive. I’m pouring effort in, churning out experiments, grinding the data as quickly as possible, and drafting up the results. There’s not much validation in the PhD process: there are no gold stars and criticism far outweighs praise.
Further, academic work often feels like a race. You get credit for the number of publications you have and the impact factors of those publications. Early on a professor commented, “You are now in the paper business. Every activity you do in grad school should geared toward that end.” I’ve embraced my role in the paper business, assimilating academia’s publish or perish mentality into my work, allowing it to drive the papers I read, the experiments I run, and how I frame those experiments, creating new stories to explain unexpected results. I’m playing the game, and I think I’m playing it pretty well, and now she wants me to slow down?
As our conversation (is it still a conversation if one person is struggling to make sentences amidst tears?) continued, I started to come around to what she was saying: yes, I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself. Yes, I am hyper-focused on forward progress, and no, I haven’t thought too much about whether the work I’m doing is really the most impactful it can be. I’m staying busy and making sure I have things to show for that busy-ness. I cannot rest until I check something off a list, and at that point I’ve probably added a few more items to the list anyway.
But since I already have good research, and I’m not running out of funding, maybe it is time to take a step back. I need to pull away from the quest to find yet another p-value that’s less than.05, and think about bigger ideas: What important answers do we still not have about how metaphors shape cognition? And how can I work on those? As I started truly believing that I should slow down, I stumbled upon this great post on The Slow Grad Student – great affirmation.
One thing that helps me take a step back in evaluating my research is to truly take a step back from work. No one helps me do that quite like my best friend (whom I’m married to, coincidentally!), and I spent the past weekend visiting him (Steven lives in San Antonio and I live in San Diego).
I hope some of the time we spent jogging, cooking dinner, and working on our jigsaw puzzle has helped me recharge and put publish-or-perish pressures on the back burner to do the best work I can.
AdvertisementsA father appeared in court Friday on charges related to his 3-year-old child shooting a 17-month-old sibling three weeks ago, authorities said.
Justin Carper was charged Feb. 21 with failure to secure a firearm to protect a minor, said Cleveland County Sheriff's Office Capt. Joel Shores. Carper, who previously wrote a parenting column for The Star, made his first appearance in court on that charge after one of his children shot a sibling Feb. 6 at the family's home near Patterson Springs.
Carper left a 9 mm handgun in a secret compartment on top of his dresser, authorities previously told The Star. His 3-year-old found the gun and pulled the trigger, injuring his 17-month-old sister in her shoulder, the Star previously reported.
The 17-month-old was taken to the hospital but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Carper told The Star on Feb. 6.
�He was given a criminal summons and not arrested,� Shores said of Carper's charge in the incident.
An individual receives a criminal summons when they are not arrested but receive an order to appear in court, Shores said.
�After meeting with the district attorney and seeing Carper has no criminal record, we did not have any reason to believe that he wouldn�t appear in court,� Shores said. �We would didn�t feel he was a danger to society and felt he obviously had been traumatized and learned a valuable lesson.�
Carper's next court date was set during his appearance Friday, Shores said. The N.C. court system had not reported that updated date as of Friday afternoon.
Reach Jessica Pickens at 704-669-3332 or jpickens@shelbystar.com.Millennial Branding and Beyond.com Survey Reveals the Rising Cost of Hiring Workers from the Millennial Generation
HR Professionals disclose the amount of money spent on training and replacing millennial employees; Numbers expected to dramatically increase in coming years
Boston, MA and King of Prussia, PA – August 6, 2013 – Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm, and Beyond.com, The Career Network focused on helping people grow and succeed professionally, today announced results from a comprehensive national survey entitled, “The Cost of Millennial Retention.” The survey, which included responses from hundreds of HR professionals in various industries, found that 87% of companies reported it costs between $15,000 and $25,000 to replace each millennial employee they lose. Considering that approximately 40% of companies currently employ 50 or more millennial workers, these costs are expected to rise dramatically over the years to come. With current data showing more than 60% of millennials leaving their company in less than three years, employers are facing a very expensive revolving door.
Projections show that by 2014 millennials will account for 36% of the American workforce. In 2025, that number balloons to 75% of the global workplace. Recent Millennial Branding reports show that 45% of companies experience high turnover with those employees identified as “millennials” – by a 2:1 margin versus older generations. Of those HR professionals surveyed by Millennial Branding and Beyond.com, the majority (79%) felt optimistic that they’ll be able to increase their millennial employee retention rate, with many citing they can’t afford not to.
Specific highlights from the report include:
1. Companies are losing their millennial talent. Of those surveyed, 30% of companies have lost 15% or more of their millennial employees in the past year. Where did they go? Most felt that at least 10% of the lost millennial employees went directly to their competitors.
2. How much it costs to retain millennial employees. According to respondents, 51% of companies report that the cost of training and development is the highest when hiring millennials. After that, “interviewing,” “job posting/advertising” and “on-boarding” were cited as being the next highest costs (in that order). In addition, 71% of companies reported that losing millennial employees increases the workload and stress of current employees. 56% of employers revealed that it takes between 3 and 7 weeks to hire a fully productive millennial in a new role.
3. Some companies already have retention programs in place. While the issue of employee retention is not widespread, some companies have programs in place to stop the migration from this generation. Those programs address such things as: “workplace flexibility” (48% of companies reporting), “mentoring programs” (40%) and “internal hiring” (37%). Only 10% of companies cite using “intra-preneurship” and community service programs to engage millennials.
4. Why millennials stay and leave. What is the main indicator of whether millennial workers stay at a company? According to the survey, the majority responded that it is whether there is a “good cultural fit.” The top reasons why millennials leave their companies are because they received a better offer from another company (30%), their career goals aren’t aligned to their company (27%) and a lack of career opportunities (13%).
5. What millennials get paid. Half of companies surveyed reported that the average salary for a millennial is between $30,000 and $50,000, while 15% of the companies revealed that the average salary for a millennial is $50,000 or greater.
6. How employers hire millennial workers. Of those HR Professionals surveyed, 62% use job boards and corporate websites to recruit millennials, with social networking sites trailing far behind. Only 9% of HR Professionals reported using LinkedIn, 3% for Facebook and a mere 1% cited Twitter as a resource for recruiting purposes.
7. The healthcare debate has almost no impact on the hiring of millennials. While healthcare remains an issue closely tied to job creation and growth, surprisingly only 14% HR Professionals reported that millennials inquire about healthcare benefits during the interview process. How important is it to employers? 30% of those companies surveyed said that the current healthcare debate factors into their hiring decisions, for employees of all ages.74% of companies responded that it did not matter if a millennial applicant is covered under their parents’ health insurance plan until the age of 26 (as is the current law), with only 9% citing that this would increase their employment chances.
Quotes:
“Companies continue to struggle retaining my generation and as a result it costs them a lot of money and productivity that they could be saving if they created a stronger corporate culture to support them.”
- Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding and author of “Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press)”
“The Millennial Generation has learned to be two things during the recession: resilient and nomadic. As the job market improves, the level of confidence will improve along with it and cause many in this age group to reevaluate their current situation, possibly seeing value in seeking greener pastures.”
- Rich Milgram, Founder and CEO of Beyond.com—The Career Network
Contacts:
Millennial Branding (Spokesperson): Dan Schawbel dan@millennialbranding.com
Beyond.com (Media Contact): Sean Carney at Brownstein Group scarney@Brownsteingroup.com
Beyond.com (Survey Data): Julie Shenkman media@beyond.com
About Millennial Branding
Millennial Branding is a Gen Y research and management consulting firm based in Boston, Mass. Millennial Branding helps companies understand the emerging Gen Y employee by providing research, training, and advisory services. As representatives of Gen Y and advisers to management, our goal is to provide research and insights that will make you more profitable, grow your market share, help you understand your Gen Y employees, and turn you into an industry leader. As ambassadors to Gen Y, we want to give our generation a voice, support their careers, and connect them with brands that understand their needs.
About Beyond.com
Beyond.com, The Career Network, is focused on helping people grow and succeed professionally. By connecting job seekers and employers through 75 unique career channels and 2,500 industry and regional communities, we are changing the way job searching is done and helping people build relationships around the world. Members have access to powerful communication tools, including the all-new Career Portfolio, a compelling, engaging and visually-informative snapshot of a person’s career that can supplement a traditional resume. In addition to a 24/7 online presence, the Beyond.com community benefits from job search functions, statistical data, industry research and networking features that provide an extensive hub for managing a professional’s entire career. Beyond.com was named to Inc. Magazine’s prestigious ‘Inc. 500’ list and is a Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE: SFE) portfolio company. For more information, please visit: www.Beyond.com.Taken 2--and its forthcoming sequel Taken 3--are both rated PG-13. (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Magali Bragard)
Are PG-13 movies really appropriate for teenagers? A new study puts fresh scrutiny on the movie industry's largest ratings category, showing that parents who were repeatedly exposed to violence and sexual content became progressively more accepting of the material.
That may explain what researchers describe as "ratings creep," the growing rate of violent and sexual scenes in PG-13-rated movies, many of which contains more images of gun violence than even R-rated films.
QUIZ: R or PG-13: Can you guess what these movies were rated?
"We need people to think about what is happening here with the huge increase in violence in movies and if this is harmful," said Dan Romer, a co-author of the report "Parental Desensitization to Violence and Sex in Movies," which was also published by the American Academy of Peditratics' publication, Pediatrics.
In the study, 1,000 parents were randomly shown several short clips with violence and explicit sexual content from top-grossing movies such as "8 Mile," "Die Hard," and "Taken 2." Early in their viewing, parents said the movies were only appropriate for older audiences and on average the films were appropriate for viewers 17 years old. But the more clips the parents watched, the more they began to assign lower ages and ended up saying most of the material was appropriate for PG-13 audiences.
What that could mean, Romer said, is that parents become desensitized to the mature content after repeated exposure. And this is significant, because it's often parents who watch movies and assign MPAA ratings in the first place.
The MPAA declined to comment for the story but has pointed to some academics and studies that show parents have indeed become more tolerant of mature content over time, a reflection of evolving cultural attitudes.
The PG-13 rating was first created in 1984 after parents complained about violence and gruesome scenes from movies such as "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." The idea was that too many PG movies were creeping closer to being like R-rated films. So the MPAA added a new category forPG-13 films, with the label: "Parents Strongly Cautioned – Some Material May Be Inappropriate for Children Under 13."
In the last three decades, PG-13 movies have become the biggest and most profitable category for Hollywood.
According to Rentrak movie research firm, more movies have been rated PG-13 than any other rating every year since 2008 have been PG-13 movies. The category has consistently grown each year as the PG and R category slowly shrink. In 1999, 35 percent of top movies were rated PG-13. Last year, 47 percent were PG-13 and only one film was rated G.
But for many parents, the PG-13 rating is too broad. Movie studios draw limited audiences for G and PG films, with kids wanting to see the hottest action films, such as PG-13 rated "Guardians of Galaxy." R-rated films have pushed the edge of their rating too, deleting just enough content to be appropriate for teens.
The new study comes amid fresh criticism that Hollywood has neglected family-friendly movies. Last year, Romer published a study that showed the amount of gun violence in PG-13 has has tripled since 1985 and in 2012 the category had more gun violence than R-rated films.
Childrens' media advocacy group Common Sense Media earlier this month announced it would give its own seal of approval for "family-friendly" films. In cooperation with Disney, the group gave "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," its first seal, which will appear on DVD cases.
The group came up with the seal because it said too often parents took their children to films and were surprised by violence, mature language and sexual content they found in the films.
"We don't see enough great movies with positive role models and messages that make parents feel like a trip to the movies is time well spent together -- and we think families deserve better," said Jim Steyer, founder and chief executive of Common Sense, in a statement. "The Common Sense Seal will recognize the best in family movies with a goal of inspiring studios to create more films that kids and parents can enjoy together."
Now, take our quiz to see if you can guess how these hit movies were rated.Cyberpunk 2077 Release Date Has Been Leaked
Swedish games distributor Komplett may have spilled the sauce when Reddit users noticed that the entry for Cyberpunk 2077’s release date, which was previously empty, was suddenly filled in.
The long awaited title from CD Projekt Red, creator of the highly acclaimed Witcher 3 has been in development for quite some time, first announced over 4 years ago. The site Komplett now shows a release date of Septmeber 30, 2017, with the game becoming available for purchase on February 2, 2017. The accuracy of this speculative release date is considered to be high.
According to reports straight from the National Center for Research and Development in Poland – whom CDPR have asked for grants from in order to fund the new game – there will be the intention to create a fluid multiplayer experience in a detailed, breathing and original city. The application by the studio is said to include the intention to work on new technology to create a new city based on the formulas of “rules, AI, and automation.”
It appears as if the “seamless” quality of the multiplayer will play out hand-in-hand with the singer-player campaign and not make each mode mutually exclusive. It will form one cohesive gameplay experience that promotes a community feel to it. We wonder if there will be similar concerns of weather making the game unfair for multiplayer.
The team have also applied for grants for two trademarks named “Animation Excellence” and “Cinematic Feel”, which don’t give too much away but generally suggest techniques for design.Will Beall, the writer of Gangster Squad, has recently completed a new Justice League screenplay for Warner Bros. and the first director on the studio’s wish list to actually get a chance to read it, effectively marking him out as the current front runner, is Ben Affleck.
According to Variety the film is to feature a Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash line up. Affleck has starred in his two most recent directorial efforts, so there’s also some conjecture that he may be in the frame to take one of those roles.
It’s least likely to be Superman, I guess, as there’s at least a very good chance that this film will feature the same Supes as we’ll be meeting in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel next Summer.
Indeed, if I were to believe all of the whispers that Bleeding Cool have been catching, there’s more than a good chance. Still not something we’ve been able to verify, though.
And things might change.
Affleck did a good job with The Town and I’m looking forward to Argo a great deal. He seems as good a pick for the Justice League gig as just about anyone else.
And as Batman? Well… maybe.
Affleck’s not quite on a par with Marvel’s new contract player, perhaps, but he’s still not a talent to be sniffed at.
He’ll be meeting with Warner Bros. in the coming days, so we could start to see this film come together pretty quickly now. About time, eh?
(Last Updated )
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None foundA/N: I promise you that I will finish this one. I'm taking a different approach here. I'm trying to be more professional about the execution. I have the entire plot already planned out and I even drew up an outline. This time I'm chiseling my story out of a block of marble instead of building it up brick by brick like I did with my last two stories. What went wrong with those is that I ran out of bricks.
Anyways, please give feedback. There's going to be longer gaps in between chapters here because I'm going to be careful with my writing and read it over multiple times before pushing out the chapter. I'm shooting for quality over quantity here.
"It's a real turn off how little she's enjoying it." –BushDidNyne11
"She clearly hates her job. You'd think she'd have earned enough money by now to quit." –LilTitt
"Her moans are so fake. Only got off because of mute button." –SelfAdmittedPervert48
"She's got an amazing body, but she's just not sexy." –TimminyTimTimTim
"Tip: Her solo vids are SOOO much better." –ExpertPornCritic04
Annabeth stopped scrolling through the comments and closed her laptop. She slid on a pair of shoes and grabbed her keys.
"You're right," she muttered to herself. "You're all one hundred percent right." She opened the door of her apartment and then descended the staircase.
In actuality, her videos got very positive feedback overall. They get very few negative comments. Annabeth just takes note of them due to the fact that she agrees with them so much.
She got to the bottom of the staircase and left the building. She started walking down the sidewalk until she found a pub she'd never been to before and entered the building. There were about twenty people there, all talking, drinking, and having a good time.
Annabeth sat down at the bar and looked around. The bartender was at the other end. It was a guy who looked around twenty-one, same age as Annabeth. He had shaggy black hair and looked to be pretty fit. When he turned around she saw he had sea-green eyes.
He spotted her and immediately filled a cup with beer and walked down to her end of the bar. He stopped and held out his hand. "I.D.?"
Annabeth handed him her driver's license and he examined it.
"Annabeth? That's a pretty name," he said whilst handing her back her license and the cup of beer.
"Thanks, but I haven't ordered anything yet," said Annabeth.
"I know," said the bartender. "It's on the house." He pointed to a sign on the back wall that read, New Faces Special: Never Been Here Before? Come Up To The Bar And Get A Free Beer
"Couldn't I just come back when there's another bartender and get another free beer?" she asked.
"There is no other bartender," he said.
"That seems like a risky business move for your employers."
"Well I own the place, so I think my 'employer' can trust me to not walk out on him," he said with a sarcastic smile.
"You're a bit young to be owning your own business," Annabeth said.
"It was my dad's. He died a couple years ago and I inherited it."
"I'm sorry."
"I've come to terms with it. Running the bar was an easy way to take my mind off it. Good coping strategy."
A waitress walked up to the bar and sat a tray down. "Two beers and a scotch on the rocks."
The bartender got the drinks and put them on the tray for the waitress to deliver.
"You couldn't have been twenty one when he died though," said Annabeth.
"Nineteen," he said. "In New York you only have to be eighteen to legally serve alcohol."
"Interesting."
"So what do you do?"
Annabeth tensed. "Uh, I'm in between jobs at the moment," she lied.
"You looking for anything in particular? We have openings here."
Annabeth hesitated and took a drink from her beer just as another waiter walked up to a bar. "Two martinis," he said.
"You got it, G-Man," said the bartender.
Annabeth watched as he quickly made the drinks and gave them to "G-Man".
"You're pretty good at that," said Annabeth, eager to change the subject.
"Well I've had two and a half years of practice," said the bartender with that same sarcastic smile.
"So do you get a lot of crazy customers around here?"
"Not many. We do get a few every now and again, though. But that's the business."
"Hey, bartender!" a guy from the other end of the bar called out whilst holding up his empty cup. The bartender walked down there and served him another beer.
"Would you like a refill too?" he asked when he got back down to Annabeth's end of the bar.
Annabeth looked at the clock on the back wall. "Bourbon," she said.
The bartender drew a glass and poured the drink before handing it to Annabeth.
The two continued to converse for a bit, stopping every once in awhile when another customer needed a drink. Finally, Annabeth finished her bourbon.
"Want another refill?" said the barman.
Annabeth glanced at the clock. "No, I should be going. How much do I owe you?"
"Six thirty-six," he said. Annabeth gave him a ten and he walked to the cash register then came back and handed her her change and receipt. "Do you have a ride?"
"I only live a few blocks down," she said.
"Well it was nice talking with you, Annabeth," he said.
"You too, uh..." she paused, realizing she didn't know his name.
"Percy," he filled in for her.
"Well seeya, Percy," she said.
"Hope to see you around here again sometime."
She smiled at him and gave a quick wave before leaving the bar.
Three days later, Annabeth was just getting dressed and showered after a filming. She exited the bathroom and walked out onto the set where the camera crew and the director were. Her "co worker" exited his bathroom fully dressed and smiled at Annabeth.
"Want to go get a drink?" he asked her.
"No thanks," she said. She almost always got asked out after they finished filming. She'd accepted the first couple of times but she'd learned that it was always best to say no.
"Why not? Come on, it's just one drink."
"I don't date costars."
"We had great chemistry out there. There are plenty more good times like that ahead."
"I disagree. Our relationship begins and ends in front of that camera."
Annabeth walked up to the director. "We finished?" she asked.
"Yeah," said the director. "You're free to go. Expect your check in the mail sometime this week."
"Thanks," she said. She left the building and made straight toward her car. The car kicked into ignition and she drove off.
She'd intended on driving home but she saw a building with a sign that read "The Trident" and parked there. She got of her car and pushed open the door of the pub.
Annabeth sat down and spotted the bartender, Percy, farther along down the bar. He spotted her and gave a wave. After finishing up with his customer, he made his way toward her.
"She's back!" he said with triumph in his voice.
"Missed me?" she said with a smirk.
He lowered his voice a tiny bit. "All of my customers are so boring. You proved to be an exception."
"Interesting. Because this is my first time visiting the same bar twice."
"I guess we're both special, then. So, what'll you be having?"
Annabeth started coming by his bar more often. Percy never knew when she'd show up, but when she did it definitely brightened his day quite a bit. He always made it a point to try and strike up a conversation with lone customers, but most of them never had much to say. And those who did didn't care about what Percy had to say. So it was a nice change of pace to chat with someone who did an equal amount of talking and listening.
His good friend Grover worked at the bar as a waiter, but he was always kept busy either serving customers or washing cups so conversing with him during work hours never happened.
"You know what I noticed?" Annabeth said.
"What's that?" Percy said.
"In the movies the bartender is always wiping the counter whenever talking to a customer, yet you never do that."
"Ah, you mean like this," he said and drew a rag from under the counter before mockingly wiping the counter with it and staring straight at Annabeth. "You like it better like this?" he said jokingly.
"Oh definitely," she said sarcastically. "Much better."
"But it's not always like that," he said and stopped wiping the table. "Sometimes you'll get your mysterious bartender type who's out to talk as little as possible." He drew a glass mug and leaned against the back counter, staring intently at it as he wiped it with the rag. "And he'll never even take a glance in your direction when he talks to you."
Annabeth gave a small chuckle.
"Need a refill over here!" called out a customer from the other end of the bar. Percy set the rag and cup down and went to fill the customer's cup.
When Percy got back to Annabeth's end of the bar he saw a drunk man of around forty hitting on her.
"I'm not interested," she said.
"Just let me take you back to my place and show you I know my way around a mattress," said the drunk who put his free hand on her shoulder. She immediately smacked it away. "Oho, she's a feisty one!"
"Back off," Percy said. "She said she's not interested."
"What do you know? She's already mine, even if she don't know it yet." he said and wrapped his arm around her neck. Percy slid over the counter and shoved the guy back.
"Oh you just want the girl for yourself!" yelled the drunk who attempted to shove Percy, but he caught his arms and pushed him back hard enough for him to fall to the ground. The entire bar was silent now and all attention was on them.
The drunk slowly and unsteadily stood and turned toward Percy before throwing his now empty glass, which missed by a foot and hit the back wall and shattered.
"Alright, get the hell out of my bar," Percy said.
"Whatever, your beer's shit anyway," the drunk man said and stumbled out of the bar.
"Show's over people," Percy said loudly and returned to his side of the counter.
"Thanks," Annabeth said.
"It's not the first time I've had to do that," he said with his back turned because he was cleaning up the broken glass from the cup.
"You know, to be completely honest I wasn't even sure if you had legs," she joked.
Percy finished throwing the glass shards away and stood across from Annabeth again. "Oh yeah?" he said with a smirk.
"Every time I've seen you you've been behind that counter. For all I knew there was just a metal rod with a couple of wheels down there."
"Well it is now confirmed: Percy Jackson does indeed have legs."
Annabeth smiled. "Glad that's off my conscience. I can finally sleep at night."
"You're looking kind of empty there," Percy said while pointing at her cup.
"Yeah, I'm calling this my last. What do I owe you?"
"Don't worry about it, it's on me."
"It's on you?"
"Yeah. Bill's covered. Call it an apology from the pub for the public disruption."
"Well alright. Guess I'm heading off, then."
"Seeya. Walk home safe, Annabeth."SC4 HSM Fully open USB2 hardware-secure module
Introducing the SC4-HSM
The SC4-HSM is a fully-open USB2 HSM (hardware-secure module). Prototype units are now available in limited quantities.
Buy now
Features
STM32F405RG processor
Integrated 128x32 pixel monochrome OLED display
Tri-color LED and two user-input push buttons
1MB Flash and 196kB SRAM
Hardware random number generator on-chip
Hardware read protection to protect generated keys
Fully open hardware and software
For more details see the FAQ and user manual.
How can I get one?
Click here!
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FAQ
What is the SC4-HSM's threat model?
Yes! It's powered by MailChimp (for now) so you won't get spammed, and you can unsubscribe any time. Sign up here:
The SC4-HSM is designed to defend against a compromised client machine, i.e. an attacker who pwns your laptop or desktop machine. If you think about it, this is the only threat model that makes sense for dedicated secure hardware. If you can trust that your client machine is secure, you don't need an HSM.
What does the SC4-HSM actually do?
It generates and stores cryptographic keys using an on-board hardware random number generator, and it uses those keys to perform cryptographic operations, mainly generating secure digital signatures (not to be confused with an electronic signature. These are not the same.) The keys are stored in such a way that they cannot be extracted from the device even by someone who has physical possession of the device. This is the central feature of any HSM.
Why does the SC4-HSM include a built-in display?
If an attacker controls your client machine (laptop or desktop) then they can do anything you can do. In particular, if you can access a security device, then an attacker can too. Without a display and user input on the device, an attacker can access that device just as easily as you can.
The display and user buttons protect against an attack launched from the host machine. Before the unit performs a cryptographic operation it can display information about what it is about to do on the display and wait for the user to confirm the operation by pushing one of the user input buttons on the unit. Because these operations are entirely under the control of the device firmware, they cannot be directly attacked from the host machine.
It is still possible to mount phishing attacks against the SC4-HSM, but this is unavoidable. No system can ever be fully secure against user error.Social awareness of dangerous scenarios involving children and animals trapped in hot cars has grown over the past several years, and a Nashville, Tennessee area locksmith is doing their part to contribute. This week, Armstrong Locksmith, a full service locksmith serving the regional Nashville area, announced that it’s offering free pet and child rescue emergency services.
Armstrong’s record of excellent service in the Nashville community has been overwhelmingly positive, but the company’s passionate team sought an additional way to give back. “Any time you can use your business to provide a positive impact to your community, it’s a great thing,” said owner Rahim Ezzadpanah. “Hopefully we can be an asset to people and animals that find themselves and their loved ones in dangerous situations.”
Last year, a TODAY show correspondent highlighted the potential danger of leaving children and animals in a closed vehicle, even when it may appear that the conditions are safe. The temperature within a closed vehicle can change rapidly, posing an extreme risk to the fragile internal systems of humans and animals alike, especially young children and small dogs.
Most of the time, a pet or a child left in an overheating vehicle is the result of a simple lapse in judgment or a mistake. In 2002, the story of a man who left his 9-month old to die in the car shocked the nation. The act wasn’t purposeful or malicious; the man simply got distracted and made a mistake that changed his entire life.
These types of tragic stories showed Ezzadpanah a way he could make a major difference in the lives of the people in the Nashville area. Armstrong Locksmith already provides a wide range of emergency services to people locked out of their homes, cars and offices, and prides themselves on one of the industry’s quickest response times.
Making steps to protect the children and animals of Nashville was the Armstrong Locksmith team’s first priority, according to Ezzadpanah. “We hope to use our quick emergency response times and technical expertise |
the uncertainty of mastering a position was reduced, but the charm of surprising an opponent was reduced to a large extent too, which Anand felt was the biggest effect of computers on modern chess.
Anand pointed out that his ability to work with computers has definitely given him an edge over his competitors, as during his world championship match with Kramnik in Bonn in 2008. He revealed that before the match, he found a software which would enable him to use enormous computers - which cannot be carried around - through the internet, thus giving him a direct boost in preparation for openings. Though he was not certain if that was the main reason for the 'ambush' he sprang on Kramnik in the third and fifth games with black pieces, the technology gave his team a huge belief that they were in possession of a'secret' weapon which didn't exist in the public domain before the time.
The evening was not bereft of its emotional moments either, as Anand revealed his special relationship with the Spanish couple, Maurice and Nieves Perea, who enabled him to find his footing while living in Europe in the 1990s, as they virtually became his godparents in Europe, and ultimately to establish a base at Collado Mediano in the outskirts of Madrid, Spain where the couple lived.
Anand also spoke of difficult moments from his matches for the world title. There was an occasion when he told his wife Aruna, "I am an ex-world champion now!" after losing the seventh game to Gelfand at the Moscow World Championship in 2012, before immediately going for a long stroll with his then second Peter Heine Nielsen in the streets of Moscow. "I could not get any edge over him till then, and when I ultimately lost this game with black pieces, I felt hopeless about the prospect of breaching Gelfand's preparation in the remaining five games," Anand said. But of course, his comeback in the very next game, and ultimately the triumph through tie-break are part of chess folklore now.
Thus to a pointed question whether Anand was an emotional person, Anand came up with the brilliant answer. "All chess players are emotional over the board, and your ability to keep the balance helps you produce the best moves as the game goes on. But when the emotions get the better of you, that is the point when either of the players produces mistakes and thus a full-fledged fight ensues, which produces a result on the scoreboard!" the chess icon said.
He mentioned his difficult match with Veselin Topalov in 2010 in the latter's home territory of Bulgaria, when he had trouble in reaching the venue in time after an arduous 40-hour journey owing to volcanic ashes of Iceland causing his travel plans to go haywire. He lost the very first game of that match just out of the opening. "I just forgot at the crucial moment whether to move my king or the rook as demanded by my preparation," clarified Anand. However, in spite of that, he kept his nerve to immediately bounce back in the very next game and dominate the match.
The evening concluded with Anand taking questions from the enthralled audience. But honestly, an hour-and-a-half was definitely not enough for a complete glimpse into the personality of one of the brightest sporting talents of our times.
Venkatachalam Saravanan is an international master, and author for ChessBase India.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.Still reeling from the economic catastrophe that struck in 2008, Iceland and its Parliament are debating a plan that would dramatically restructure the tiny nation’s monetary system by stripping commercial banks of the legal ability to create currency out of thin air — and handing that power exclusively to politicians and central bankers under what is being labelled a “sovereign money” system. The proposal to quash private bankers’ fractional-reserve system, where banks literally bring new currency into existence with government permission and then charge interest on it, is already making major waves. It is being described by analysts as everything from “radical” and “revolutionary” to a prescription for “an almost Soviet-style banking system.” Either way, the implications of the debate are enormous.
In a parliamentary report released on March 31, commissioned by the prime minister about the monetary idea, Chairman Frosti Sigurjonsson on Parliament’s Committee for Economic Affairs and Trade suggested that a “fundamental reform” of Iceland’s monetary system was needed. “Iceland, being a sovereign state with an independent currency, is free to abandon the present unstable fractional reserves system and implement a better monetary system,” explained MP Sigurjonsson, who authored the report. “Such an initiative must however rest on further study of the alternatives and a widespread consensus on the urgency for reform.”
The explosive 110-page report, entitled “Monetary Reform: A Better Monetary System for Iceland,” offers a great deal of educational material on the inherent flaws of the current fractional-reserve banking system. In essence, with full government backing, the existing monetary system literally allows commercial banks to create fiat currency out of nothing, based on the amount of deposits held by the commercial bank. The banks then charge customers interest payments on the currency that they created out of nothing. Countless analysts have blasted the existing system as a scam and a fraud that serves mostly to loot the public.
Of course, The New American magazine has been attempting to raise awareness of this system for decades — along with the inherent instability it produces, as well as how it allows government-backed bankers to get rich at public expense. The Icelandic report, if nothing else, should serve as a valuable educational tool to create more widespread public understanding of the systemically flawed system now in place across virtually the entire globe. The parliamentary document itself acknowledges that education on the existing system is necessary if it is ever going to be seriously reformed.The Dallas Stars made a surprising run to the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season. General manager Jim Nill then went out and added Jason Spezza and Ales Hemsky to the mix, bolstering the offense and setting the Stars up for a chance at a deep playoff run this season.
To do it, they'll have to answer the following five questions:
1. Will Spezza fit in? -- Spezza targeted the Stars for the chance to play behind Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn and for the opportunity, as he said, "to try to win the Stanley Cup." This should be a seamless transition for him as he goes from being the captain of a team in Canada to a second-line center and likely letter-less leader in Texas.
But Spezza has to produce. He has to be the No. 2 center Dallas didn't have last season if the Stars want to have any chance to compete in the Western Conference, where the best teams have excellent center depth and win in part because of how good they are down the middle.
2. Is Kari Lehtonen the right goalie to help the Stars get to the next level? -- The words came out of Nill's mouth without even a hint of hesitation.
"We have an elite goalie in Kari Lehtonen," he said earlier this summer.
So the Stars believe in Lehtonen as they continue to wait for Jack Campbell. Elite, though, might be a strong word when you judge Lehtonen solely on his limited playoff experience.
He's 30 years old and has played in eight playoff games, posting two wins, a 3.88 goals-against average and an.874 save percentage. He had a 3.29 GAA and.885 save percentage in six playoff games last season.
If the Stars do what is expected of them and return to the playoffs, Lehtonen will have a chance to prove himself. He is signed through the 2017-18 season with a $5.9 million salary-cap charge.
3. Can Tyler Seguin do it again? -- Seguin had 84 points in his first season in Dallas and developed chemistry with Benn that should stick. He is playing his natural position and has found a home after a solid if controversial start to his career with the Boston Bruins.
Seguin isn't a one-hit wonder. He is a talented center with equal ability to score and be a playmaker. Benn benefitted from him as much as Seguin benefitted from Benn. They are one of the best 1-2 forward duos in the NHL and should be again.
4. How can Dallas improve its special teams? -- The Stars penalty kill was 21st in the NHL at 81.4 percent and their power play was 23rd at 15.9 percent last season.
Dallas' horrid start on home ice is a big reason why the power-play percentage was so low. The Stars were 6-for-80 (7.5 percent) on the power play at American Airlines Center through their first 21 home games. They went 18-for-78 (23.0 percent) in their last 20 home games.
The power play should be better with Spezza and Hemsky. Spezza, in fact, might bump Cody Eakin off the man advantage, or at the very least reduce his role, giving Eakin a chance to focus on becoming an elite penalty killer. Nill and Ruff like Eakin because of his versatility.
5. Will the defense hold up or do they need an upgrade? -- The plan for Dallas is to go with a top-six of Alex Goligoski, Trevor Daley, Jordie Benn, Brenden Dillon, Sergei Gonchar and one of Jamie Oleksiak, Patrik Nemeth, Cameron Gaunce and Kevin Connauton.
Nill liked what he saw at the end of last season, when Daley and Goligoski found chemistry as a pair and Dillon, Benn and Nemeth came on and played better. Oleksiak, Nemeth and Gaunce got championship experience in the Texas Stars' run to the Calder Cup.
"I'm very comfortable with it," Ruff said. "I think there is room for growth."
---
For all 30 in 30 stories go to NHL.com/30in30stories and for the full 30 in 30 schedule visit NHL.com/30in30.With the Game of Thrones season finale just recently behind us, I’ve noticed that I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about some of Game of Thrones’ unsolved mysteries and plot developments. Who is Jaqen H’ghar? When do we get to see the dragons destroy civilization? What of the approaching zombie war? What would Game of Thrones characters do if they had Twitter accounts? In my unfortunate state of Game of Thrones withdrawal, I decided to investigate the possibilities. Here, in chronological order — for clarity (as opposed to reverse-chronological order, as would be presented in a standard Twitter feed) — are the imagined tweets of what a number of Game of Thrones characters would tweet, if they had Twitter.
Get your #GoT fix before this week’s episode with our Thought Catalog Book here.Search Gallery Simple Digital Illustration Pie Mascot (Commission) DeadMaul 1 Cosmic Guardian (Commission) DeadMaul 0 Advertisement Advertisement Horns and Wings DeadMaul 6 Two head dragon/hydra DeadMaul 13 Tikki and Strawberry shaped frosted cookie DeadMaul 11 Male elf (Commission) DeadMaul 1 YZ and Bird Sticker DeadMaul 0 Queen Jackalope DeadMaul 12 Nero DeadMaul 31 Gothic Shirt Design DeadMaul 0 Airoutan Commission DeadMaul 4 Hellblazer x Lucifer DeadMaul 8 Zavrox the dragonborn (Commission) DeadMaul 4 Outlast Miles and Walrider DeadMaul 28 Skull Cerberus DeadMaul 4 World of Warcraft Commission DeadMaul 10 Fox warrior (Commission) DeadMaul 3 King Asilas (Commission) DeadMaul 1 OC Portraits 2 DeadMaul 7 Bouncer Dawg Commission DeadMaul 3 Youtube card sora (commission) DeadMaul 8 Khajiit (Commission) DeadMaul 5 Superhero teachers (commission) DeadMaul 1 Commission: Sciencehero DeadMaul 0Source: Pakistani diplomat’s son arrested for sex with teen | Zee News h/t TROP
New York: A son of a Pakistani diplomat posted in the US was arrested for having sex with a 13-year-old girl he met through a social media app,a media report said.
The girl hails from Bronx. The accused met the girl through a social media app called Whisper, the nydailynews quoted police as saying.
Twenty-year-old Mehmood Ur Rehman Rahimoon, who lives in Scarsdale, was charged with raping a minor. He met the teen in October on Whisper.
The report said that for the next three weeks, they were in constant touch through Whisper and other apps, before meeting in person.
The pair got physical in their third meeting on Dec 1 in a room at the Riveroad Motor Inn on Webster Ave., the report said citing sources.
During the encounter, a friend of the teen waited in the bathroom, and at the same time, the friend’s father was waiting at her school to pick up her and the victim, the report said.
Rahimoon told the father on phone that the teens would be back at school shortly. That night, the friend told her father the real deal, prompting the dad to contact police the next day.
As part of the probe, detectives set up a controlled meeting in upper Manhattan Tuesday night. Rahimoon showed up in a vehicle with State Department consul license plates and was arrested, sources said.
The suspect’s father, Muhammad Mureed Rahimoon, is listed on his Facebook page as a community/welfare counselor for the Pakistani government.
The younger Rahimoon, who does not have diplomatic immunity, made statements incriminating himself.
The suspect’s sister said her brother studies business at Westchester Community College. His Facebook page says he is originally from Islamabad.When I was in Brazil recently, I met with Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, head of engineering at Google Brazil. During our conversation I mentioned an idea I had about making the Google index into an open database that anyone could access, I said that this could dramatically speed up the Internet.
He said it was a good idea and that I "should write a position paper" on this subject.
(As a further thought, maybe it could also serve to take away some of the heat Google is feeling lately, in terms of its index rankings potentially favoring its own business interests.)
Here is my logic:
Looking at my server logs shows that 20 different robots visit my site, one of the more frequent ones is the Googlebot. Each of these robots is trying to create an index of my site.
Each of these robots takes up a considerable amount of my resources. For June, the Googlebot ate up 4.9 gigabytes of bandwidth, Yahoo used 4.8 gigabytes, while an unknown robot used 11.27 gigabytes of bandwidth. Together, they used up 45% of my bandwidth just to create an index of my site.
These robots are all seeking the same information and they use nearly one-half of my bandwidth, slowing the site for all my readers. This is also the same for tens of millions of web sites.
What if there was a single index that anyone could access?
You would get an immediate speed increase in the Internet for no additional investment in infrastructure.
Google and others, could perform their own analysis of the index using their secret algorithms. After all, the value is not in the index it is in the analysis of that index.
Mr. Ribeiro-Neto said, "That's a good idea. You probably wouldn't even need to spider the web sites."
Each web site could update the central index automatically each time something changed. This would result in a massive savings in bandwidth used by dozens of robots scouring the Internet for new information.
What if Google opened up its index to the world as a goodwill gesture because it has the best index? It could still maintain the privacy of its algorithm but everyone would have the same information on which to perform their analysis.
It would show that there was nothing unusual or unethical in how Google collects information for its index. This might relieve some of the pressure it has come under this week to reveal more about how its search service is presented.
Also, Google founders were once strong advocates that the search index should be run as a non-profit.
On page 39 "Inside Larry and Sergey's Brain" by Richard Brandt (referral link).
Andrei Broder, who led the team that created the AltaVista search engine, the best of its time, talks about meeting Larry and Sergey. "When the discussion turned to the topic of making money from the technology, Broder found that Page had a profound difference of philosophy on the subject. "It was a very funny thing about Larry," Broder recalls. "He was very adamant about search engines not being owned by commercial entities. He said it should all be done by a nonprofit. I guess Larry has changed his mind about that."
Brian Lent, now CEO at Medio Systems:
"The problem with the Google search engine at the time, Lent recalls, is that Larry and Sergey didn't want to commercialize it, and Lent was anxious to become an entrepreneur. Their mantra at the time was more socialistic than entrepreneurial. "Originally, 'Don't be evil' was 'Don't go commercial,'" says Lent.
- - -
UPDATED:
Don MacAskill, CEO of SmugMug writes:
Great idea! Google *should* open their index! « SmugMug's Don MacAskill
... I would estimate close to 50% of our web server CPU resources (and related data access layers) go to serving crawler robots. Stop and think about that for a minute. SmugMug is a Top 300 website with tens of millions of visitors, more than half a billion page views, and billions of HTTP / AJAX requests (we're very dynamic) each month. As measured by both Google and Alexa, we're extremely fast (faster than 84% of sites) despite being very media heavy. We invest heavily in performance. And maybe 50% of that is wasted on crawler robots. We have billions of 'unique' URLs since we have galleries, timelines, keywords, feeds, etc. Tons of ways to slice and dice our data. Every second of every day, we're being crawled by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc. And those are the well-behaved robots. The startups who think nothing of just hammering us with crazy requests all day long are even worse. And if you think about it, the robots are much harder to optimize for - they're crawling the long tail, which totally annihilates your caching layers. Humans are much easier to predict and optimize for. Worst part about the whole thing, though? We're serving the exact same data to Google. And to Yahoo. And to Microsoft. And to Billy Bob's Startup. You get the idea. For every new crawler, our costs go up. We spend significant effort attempting to serve the robots quickly and well, but the duplicated effort is getting pretty insane. I wouldn't be surprised if that was part of the reason Facebook revised their robots.txt policy, and I wouldn't be surprised to see us do something similar in the near future, which would allow us to devote our resources to the crawlers that really matter. Anyway, if a vote were held to decide whether the world needs an open-to-all index, rather than all this duplicated crawling, I'd vote YES! And SmugMug would get even faster than it is today.
Please see:
- The NYTimes: The Google Algorithm
- FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Do not neutralize the web's endless search (Subscription required.)China's curbs on overseas property deals could worsen Australian real estate drop-off
Updated
New guidelines restricting Chinese corporate investment overseas could further compound a drop-off in new developments in the Australian property market.
Chinese regulators have formalised restrictions on outbound investment, that include real estate and hotel deals being placed on a'restricted' list.
Analysts believe this will likely mean further scrutiny for developers seeking to move money out of China for property projects in Australia.
The guidelines seek to clarify an ongoing crackdown on Chinese capital outflows, with "irrational" investments in foreign entertainment and sport companies the main target.
But restrictions on property investment could affect new residential developments.
Thirty-eight per cent of residential development sites were purchased by Chinese companies last year, according to a Knight Frank market insight report.
"To some extent there are winners and losers — it remains to be seen exactly how it affects real estate investment, which has already slowed down since restrictions last November", said Paul Schroder, a Partner at King & Wood Mallesons specialising in Chinese acquisitions.
"The clarity that regulators are now giving can only benefit Australian transactions because they are more likely to complete, people are more likely to be open to dealing with China and the timeframes are likely to be more reasonable," he said.
China's Government has moved to restrict corporate investment abroad over the past year after a surge of outbound deals pushed the value of the Yuan lower and caused concerns about capital flight.
Already individual Chinese property buyers have had to grapple with increasing enforcement of an annual $US50,000 limit on foreign currency purchases, forcing them to use more creative means to get money out of China to complete property purchases.
Some of the country's largest companies have also come under recent pressure over foreign acquisitions, which has led to the unravelling of entertainment and hotel deals in the United States.
But Chinese investments in Australian resources, such as the recent purchase of Hunter Valley miner Yancoal, along with the service sector are unlikely to be affected by the new guidelines.
Acquisitions of technology companies, along with assets broadly related to infrastructure, are still being encouraged by Beijing.
Topics: housing, government-and-politics, business-economics-and-finance, australia, china, asia
First postedThe First Official State Firearm? Utah Aims At A Pistol
Enlarge this image toggle caption AP AP
A Browning M1911 semiautomatic pistol may soon join the sego lily, Rocky Mountain elk and sugar beet as official symbols of the state of Utah.
The State Senate is considering a measure passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday that would declare the.45-caliber handgun the official state firearm — the first in the country.
"This firearm was created by John Moses Browning, who was a son of Utah pioneers," said Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer of Herriman, Utah, during debate on the House floor. "This firearm really has defended liberty and freedom around the country and around the world. And I think this is a very appropriate designation to capture a portion of the state history."
The M1911 is one of several notable Browning firearms and has been used by the military and law enforcement since World War I.
Wimmer characterized the notion of an official state firearm as benign, similar to naming the Dutch oven the official state cooking pot. But Democrat Carol Spackman Moss of Holladay opposed the move.
"It seems insensitive to me at this time when many people are mourning the deaths of six people in Tucson and the serious wounding of Gabrielle Giffords, a friend of mine," Moss told the Utah House. "Many people have a negative experience with guns because guns do kill people [when they're] in the hands of those who use them wrongly."
Moss also described shootings that took the lives of two cousins: a soldier two weeks away from discharge at Fort Hood, Texas; and a teenager gazing at the stars with a friend when a thrill-seeker shot them both.
But guns and the right to own them are big deals in Utah. Hunting and sport shooting are common, and the state has some of the most permissive gun ownership laws in the country.
There's never been a case where a handgun has jumped off a floor and started shooting people. There's somebody behind that trigger. And I believe it's safe to say that John Browning has... done more to preserve the lives of American soldiers on the battlefield than any other person in the history of this country.
The rest of the country has noticed. Last year, Utah issued more than 67,000 concealed-weapons permits, with more than 51,000 going to people who don't even live in the state, according to the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification.
Advocates of the right to bear arms are a powerful political force in the state, as Moss noted when she spoke on the Utah House floor Wednesday.
"When I was first elected to this office someone gave me this advice: Don't ever speak against guns," Moss recalled, as her colleagues laughed. "And now I'm going to break this advice."
Moss said she had a difficult time imagining schoolchildren drawing and coloring the Utah state symbols — the delicate sego lily, the majestic Rocky Mountain elk and the tasty sugar beet — and then turning to a lethal.45-caliber handgun.
"Guns have their place, but their place is not among the things we designate," Moss said.
Republican Stephen Sandstrom of Orem, Utah, rose to defend the weapon and its official recognition.
"There's never been a case where a handgun has jumped off a floor and started shooting people. There's somebody behind that trigger," Sandstrom said. "And I believe it's safe to say that John Browning has... done more to preserve the lives of American soldiers on the battlefield than any other person in the history of this country."
But state symbols are supposed to unify, insisted Brian King, a Salt Lake City Democrat, who added, "I think it's a very poor idea as a matter of public policy that we choose, as a symbol of the state of Utah, something that is as polarizing as a handgun."
Wimmer had the last word.
"There is a huge difference between the actions of a madman using a firearm … [and] patriots using a firearm to defend our country," he said, as he urged his colleagues to vote in favor of the measure.
They did overwhelmingly, 51 to 19.
Approval is expected in the state Senate given Utah's gun and political cultures. A vote there has yet to be scheduled.
The National Conference of State Legislatures tracks state statutes and a spokeswoman says the group can find no record of an official state firearm anywhere. That means Utah is poised to become the first state in the nation to choose a handgun as an enduring official symbol.Prosecutors dropped charges Friday against two Hispanic teens accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in a restroom at a Montgomery County high school, a case cited by the White House as an example of why the president wants to crack down on illegal immigration.
State's Attorney John McCarthy said at a Friday news conference that the rape and sex offense charges were being dropped after a "painstaking investigation" of the girl's claim that the two teens raped her in the bathroom at Rockville High School.
Defense attorneys said the sex was consensual. They pointed to text messages in which the girl agreed to a sexual encounter; an explicit video the girl sent one of the teens; and security camera footage, which they said shows the girl running to meet one of the teens and willingly entering the restroom with him.
McCarthy said the girl was interviewed multiple times and the investigation revealed a "lack of corroboration and substantial inconsistencies."
While dropping the rape charges, prosecutors brought child pornography charges against the two male teens. McCarthy said 18-year-old Henry Sanchez will be charged with possession of child pornography, which carries a potential sentence of up to five years.
He declined to say what charges the 17-year-old would face, because that case has been transferred to juvenile court. But the younger teen's lawyers said the boy would face charges of distributing and possessing child pornography. They said the charges carry a possible sentence of 10 years or more.
The Associated Press does not typically identify juveniles charged with crimes and is not naming the 17-year-old now that he is charged as a juvenile.
Defense lawyer Maria Mena said the pornography charges stem from the video the 14-year-old girl sent to the 17-year-old, which he then shared with Sanchez. She called it "egregious" that her client was being charged, while the girl who made the video and sent it to him is not being charged.
Another defense attorney, David Wooten, said the primary reason they were able to prove the 17-year-old's innocence was by producing the evidence of explicit text messages and the video that the girl had sent.
The 17-year-old came to the U.S. from El Salvador to live with relatives who are U.S. citizens after his adoptive grandmother died in El Salvador, leaving him alone there, his lawyers said. Mena said Friday that immigration proceedings have been initiated against him, but they will fight to keep him in the country.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said the 18-year-old was stopped by a border patrol agent in Texas last year after arriving from Guatemala and that an immigration detainer has been placed on him.
After the initial charges were filed in March, White House spokesman Sean Spicer, in response to a reporter's question, called the allegations shocking and disturbing, saying "Part of the reason that the president has made illegal immigration and crackdown such a big deal is because of tragedies like this."
In Annapolis, politicians referred to the case in denouncing legislation that would have limited cooperation between local police and immigration authorities. The legislation was defeated weeks later.
The county school system later became the subject of anti-immigration protests and counter protests. Officials said they were besieged by hundreds of racist and xenophobic calls and comments, and had to increase security.
At Friday's White House briefing, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked whether the White House unfairly jumped to conclusions in the case. She said Spicer "was speaking about what he knew at the time."
The Washington Post contributed to this article.“Hey Mr. Bilbo! Where are you off to?”
“Can’t stop, I’m already late!”
“Late for what?”
“I’m going on an adventure!”
— The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey
Any and all Hobbit fans are tickled and delighted when we watch Bilbo Baggins run through The Shire and giddily shout that he’s going on an adventure, because we all know an adventure in a fictional realm like Middle Earth is going to be worth the watch or the read. A simple line like that or; “Yer a wizard, Harry.” makes you want to turn the page and find out what more there is to those charismatic lines. As we turn those pages we follow the hero of the story through trial and error, love and loss, mistakes made and lessons learned. Each story may be unique to the hero you’ve chosen to follow, but they all have one thing in common. American writer Joseph Campbell called this “The Heroes Journey”.
The theory of this common pattern in story telling was developed by anthropologist Edward Taylor in 1871. Scholars like Otto Rank, Lord Raglan and Carl Jung since added to the theory with their own observations of studying myths. Campbell was the one to write the book “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” in 1949.
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”— Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With A Thousand Faces. 1949.
In Campbell’s theory, there are as many as seventeen stages in a monomyth, but not all stages occur in every single story. Some writers focus on only one or a select few, depending on how far there imagination takes them.
Although this seems like a formula authors must follow to write a good story, it is not. The continuing pattern tends to happen on a more accidental circumstance and the heroes journey can be organized in different ways, especially not in any particular order.
One way is dividing the plot into three acts. All stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. So you typically start with the “Departure”. When the tornado rips up Dorothy’s house and sweeps her away from Kansas to Oz or when Alice falls down the rabbit hole from the English countryside to Wonderland are both perfect examples. Second is “Initiation”, which usually contains a road of trials. Commonly the hero faces three obstacles to complete his or her journey, but again that is only a suggestion. Remember, Hercules had twelve labors. And lastly, the third and final act is “The Return”. Overall, conquering the evils of the story and winning the day. Let’s go through Campbell’s steps, shall we?
Departure
The Call to Adventure
This step is pretty self-explanatory to anyone who has seen or read an adventure story. The call to adventure is that knock on your door by company you didn’t expect, your letter to Hogwarts or the difficult choice of keeping your mouth shut or volunteering as tribute to spare your younger sibling. It can happen in any form at any time, but it is the action that gives the hero motivation to start their quest.
The setting always begins in a very mundane and ordinary world or at least whatever is ordinary to the hero. Living in a castle under the sea may be fantastical to us, but to the little mermaid it’s normal everyday life and our world, the human world, is strange and otherworldly. From that world, the hero is taken or chooses to leave and embarks on a journey into the unknown. Without the call to adventure, whether if it’s the heroes choice to leave and get into trouble or they get taken away against their will, we wouldn’t have a story.
Refusal of the Call
Sometimes, our hero is not so keen on going out into the world and asking for what they don’t want so-to-speak. “It’s a dangerous business, walking out one’s front door.” — Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit. Come on, let’s face it, given the opportunity to slay Smaug the Terrible and steal the Arken Stone from him, would you risk your life against a fire-breathing dragon? I love dragons (especially Smaug), but I know better than to go into a dragon’s den and wake the beast. Even in fiction we have to be a little realistic. Of course most heroes are going to be unwilling to give up the happy, quiet life they have.
Refusal of the call can also be in the form of someone or something preventing the hero from embarking on the journey. The Dursley’s went so far as to camp out on this remote island in the middle of nowhere, hoping the wizarding world would never find Harry and he would never become the great wizard we all know him to be. Be honest Potter fans, who wouldn’t want to go to Hogwarts and learn magic?
It is shortly after the refusal of the call that something happens that either puts the heroes home, family or the hero themselves in danger... or all of the above. When your whole world is crumbling around you, something has to be done. The hero can’t refuse anymore and the crossing of the threshold begins. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.
Supernatural Aid
First we must rally the troops. The hero is going to need help, no matter how special or powerful they are. This is where the sidekicks usually come in.
The new friend that acts as the hero’s conscience, the voice of reason, the glue that holds the hero together when he or she is falling apart. Most importantly, these characters remind the hero of something important, whether it’s “some people are worth melting for” or “just keep swimming”, sidekicks are surprisingly wise.
Now that we have our trusty and lovable friends we can actually cross the threshold into adventure.
Crossing the Threshold
Cue Bilbo Baggins again! “I’m going on an adventure!” as he leaves his Hobbit-hole, quite literally crossing the threshold of his home and running after the dwarves. This is another one that is pretty self-explanatory and as i’ve built up in the previous steps, you get the idea. Time to grab what you can, get out and save the world!
Belly of the Whale
As Campbell explains, “The idea that the passage of the magical threshold is a transit into a sphere of rebirth is symbolized in the worldwide womb image of the belly of the whale. The hero, instead of conquering or conciliating the power of the threshold, is swallowed into the unknown and would appear to have died.” This stage is the metamorphosis of the main character. A rebirth if you will.
The hero is meant to be a dynamic character. Adventure tales typically have morals and its creators are trying to teach readers a valuable lesson. In order to convey such messages, the hero must change. Princess Tiana was once a workaholic with no sense of what was really important in life. Yes, it’s good to be a hard worker, but it’s bad to get so busy making a living, that you forget to make a life.
Initiation
The Road of Trials
Here is the meat and potatoes of the heroes journey! The trials! As I said before, there are typically three trials a hero must face in order to complete his or her journey, but they are not limited to only three. The twelve labors of Hercules.
These trials can be anything! They can be a test of strength or power, they can be a series of a battle of wits, they can be trials of the heart. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone is a perfect example. When Harry and his friends go looking for the stone, trying to stop whoever is trying to steal it, they split their strengths as they make their way through magic security.
Hermione uses her knowledge to help them escape the Devil’s-Snare, by remembering from herbology class that Devil’s-Snare hates sunlight and produces light from her wand to release them from the deadly plant. Harry uses his Quidditch skills to capture the correct flying key to unlock the door. If you didn’t understand that sentence, you’re either too young or too old or you’re on the wrong blog. Ron uses his exceptional chess skills to help them cross the chessboard guarding the door to the room where the stone is hidden. Ultimately, he helps Harry reach the goal of their small quest.
Now consider your favorite story, franchise, book series, whatever has a story to follow and think of all the shenanigans the hero has to go through to reach their goal. That is the road of trials. It’s the learning process of the main character before they complete their metamorphosis.
Meeting with the Goddess
The Goddess is the ultimate prize of the hero. It can be his or her intended love-interest, but it doesn’t have to be. Take Disney’s “Moana” for example. She doesn’t have a love-interest. Her love is for the sea and to have the freedom to explore it. After her quest is accomplished and she more or less saves the world from dying, her father finally grants her the freedom she’s always desired and we see her teaching him how to sail and voyage just before the credits start to roll.
Everyone loves a good love story and every story is a love story, but remember guys; NOT ALL LOVE IS ABOUT BE |
: "Active Shooter" in the area of Edgewood Ave intersecting Orland & Fernandina Ave. Avoid the area until further notice. — JFRDincidents (@JFRDIncidents) December 1, 2016
Source says hostage situation at community first credit. Swat is on scene negotiating. @ActionNewsJax — Bridgette Matter (@bridgetteANjax) December 1, 2016
Multiple individuals inside wih suspect @ActionNewsJax — Bridgette Matter (@bridgetteANjax) December 1, 2016
Jso says people coming to stop and take pictures but are asking them to be safe #anjaxbreaking — Deanna Bettineschi (@DeannaANjax) December 1, 2016
Jso says not sure if 911 came from employee #anjaxbreaking — Deanna Bettineschi (@DeannaANjax) December 1, 2016
JSO: "We want to make this safe for everybody." @ActionNewsJax #ANjaxBREAKING — Russell Colburn (@RussellANjax) December 1, 2016
Jso says 911 call said someone is shot in bank #anjaxbreaking — Deanna Bettineschi (@DeannaANjax) December 1, 2016
JSO: 1 suspect tried to commit robbery on bank. "Multiple" people inside. Received call someone was shot. Can't confirm yet. @ActionNewsJax — Russell Colburn (@RussellANjax) December 1, 2016
.@JSOPIO on @ActionNewsJax we believe there is 1 person who tried to commit an armed robbery. We haven't verified how many people inside. — Romney Smith (@RomneyANjax) December 1, 2016
.@JSOPIO on @ActionNewsJax "We're not giving any specifics on what the SWAT TEAM or what hostage negotiators are doing right now." — Romney Smith (@RomneyANjax) December 1, 2016
JSO won't say where suspect is inside bank. Pleading w/ media & community not to show officer/SWAT positions. @ActionNewsJax — Russell Colburn (@RussellANjax) December 1, 2016
Jso cant confirm how many people are inside but that there are multiple #anjaxbreaking — Deanna Bettineschi (@DeannaANjax) December 1, 2016
.@JSOPIO on @ActionNewsJax We can't comment on the bank's security measure right now. We can't confirm how many people are inside right now — Romney Smith (@RomneyANjax) December 1, 2016
BREAKING: #JSO asking bystanders & media not to take pics or videos showing SWAT in position - so that their efforts aren't compromised — Tenikka Smith Hughes (@TenikkaANjax) December 1, 2016
Police say suspect has multiple hostages inside swat on scene @ActionNewsJax — Bridgette Matter (@bridgetteANjax) December 1, 2016
People near O'reilly Auto a parts saying they came to see what's going on — Deanna Bettineschi (@DeannaANjax) December 1, 2016
3 more officers pulling up to scene #anjaxbreaking — Deanna Bettineschi (@DeannaANjax) December 1, 2016
More swat officers just arrived @ActionNewsJax — Bridgette Matter (@bridgetteANjax) December 1, 2016
RIGHT NOW: A mother has arrived on the scene talking to @ActionNewsJax. She is concerned because she says her 18yo son works at the bank. — Tenikka Smith Hughes (@TenikkaANjax) December 1, 2016
© 2019 Cox Media Group.The British, French, and American embassies have been shuttered in Yemen and others look set to soon follow suit, as the largest protests broke out since the Houthi movement's coup in mid-January.
Reuters reports that there was a small protest against the Shiite Houthi movement's takeover in Sanaa, which was menaced by members of the movement brandishing daggers and firing rifles into the air. A far larger protest, numbering over 10,000, was held in the city of Taiz, which is now outside central government control.
"Leaders and Sunni tribesmen in the southern and eastern regions, which the group has yet to seize, are arming themselves against their push and are in some cases making common cause with Yemeni Al Qaeda militants, leading to fears of an all-out sectarian war," Reuters wrote.
The Obama administration has continued to avoid describing the Houthi takeover in Sanaa as a "coup," but a statement from State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki Tuesday acknowledge the situation in all but name.
Due to the uncertain security situation in Sana’a, the Department of State has decided to suspend our embassy operations and our embassy staff have been temporarily relocated out of Sana’a. Recent unilateral actions disrupted the political transition process in Yemen, creating the risk that renewed violence would threaten Yemenis and the diplomatic community in Sana’a.... We reiterate the call of the United Nations Security Council for immediate release of President Hadi, Prime Minister Bahah, and members of the Yemeni cabinet. An inclusive political process cannot resume with members of the country’s leadership under house arrest.
The risk of civil war is growing in Yemen, as are the opportunities for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which operates training camps inside the country and has planned attacks on the US from there. Though the Shiite Houthis hate AQAP, and the feeling is mutual, the movement also makes "death to America" one of its most prominent political slogans.
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The Monitor wrote yesterday:
But with the Shiite Houthi movement, which has close ties to Iran and and includes "death to America" in one of its best known slogans, keeping President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi under under house arrest and the risk of civil war growing, ongoing US efforts inside Yemen look tenuous. Since 2010, the Obama administration has conducted a campaign of drone assassinations in the country, consisting of about 100 strikes that have killed hundreds of alleged AQAP supporters and dozens of civilians.
While President Hadi and his predecessor were allies in that effort, ongoing intelligence support from Yemeni officials who answer to the Houthis appears unlikely.
In an analysis piece from Sanaa, Reuters considers the current state of play was reached.
When Yemen’s Houthi fighters scaled the rooftops surrounding former President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s home, killed his guards and put him under house arrest, they left no doubt that negotiating a political settlement with them would be difficult.... In a lightning push through northern Yemen and into Sanaa last year, the group took advantage of splits in the ruling and tribal elite and of widespread anger at years of government malfeasance. They portrayed their move as a “people’s revolution” against corruption which they say was emptying state coffers. Their decision to dissolve parliament and set up an interim government was denounced as a coup by one political faction. “We never expected that the Houthis would attack the president’s house, because the confrontations were at the palace. And suddenly at midday, snipers began targeting the presidential home’s guards from all directions,” a source close to Hadi told Reuters.
Gregory Johnson wrote after the Houthi takeover about the group's history, the conditions that brought them to power, and what may come next.
In 2000, Yemen’s then-President Ali Abdullah Salih made one of his periodic changes to a discretionary fund that was known within his office as al-i’timad, or support. Salih used the money as a governing tool — when one rival got too strong, Salih would funnel money toward opponents as a way of keeping them in check without confronting them directly. It was part of what he called “dancing on the heads of snakes,” staying ahead of his enemies by playing them off against one another. The process was crude and prone to fluctuation, but for years it worked. The strategy allowed Salih, who came to power on the heels of the brutal assassinations of his two immediate predecessors, to survive and, for awhile, even prosper. In the mid-1990s, an Islamist political grouping called Islah, which included the local chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood as well as tribal elements, had started to grow in power, taking control of a handful of key ministries. Salih, who had been funding the group off and on for years, withdrew his support and started funding their domestic enemies. One of the beneficiaries of that shift was a member of parliament named Husayn al-Huthi, who came from a religious family that traced its roots back to the Prophet Muhammad and for years had been like local royalty. Studious and momentarily tired of politics, Huthi, 41, decided not to stand for re-election in 1997. Instead, he used Salih’s money to study for a master’s degree in Sudan. Three years later, in 2000, the political winds shifted again. Islah had been weakened, and Salih took Huthi off the payroll. With no stipend, Huthi had little choice. He withdrew from his program in Sudan and returned home. Two years later, the chants started: “God is great! Death to America! Death to Israel! Curses upon the Jews! Victory for Islam!”
That BBC reports that Abdel Malik al-Houthi, the son of the movement's founder and its current leader, has sought to reassure foreign powers like the US.
But rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi rejected Western fears about the security situation in Yemen in a televised address on Tuesday evening, insisting they were "unfounded." Mr. Houthi said it was "in the interests of everyone, both inside and outside the country, that Yemen be stable" and warned that "the interests of those who bet on chaos and want to hurt the economy and security of the people will suffer," singling out Sunni-ruled states in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) who have accused the Houthis of a "coup." The UN's special envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, organized talks between the Houthis and the main political factions last week, but they collapsed on Thursday. The following day, the Houthis announced that they would impose their own political solution to end the stand-off.
The Washington Post reports that Yemen's former strongman Saleh has once again emerged as a key player.Share
The back and forth between Apple and the FBI in the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone case continues to heat up, but the latest filing from the Department of Justice has it flashing a wildcard that could spell problems for Apple and other tech companies.
The case revolves around a court order, requiring Apple to create special code to help the FBI get into the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, who killed 14 people last December. Apple filed a motion to vacate, and received support from various human rights groups, privacy advocates, tech companies, and even the United Nations. You can read our full coverage here.
In the formal rebuttal to the Cupertino company, the Department of Justice says it could simply force Apple to hand over its source code, if the company doesn’t comply with the court order, the Guardian has found.
The threat is in response to one of Apple’s arguments that creating code for the FBI would be a burden for the company. In a footnote in the filing, the deparment says, “the FBI cannot itself modify the software on Farook’s iPhone without access to the source code and Apple’s private electronic signature.”
This claim been hotly contest by critics of the FBI’s stance, like Edward Snowden, who says it’s “bullshit” that the FBI needs Apple’s help to crack into the iPhone.
The words that followed the DOJ’s statement are what could mean trouble for Apple: “The government did not seek to compel Apple to turn [the source code and electronic signature] over because it believed such a request would be less palatable to Apple. If Apple would prefer that course, however, that may provide an alternative that requires less labor by Apple programmers.”
The remark sounds like a threat, and a snarky one at that. Following the threat, the department also cited a precedent that it could use against Apple in the case — what the FBI did to Lavabit.
Lavabit was a secure email service from Ladar Levison, and it was used by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Levison shut down Lavabit in 2013, and claimed it was due to government requests for live user data. Levison was sanctioned for contempt of court, according to the Guardian.
Flashing the Lavabit precedent is an interesting and scary move. We’ll have to wait and see how not just Apple, but all major tech companies respond to the Justice department’s latest threat.Earlier today we were asked a question about next week’s Internet of Things event
‘Techie’ is a diminutive and offensive term, in my opinion. Some people might be put off attending your event if they would be labelled as a ‘techie’.
This was sent in from an anonymised email address (anon@anon.com), and has caused a bit of a stir among the Directors and NEMs, because it’s the first time any of us have ever thought about the term ‘techie’ being an offensive term… So since the person who opened the original point hasn’t given us any ability to respond directly, I’d like to openly and from a personal perspective.
I’ve been a ‘techie’ since I first started taking telephones apart at the age of 5. I got my first telescope at 7 (single diopter, nothing fancy), a MIDI keyboard and interface at 8, first solder-based electronics kit (Yup, Velleman) at 10 I think. Over the summer break after the 11+, after we came back from a short holiday in England, I was inspired by Jodrell Bank to turn the clothesline at our house into a radio telescope. At 13 I tried to start a PC Gaming club in the school, but was shot down by politics (one of our other NEMs was less ‘by the book’ than I was), and also started playing network-capture-the-flag with our IT administrator (he’s still a friend).
At 14 I was elected President of the Astronomical Society, and produced the GCSE coursework template on the angular efficiency of Solar Cells that was later added as part of the curriculum (although I had to take a different project next year when I was up to do it, for obvious reasons).
At 16 I part-organised a trip to take a bunch of school kids to the Giants Causeway at 4am to watch the Transit of Venus, along with home made spectrometers. At 17 I and a group of colleagues put together a Primary School teaching programme around the constellation Orion, using a time travelling robotic dog (I called her Kimberly) to teach history, geography, mathematics, and physics to P6/P7’s. I also made the dog piss on the headmaster for the last session.
I could go on, (and it does), but at the same time that all this was happening, I also made movies, held massive parties, ran fundraising gigs (including earning ever lasting infamy from one band in particular for cutting them off mid set during my Live8 concert because Slash was starting) and an assortment of other madness including the usual teenage ‘experimentations’.
I’m a Master of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, part of two start-up companies, and working on a PhD in Collaborative Security for Autonomous Submarines.
I’m proud to be a techie, nerd, geek, whatever. I’ve created things and experimented with things and mashed-things-up before there was such a word.
And if anyone for a second believes that anyone associated with Farset would take, or give offence with the use of the word ‘Techie’, I believe you’d be sadly underestimating this community.
That’s my techie story, what’s yours?
Unless it wasn’t already clear, all of the above is my personal opinion and does not constitute an official statement by Farset LabsThe formula to find S.D. Total:
Masayoshi Son is the latest official connected to Japanese baseball to question the validity of America's World Series."America isn't the world, so how do they have the World Series," Son said last week. "If the Royals win, we want to do a real World Series with the Japanese champions and the American champion."Son owns the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Japan's most recent baseball champion, but he's also the current chairman of Sprint, which is located in a suburb of Kansas City.He's surrounded by baseball success and wants to see a true champion."Let the best teams play each other," Son said. "Have an ultimate world champion."Unfortunately, for numerous reasons, such a series isn't going to happen. However, we can look at some comparable statistics and make an educated guess about what would happen if the Royals and Hawks were to play a series.Over the last few years I've argued that OPS, Run Differential per Game, and WHIP are the three biggest indicators of a winning club. These three stats have a strong correlation to winning percentage.2015 Kansas City Royals:.512 RDpG,.734 OPS, 1.28 WHIP2015 Fukuoka Softbank Hawks: 1.12 RDpG,.747 OPS, 1.20 WHIPOn the surface, the Hawks appear to be a much stronger club, but there's some additional notes to think about. First, the quality of play is debatable when comparing Japanese baseball to American. Secondly, the league's are setup differently - the American :League has 15 teams whereas the Pacific League only has six.About a year or so ago, I compared the 1951 Tokyo Giants to the 1939 New York Yankees using the methods outlined by Rob Neyer and Eddie Epstein in theirtext [ article here ]. Essentially, the text talks about using standard deviations as an indicator of comparable team greatness and dominance.Lets compare the Hawks and Royals using the standard deviation theory - "la" stands for league average and S.D. for Standard Deviation.((Scored - la scored) / S.D.S) + (la allowed - Allowed) / S.D.A))Using the theorem, it's obvious the Hawks put together a more dominant season. Considering we still can't truly quantify the talent difference between the MLB and NPB, this method is arguably the best to compare clubs from the two leagues.What would make of an actual series between the two league champions?Michelle Obama
This has me gobsmacked. Remember how Bush and McCain were having trouble getting more donors than protesters to show up at their recent Arizona shindigs? Michelle Obama didn’t have that problem:
While the staffs of the president and of Arizona’s sitting senator scrambled to find smaller gathering spaces, Michelle Obama, stumping in Phoenix, McCain‘s hometown, filled a large banquet room just around the corner from where the Republicans originally planned their event– many of the Obama donors driving through the Bush-McCain protests on their way to hear the Democratic candidate’s wife speak.
This just amazes me. The wife of the Democratic front-runner outdraws, handily, both the Republican front-runner himself and the guy he wants to replace in the White House — and does so on the Republican front-runner’s home turf.
So who all came to see Michelle Obama?
In Phoenix, Michelle Obama drew a crowd unusually diverse for a high-dollar downtown political fundraiser; there were people of every race, class, age, gender, and ethnicity. The fact that there were more women than men was no surprise. Michelle Obama is well liked and admired by women. Voters unsure of Barack, often have a fondness for her. When I told a long-time Republican friend that I would be attending a fundraiser headlined by Michelle Obama, she said, "Tell her my vote for Barack in November is really for her."
Wow. You’d never know this from most MSM coverage of Michelle Obama; the last time I remember seeing her getting major coverage in the news, it was because of something truthful she said that the RNC told their press minions to promote as a gaffe. Yet in reality, she’s remarkably gaffe-free; in spite of Rahm Emanuel’s fears about Democrats going on The Colbert Report, she shows that someone with at least a decent complement of brains can easily chat with the feared exponent of truthiness and come away smelling like a rose.
There was a grim moment at the event. The rally, which had been very much a high-energy one, was nearly stopped in its tracks when an anxious member of the audience, trying and failing to hold back sobs, asked Michelle about the possibility of harm coming to her husband, a possibility that was brought to center stage again last week with the RFK hoo-ha:
She paused, allowing the clearly distraught supporter to pull herself together. Maybe it was 30 seconds before Obama spoke, stretched out into imaginary minutes. Finally, she said firmly, "I’m ok. Really. I am ok. And if I’m ok, you should be ok. "You know, we talked about this as a family." She held the microphone with one hand, the other curved inward over her heart as she talked. Her tenor and body language was clear. Michelle Obama was talking as a mother. She was introspective and intimate, looking the questioner in the eyes as if they are the only two in the room. "We talked about this as a family." The room remained still and quiet. Imagine having that talk with your children. Then, she paused, gathering herself, pulling herself up, seeming to grow even taller, Michelle, the campaigning wife returns. She says, "I’ve talked about this before. Barack is probably safer now than he was before. Kids are dying in the street in our community. They get shot walking to class, sitting in school, taking the bus home. They are dying in the street…. Send us good vibes. Pray for us. Think positive thoughts. But most of all, be vigilant. Be vigilant about stopping this kind of talk.
It’s not funny. You don’t have to like Barack to dislike that kind of talk. Be vigilant about stopping that kind of talk." Then she reminded the crowd what we are fighting for, and why it is important to forge ahead without fear. "Fear is the reason this country is where it is today. Fear is a useless emotion. Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t. Don’t ever make decisions based on fear."
The whole Republican/conservative power structure is built on manipulating our fears — fears of brown people, fears of Jewish people, fears of gays, fears of women, fears of anyone who doesn’t fit the narrow template the Republicans call ‘normal’ — so that we don’t notice when they take more money from our pockets and give it to their rich buddies, or strip away more of the rights that are our birthright in the Constitution or even the Magna Carta.
It’s been that way for a long time. Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." And he said it for the same reasons Michelle Obama said what she said in Phoenix the other day.
The Republicans know that they’re losing. That’s why they’re amping up the fear factor. But the tens of thousands who throng to hear the Obamas speak, and the tens of millions of new voters registered in the past year, are rejecting fear as a useless emotion. Michelle Obama wouldn’t be outdrawing the McCain-Bush tag team if that wasn’t the case.Using the power of Photoshop, Elle UK shows us what it looks like when you remove all the men from pictures of politicians and celebrities. It’s a stark, revealing glimpse at a world that is wildly out of balance:
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made… It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.” —Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” —Coretta Scott King
“Liberty and justice for all” were beautiful words, but the ugly fact was that liberty and justice were only for white males.” —Shirley Chisholm
“The whole goal of feminism is to become redundant. My dream is for a world where I won’t have to call myself a feminist because there will be gender justice.” —Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” —Susan B. Anthony
“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” ―Arundhati Roy
“We cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” —Malala Yousafzai
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” —Fannie Lou Hamer
Check out the video:In January of this year, the University of North Carolina (UNC) Board of Governors unanimously adopted a system-wide strategic plan commissioned by President Spellings. The plan, entitled Higher Expectations, provides an outline of specific goals and metrics that are aimed to help the University prioritize its efforts in the next five years, essentially functioning as the University’s decision-making “roadmap.”
The University’s goals and metrics are laid out in a clear and precise way, though little is known yet about actual policies except that much of the implementation will be pushed back to the constituent campuses. But the “devil is in the details,” and now that some of the specifics are known, it appears that many of the goals may be unrealistic.
In developing the plan, Spellings and her team consulted student, faculty, and public feedback via online surveys and public forums held at each of the 17 university campuses. One open forum was held at UNC-Chapel Hill on November 10, 2016. Yet, public feedback in such surveys and forums tends to come from those with vested and political interests rather than a true representation of the population.
The plan highlights five main themes: Affordability, Accessibility and Efficiency, Student Success, Economic Impact and Community Engagement, Excellent and Diverse Institutions. Within each of these broad areas, the plan lists two or three goals that it aims to achieve by the 2021-22 academic year.
The major impression of the plan and the subsequent discussion is that the current UNC administration is adopting an expansive approach similar to Spellings’s predecessors regarding the university system’s role in the state. This approach includes an aggressive commitment to system growth, expansion into new endeavors, and redistributive social policies.
In his first presentation before the Board of Governors in May 2016, the UNC system’s policy advisor Andrew Kelly emphasized the importance of making college more accessible to low-income and rural students and of improving overall student success. While on the surface this appears to be a laudable goal, it also appears to be based on unlikely assumptions about the potential for improving the performance of students.
To start, Kelly noted that there are participation gaps between different demographics of students. Because of this discrepancy, Kelly advised the UNC system to make it a priority to increase enrollment from underrepresented counties. To address this issue, the UNC system aims to increase enrollment of students from rural counties by 11 percent and low-income students by 13 percent by the 2021-22 academic year.
UNC officials, and indeed many in higher education, argue that a lack of college preparedness is a key factor behind the gap in attendance of low-income students—which, in turn, speaks to the lack of educational resources in those areas of the state. Kelly told the Martin Center that the gaps in enrollment underscore “differences in college readiness” and “differences in the quality of high schools.”
To remedy those low enrollment rates, the UNC system has set goals to improve K-12 education in low-income counties. As of Fall 2017, Western and East Carolina Universities opened their own university-operated public school in an effort to improve grade-school quality in the surrounding areas. According to the strategic plan, seven more UNC institutions will open their own “laboratory school” by 2019.
UNC also has initiated a commission on education called “My Future NC,” which is the most recent initiative to address K-12 education reform. Top leaders in education will come together to investigate the needs of state education and recommend policies to address those needs. According to Spellings, “the goal of this effort is… to develop a multi-year education plan that recommends a robust attainment goal for the state and a broad-based agenda for a stronger and more competitive North Carolina.”
There is little debate that education, especially in low-income and rural counties, needs improvement. But it is unclear whether additional bureaucratic intervention will prove to be a viable solution. Indeed, it seems that many educational problems are rooted in lifestyle issues, such as the disintegration of the family, and therefore are in need of cultural—not a governmental—solutions.
There is also the worry that the university will, in an effort to ‘level the educational playing field,’ simultaneously lift up some students who have not yet achieved at a high academic level while reducing opportunities for students with track records of success. If the university makes an intentional effort to increase enrollment from low-income populations, will that mean that it will also intentionally limit the amount of students that it accepts from more highly represented counties?
Or will the university system increase the overall size of its student body—forcing the legislature to either increase appropriations from taxpayers or raise tuition for all students? The main concern, of course, is that, in order to achieve its ambitious enrollment goals, the university may create a quasi-affirmative action admissions policy.
That is a question that Board of Governors (BOG) member Marty Kotis posed in a Martin Center interview: “When you talk about access, how is that accomplished? Are you changing the demographics of students who are there? Are you turning away students? What are the trade-offs?” Kotis also told the Martin Center that he had no idea how much the implementation of the strategic plan would cost. “I would like to have seen some computer modeling; what happens when we make these changes?” asked Kotis.
In the time since the board’s acceptance of the plan, the UNC system has been working with representatives from each constituent institution to determine the most effective way for each university to implement the system’s goals and metrics. In September and October, sixteen Strategic Plan Implementation Agreements were created and signed by UNC system chancellors and President Spellings. The agreements outline how each institution will integrate and help contribute to fulfilling the system’s strategic goals. UNC-Chapel Hill’s metrics include enrolling 198 additional rural students and improving low-income graduation rates by 14.4 percent. All of the signed agreements can be found here.
Some of the metrics seem to be unrealistic: for example, Appalachian State University is expected to increase the number of rural graduates by 16.2 percent by 2021-22—at a time when the state’s rural population is not keeping pace with the growth in metropolitan areas. ASU also agreed to increase low-income graduates by 24.2 percent and will “reduce by 50% the achievement gap in undergraduate degree efficiency among low-income students.
Such dramatic increases invariably raise concerns whether academic standards must be sacrificed in order to achieve these goals.
Andrew Kelly told the Martin Center that all of the data UNC collects as a result of the policies it implements will be made available in an online interactive dashboard accessible to the public.
It will be very interesting whether the UNC system will be able to achieve its highly ambitious goals. If it fails, maybe then the system will finally get governance from a more realistic perspective that accepts human limitations and motivations instead of trying to remake society.I love it when a problem is solved effortlessly. I have a growing faith in the ability of love to solve problems in such a way. I wanted to share a small, but meaningful experience here. It has to do with a compost pile that I manage at my home away from home. I spend 11 days every month out of town working. I have an apartment there, which I have made into my second home.
At that apartment, I was throwing away all of my organic fruit and veggie scraps, because I had no personal yard space for a compost pile. To me this was a real problem. 🙂 I love to garden and keep house plants. Well made compost is priceless. It keeps my plants healthy and happy. I know how valuable those food scraps are, and it hurt me every time I would toss them in the trash. My “solution of love” actually has two parts:
My Apartment & Plants
The first part happened about one year ago, while walking to work. I suddenly noticed an area where the hospital disposed of landscaping waste. I saw that there was room on the side for me to start a little compost pile AND there were tons of dried leaves already sitting there. Dry leaves + kitchen scraps + time = great compost. I had everything I needed to make good dirt, right next to my apartment. My problem was solved, just by me stopping and noticing the resources around me.
This little operation was successful until this fall. One day on my walk to work, I noticed that the whole area had been bulldozed over. My little compost pile was gone and so too were all the leaves! This is where part 2 of the my solution comes in. My initial inner reaction, was basically to pout about the turn of events. I was a little bit angry at whoever had done that. I noticed that anger and made a conscious effort to stop the mental blaming, but allow the energy that was activated in me to be felt. Every morning I would go through this inner procedure, because walking by the area would bring it all up again. I figured I would have to discard my kitchen waste again. However, I decided to save it until the last day, in case a solution presented itself. And it did! On the last night I was in town, I noticed one of the neighbors had raked up all of her leaves and was getting ready to burn the pile. I also noticed a vacant lot, right across the street. I asked for and was granted permission to move the pile of leaves across the street for my newest compost pile. This compost pile was an upgrade! The leaves have zero trash in them, the pile was closer to my apartment and the location was less likely to be disturbed.
The funny thing is, if I had been self absorbed with the predicament of losing the old compost pile, I may have never been observant enough to notice the solution that was right in front of my nose. This may have been a small “solution of love”, but I know the procedure works the same regardless of the size of the problem. I am sure there are many other solutions, right in front of my nose. I wish all a growing inner strength, so that “letting go” comes easier and solutions happen more seamlessly.
God Bless,
Roger
The Nature Path to Work
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The Obama campaign has seized on an answer that John McCain gave at the Saddleback Forum on Saturday defining the line between middle class and rich as income over $5 million a year.
Here is the exchange between McCain and Warren from Ben Smith’s Blog:
WARREN: Everybody talks about, you know, taxing the rich, but not the poor, the middle class. At what point, give me a number, give me a specific number. Where do you move from middle class to rich? […]
MCCAIN: How about $5 million? No, but seriously, I don’t think you can, I don’t think seriously that the point is I’m trying to make, seriously, and I’m sure that comment will be distorted but the point is…that we want to keep people’s taxes low, and increase revenues. … So, it doesn’t matter really what my definition of rich is because I don’t want to raise anybody’s taxes. I really don’t.
McCain was joking, but he did dodge the question completely. That was a through non-answer. Barack Obama said today in New Mexico that he thought maybe McCain was joking, but by McCain’s definition a person making $3 million is middle class. Obama said that McCain’s skewed idea of wealth is reflected in his policies. Why is McCain afraid to define his idea of middle class? Is it because he has chosen, much like President Bush has, to ignore the working people of this country.
John McCain has been living the rich life for so long that he doesn’t know, or even worse, doesn’t care about the middle class. It is the spending of the middle and lower classes that keeps this economy going. We have had eight years of trickledown economics under George W. Bush, with the same results we experienced under Reagan. The rich got richer, and the poor and middle class got squeezed. This is what John McCain is offering America more of.
I am not in favor of overtaxing, but it is time for those who make the most to pay their fair share. They have been getting richer off the backs of the rest of us for eight years, and now it is time to return the favor. How can anyone trust a candidate who is afraid to speak directly to those who are hurting most in this economy? John McCain only sees the world of wealth that he lives in. The rest of us don’t exist, and I, for one, am tired of being invisible.
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:Most people assume the "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” deals with military infrastructure, which is true. However, it's also "the nation’s largest provider of water-based outdoor recreation." According to the Washington Post:
It administers 422 lake and river projects in 43 states, spanning 12 million acres, encompassing 55,000 miles of shoreline and 4,500 miles of trails, and including 90,000 campsites and 3,400 boat launch ramps. Waters under its control constitute 33 percent of all U.S. freshwater fishing.” (Here is a list of the Corps’ 1,969 recreational facilities.) Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Corps has announced that it is reconsidering the gun ban on its outdoor property.
As you imagine, hunting is allowed on some of that 12 million acres. But if you aren't hunting, you better not get caught with a firearm -- not even in your tent to protect yourself at night. This anti-gun regulation began in 1973, under Richard Nixon who thought “guns are an abomination.” But a |
give me some answers because this is not acceptable. We are fighting for the championship and only my engines are failing. It does not sit right with me."
Listen: Hamilton demands answers
"Oh, no, no!" shouted Hamilton as his Mercedes ground to a halt in the oppressive Malaysian heat
What happened this time?
Hamilton was cruising to victory on an unexpected one-stop strategy when his engine, and perhaps his title hopes, literally went up in smoke.
He had converted pole into a lead at the first corner, and the day seemed to be going his way when Rosberg was hit by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel as a move to try to pass Verstappen down the inside went wrong.
Vettel was given a three-place grid penalty for next weekend's Japanese Grand Prix after he was adjudged to have caused the crash.
In October last year Hamilton claimed his third F1 world title. His fourth appears to be slipping through his fingers
Rosberg rejoined at the back and set about climbing back through the field as Hamilton appeared to be set fair to reclaim the championship lead.
An early virtual safety car when Romain Grosjean's Haas suffered apparent brake failure tempted Red Bull to bring Verstappen in early for fresh'soft' tyres.
That made him de facto leader for a while, a position he assumed on track when Hamilton made his first pit stop on lap 20.
When you've spun and there's 20 racing cars coming at you... the crowd clearly loved it - even if Rosberg didn't
But he stopped again seven laps later and, from then on, Hamilton appeared in total control, only for his car to suffer an internal combustion engine failure.
Team boss Toto Wolff held his head in his hands in the pits as Hamilton walked disconsolately away from his smouldering car. Mercedes said there had been no warning of the problem.
How did Red Bull end up winning it?
Verstappen had been on Ricciardo's tail and asking his team to "do something", and the Australian had already fended off an attack by his team-mate as they ran side by side from Turns Four to Eight.
But when Hamilton's engine failed, that triggered a virtual safety car and the team to bring in both cars for fresh tyres.
This was Ricciardo's first win in Malaysia and fourth in total - the same as Eddie Irvine, who won the first Malaysian Grand Prix back in 1999. Source: Forix
That meant Ricciardo went into the last 13 laps of the the race with a 2.3-second lead.
Ricciardo was on new tyres, while Verstappen's were three laps old and that may have given the Australian the edge he needed to hold off his team-mate, who appeared to have a slight pace advantage this weekend.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said there had been no team orders: "It made total sense, after Lewis had blown up, there was a free stop for both of them - give them both fresh tyres and then flat-out to the finish.
"They have great respect for each other. They are young, they were racing hard and it was right to let them race today."
For Ricciardo, victory was no less than he deserved after the team cost him two victories earlier this season with a strategy call in Spain and a pit error in Monaco.
"I'm exhausted," Ricciardo said. "It is such a hot race here. It was a race of challenges. Obviously Lewis got the lead and had his problem.
"I am not one for believing in a whole lot, but it went the other way in Monaco so I'll take this, no hard feelings to Lewis. It has been pretty emotional two years since the last win and we have come so close this year, two weeks ago I said we'd win one and here we go."
Ricciardo also now draws level with New Zealander Bruce McLaren with four race wins
Rosberg shows his teeth - and it pays off
Rosberg drove well to get back up to fourth place, and then snatched third from Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari in a late move at Turn Two on lap 38.
The two cars collided, and stewards decided Rosberg should be penalised with a 10-second time penalty. But he managed to extend his lead sufficiently to ensure he took the final podium place.
Williams' Valtteri Bottas took fifth, ahead of Force India's Sergio Perez and an excellent drive from Fernando Alonso in his McLaren after starting from the back of the grid - including making up 10 places on the first lap.
Take the back door: A fuming Lewis Hamilton arrives at the Mercedes motorhome, but would air his views soon afterwards
Alonso's team-mate Jenson Button took ninth in his 300th grand prix, a little unfortunate on strategy with the way the pit stops and late virtual safety car for Hamilton's retirement played out.
Had it not happened, Button's long middle stint on hard tyres - much longer than Alonso could manage - might have meant he finished ahead of the Spaniard.
And Renault's Jolyon Palmer scored his first F1 point with a resolute drive to 10th place from 19th on the grid.
What they said - and did - on the podium
For Ricciardo, victory was no less than he deserved.
There's no business like shoe business... drinking champagne from his race boot is now a tradition for the Australian
"I'm exhausted," Ricciardo said. "It is such a hot race. It was a race of challenges. Obviously Lewis got the lead and had his problem.
"I am not one for believing in a whole lot, but it went the other way in Monaco so I'll take this, no hard feelings to Lewis. It has been pretty emotional two years since the last win and we have come so close this year. Two weeks ago I said we'd win one and here we go."
Rosberg said: "Turn One, I thought it was all over, so I'm really happy to be able to fight back to the podium."
Malaysia Grand Prix results
Malaysian Grand Prix coverage details
When you drive for Ferrari and crash. Again. They don't like that at Ferrari
The Sepang circuit is built next to a palm oil plantation
Just off down the Dog and Button - McLaren set up an British style pub in honour of Button's 300th grand prix startNew Orleans Saints safety Jairus Byrd was a notable absence from the third day of organized team activities.
Byrd, who had back surgery Thursday, and was not at practice, the first all-team session open to the media this offseason. Saints coach Sean Payton said he expected him to be back by training camp.
"He's having a surgical procedure on his back for a disc," Payton said. "It's been asymptomatic but it's something we wanted to do, and he as well, to alleviate any issues coming in the fall. He'll be back here in a week. For this next week, he won't be at these OTAs, he'll be going through his rehab."
Payton said the procedure was optional, and would not have been done if they were in the middle of the season. In that case, they would have treated it instead.
"We felt like it would be something that would prevent any issues in the fall," Payton said.
Payton said Byrd has dealt with the issue before, but it came to the forefront in the last month. A specialist in Los Angeles looked at Byrd's back and recommended surgery.
"He didn't have any pain, but it was something we wanted to handle, especially with his position." Payton said.
Payton was noncommittal when asked if Byrd would practice during mini-camp or OTAs. He said the team would prefer to err on the side of caution.
"Our guess would be that we'll be real cautious and get him back here, and he'll start off training camp with no problem," Payton said.
Byrd was the top free agent acquisition of the offseason, agreeing to a six-year, $54 million deal with the Saints on the first night of free agency. The 27-year old Byrd was formerly with the Buffalo Bills, where he was a three-time All-Pro.South African wildlife experts are calling for urgent action against poachers after the last female rhinoceros in a popular game reserve near Johannesburg bled to death after having its horn hacked off.
Wildlife officials say poaching for the prized horns has now reached an all-time high. "Last year, 129 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa. This year, we have already had 136 deaths," said Japie Mostert, chief game ranger at the 1,500-hectare Krugersdorp game reserve.
The gang used tranquilliser guns and a helicopter to bring down the nine-year-old rhino cow. Her distraught calf was moved to a nearby estate where it was introduced to two other orphaned white rhinos.
Wanda Mkutshulwa, a spokeswoman for South African National Parks, said investigations into the growing number of incidents had been shifted to the country's organised crime unit. "We are dealing with very focused criminals. Police need to help game reserves because they are not at all equipped to handle crime on such an organised level,'' she said.
Rhino horn consists of compressed keratin fibre – similar to hair – and in many Asian cultures it is a fundamental ingredient in traditional medicines.
Mkutshulwa said poaching was also rife in the Kruger Park. Five men were arrested there in the past week alone – four of whom were caught with two bloodied rhino horns, AK-47 assault rifles, bolt-action rifles and an axe.
Krugersdorp game reserve attracts at least 200,000 visitors every year. It is also close to a private airport, which may have been used by the poachers.
"The exercise takes them very little time," Mostert said. "They first fly over the park in the late afternoon to locate where the rhino is grazing. Then they return at night and dart the animal from the air. The tranquilliser takes less than seven minutes to act.
"They saw off the horns with a chainsaw. They do not even need to switch off the rotors of the helicopter. We do not hear anything because our houses are too far away. The animal dies either from an overdose of tranquilliser or bleeds to death."
The committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) warned last year that rhino poaching had reached an all-time high. The Cites conference in Geneva in July 2009 heard that Asia's economic expansion had fuelled the market in rhino horns. The horns are also used in the Middle East to make handles for ornamental daggers. Cites said demand for them had begun to soar in recent years. In the five years up to 2005, an average of only 36 rhinos had been killed each year.
Conservationists estimate that there are only 18,000 black and white rhinos in Africa, down from 65,000 in the 1970s. Mostert, who has been a ranger for 20 years, said the animals fetch up to 1m rand (£85,000) at game auctions and cannot be insured.
Cites has praised South Africa for its action against poachers. Two weeks ago, a Vietnamese man was jailed for 10 years for trying to smuggle horns out of the country.
• This article was amended after publication on 18 July to correct errors that appeared in the paper edition of the ObserverA B.C. dog owner whose sick pet suffered terribly after a veterinarian left it unattended is calling for better rules about overnight stays at vet clinics. The epileptic dog, Nip, had a seizure while caged and alone that left him paralyzed.
“Whatever person opened up the vet clinic in the morning found him thrashing in his cage,” said owner Annette Dehalt, who said she was shocked when she arrived later to pick up her pet.
“He couldn’t even right himself. He tried desperately to lift his head to greet me and he was kind of drooling.”
Annette Dehalt is still haunted by how her dog Nip suffered before he died. (CBC)
Dehalt said the Victoria vet, Dr. Malcolm Macartney, had told her Nip needed to be kept overnight for "observation" after exploratory surgery. She said the vet knew her dog was epileptic and prone to debilitating seizures.
“I wanted to take him home,” said Dehalt. “I remember pretty much verbatim what Dr Macartney said. He said ‘No — we should really keep him here in the clinic for overnight observation.’”
She said she presumed that meant someone would be there.
“I wanted to take him home … but at the same time I realized, OK, if that’s necessary, if he needs veterinary supervision... especially with his seizure record.”
Instead, the dog was left alone for 9½ hours, from when the vet last checked on him at 10 p.m. until morning staff arrived and found him having a full-blown seizure.
If Dehalt had been caring for Nip at home when he had his seizure, she would have been able to respond immediately by giving him medication and rushing him to an emergency clinic.
Owner unaware of suffering
“I was sleeping … while he was thrashing against the metal bars of that cage after surgery — alone in an empty vet clinic — paralyzing himself,” Dehalt said.
“Here I was thinking he was in the best possible place — at the veterinarian clinic, under observation.”
Nip was an active, nine-year-old Australian cattle dog. Dehalt said he was walking fine and playing the day she brought him to Macartney’s clinic, MacKenzie Veterinary Services, in April 2009, for digestive problems.
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She said she had to carry him out to the car the next day — because he couldn’t walk — after she paid Macartney’s $2,128 bill for the exploratory surgery.
“I was not allowed [by the vet] to take my walking dog home the night before,” said Dehalt.
The bill included $89 in charges for "hospitalization" and "in-patient evaluation.'
“What is the point of leaving him at the vet clinic without anybody there?” Dehalt asked.
Nip died three months later, from an untreated cancer growth, which Macartney had failed to inform Dehalt about.
Cancer untreated
“He was paralyzed — and he had cancer that he didn’t get painkillers or treatment for,” she said.
The vet had removed tumours during the exploratory surgery, but lab tests afterward showed the cancer was likely to recur. Macartney didn’t send the lab results to Dehalt’s new vet until three months later, and by then Nip was near death.
Victoria veterinarian Malcolm Macartney said he is sorry for what happened to Nip and his clinic has changed its practices on overnight stays since. (CBC)
In the meantime, Dehalt was spending countless hours trying to rehabilitate her crippled dog, with help from her new vet. She said it still haunts her that she pushed Nip to try to walk and kept him on a restricted diet, oblivious to the fact he was in pain and dying.
“I was deprived of doing right by a dog that meant everything to me,” said Dehalt. “I can’t imagine how he suffered … that’s heartbreaking no matter how many years pass.”
After Nip died, Dehalt sued Macartney. He settled this year by paying her $22,422, the full amount she asked for.
Large settlement
Part of the settlement was for Nip’s pain and suffering, which Dehalt’s lawyer Graham Jones believes is unprecedented for an animal in Canada.
“Pets are a very significant part of the family for a lot of people and what happens to them and the suffering they experience can easily be passed on to their owners,” said Jones.
Nip was left overnight alone in a cage like this one in Macartney's clinic, where he suffered a seiz (CBC)
Dehalt also complained to the College of Veterinarians of B.C. In its final decision, the college said it advised Macartney to get informed consent from owners before keeping pets overnight at his clinic unattended.
The college, however, found he was not guilty of any wrongdoing or misconduct. Go Public asked several times for an interview with someone from the college, but did not get an answer before deadline.
Macartney admits he made mistakes in Nip’s case and told Go Public he is sorry for how the dog and his owner suffered.
"Of course things might have been different had he been monitored, had I sent him home with Annette or had I sent him to the local emergency clinic for overnight monitoring — they may have been able indeed to stop his seizures sooner than I had," Macartney said.
Vet admits mistake
"In hindsight it was a mistake. I make no bones about it. I am totally responsible for that and I have never denied that. But for me to be able to predict that a seizure would have happened is pretty unlikely … of course I am sorry for what happened."
The vet said his clinic rarely keeps pets overnight anymore, except in exceptional cases. Macartney said if they do, he will either stay at the office to monitor them, or make sure the owners know they will be left alone.
Vancouver lawyer Victoria Shroff said vets are risking liability if they leave a sick pet unattended. (CBC)
"We make it patently clear that there will not be 24-hour observation, overnight observation," he said.
There are no explicit rules governing overnight staffing at non-emergency vet clinics in Canada. Dehalt wants to warn other pet owners to beware.
“I want something good to come out of this terrible suffering that Nip had to go through,” she said, adding she would like the regulators to adopt new rules.
“There should be 24-hour supervision or else full written and verbal disclosure that there is nobody on the premises.”
Clinic practices vary
Go Public canvassed several non-emergency vet clinics and hospitals in B.C. and found a variety of practices.
Some vet offices said they would never keep a pet overnight, because there is no one there. If a pet is too sick to go home, they said they would transfer it to a 24-hour emergency facility.
Several vet clinics in B.C.'s Lower Mainland offer 'hospitalization' after surgery, but have no one on staff overnight. (CBC)
Other non-emergency clinics said they do offer "hospitalization" after surgery, but also admitted the animals are left alone.
Dr. Carl Weiss, a B.C. veterinarian who gave an expert opinion for Dehalt’s case, wrote that he would never leave an animal alone the way Nip was.
“If I am concerned about post-surgical complication …I will offer to keep the patient overnight. In most such cases, the client will ask if there will be 24-hour supervision. My answer would be yes, otherwise why would I keep him overnight?”
There have also been calls in the U.S. for tougher rules, after a dog hanged itself on its collar in New Jersey while alone in a cage overnight at the vet’s office.
“Vets are being held accountable more and more,” said Victoria Shroff, a Vancouver lawyer who takes a special interest in laws affecting animals.
Are you paying too much at the vet? Send your vet bills now to Marketplace and watch the show's season premiere on Oct. 4.
She said complaints are up in general, because pet owners have increasingly high expectations.
“More and more cases are coming forward. I get a lot of inquires about veterinary malpractice, and complaints are up at the veterinary college, which is the regulatory body for vets.”
“I never spared any money or any effort when it came to Nip. He truly was my best friend and I would have done anything for him,” said Dehalt.
Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public
Follow @CBCGoPublic on TwitterSACRAMENTO, Calif., Nov. 23, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aerojet Rocketdyne, a subsidiary of Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AJRD), has signed a contract with Boeing valued at nearly $200 million that supports a new era of spaceflight - one that will carry humans to the International Space Station (ISS) from American soil once again. Under its Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) subcontract to Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne is completing the design, development, qualification, certification and initial production of the Crew Space Transportation (CST)-100 "Starliner" service module propulsion system.
A CST-100 Starliner partner and team member since 2010, Aerojet Rocketdyne's work continues the development of the service module and launch abort propulsion system from prior commercial crew contracts with Boeing.
" Aerojet Rocketdyne is leveraging adaptations of proven hardware and technologies to deliver an affordable reliable propulsion system that can be counted on to perform throughout the spacecraft's mission and ensure the safety of the astronauts and success of the mission," said Terry Lorier, Aerojet Rocketdyne's CST-100 service module propulsion system program manager. "We are honored to play a critical role in continuing our nation's legacy in human-rated spaceflight, as well as helping to revolutionize how our great country accesses and explores space."
Under the CCtCap contract, Aerojet Rocketdyne will provide seven shipsets of hardware with options for additional shipsets. Each production hardware shipset will include four Launch Abort Engines (LAEs), 24 Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) engines, 28 Reaction Control System (RCS) engines, 164 valves, 12 tanks and more than 500 feet of ducts, lines and tubing. Boeing will assemble hardware kits into the service module section of the CST-100 spacecraft at its Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Aerojet Rocketdyne also provides hardware supporting the Qualification Test Vehicle; Service Module hot fire testing, which will take place at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico ; the orbital flight test, which will be launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida ; and Pad Abort testing, which will occur at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The CST-100 is scheduled to deliver astronauts to the ISS for NASA, beginning in 2017.
The Starliner service module propulsion system provides integrated launch abort capability on the pad and during ascent, along with all propulsion needs during a nominal flight - from launch vehicle separation, docking and undocking from the ISS, and through separation of the crew and service modules when the spacecraft begins to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. During re-entry, the crew module propulsion is then provided by monopropellant thrusters from Aerojet Rocketdyne manufactured at its facility in Redmond, Washington.
The Starliner abort propulsion system is designed to quickly "push" a crew capsule toward safety if an abort is necessary. If unused for an abort, the propellant is then used to complete the spacecraft's nominal mission. The Starliner service module propulsion system includes 40,000-pound thrust launch abort engines used only in an abort; 1,500-pound thrust class OMAC engines that provide low-altitude launch abort attitude control; maneuvering and stage-separation functions; high-altitude direct abort capability and large orbital maneuvers; and 28 100-pound thrust class RCS engines that provide high-altitude abort attitude control, on-orbit low delta-v maneuvering function and space station re-boost capability.
Aerojet Rocketdyne is an innovative company delivering solutions that create value for its customers in the aerospace and defense markets. The company is a world-recognized aerospace and defense leader that provides propulsion and energetics to the space, missile defense and strategic systems, tactical systems and armaments areas, in support of domestic and international markets. Additional information about Aerojet Rocketdyne can be obtained by visiting our websites at www.Rocket.com and www.AerojetRocketdyne.com.
CONTACT: Glenn Mahone, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 202-302-9941 Glenn.Mahone@Rocket.com Lynn Machon, Aerojet Rocketdyne, 916-355-3587 Lynn.Machon@Rocket.com
Aerojet Rocketdyne
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WASHINGTON – The outgoing leader of the Internal Revenue Service drew audible “wows” from Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday for saying he doesn’t think what the agency did to tea party groups was illegal.
“It is absolutely not illegal,” Steve Miller, the acting commissioner of the IRS who resigned this week because of the scandal, said while being questioned by Georgia Rep. Tom Price.
A number of legislators let out bursts of “wow” at his answer.
Here’s their exchange:
Price: Is it illegal what they’ve done?
Miller: It is absolutely not illegal.
Price: It is not illegal what the IRS has done?
Miller: So let me understand the question. What is your statement as to what is illegal?
Price: Do you believe that it is illegal for employees of the IRS to create lists, to target individual groups and citizens in this country?
Miller: I think the [Department of] Treasury inspector general indicated it might not be, but others will be able to tell that.
Price: What do you believe?
Miller: I don’t believe it is. I don’t believe it should happen.
Price: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Miller: Please don’t get me wrong. It should not happen.
Grae Stafford contributed to this report.
Follow Alex on TwitterA ModBook Pro is exactly what it sounds like—a 13-inch MacBook Pro, but modified by a third-party company to be used as a Mac tablet.
"A Mac tablet? Isn't that an iPad?" That's the universal question I received when telling anyone about this review. When compared against the product's original launch in 2008, the ModBook Pro certainly has some new challenges when it comes to finding its niche in the "tablet" market. Back then, the idea of a tablet was something like the ModBook Pro—a full-blown computer whose screen was flipped around and could be used as a flat device, usually with a stylus. Nowadays, "tablet" usually refers to a product that's more slimmed down with some version of a mobile operating system—an iPad, or a Galaxy Tab, or a Surface.
2012 ModBook Pro (Ars review) Screen 1280×800 CPU 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost 3.6GHz) RAM 8GB DDR3 GPU Integrated Intel HD4000 Storage 240GB ModBook Pro Sanshara-class SATA 3 solid-state drive 3 Networking 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, Ethernet Ports USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, FireWire, SD card, MagSafe Size 0.98" x 13.86" x 9.65" Weight 5.4 pounds Battery 63.5 Whr Starting price $3,499 Price as reviewed $4,189 Other perks Custom Wacom digitizer with 1,048 levels of pressure, 133 points/second recognition rate
On one hand, that kind of new competition is bad for the ModBook Pro. On a pricing level, an iPad or Surface is several magnitudes less costly than the $3,499 ModBook Pro. Not to mention, they're lighter, easier to carry around, and arguably more intuitive to use for the average consumer. On the other hand, the shift in the general definition of "tablet computer" has put the ModBook in a good position. It's the only tablet-like device out there that runs on real MacBook Pro hardware with a full version of OS X.
That's the way the ModBook Pro's creator, Andreas Haas, sees it too. In an interview with Ars in June of 2012—right when he relaunched his product from a new company—Haas explained that the iPad actually helps the ModBook Pro by breeding users who want to do more on their tablets than the iPad allows.
"I'm looking at all these tablets out there, like the iPad, and seeing the seeds of a future Modbook Pro user," Haas said at the time. "Almost everyone has an iPad or iPhone. I wouldn't want to live without it. But as a company, we are looking at a very distinct niche. The creative industry does not have a product that meets their need to draw on a real computer's screen and have it be portable. It's just not out there."
Indeed, if you fit into the demographic that Haas is targeting, the ModBook Pro is pretty much your only option—at least if you want to use OS X. (Like all modern Mac hardware, the ModBook Pro can also run Windows under Boot Camp.) But do you fit that demographic?
This review focuses on the user experience of the new ModBook Pro in hopes of helping you decide whether it's right for you. The hardware specs won't play a major role in this review, not because it's not important, but because the hardware largely matches Apple's mid-2012 (non-retina) MacBook Pro specs. At nearly a year old, we think that hardware has had plenty of discussion already.
So without further ado, here's our look at the 2012-2013 version of the ModBook Pro (pimped out version):
ModBook Pro: Outside and in
The ModBook Pro is packed similarly to a MacBook Pro. But unlike the 2008 ModBook, the 2012-2013 version doesn't exactly look like a MacBook Pro. The new version of the Mac tablet comes in a black brushed metal casing, with its SuperDrive on the right side of the screen and ports on the left:
The ports on the left include everything that comes standard with a current MacBook Pro: a MagSafe power adapter, Ethernet, FireWire, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, an SD card slot, and audio out. There are also two buttons on the side: a power button and a "Mod Key," button, which is meant to help calibrate the stylus once you take your ModBook out of the box.
The ModBook's stylus is stored in a little enclave built into the top of the casing. Unlike the rest of the ModBook Pro, the stylus is white. (And we appreciate this—it makes it harder to hide or lose.) Unlike the MacBook Pro, the ModBook's sleep pulse light rests on the front just underneath the display.
But the main thought that crosses your mind upon holding a ModBook Pro is "this thing is heavy." At 5.4 pounds, the ModBook Pro—which, again, is made from a modified 13-inch MacBook Pro—is about a full pound heavier than a non-retina 13-inch MacBook Pro (4.5 pounds). In fact, it's roughly the same weight as a non-retina 15-inch MacBook Pro (5.6 pounds). Relatively speaking, the ModBook Pro is a brick when the weight-to-size ratio is concerned. It's important to note, though, that it weighs roughly the same as the 2008 version of the ModBook Pro. (Coincidentally, I also described that as a "brick.")
The mere idea of carrying it around in a bag on a regular basis sends shivers down my spine. (This is coming from a MacBook Air user, so you may want to take my horror with a grain of salt.) But honestly, it's the one major turn-off with the design of the current ModBook Pro. Wouldn't creative professionals using a tool like this mostly avoid carrying it around if they could help it?
One more thing to note about the ModBook Pro's design: unlike the MacBook Pro, there is no FaceTime camera above the screen. (The 2008 version of the ModBook Pro kept the camera, but the company apparently decided to ditch it this time around.) I don't see this being much of a problem for users looking at this product, but it's worth noting in case you do a lot of video chatting and don't want to use too many different devices.As Moms everywhere out there know, sleep is precious. When your little one is soundly sleeping, your day and night transforms into the opportunity to catch up on work, with family, tidying up, or some R&R for you. In order to help your baby sleep better, here are Mommy’s Bliss recommended Ten Steps to Help Your Baby Sleep Better. Follow these quick tips to help create a bedtime routine, help your baby sleep through the night and continue with a good sleeping schedule. Be sure to share your very own tip that helped your baby sleep soundly.
Step #1:
Find the Drowsy Sweet Spot
Put your baby into the crib in that magically drowsy state that’s somewhere between fully asleep and awake-and-screaming. Babies in the sweet spot will pacify themselves and fall asleep in the crib on their own without creating associations with sleep time that are difficult to break.
Step #2:
Set a Pattern
“Babies become more aware of their surroundings after about 3 months,” says Aliza Pressman, PhD. She recommends setting a pattern for them to ideally sleep at the same time and in the same place every day and every night.
Step #3:
Sleep Cozy
Babies who feel safe always sleep better. If your child is enclosed in a bassinet, the coziness helps sleep to come more quickly. If your infant is having trouble sleeping, move the bassinet into your bedroom for a time to raise your baby’s feeling of safety.
Step #4:
Regulate the Light
Babies’ bodies are sensitive to light in the daytime and darkness at nighttime to coordinate with their body clocks. Use dimmer switches to regulate the lights in your home. Turn them a little lower after sunset and make the lights brighter during the daytime to help regulate your child’s circadian rhythm.
Step #5
Bright Light at Wake Time
Use the bright morning light to help your child become alert when it’s time to awaken. Walk over to the window or walk outside to stimulate your child’s body clock.
Step #6
Climate Control
The ideal comfort temperature for babies to sleep soundly is between 65 and 70 degrees F. The room should be a little cooler at nighttime and a bit warmer in daytime.
Step #7
Avoid Eye Contact at Night
When you’re up feeding your baby in the wee hours of the morning, avoid eye contact. Locking your gaze with your child’s eyes causes a rise in blood pressure and an increased heart rate. This makes your baby more awake and less likely to go back to sleep.
Step #8
Bedtime Message
“Babies fall asleep faster and sleep longer after a 15-minute pre-bedtime massages,” says Dr. Pressman. It also reduces colic and improves growth and muscle tone. Use a baby massage cream to soothe the skin and try slow, soothing strokes with a slightly moderate pressure.
Step #9
Rhythmic Noise
When your infant was in the womb, the rhythmic noise was loud and constant. Babies respond well to soft sounds of nature CDs and white noise that simulate this rhythmic din.
Step #10
Swing
Infants who have trouble soothing themselves usually respond well to a swing. Use a mechanical swing with a reclining position to lull your baby to sleep.Consumer Affairs Victoria has commenced legal proceedings against founder of recipe and lifestyle app The Whole Pantry
Belle Gibson, the wellness blogger who reportedly faked brain cancer to her hundreds of thousands of followers, is facing legal action in Australia over “deceptive conduct” after an investigation by a consumer watchdog.
Gibson, who lives in Melbourne, launched a recipe and lifestyle app, The Whole Pantry, on the back of her claim that she had been able to cure her terminal illness through diet and lifestyle changes. She also published a book of recipes by Penguin.
In March last year doubts were cast on her cancer diagnosis in 1999 at the age of 20 after it emerged that she had been born in October 1991.
Belle Gibson's book publisher never verified cancer survivor's health claims Read more
Questions were also raised about thousands of dollars in charity donations promised by Gibson off the back of funds raised through the book and app. The Whole Pantry admitted in March it had “cashflow problems” and that the donations had never been made.
Her career unravelled quickly and publicly, with a spokesperson for Penguin admitting the book had been “published in good faith” and Gibson’s claims had not been fact-checked.
Consumer Affairs Victoria confirmed on Friday afternoon that it was commencing legal proceedings against her for “misleading and deceptive conduct”. It is also preparing to take legal action against her company, Inkerman Road Nominees Pty Ltd (formerly known as Belle Gibson Pty Ltd), of which she is the sole director.
The action comes after an in-depth investigation into Gibson’s alleged breaches of federal and state consumer law, wrapping in both her diagnosis with terminal brain cancer, her rejection of conventional cancer treatments, and the charitable donation of proceeds.
As Inkerman Road Nominees Pty Ltd is in liquidation, owing almost $140,000, including an $83,500 tax bill, Consumer Affairs Victoria’s director, Simon Cohen, has applied to the federal court for leave to commence proceedings against the company.
Belle Gibson on 60 Minutes: no remorse and the lies kept coming Read more
If leave is granted, Cohen will start proceedings against both Gibson and her company. Pecuniary penalties total up to $1.1m for companies and $220,000 for individuals.
In a separate action, Penguin Publishing will have to pay the Victorian consumer law fund $30,000 for failing to fact-check Gibson’s book.
It will also have to include a “prominent warning notice” on all books that contain claims about natural therapies in future, as well as “enhance its compliance, education and training program” with a view to ensuring that claims about medical conditions are substantiated.
Cohen said the publisher had willingly cooperated with the investigation and agreed to the enforceable undertaking.
“This is an important step in ensuring that consumers receive only verified information and are not deceived, particularly where serious matters of health and medical treatment are concerned.”
Penguin has been asked for comment.
After the extent of Gibson’s deception was made public, Penguin pulled The Whole Pantry from circulation in Australia, and its US publisher scrapped its April launch.
Apple had worked closely with Gibson on The Whole Pantry app, one of the first to be made available on Apple Watch, even paying for her to fly to the United States.
But the app was later pulled from Apple’s Australian and US app stores.
In April Gibson told the Australian Women’s Weekly: “None of it’s true.
“I don’t want forgiveness. I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing to do. Above anything, I would like people to say, ‘OK, she’s human.’ ”
Women’s Weekly reported that Gibson said she was “pass |
to get cigarettes from the gas station after the pair argued and that when he returned he found his wife dead with a gunshot wound to the head.
“(O’Brien) said that he and (Huerta Lopez) were in a verbal argument because (Huerta Lopez) believed that (O’Brien) was having a sexual relationship with (redacted),” Perry wrote, adding later that O’Brien told him “she believed he has been cheating on her.”
The person whose name is blacked out in the report is unknown. Guap previously told Bay Area News Group she did not start a relationship with O’Brien until after his wife’s death, in February 2015. She turned 18 in August, a month before O’Brien’s suicide.
Perry found Huerta Lopez’s body in the bedroom and noted there did not appear to be a struggle. He reported finding a “female’s wedding ring,” on a white napkin on the coffee table in the living room. Another plain band ring was found on the bedroom dresser.
A forensic technician noted “there were several neat piles of papers on the top of the table including a marriage certificate, and envelope marked “Do Not Open,” and her car registration. An officer found a large amount of clothing in the trunk of Huerta Lopez’s car.
Another officer interviewed a neighbor who had seen O’Brien in the doorway while he was waiting for police to arrive. The neighbor asked O’Brien how he was doing and he replied “not good … my girlfriend shot herself.” He told the neighbor she had used his gun, he was impatient about police not arriving yet, and he appeared to be “in shock and distraught,” according to the reports.
Another neighbor told officers the couple had been married “about two months,” but had not heard them argue in the past.
O’Brien told them it was not his department-issued gun.
Gunshot residue
Forensic pathologist William Cox reviewed the coroner’s report, crime reports, gunshot residue results and other documents involved in the case at the request of Bay Area News Group. Both O’Brien and Huerta Lopez had gunshot residue detected on their hands, which is possible since O’Brien handled guns frequently as an officer.
However, Cox expressed concerns that Oakland police and the crime lab it used did not conduct complete tests.
A one-page gunshot residue report from the Santa Clara County Crime Laboratory indicated swabs had been taken from both hands of O’Brien and Huerta Lopez and analyzed using proper equipment, Cox said.
The lab sent a summary to Oakland police: “Particles containing lead, antimony, and barium were detected on the hand samples from Brendan O’Brien and Irma Huerta and are considered characteristic of gunshot residue.”
The lab continues to say such residue could mean the subject(s) may have shot or been in proximity of a gun, handled a gun, or been in contact with a surface bearing gunshot residue.
“As done, the (gunshot residue) analysis by the Lab makes no contribution toward whether Lopez shot herself or was shot by O’Brien. It has no evidentiary value,” Cox said.
Although Cox said that “the blood splatter distribution on Lopez’s hands suggests she shot herself,” he said swabs should have been made on four surfaces of each hand, showing the distribution of the three chemicals present in gunshot residue. A particle count on each surface would provide a clear answer as to who did the shooting.
“What would have completely resolved this case, and underscored the Forensic Pathologist’s findings, was a properly done GSR analysis,” he said.
It’s not known if more testing was done. Oakland police did not respond to requests for comment.
O’Brien’s suicide
The short four-page crime report from O’Brien’s Sept. 25, 2015 suicide provided scant new information.
The suicide note which sparked the scandal was found sitting on the edge of a coffee table near his body, a semi-automatic pistol in his right hand.
Investigators found two empty Guinness beer cans in the sink and a prescription bottle of sleeping pills nearby with two remaining.
His police duty belt was seized.
Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni. Contact David DeBolt at 510-208-6453. Follow him at Twitter.com/daviddebolt.Myer is no longer just the home of pots and pans, or even designer threads. From Friday, visitors to its Melbourne CBD store will be able to buy a car from the retailer.
To coincide with its winter fashion launch on Thursday, Myer is announcing a collaboration with electric car maker Tesla, which is launching a mini-showroom at the department store.
The Tesla Model X will be available at Myer Melbourne from Friday. Credit:Josh Robenston
To begin, one car – the newly-released Model X – will be on display on the sixth floor of the Myer store. There are plans to expand the initiative to other stores and states.
Priced at $115,000, the Tesla will easily eclipse the most expensive thing currently on sale at Myer. It's all part of the retail giant's push to bring in new and innovative brands to the shop floor.Israel
Netanyahu: The Mouth that Roarsby Stephen LendmanHis bluster long ago wore thin. Iranian/Israeli/Middle East analyst Meir Javedanfar said he put himself up a tree and wants Obama to bring him down. "It's come down to threats, threats, threats, but we are at a saturation point."Growing numbers of Israelis reject him for good reason. He menaces them like others. Attacking Iran assures retaliation most Israelis fear. It'll mean widespread destruction, radiation contamination, and large numbers killed or injured.Gush Shalom founder Uri Avnery asked if he and Barak are mad or crazy? Netanyahu "may be crazy, but he is not mad. (Barak) may be mad, but he is not crazy."They're an incendiary duo, but won't attack Iran. Avnery quoted the film line: "If you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." He calls Netanyahu/Barak "beyond rational thinking."Israeli political analyst Yossi Alpher called Netanyahu's antics "overkill. The US establishment is fed up with him. The Israeli public is fed up with him." He created a "public controversy" and doesn't know how to get out of it.His vow to go it alone is bluster, not bite. Instead of calming things down, inflammatory comments follow earlier ones. On August 2, the Jerusalem Post headlined "Winograd: Striking Iran may endanger Israel's future," saying:Former Supreme Court Justice Eliyahu Winograd opposes attacking Iran for good reason. In 2006, he headed the Committee of Inquiry on why Israel's Lebanon war failed. He said:"I am not convinced that the decision-makers will implement the findings of that report. If that is the case, we are all in big trouble."He denounced Netanyahu/Barak hawkishness on Iran despite strong opposition by senior Israeli past and current officials."All the heads of the defense establishment, the Shin Bet, the Mossad, both former and current, and military intelligence, everyone is saying 'Don't attack!' ""(O)nly Barak and Netanyahu have decided yes," or have they? Bluster often hides intentions. Bullies usually back down when confronted.Winograd's committee called Israel's Lebanon war a failure. Political leaders didn't sufficiently consult with military officials before attacking. They left before they looked.Home Front preparedness was also inadequate. Little attention was given then and again now. A "rain of missiles" may follow attacking Iran. Israel is woefully unprepared. How many Israelis will die for Netanyahu/Barak's folly? Why should any when peace avoids bloodshed.How much longer will they put up with their bluster? Winograd criticized Netanyahu for complaining about former officials expressing views publicly. He's more vocal than anyone."You intend to act. Sit down and shut up. Decide secretly if you're attacking, and if you decide to attack, attack. But what are you talking for? So that the Iranians will be even more prepared and ready their missiles to target us?""You are going to endanger our entire country, everything we have built. Both the country physically and the economy."Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz echoed his comments, saying:"Israel cannot act alone to prevent the Iranian nuclear program at this time. Such action might bring us into a very difficult war."Days earlier, Mofaz called Netanyahu "confused, stressed out and unfocused. (He) lost the trust of the security chiefs," Obama and Shimon Peres. Former Mossad head Efraim Halevy fears a generation of war if Israel attacks Iran."We have to take into account the possibility that if we attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, there will no longer be a political horizon in regard to Iran or sanctions against Iran.""We have to deploy for the possibility that while the immediate result of the operation will be Israel’s glorification in the Sunni Arab world, the later result will be a sharp anti-Israeli public wave in the spirit of the Arab Spring.""We need to understand that after the attack, a deep Israeli complex will develop in Iran, one that crosses parties and opinions and communities, because we will become the symbol of those that humiliated Iran and prevented it from restoring its greatness.""We need to remember that we are very much dependent on the United States and not utter boastful slogans that we are sovereign and therefore will take our fate into our hands."Weeks ago, former Mossad head Meir Dagan said Israel faces no existential threat. He criticized inflammatory warmongering and urged changing Israeli's system."(W)e need a prime minister," he said," who will not be subject to political pressures when deciding on such issues as an attack on Iran or a peace agreement.""The State of Israel is at a critical point in time of great challenges both foreign and domestic. Minority groups are controlling the state and the majority is not being heard."Former Military Intelligence head Major General (ret.) Uri Saguy also believes Netanyahu/Barak are heading Israel over a cliff. He expressed outrage over their dangerous warmongering. He called it "orchestrated and purposely timed hysteria that puts the country into a state of anxiety, artificial or not."His bottom line is that Netanyahu/Barak can't be trusted. How can they be by putting Israelis and others in danger. IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz and Mossad head Tamir Pardo also oppose war.So do Air Force head Amir Eshel, Military Intelligence chief Aviv Kochavi, Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen, and other top Israeli officials. Netanyahu/Barak are increasingly isolated.On September 4, Haaretz headlined "In the Iranian poker game, Netanyahu and Barak have overplayed their hand," saying:The Israeli Hayom daily has close ties to Netanyahu. In recent weeks, it's featured a barrage of worrying reports on Iran's alleged nuclear progress and Washington's failure to halt it.In the last few days, something changed. On August 31, it highlighted Joint Chiefs Chairman General Martin Dempsey's comments about America's unwillingness to be complicit if Israel goes it alone.The strategically timed IAEA report got second billing. On September 1, Iran got back page coverage. On September 3, it again made headlines, "but only in the form of Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz's vague statement that the IDF can act 'anywhere, anytime.' "In other words, the daily out in front echoing inflammatory Netanyahu comments now backed off. "Does this indicate that (he's) seeking a ladder to climb down from" his perch high up in a tree and very much out on a limb?Perhaps he overplayed his hand. Crying wolf enough times begins falling on deaf ears. Growing Netanyahu/Barak public disapproval also matters. So does disagreement with Washington. It's over timing, not policy.Key is that Netanyahu/Barak talk is bluster. Without Washington's support, attacking Iran won't happen. Haaretz thinks inflammatory Israeli comments damaged US/Israeli relations. Perhaps eventually but not now.Key is what major media reports don't say. Their common theme is suppressing truth and full disclosure. On Iran, Haaretz is no different. The Islamic Republic poses no Israeli or regional threat. Its nuclear program is peaceful.Top world leaders know it. Over 100 NAM countries support it. They oppose US/Israeli warmongering. Their agenda is peace, not conflict. They respect national sovereignty inviolability.They know international law prohibits interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. It's also unequivocal against attacking another one except in self-defense.These issues are ignored in America's media, what's seen and read across Europe, and what Israeli broadcast and print media report. They're key above all others. Failure to discuss them advances the ball for war.Doing so is reckless, irresponsible, and complicit. It puts culpable journalists in the same category as propagandists. Blood will be on their hands if it's shed.Apologies won't be forthcoming for being on the wrong side of rule of law principles, support for what should be condemned, and failure to do what good journalists should - their job.A Final CommentOn September 4, Israeli intelligence officials briefed Netanyahu and security cabinet members. They do it annually or when special occasions arise.They focused on Iran, Syria, Egypt, and US/Israeli relations. The meeting was closed. Ministerial aides and advisors weren't invited. Military intelligence, Mossad and Shin Bet participated. So did Foreign Ministry representatives.A follow-up meeting is likely. Hopefully opposition to inflammatory rhetoric was stressed. Honest talk about no existential threat needs highlighting and repetition. Truth needs to be separated from what's not. Above all, avoiding potentially catastrophic war is vital.French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is no peacenik. He's hardline for direct Western intervention against Syria. His no-fly zone/safe haven advocacy means war if either or both are instituted.At the same time, he warns about attacking Iran. "I think that if there were an Israeli attack, unfortunately it could come back to haunt Israel," he said."I am absolutely opposed to the idea that Iran would gain nuclear weapons," he said, "but I think if there was an Israeli attack," Tehran will be victimized and gain legitimacy.Britain's defense establishment Royal United Services Institute director Michael Clarke says there's "no basis in international law for preventative, rather than preemptive, war."There's no basis for either except when clear evidence shows foreign forces mobilized for attack.Israeli borders aren't threatened. Iran supports peace, not war. Its nuclear program is legal and non-military. It fully complies with NPT provisions.Those issues deserve daily headlines. Don't expect warmongering media to feature them.Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.Midway through my opening address for the Brisbane Writers Festival earlier this month, Yassmin Abdel-Magied, a Sudanese-born Australian engineer and 25-year-old memoirist, walked out. Her indignant comments about the event might have sunk into obscurity, along with my speech, had they not been republished by The Guardian. Twenty minutes in, this audience member apparently turned to her mother: “ ‘Mama, I can’t sit here,’ I said, the corners of my mouth dragging downwards. ‘I cannot legitimize this.’ ” She continued: “The faces around me blurred. As my heels thudded against the grey plastic of the flooring, harmonizing with the beat of the adrenaline pumping through my veins, my mind was blank save for one question. ‘How is this happening?’ ”
I’m asking the same thing.
Briefly, my address maintained that fiction writers should be allowed to write fiction — thus should not let concerns about “cultural appropriation” constrain our creation of characters from different backgrounds than our own. I defended fiction as a vital vehicle for empathy. If we have permission to write only about our own personal experience, there is no fiction, but only memoir. Honestly, my thesis seemed so self-evident that I’d worried the speech would be bland.
Nope — not in the topsy-turvy universe of identity politics. The festival immediately disavowed the address, though the organizers had approved the thrust of the talk in advance. A “Right of Reply” session was hastily organized. When, days later, The Guardian ran the speech, social media went ballistic. Mainstream articles followed suit. I plan on printing out The New Republic’s “Lionel Shriver Shouldn’t Write About Minorities” and taping it above my desk as a chiding reminder.
Viewing the world and the self through the prism of advantaged and disadvantaged groups, the identity-politics movement — in which behavior like huffing out of speeches and stirring up online mobs is par for the course — is an assertion of generational power. Among millennials and those coming of age behind them, the race is on to see who can be more righteous and aggrieved — who can replace the boring old civil rights generation with a spikier brand.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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It is clear from Standard & Poor’s statement downgrading the federal government’s credit rating that it places the blame squarely on Republican actions and policies. Two of S&P’s biggest concerns about whether the United States will pay off its debt are whether Republicans will be so insane as to refuse to lift the debt ceiling, a possibility Republicans intentionally stoked fears of, and whether the United States will raise much-needed tax revenue. Specifically, S&P changed its baseline assumption that the Bush tax cuts would expire on schedule in 2012 because Republicans are so insistent that they must be renewed. “We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” wrote S&P. That adds $4 trillion over ten years to the projected deficits. Ad Policy
So, how are Republican presidential candidates responding? By blaming President Obama, instead of their co-partisans in Congress who are actually responsible. “America’s creditworthiness just became the latest casualty in President Obama’s failed record of leadership on the economy,” said front-runner Mitt Romney in a statement. “His failed policies have led to high unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, and now, the unprecedented loss of our nation’s prized AAA credit rating.” Apparently, Romney knows better than S&P itself why it downgraded our credit rating, and it has nothing to do with lost revenue due to Republican tax cuts, or Republican threats not to pay our debts (a fairly straightforward threat to our creditworthiness if ever there was one.) No, it’s just because of our economic performance, which Romney seems to think is determined entirely by the actions of the president and is in no way beyond his control.
Nominal moderate Jon Huntsman was less partisan and more accurate in his apportioning of blame to Washington as a whole. “Out-of-control spending and a lack of leadership in Washington have resulted in President Obama presiding over the first downgrade of the United States credit rating in our history,” said Huntsman’s statement. “For far too long we have let reckless government spending go unchecked and the cancerous debt afflicting our nation has spread.” That’s perfectly in keeping with Huntsman’s strategy of positioning himself above the partisan fray as Obama and John McCain both did during the primaries last time. Of course, the spending decisions that have brought this on—invading and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, enacting Medicare Part D, increasing defense and security spending after September 11, 2001—were all initiatives of the Bush administration and his Republican servants in Congress. Huntsman neglects to mention that and instead passively criticizes Obama—but not House Speaker John Boehner—for “presiding over” the downgrade.
Michele Bachmann—who as a member of Congress who refused to vote for a debt ceiling increase is one of the people most responsible for the downgrade—issued a particularly dour statement. “President Obama is destroying the foundations of the US economy one beam at a time,” said Bachmann.
Meanwhile Tim Pawlenty, speaking in Grinnell, Iowa, went on a baffling, nonsensical riff that twisted into knots trying to tie the downgrade to generic conservative talking points. “What he [President Obama] doesn’t understand is all this talk of the full faith and credit in the United States government, he needs to stop being reminded,” explained Pawlenty. “We need to have a president who understands what it means to put our full faith and credit in the American people. His vision for America is to take things out of the private sector and to put it into the government.” You can’t argue with that, can you?
Lost amid the finger-pointing is any review of how the downgrade could have been averted. But, of course, if you’re a Republican you probably don’t want to dwell too much on that question, because the ways we could have done so would come into conflict with Republicans’ obsessive subservience to the myopic interests of a few wealthy men like the Koch brothers and their fanatic supporters like Grover Norquist. Namely, we could have raised tax revenue. Note that I don’t say raising taxes, because we would not have to actually raise marginal rates. Merely allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on schedule would have done the trick. So would closing tax loopholes while actually lowering rates, had they passed the president’s bipartisan deficit reduction committee’s recommendations, or agreeing to Obama’s $4 trillion debt reduction proposal.
If you want to take a longer view of how the US debt reached this height, Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly made a timeline illustrating how it is almost entirely the Republicans’ fault. But the long view is not of any interest to the modern Republican Party.Bored... And Brilliant? A Challenge To Disconnect From Your Phone
Enlarge this image Illustration by John Hersey/Courtesy of WNYC Illustration by John Hersey/Courtesy of WNYC
Updated Feb. 2, 2015: The challenge officially starts today. To help you put down the phone, WNYC has made a list of 18 places you can survive without it, social media away messages and compiled a bored (but not boring) reading list, among others. We'll be back next week for a debrief on the experiment — stay tuned.
Hey smartphone owners — when was the last time you were truly bored? Or even had a moment for mental downtime, unattached to a device?
Many of us reflexively grab our phones at the first hint of boredom throughout the day. And indeed a recent study by the research group Flurry found that mobile consumers now spend an average of 2 hours and 57 minutes each day on mobile devices.
Are we packing our minds too full? What might we be losing out on by texting, tweeting and email-checking those moments away?
Manoush Zomorodi, host of the WNYC podcast New Tech City, is digging into that question. She talked with NPR's Audie Cornish about a project the podcast is launching called Bored and Brilliant: The Lost Art Of Spacing Out.
"I kind of realized that I have not been bored since I got a smartphone seven years ago," Zomorodi says.
So the team at New Tech City is asking people to measure their smartphone use with an app called Moment (which we've profiled before — it counts how often you unlock your device and the minutes you spend using it) and then take some conscious steps to limit their digital interactions.
Zomorodi has already used Moment and says she averages 50-100 phone check-ins per day, quite a few of which were devoted to playing a game called TwoDots. (By the way, Zomorodi confirmed with a neuroscientist that playing the game does make you better... at the game, and not much else.)
Studies suggest that we get our most original ideas when we stop the constant stimulation and let ourselves get bored, Zomorodi says. She points to a study by a U.K. psychologist, Sandi Mann, who asked subjects to do something really boring and then try a creative task.
"And the participants came up with their most novel ideas when they did the most boring task of all — which was reading the phone book," Zomorodi says. "And in fact [Mann] is on a mission to bring back boredom."
She talked to Mann, who said that when we're bored, we're searching for something to stimulate us.
"We might go off in our heads to try and find that stimulation by our minds wandering, daydreaming and you start thinking a little bit beyond the conscious, a little bit in the subconscious which allows sort of different connections to take place," Mann said.
Zomorodi says studies also show that smartphones impinge on our ability to do "autobiographical planning" or goal setting, which may keep us even more stuck in a rut.
And that's where the Bored and Brilliant project comes in. The challenge will take place the first week of February, but you can sign up now. After tracking your usage, New Tech City will collect stories and provide tips for keeping your phone at bay. We'll check back in with Zomorodi — and you — next month to see how it goes.
(As an experiment, Zomorodi and her producers filmed people walking down the street in New York City and counted the number engaged with a phone in some way. You can watch their video below.)Can a mobile app make you see like a star point guard?
No app can teach basketball. But a new app launched Thursday, Game Vision by Chris Paul, says it can help anyone from pilots to drivers and athletes see images better and process them faster, in just 10 minutes of daily play.
Clippers star Chris Paul had used technology to try to eat better, get stronger and faster. But it wasn’t until the NBA lockout in 2011 that Paul and other NBA players decided to test their eyes alongside their agility and balance. A point guard his entire life, Paul hadn’t stopped to think why he noticed a player cutting to the basket faster than others might. It seemed a combination of reflexes and instinct, more a gift than a measurable skill. “It’s something we all take for granted,” Paul says. “You think this guy has quicker hands, that he has a knack for it.”
So when Paul heard a presentation by an Israeli company that had developed an app that could help Israeli Air Force pilots see better and react faster, he was immediately intrigued. Paul’s invested and put his name behind a few mobile apps before, but he was mindful of not supporting a scam.
Nimrod Madar, CEO of Innovision Labs, was confident he had real technology to make Paul—and any athlete—process what they see faster. His company recognized vision is determined by two main things, the quality of the image captured by the eye, and how fast a person processes that image when it’s relayed to the brain. “A lot of companies had focused on the first part,” Madar says. Three studies Madar’s team had conducted in the past several years convinced him his company could do both. Innovision was able to help not just the pilots, but also a group of students in Germany with 20/20 vision and a professional baseball team in the United States. In the meeting room with his team, Paul, a self-described “big-time gamer,” was impressed. “I wanted to get involved.”
The result is an app thoroughly tested by Paul and bestowed with his name, Game Vision by Chris Paul. Garish at first glance, the app for iOS and Android could be mistaken for a more budget matching-type game that might get some downloads and then quickly disappear from the app store. But judging it entirely on the look of its gameplay could sell Game Vision short. What sets it apart, its creators say, is the data the app tracks and reports. Game Vision can quickly pick up on the strengths and weaknesses of its users and adapt the game accordingly.
Those personalized adjustments in training set it apart from a crowded field of more “gimmick apps,” says Derek Cunningham, director of optometry and research at Dell Laser Consultants in Austin, Texas. A consultant to top athletes on their vision for years, Cunningham recently tested a stripped-down version of Game Vision with the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers baseball team. All but one player said the game felt it slowed down and they could see the baseball better, says Cunningham. Three sessions of 10 minutes per week was enough to see results, which peaked after three months. Then athletes only needed one or two sessions per month to maintain their improvements, says Cunningham, who plans to present the data from the study in June at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine and at a meeting of the National Athletic Trainers Association, then at the American Academy of Optometry’s annual meeting in November.
Game Vision’s test results with top baseball players were a surprise because such athletes are already considered at the uppermost limit of visual acuity. But the team behind Game Vision says the results can help the weekend warrior athlete or non-athletes, too. Paul plays the game at home with his young son as well as his father, a basketball player turned golfer.
In a win on Monday, Paul threw a no-look pass to teammate Wesley Johnson for an open shot; a few plays later, he scrambled to the basket and was quickly swarmed by players from the opposing Brooklyn Nets. Out of the corner of his eye, Paul picked up three-point shooter J.J. Redick in the corner of the court and whipped a pass that grazed off a defender’s arm before Redick nailed the shot. On that second play, the improvised one, Paul says he was lucky to have as helpful vision as possible.
“You definitely need to be able to tell who is on your team,” Paul jokes. “Some situations you run the play and the guy is just supposed to be there. In the scramble and on the rebound, you need to see him.”
As an eleven-year veteran in the league, Paul’s also building his future as a businessman, too. He demurs when FORBES asks if the improved vision might be a hindrance to have to see the Clippers’ controversial new mascot, Chuck the Condor, better. “Just another something for the fans to get behind,” he says.
Like other athletes and celebrities, Paul sees collaborating with the tech world as a long-term area for business opportunities. “I think of myself as a techie,” Paul says, though he gets help in finding the best bets from a team including his agency and his brother.
Does that mean Cliff Paul’s in the app game, FORBES asks? “Not Cliff,” Paul says with a laugh. “Cliff is on vacation right now.”That’s one way to wrap up a case — a man went berserk in Manhattan, so cops zipped him head-to-toe in a body bag, bizarre video footage reveals.
Five cops bound the apparently violent man by his wrists and ankles — and wrapped him like a burrito in a blue NYPD bag — before hauling him away, according to the footage uploaded on YouTube Thursday.
The video doesn’t show what prompted cops to stuff him in the sack — and the NYPD refused to release any details.
But stunned pedestrians stopped to stare at the man in the bag — which cops later said is used to keep emotionally disturbed people from hurting themselves or others — near 14th Street and Eighth Avenue.
“This is the craziest s–t I’ve ever seen done to somebody in my whole f–king life. Holy s–t. What do you call that thing?” the person taking the video is heard saying.
“Never in my life have I seen anything like this. What the f–k is wrong with you people? There’s a man in that bag like an animal,” he said, slamming cops for the “cruel” capture.
He adds, “There’s a bound human being trying to move inside that bag!”
He claimed police Maced the man and “kneed his face into the ground” before putting him in the long bag.
But using the bag is part of police protocol when restraining some emotionally disturbed people, an NYPD spokeswoman said Friday.
“[The NYPD] uses the device when an EDP is violent and may cause harm to themselves or others. The bag is ventilated and they can breathe,” the spokeswoman said.
They are used by Emergency Service Unit officers, who respond to calls about mentally ill people and other extreme situations.
Roughly 20 minutes after cops zipped the man in the sack, they lifted him onto a gurney and carted him away in an ambulance.
His head was covered inside the bag the whole time, the video- taker claimed.
“I don’t have a problem with law enforcement, and I very much support the NYPD on the whole, but I do have a problem with inhumane tactics — and from what I could tell, this man was being treated like an animal... not a human being,” he said later.
The bags, which feature a strong fabric, sell for roughly $750 on some police-supply Web sites.
Additional reporting by Natalie O’NeillThe best way to fuck something up is to give it a body.
A voice is killed when it is given a body.
Whenever there’s a body around you see its faults.
Theory proves that.
– Mike Kelley, Dialogue #1 (An Excerpt from “Theory, Garbage, Stuffed Animals, Christ”), 1993
In her reportage on the opening of the 2013 New Museum exhibition, titled “NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star,” Artforum writer and artist Rhonda Lieberman comments on a strange mnemonic sensation in seeing an art show about the recent past: “I knew a museum show about ‘NYC 1993’ would be creepy, I just didn’t know what kind of creepy … When the nostalgia train hits a time when you were actually an adult, you palpably experience the constructedness of history.” Discrepancies emerge between Lieberman’s recollection of the 1993 New York artworld and the inevitably different equivalent on display. She notes the most prevalent impression of NYC 1993, its overall melancholic and mournful tone. “The show was heavily skewed toward AIDS, gender politics, kinky sex, prostheses, fucked-up doll parts … all under the harshest medical lighting. We had lighting and white walls in 1993 – but I don’t recall it seeming so harsh,” she writes. “There was an overall seriousness, sterility, and darkness in tone to the show.”
Deliberate or otherwise, Lieberman replays some of the most public art criticism of the 1990s, usually tied to exhibitions around politics and identity. In Roberta Smith’s pointed, yet generally supportive review in The New York Times, regarding the 1993 Whitney Biennial, she writes, “There’s not a lot of eyes-on pleasure to be had inside, where the latest Biennial turns its back on the razzle-dazzle of the 1980s and faces the harsher realities of the ‘90s,” later calling the exhibition a “pious, often arid show.” In the same year and publication, Holland Cotter writes of two exhibitions shown at the Whitney, Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art and The Subject of Rape. “[At] the Whitney, where ‘transgressive’ art is just the byproduct of haute-couture theory, both exhibitions have a juiceless, frozen, inorganic look, as if they were shrink-wrapped artifacts of something already called the Early ‘90s.” Between exhibitions at the New Museum and the Whitney, the personal experience of time is already alienated as a historical moment. For Lieberman, the recent past returns as an object of museological study, and for Cotter, the present curiously brackets itself as a historical paradigm.
Yet this feeling of loopy time is not a pleasurable abandon of synchronization, but instead something serious, unpleasurable, frozen, creepy. Historicism feels like atrophy. But the unease of an exhibition about art of the early ’90s was doubled for these critics in the art itself. Art like Andrea Serrano’s The Morgue series (1992), which turned corpses into high-gloss pictorialism, or Charles Ray’s Family Romance (1993), which took an uncanny isomorphic approach to a troop of naked parents and children, explored sensations and representations centered on the gross and the bizarre, in short, to cite a key ekphrastic of the era, the abject. Weighty and disarming themes permeated NYC 1993, Abject Art, The Subject of Rape, and the 1993 Biennial: AIDS, social injustice, sexual assault, bodily fluids, and racial violence.
With this nexus of feeling, history, identity, and art, we might approach an understanding of the veritable moment in the 1990s of so-called “abject art.” Abjection, the phenomenon of tossing away the undesirable elements of life and their related affects of disgust, became a key explanatory in both the Anglophone artworld and the academic humanities – cultural spheres basically coterminous to begin with. German scholar Winfried Menninghaus, in his Disgust: Theory and History of a Strong Sensation (1999), notes that between the years 1982 and 1997, 28 pages in the Modern Language Association Bibliography appeared with the word “abjection” in the title. Spurned by the 1982 translation of psychoanalyst and philosopher Julia Kristeva’s Powers of the Horror: An Essay on Abjection into English, the focus on abjection gave its practitioners, from contemporary artists to feminist theorists, a shorthand to describe the then-ongoing Culture Wars and the identity |
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Rob’s Criteria for Keeping Your Developers Happy
If you want to collect a paycheck for 25 years and retire with a gold watch and a pension then go for companies that have the hygiene factors nailed. Stroll in at 8, head for the door at 4:59, and count the years until you’re kicking up your feet on a beach bar in Costa Rica.
But if you’re reading this, odds are that you aren’t the kind of person who never thinks about code after 5:01; you’re more likely to have a collection of DVDs that come up in an Amazon search for “Silicon Valley.” You’re probably one of those people who needs motivation factors or you go crazy with restlessness, and when the motivation factors are in place you’ll work ridiculous hours for low pay just because it’s so damn fun.
I talked to a dozen colleagues and pored over my own experiences to arrive at this list of nine software development motivation factors – Rob’s Criteria for Keeping Your Developers Happy.
There’s only one rule when determining your score: your vote doesn’t count unless you’re a developer. If you’re not in the trenches writing code then forward this article to someone who does and ask for their opinion. In addition to keeping management from making an unfair assessment, my greater hope is that this inspires conversation and forces management and developers to talk about these issues so we can get them out in the open.
Without further ado, here they are:
1. Being Set Up to Succeed
It’s a sad reality, but most software projects are set up to fail. Every developer has their horror stories; the “anti-patterns” of software project management. I’ve seen an architect given documentation for a legacy system that he pored over for week while designing a new interface for the product. After the design was complete he found out that the documentation was three years old and didn’t reflect several major changes the system.
I’ve spent hours preparing a detailed technical estimate only to be told that the real deadline, already set by product development, gives me half the time I need.
Realistic deadlines are a huge part of being set up to succeed. Developers want to build software that not only works, but is maintainable; something they can take pride in. This is not in-line with product development’s goals, which are for developers to build software that works, and nothing more.
The first thing to go when time is tight is quality and maintainability. Being forced to build crap is one of the worst things you can do to a craftsman. Delivering a project on-time but knowing it’s a piece of crap feels a heck of a lot like failure to someone who takes pride in what they build.
It’s critical to have buy-in to do things the right way, and not just the quick way. As one developer I talked to put it “Quality is as important as feature count and budget.”
Schedule is not the only way a project can be set up to fail, but it is the most common. Others include: being forced to use cheap tools (be it software or hardware), working with a partner who doesn’t deliver, bad project management (see #2, below), changing scope, and unspoken expectations, among others.
2. Having Excellent Management
Excellent management, both for projects and people, is a must-have motivation factor. This means no micro-managing, the encouragement of independent thinking, knowing what it takes to build quality software, quick decision making, and a willingness to take a bullet for the team when product development tries to shorten the schedule
These are the traits of an amazing software manager; the traits of a manager whose team would bathe in boiling oil to defend her, and work all-nighters to prove her right. When a manager takes bullets for the team, good developers tend to return the favor and then some. It creates an almost cult-ish loyalty, and the results are not only motivated developers, but insanely good software.
3. Learning New Things
Behavioral research indicates we’re happiest when we’re learning new skills or challenging old ones. A recent article cites a study by two University of Columbia researchers suggesting that workers would be happy to forgo as much as a 20% raise if it meant a job with more variety or one that required more skill. This research suggests that we are willing to be paid less for work that’s interesting, fun, and teaches us new skills.
This is why companies using Ruby can find experienced programmers willing to work for less than their typical salaries.The learning factor is huge when it comes to negotiating compensation.
Every developer I know loves playing with flashy new technologies. It was Perl and HTML in the mid-90s, ASP, PHP and Java in the late-90s, ASP.NET and XML a few years ago, and today it’s AJAX and Ruby (and in some circles ASP.NET 2.0). Give someone a chance to use these toys and they’ll not only be able to impress their friends, but fulfill that piece inside of them that needs to learn.
Keep a developer learning and they’ll be happy working in a windowless basement eating stale food pushed through a slot in the door. And they’ll never ask for a raise.
4. Exercising Creativity and Solving the Right Kind of Problems
Developers love a challenge. Without them we get bored, our minds wander, we balance our checkbook, check our email, hit Digg and Slashdot, read a few blogs, hit the water cooler, and see if any of our friends are online so we can once and for all settle the debate surrounding your uncle, the IDisposable interface, and that piece of toast shaped like the Virgin Mary.
I’ve watched developers on multiple occasions stay up until sunrise to solve a technical problem without being asked and without extra pay. The best developers are addicted to problem solving. Just drop a Sudoku in the middle of a group and watch them attack it.
Faced with the right type of challenge many developers will not stop until it’s fixed, especially if it requires a particularly creative solution. Faced with the wrong type of challenge and they’re back on instant messenger describing the toast.
The right type of challenge is a technical challenge that teaches a new skill, preferably one everyone’s talking about. One example could be: “Consume these five RSS feeds, aggregate the data, and display the headlines on a web page…and figure out how to use AJAX to make it cool.”
The wrong types of challenges are things like: “Fix that other guy’s code. You know, the one we didn’t fire because we were afraid he might cause problems. Well, he wrote a really crappy system and now we need to fix it and make it high-quality and maintainable. Oh, and you have until tomorrow.”
If your business doesn’t provide challenging work to developers, figure out how you can start. If there is no chance you’ll ever be able to provide challenging work, find developers who are into hygiene factors, because developers who need motivation factors won’t stay long.
5. Having a Voice
Developers are in the trenches, and they’re the first ones to know when a system or process is not working. One developer I spoke with told me:
“[I want] someone to listen to my problems and actually take them seriously. I’ve worked at a few places where more RAM, more hard disk space, or faster/dual CPUs were simply not a priority for the company, but it was incredibly aggravating to the point of impeding my work. At one place I worked, every time I wanted to compile the software I had to clear all my temporary files because I needed more disk space. Talk about asinine. Being forced to work using outdated technology is really frustrating.”
When a developer speaks, someone should listen. When several developers are saying the same thing, someone should listen and act…quickly.
6. Being Recognized for Hard Work
As engineers we love building things that impress ourselves and our friends. At least the ones who realize how hard it is to write a Perl compiler. From scratch. In FORTRAN. On a Vic 20.
Building something great is fun, but it’s much more fun when someone’s there to pat you on the back, throw you a party, sing your praises, or buy you a steak dinner. Most developers enjoy hearing praise and receiving recognition for hard work, but even the ones who don’t need it are somehow soured when they don’t receive it (or worse yet, someone else receives recognition for your work).
Recognition is one of Herzberg’s core motivation factors and it applies to software developers as much as the engineers originally interviewed.
7. Building Something that Matters
Even though we’re not medics in Bosnia or food carriers in Sudan, most people want to feel like we’re somehow doing our part to make the world a better place, both technologically and socially. Some of us might think we do it just for the sake of technology, but in the back of our minds we see ourselves as part of a grand scheme.
For instance, a friend of mine works for a financial company and cherishes every time they launch a product that helps the under-served financial community.
An Albertsons inventory software developer enjoys coming to work every day because his work ensures, via complex supply and demand algorithms, that the baby cereals are always available on the shelves.
Building something that matters makes an L.A. Times software engineer ecstatic that the trucks are now saving over 30% of their mileage and fuel costs due to his shortest path finding software implementation for newspaper delivery.
On the other hand, writing an interface to a buggy API that’ll be used a total of 15 times in the next year doesn’t seem like it matters much.
Copying and pasting an entire application and changing a bunch of labels isn’t as exciting as it might sound.
And hacking in a few more case statements in a ridiculously complex stored procedure in order to service yet another customer without creating a proper data structure somehow doesn’t seem to fulfill that part of us that wants to build something that matters.
8. Building Software without an Act of Congress
I was a contractor for three years starting in 2001, and during that time I built a ton of web applications. Since much of my development was off-site I became accustomed to writing software really quickly once we knew what to build. Another developer and I built insane amounts of software over the course of two years.
When I got my next full-time job it felt like I was dragging 50-pound weights. For every page I wanted to build I had to call a meeting with six people. Any change to the database required three approvals. It was nuts, and applications took 5x longer to build. Talk about frustrating.
The authority to make project decisions without calling a meeting is huge.
9. Having Few Legacy Constraints
No one likes developing against buggy interfaces, crappy code, and poorly-designed data models. Too many legacy constraints kill creativity, require an act of congress to modify, and generally sucks the fun out of building software (see several of the previous points for why this is bad).
If you have gobs of legacy liability, try to figure out a way to minimize its impact on future development. If you can’t, look for people who value hygiene factors, because motivation factor developers are not going to maintain the same poor-quality applications for very long.
Determining Your Score
Let’s face it, the bar has been set pretty low when it comes to motivating developers. How many companies can you think of that would score even as high as a 3?
Since this test hasn’t been administered to companies across the globe there’s no basis for comparison, but that’s where you come in. I’d like to do an informal survey so we can get an idea of how things are in the real world. Please post your company’s score in the comments (you don’t have to post the company name).
Most large companies I can think of would be lucky to score a 1. Google would probably score an 8 or a 9.
Wrap Up
If you’re a manager, when was the last time you asked your developers about these issues? If you’re a developer, when was the last time you respectfully raised one of these issues, providing examples and a possible solution?
If the answer is “a long time ago” then you have some work to do. Send this article to a few of your colleagues and start discussing how to enact change.
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If you liked this article you’ll also like my article Personality Traits of the Best Software Developers.
Thanks to Jeremy Lukensmeyer, Curtis Fields, Rick Kopitzke, Adnan Masood, Mike Taber, and a few others for their input into this article.
Special thanks to Mike Taber for reading a draft of this article.Wind farm construction is down nationally, but the Pacific Northwest is bucking that trend. Nationwide, year-to-date wind turbine installations are down 72 percent from the same period last year.
The American Wind Energy Association tracks wind farm construction. The association’s Elizabeth Salerno says the economy has taken a toll on her industry.
She figures a bigger reason for the slowdown is Congress stalling on extension of a tax credit for wind developers. But Salerno says wind farm expansion continues at a brisk pace in the Northwest.
Elizabeth Salerno: “It’s an active region and the reason for that is both Washington and Oregon get it in terms of policy. Strong renewable portfolio standards have been put in place in both states really sending a signal to all the different companies active in wind that the region is open for business.”
Salerno says in 2010’s third quarter Oregon added more new wind generation than any other state including perennial chart leader Texas.
That leadership change may continue.
Construction has started near the Columbia River on a new wind farm called Shepherds Flat.
It’s slated to become the nation’s largest when it’s done in 2012.A new poll conducted completely after Donald Trump's third campaign shakeup shows him losing to rival Hillary Clinton by double digits, with an overwhelming majority of voters calling on the Republican presidential candidate to release his tax returns.
Quinnipiac's new national poll shows Clinton ahead of Trump, 51 to 41, an eight-point jump since June.
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When third party candidates are included in the poll, 10 percent of likely voters back Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, according to the Quinnipiac poll, while Green Party candidate Jill Stein has the support of 4 percent of voters. In that matchup, 34 percent of independents supported Trump, 33 percent for Clinton and 19 percent for Johnson, with 9 percent for Stein.
Johnson is hoping to become the first third-party candidate since Ross Perot in 1992 to qualify for the presidential debates. In order to join Clinton and Trump on stage this fall, Johnson will need to average 15% in five national polls chosen by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Furthermore, 74 percent of all voters tell Quinnipiac that Trump should release his tax returns publicly, including 62 percent of Republicans. A breakdown of the candidates' supporters from Politico below:Today the world celebrates International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOT). This "global celebration of sexual and gender diversities," provides us a space to recognize the struggle against violence and discrimination of LGBTI persons worldwide. I take that opportunity to reflect on the contributions that the Green Party has made to LGBTI persons and call upon my party to challenge itself in helping advance justice for this community.
As far as political parties, the Green Party has been ahead of the curve regarding including LGBTQIA+ persons in our policies and values. In 1984, activists nationwide gathered in St. Paul to write a share statement of belief that would become the basis of the Green Party. That statement put forth the importance of the rights of LGB persons and their families -- including equal rights in marriage and adoption. This followed the lead of the original German Green Party -- and followed by other Greens globally -- in seeing that relation between Social Justice and Ecological Wisdom. Our first national platform in 2000 recognized LGBT equality, and the first Global Greens platform in 2001 acknowledged the rights on LGBTI persons.
Green candidates have brought these values to the campaign trail. In 1998, Bern Haggerty ran for city council in Laramie, Wyoming. He was the only general election candidate pushing for the adoption of a bias crime law -- ultimately adopted a few years later. Third parties hold the two-party political status quo accountable on their reactive ideologies. In 2002, Jill Stein, presumptive 2016 Green Party presidential nominee, ran for Governor of Massachusetts. She argued for same-sex marriage the whole campaign -- the first gubernatorial candidate to do so in the state that first gave us marriage justice. Jason West, Green mayor of New Paltz, New York, was arrested, handcuffed, and charged, for marrying 26 same-sex couples in 2004.
I raise this history to show that advancing recognition of sexual and gender diversity is required by our Green Party's Ten Key Values and vision for putting people, planet, and peace over profit. Currently, our platform speaks to equal rights for the entire spectrum -- including queer and asexual persons. These must not be words that remain on paper, but a call to specific policies that we fight for on the campaign trail, in the ballot box, and in the streets.
We need to fight for a national non-discrimination law that protects all LGBTQIA+ and an interpretation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that does not allow medical facilities and public businesses to opt-out of providing inclusive services to the queer community. Government documents must provide an inclusive, non-binary option, and the heightened bureaucracy to obtain documentation that aligns with how one self-identifies eliminated. Following the nation of Malta, Greens should be stronger proponents of our platform position of banning Intersex Genital Mutilation.
The arc of justice for LGTBQIA+ persons is intersectional with other realms that we as Greens care about. The right to healthcare best enacted through Single-Payer Medicare-for-All must be inclusive of psychological care, hormonal treatment, and surgical needs of gender and sexual minorities -- including recognizing the higher risk of suicide attempt and addiction. Medication and other means for HIV-prevention and HIV/AIDS treatment must be affordable and accessible worldwide, which means allowing generics. Our healthcare system must recognize that individuals know best who they want at their bedside and making medical decisions with them, which may not align with blood relation and legal recognition. The LGBTQIA+ community knows well the live-giving strength of chosen family and friendship as a component of survival and resistance.
The right to education must intersectionally recognize the bullying, harassment, and violence in our schools against LGBTQIA+ youth. The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education in North Carolina recently agreed to allow students to carry pepperspray. In light of HB2, this is an incitement of trans panic and violence against trans/queer youth. Education reform must include a demand for preventive measures such as staff training, comprehensive sex education, and removing weapons from our schools.
An economy policy that puts people before corporate wealth is the same economy that is more likely to leave LGBTQIA+ persons homeless or jobless. It is the same economy built on racial discrimination through its current form of an incarceration state. LGBTQIA+ persons -- especially those of color -- are more likely to face police violence and harassment. Many then have difficulty being placed in safe correctional facilities aligned with their gender identity and receiving necessary medical support such as hormone treatments. The right to a job, to a living wage, to food and shelter, to a community-based safety system, are Green issues with a required LGBTQIA+ perspective.
Finally, our political system prevents LGBTQIA+ persons from having a better chance at voting for and electing persons that represent their interests. The two major parties impose high barriers to get on the ballot and be included in debates. Control of the ballot box and media means queer persons fighting for survival and equality are scared to step out of line with the Democrats lest Republicans be elected. That may prevent a greater evil, but this short-sighted strategy of fear slows or even makes us regress on the path towards the greater good of justice for all LGBTQIA+ persons in the United States and around the world. Ranked-choice voting, open debates, inclusive polling, proportional representation, and popular vote, are LGBTQIA+ issues.
The Green Party may have a history of being ahead of the curve, but this fight against oppression is not over. We may be the only current national-level political party that will advocate most or even some of these policies, but for me -- and I'd guess for many friends and comrades in the Lavender Caucus -- that only raises the moral imperative to continually challenge ourselves and our party in advancing queer issues and queer voices in the streets, on the campaign trail, and in elected office.Rangers chief executive Derek Llambias (right) is a long-time associate of Mike Ashley
Rangers chief executive Derek Llambias will address the Scottish FA board on Tuesday to make a case for Mike Ashley raising his stake at Ibrox.
The SFA has issued notices of complaint to the club and Ashley due to alleged breaches of dual interest rules.
A disciplinary hearing will be held in January, but the informal talks about Ashley increasing his shareholding will be treated separately.
Ashley currently owns 8.92% of Rangers International Football Club.
But the Newcastle United owner has previously shown interest in raising that to 29.9%.
Analysis - Douglas Fraser: BBC Scotland's business & economy editor "Rangers badly needs cash - not for investment, but simply to stay solvent from month to month,"The only people likely to provide it are either going to demand very high interest rates, because of the risk of default, or because they're passionate about the club, or because it could give them control."A company can go back to shareholders, offering them the right to buy shares in proportion to their existing holding to ensure no-one's shareholding need be diluted."But the need for investment is such that the directors believed they needed to go much further with a big bang issue of new shares, giving more power to one or more new investors while diluting the power of existing ones."Given the unhappy recent history of dominant shareholders at Ibrox, there's too much suspicion of directors for that to get past the annual general meeting, this year or last."So it's back to those other options; seeking out short-term and expensive loans: or asking existing shareholders to find new funds for the club (after seeing the share price fall from 93p to 18p in the two years since the holding company floated): or looking to a rich individual who has an interest in gaining a controlling interest."That's where Mike Ashley is key. The Sports Direct boss has nearly 10% of shares, and a merchandising partnership. His man, Derek Llambias, has just been made chief executive. "He's already bankrolled Rangers on apparently attractive terms. And he's got pots more money to keep doing so, though that would require an ever-bigger security over the assets."At least one problem is that he's got to get past the Scottish FA, which wants an explanation for what appears to be his controlling interest in both Rangers and Newcastle United."Unfortunately for the SFA, Mike Ashley could turn round and force them to face their own dilemma; either let him continue to invest in Rangers, thus taking control, or let one of their biggest club's collapse. Again."
When Ashley took his initial stake in RIFC, the SFA board granted permission on the basis that a case was made for his involvement. Article 13 of the association's rules state that an individual cannot hold stakes in two clubs without the prior permission of the SFA board.
Ashley signed up to an undertaking to not raise his stake beyond 10% and to not hold undue influence over the board.
After loaning Rangers £3m, Ashley's long-time associates Llambias and Barry Leach were appointed as consultants.
Llambias was then appointed non-executive director and was appointed chief executive last week.
He was previously managing director of Newcastle United, the club Ashley owns outright. Breaching the undertaking would bring sanctions from the SFA, but at the same time Ashley can still seek permission to increase his Ibrox stake.
Rangers chief executive Derek Llambias arrives at Ibrox for Monday's stormy AGM
Rangers intend to hold a share issue in the new year, to raise up to £8m by issuing 54 million shares at a discounted market price - which is currently 18p.
Llambias would need to make a business case to the SFA board, which will hold the discussions informally following a board meeting at Hampden, that Ashley is the only source of the funding that the club requires to continue trading.
The offer of £16m of funding from a consortium involving former Rangers director Dave King has never formally been removed, although it would require the support of 75% of shareholders.
At the annual general meeting, shareholders voted to approve the share issue, but rejected the disapplication of pre-emption rights.
Derek Llambias at the Rangers AGM "Not everything I do will be popular but everything I do will be in the club's long-term interests."
When the share issue is held in January, existing shareholders must first be given the opportunity to maintain the size of their stake, or face dilution with new shares potentially being issued. A non-shareholder can still underwrite the issue, but they will not know how many shares they will end up with until after shareholders have taken up or declined their rights.
Existing shareholders can also sell their rights to non-shareholders, or take up their rights and then leave the remaining shares unissued. This would reduce the amount of capital raised, although Ashley could agree to the refinancing of the £3m loan he made to the club and which is due to be paid back in April.
Uncertainty continues at Ibrox, although Llambias also told shareholders that Kenny McDowall will remain as manager of the team until the end of the season "and perhaps beyond".
McDowall was promoted from his role as assistant, following the decision to place manager Ally McCoist on "gardening leave".At least 13 people have been killed by lightning in eastern India, as storms raged across the region.
Those killed were farm workers in West Bengal state, who were in the fields when they were struck by lightning. Twenty more people were injured.
The severe weather was brought by what is known as a kalboishakhi, an immense storm which forms ahead of the monsoon rains.
Dry, cold air which originates from Iran and Turkenistan drifts east and is forced to the south of the Himalayas.
This air is a stark contrast to that which is across the rest of India, and the two air masses interact with explosive results.
Huge storms form bringing destructive winds, torrential rain and plenty of thunder and lightning. These generally move southeast, often drifting across the border into Bangladesh.
A number of these storms have been seen over the past few days, including one which blasted New Delhi on May 30. As the rain started, the temperatures dropped 15C in just an hour and a half.
Winds of up to 55kph were recorded, as lightning lit up the sky.
More severe weather is expected in northeast India over the next few days. This will bring more heavy rain to the region, ahead of the more persistent monsoon rains.
This year the summer monsoon is lagging about a week behind schedule, and has yet to make it onto the coast of Sri Lanka.A gunfire detection system has captured about 39,000 gunshots in D.C. since 2006. (The Washington Post)
When Absalom Jordan hears the crack of gunfire outside his home in Southeast Washington, he reacts in an instant. “You get away from the windows and get down,” the 72-year-old said. “I have learned to live with it.”
Police are listening as well. Rooftop sensors monitor his neighborhood around the clock for the distinctive bang of a gun. The inconspicuous devices have logged hundreds of incidents over the past eight years near his apartment as part of a gunfire surveillance network called ShotSpotter.
About 39,000 separate incidents of gunfire have been documented by ShotSpotter’s unseen web of at least 300 acoustic sensors across 20 square miles of the city, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. The data, obtained through a public-records request, offer an unprecedented view of gun crime in a city where shooting a firearm is illegal in virtually all circumstances.
The gunfire logged by ShotSpotter overshadows the number of officially reported felony gun crimes by more than 2 to 1. More than one-half of the incidents detected by the network have involved multiple rounds of gunfire. In 2009 alone, ShotSpotter captured more than 9,000 incidents of gunfire. That number has fallen by 40 percent in recent years as gun homicides have declined sharply.
The system has been helpful to law enforcement, but no one claims that it captures every shot. The network covers only a third of the city, focusing on the police districts with the most violent crime. It occasionally misses gunfire because of circumstances that can cloak acoustic signatures, such as the canyonlike structures of an urban landscape. Some sounds, such as fireworks, can be mistaken for gunfire, although technology and human review help weed out false positives.
GUNS IN AMERICA: This article is part of an occasional series examining the role of guns and the influence of the gun industry in the United States.
When ShotSpotter’s remote monitors — microphones and circuitry in a weatherproof shell — detect a loud noise, a central computer program analyzes the acoustic signature, providing a more accurate location than people usually can. It classifies the source, pinpoints the suspected location to within a few yards and notifies police. City personnel verify the alert and dispatch officers.
“ShotSpotter gives you a specific location,” said Kristopher Baumann, president of the D.C. police union. “You can go there and get out of the car. You can find a victim or shell casings.”
ShotSpotter’s coverage is most extensive in the eastern half of the city. By quadrant, the network has captured 18,700 incidents in Southeast, 10,600 incidents in Northeast, 6,400 in Northwest and 1,600 in Southwest, which is primarily waterfront and contains large stretches of undeveloped industrial areas. The network has logged an additional 1,600 shootings along the edges of the city.
Weather appeared to influence the pattern. The month of February had the fewest incidents, and July had the most. Work schedules also played a role. By day of the week, Saturday, Sunday and Friday had the most and Wednesday the fewest. As did sleep: The quietest hour was from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m.
(The Washington Post)
A disproportionate number of incidents, about a third, have been logged on and around New Year’s Day and July 4. Much of this, officials said, is likely the result of celebratory gunplay.
The District is the biggest client of SST of Newark, Calif., which produces ShotSpotter. It’s also the only city in the region to use the system, although Prince George’s County police are testing it. Other companies provide listening technology for gunfire, but SST says it is the only one that can pinpoint shots over wide areas.
District officials praise the system.
Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier calls ShotSpotter “a valuable tool.”
“It is a valuable tool that provides almost instantaneous alerts that allow officers to be dispatched quicker for the sound of gunshots,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in a written statement. “It has also been instrumental in determining crime trends and establishing information in investigations.”
The system can help police identify turf battles between gangs or other gun-related crime affecting particular neighborhoods, said Cmdr. James Crane, ShotSpotter program manager.
The gunshot detection technology, advocates said, also helps law enforcement address two problems: People misidentify sounds, such as cars backfiring, as gunshots, and true gunfire often goes unreported. ShotSpotter officials said that studies among clients elsewhere have found that about four out of five gunfire incidents are never reported to police.
The company guarantees that the system will capture at least 80 percent of all audible, outdoor gunfire in coverage zones, but company officials said they typically achieve a rate of 90 to 95 percent.
ShotSpotter’s inventory of shooting incidents provides another measure of gun-related crime in the District. In May, The Post reported that more than 28,000 firearms, mostly handguns, have been confiscated by D.C. police since 2000, though in smaller numbers in recent years.
The gunfire documented by ShotSpotter — an average of 17 incidents a day in the District since 2009 — offers a fuller view of the “pyramid” of gun violence, said Daniel Webster, who directs the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
“At the top, you have the incidents when someone dies. Then you have those when somebody gets wounded,” Webster explained.
The biggest category of gun violence, he said, is also the most underreported and poorly documented: when a shooter misses the target or shoots to intimidate.
“It gives a much better picture of how prevalent gun violence is,” Webster said.
Balloons and a piano
ShotSpotter grew out of one man’s concern about gun violence on the West Coast in the early 1990s.
An engineer and expert in acoustic sciences, Robert Showen, then in his early 50s, was working at a research institute in Menlo Park, Calif. Showen said he was troubled by the deadly gang wars in nearby East Palo Alto.
“I thought, with my knowledge I can do something,” Showen said.
He said he asked local police whether a system to detect gunfire could help fight crime. They directed him to scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey who were working to apply earthquake location systems to gunfire. Their research showed promise, Showen said, but they had not figured out how to apply it to an urban environment in real time.
Showen experimented: He set microphones atop a piano in his living room and connected them to a laptop outfitted with software that he and a business partner wrote. Using a child’s clicker toy, he made a noise to see whether the software could detect where the sound originated. He conducted the same test outdoors, popping balloons at various spots in his yard. His system worked.
In the mid-1990s, he took his idea to police in nearby Redwood City, Calif., who became the first to deploy ShotSpotter. Contracts soon followed in Los Angeles County and Glendale, Ariz. Showen is now chief scientist for SST and co-holds a patent on the technology. Today, 65 police agencies use ShotSpotter in the United States, as do police in Rio de Janeiro. It’s also being tested in a South African safari park to see whether it can help identify illegal rhinoceros poaching.
The District began using ShotSpotter in late 2005 after the FBI gave the city the opportunity to test the technology. A federal grant paid $2 million to place sensors across the 7th Police District in Southeast Washington.
“The 7th District was selected for ShotSpotter because it led the city in homicides,” said Joel Maupin, who was police commander of the district and has since retired.
D.C. police officers work in the 4200 block of Fourth Street SE on Oct. 15. The neighborhood is one of many across the city in the ShotSpotter coverage area. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
A fence surrounds the Atlantic Gardens apartment complex on Fourth Street SE, one of many areas across the city with ShotSpotter coverage. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)
The technology enabled officers to respond to shootings more quickly. It became a safety issue. In short order, the department had to revise its dispatch policy to ensure that officers knew whether the report of gunfire came from ShotSpotter or from a person who thought he heard a gunshot, said former D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey.
“Because the odds [with ShotSpotter] of finding a person armed was a lot higher than with a normal 911 call,” Ramsey said. “It could distinguish cars backfiring from gunshots.”
In 2007, the District assumed ownership of the detection system, expanding its coverage in the years that followed. ShotSpotter now reaches into six of the seven police districts and covers about one-third of the city. Its greatest coverage is in Southeast and Northeast, records show.
Over the past six years, the city has spent about $3.5 million to maintain and expand the system, records show.
ShotSpotter is also linked to a system of closed-circuit cameras, which police hope will capture the aftermath of shootings in real time. To guard against vandalism, officials do not publicize the sensors’ appearance or reveal their locations.
‘Get the cop to the dot’
Wrapped in a weatherproof container roughly the size of a watermelon, each ShotSpotter sensor combines microphones, hardware, software and a clock linked to the Global Positioning System, which uses satellites and radio navigation to pinpoint precise times and locations.
In the cacophonous urban environment, sensors are calibrated to ignore all sounds except for those that most closely match the “impulsive” sound of an explosion, said James Beldock, a senior vice president for ShotSpotter.
“It’s a very, very sharp wave,” Beldock said. “No other sound works that way.”
The blast of a gun is different from other explosive sounds because it is directional, meaning that the noise changes its frequency as the bullet moves through space. A person may hear a gunshot a half-mile away if the gun is fired toward him. But a person 200 yards away may hear nothing if the gun is fired away from him.
Once sensors register a potential gunshot, they transmit the data to the ShotSpotter computer network for analysis. The computer server compares the time that each sensor logged the sound to calculate the likely location of its source, a process of triangulation and multilateration.
“That sound will reach a sensor 100 yards away at a different time than it reaches a sensor 200 yards away,” Beldock explained.
The more sensors that capture the noise, the more accurate the location. A sound detected by 10 sensors can be located to within two feet, he said.
The computer system also classifies the likely source of the sound based on its sharpness, frequency and consistency across sensors. This is critical, because other impulsive sounds — including fireworks, backfires and helicopters — can also trigger the remote sensors.
Pile drivers, for example, initiate an alert because the machinery is elevated and the noise radiates over a long distance, Beldock said. But it can often be filtered out.
“The pile driver does not sound like gunfire in one critical respect: The frequency component, the pitch of the sound is not right,” Beldock said.
The software will try to determine whether the source of the gunfire was in motion and might have been a drive-by.
Can you tell the difference? Each of these three sounds is either a gunshot or a pyrotechnic. Find out more about how ShotSpotter works. 1 of 3 MOUSEOVER TO LISTEN Gunshot
OR
Pyrotechnics This is the sound of pyrotechnics. Next 2 of 3 MOUSEOVER TO LISTEN Gunshot
OR
Pyrotechnics This is the sound |
, the government would prefer an agreement involving the Navy, Russia and HAL to undertake structural improvements for the MiG-29K fighters.
The call for improved ruggedness originates from an issue after deck landings. The MiG-29K fighter’s settings reportedly require a reset after landing on the deck of the carrier.
“After every carrier landing (which is virtually like a crash), components of the aircraft crack, break or stop functioning. The aircraft, then goes to the workshop for repair/replacement of the part, which often has to come from Russia,” Prakash said.
A report last year by India’s autonomous auditing agency, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, said the MiG-29K was to be technically accepted despite discrepancies and anomalies.
“Since induction in February 2010, 40 engines (62 percent) of twin-engine MiG-29K fighters have been withdrawn from service due to design-related defects,” according to the report.
Early last year, the Indian Navy entered the global market to procure 57 multirole fighters to be used on future aircraft carriers, essentially rejecting the MiG-29K fighters.
Although companies have already shown interest in India’s request for information — the United States’ Boeing with its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet; France’s Dassault with its Rafale M, Sweden’s Saab with its Gripen Maritime and Russia‘s MiG-29K — a formal tender to kick-start the acquisition process for a new fighter aircraft is yet to be issued.Orbit Transfer Optimizer
Purpose
Find the best way to transfer from one orbit around a body to another orbit around the same body, using two burns (one intermediate orbit).
How To Use
Select the desired planet / moon / star. This has no effect on the geometry of the best transfer orbit; only on the magnitudes of values like km and m/s. (more bodies may be added if users ask nicely) Enter in the initial orbit of the spacecraft. This can be obtained from Kerbal Engineer Redux, for example. The initial orbit will appear in red. a: semimajor axis in km
e: eccentricity
i: inclination in Degrees
Ω: longitude of ascending node in Degrees
ϖ: longitude of periapsis in Degrees
ν start and ν end: sliders can be used to adjust the range of true anomaly that the program will search. Enter in the desired final orbit for the spacecraft. The final orbit will appear in blue. Push 'Calculate Best Orbit'. May take a few seconds to calculate. See the transfer orbit appear in green on the Orbit view. The black arrows show the location of the inital and final burns (but not their magnitude). (The arrows may not be visible because they are coincident with the other arrows.) To see information about the two burns required, and of the transfer orbit, click the Elements tab. Use the ViewBox slider to zoom in and out if needed.
For hyperbolic orbits
For hyperbolic orbits or for a semimajor axis larger than that allowed by the slider, enter the desired value into the box. The slider will turn red but it should still work. Hyperbolic orbits are one place where the ν limit sliders are useful, to prevent the burn from being too far away.
Interpretation of 'Elements' output
Total ΔV The total velocity change in meters/second to carry out this orbital transfer. Burn 1 The burn from the initial orbit to the transfer orbit. Burn 2 The burn from the transfer orbit to the final orbit. Orbital Speed Speed immediately before the burn takes place. Altitude Altitude (above the surface) when the burn takes place. KSP Navball The heading that your navball should read when you execute the burn. The first number is the 0-360° direction (north-east-south-west) and the second number is the -90 to 90 ° (radial in - radial out) LVLH Heading The velocity change of the burn in the pre-burn Local Vertical, Local Horizontal frame. Format is {Prograde, Normal, Radial}. This can be used as a sanity check. Cart. Vel. The velocity (before the burn) in cartesian coordinates: {X, Y, Z} Cart. ΔV The burn velocity change in cartesian coordinates: {X, Y, Z} Transfer Orbit The Keplerian elements of the transfer orbit. a Semimajor axis e eccentricity i inclination Ω Longitude of Ascending Node ω Argument of periapsis Long. of Peri. Longitude of periapsis ϖ Periapsis Radius radius to the planet's center Periapsis Radius radius to the planet's surface. Note that atmosphere and planetary surface are not taken into account during the optimizer calculation.
Theory:
Orbits are made of collections of points (and associated velocities) in space. To find the lowest-delta-V transfer between two orbits, we iterate over points on each of the orbits.
Assuming a massive body (such as planet) at the origin, and two given points in space, there usually* one DOF (Degree Of Freedom) to choose a conic-section orbit that passes through those points. When we associate velocities with each of those points, there is some orbit that passes through the points that requires the lowest amount of delta-V.
*There are 2 DOF for points exactly opposite one another, for example.
Details
Will this always find the lowest-delta-V transfer?
No.
Some optimal orbit transfers require 3 burns, such as a bi-elliptic transfer. Changing radius, eccenticity, and inclinations probably also requires multiple burns for the lowest total delta V.
Finding the best transfer orbit when two points are directly across from each other requires searching two DOF. Rather than slowly search another DOF my program guesses (somewhat poorly) to save time.
The brute-force search over points belonging to the initial and final orbits uses 24 x 24 steps. For closed orbits this corresponds to 15 degrees of true anomaly. To search more accurately, try adjusting the ν-start and ν-end sliders to encompass less than 180 degrees.
There could be other flaws that result in a less-than-perfect two-burn transfer. Use a reasonable margin of error when Kerbal lives are at risk.
Why use Longitude of Periapsis ϖ rather than Argument of Periapsis ω?
Kerbal engineer gives Longitude of PE ϖ. To convert from ω remember that ϖ = Ω + ω.
Will this calculate interplanetary transfers?
Not quite. This program only handles one gravitating body, and does not take into account a planet or moon's finite Sphere of Influence. However, if your target is a moon with very small escape velocity (like Gilly) you can use this program to find a good way to transfer from Eve orbit into Gilly's orbit and intersect it.
Will this let me rendezvous with another craft?
Not directly, but if you are not under time constraints, one you have transferred to the other craft's orbit, you can then start a rendezvous procedure.
What's the radius of the sphere?
The sphere corresponds to the height of the atmosphere. The calculator itself does not take into account atmospheres, aerobraking, or the planetary surface(!)... it is displayed as a visual indicator. To see whether the transfer orbit will intersect the atmosphere, look at the Periapsis Altitude (above the surface) on the Elements tab, or visually check whether the transfer orbit enter the atmosphere.
© 2015 Jacob Schwartz under the FreeCDF license. From the Mathematica package OrbitTransferOptimizer`.If I had to choose between George W. Bush, naked and neighing on all fours while being ridden around the Oval Office by a spurred cowgirl Condoleezza Rice, or enduring his shredding of domestic and international law to wage an illegal war and bilking of the country on behalf of his corporate backers, I could learn to stomach a wide array of sexual escapades.
Let our elected leaders and candidates have quick homosexual encounters in airport bathrooms, bring as many hookers as they want to their hotel rooms, and screw around with their campaign staff as long as they exhaust their libidos on lusts other than war, torture and economic mismanagement. Adolf Hitler, after all, was an abstemious and monogamous vegetarian who loved his German shepherd.
But, unfortunately for us, and hapless politicians like John Edwards, our press finds it more lucrative to report salacious sex scandals than the death and maiming of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, although the mainstream press showed, for once, a remarkable restraint until Edwards was forced to confess. We hear more about pricey hookers and the bathroom code of cruising homosexuals than the revoking of habeas corpus, the use of torture as an interrogation technique, and the plundering of our country by rapacious corporations. Television dominates our news content, and its ethical standards hover around those of the National Enquirer.
The press has become our arbiter of personal morality. Have an affair and they will trap you in the middle of the night in a Los Angeles hotel bathroom; they will dig up the escort you met in a Washington hotel room and splatter your private foibles across television screens and news pages. These stories gratify our prurient fascination with illicit sexual liaisons. They are part of the blurring of news with the tawdry world of reality shows and television entertainment. They produce titillating rituals of public humiliation and disgrace. They also lacerate the secret guilt of those who have felt or acted upon lust while in committed relationships. It is all Jerry Springer, all the time.
Reporters often know the sins of which they speak. They can shame John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Larry Craig and Bill Clinton and then head off to a hotel bar to do the same thing. The moral lapses of our media inquisitors, which I witnessed for over two decades as a reporter, can be as reprehensible as the behavior of those they cover.
I do not trust or believe most politicians. I have covered too many. The question is not how we can get good people to govern. The question is how we can limit the damage of mostly mediocre, callow men and women, who comprise the majority of those who yearn for power, from doing the most harm. This comes through the rigorous checks and balances of a functioning democracy, not self-appointed political saviors. But we always prefer saviors, those who make us believe they have attained moral and heroic summits that elude us.
There is something sad and pathetically human about Edwards’ affair and his cowardly attempt to lie about it. I never liked Edwards. He is all flash and sparkle with his boyish $400 haircuts and oily sincerity. He preached a faux populism, one at odds with his record in the Senate, to sell himself to voters. But, even as I do not condone what he did, I feel sorry for him. He is being crucified by journalists and politicians, and a public, who often behave no better.
We demand that our politicians play superhuman roles. They cannot exhibit the weaknesses and temptations we carry within ourselves. They must appear to be perfect parents, wives or husbands. We insist that they behave like the idealized couples we watch on television or in the movies. Campaign appearances, with the dutiful spouse as prop, are scripted mini-dramas. We live in a society so saturated in lies that we can no longer distinguish between a married couple in a sit com and on the campaign trail. Bill and Hillary continue to act out their sham roles of committed husband and wife. And, despite all the evidence to the contrary, people continue to believe in the Clintons’ charade.
Political leaders no longer need to be competent, sincere or honest. They only need to appear to have these qualities. The most essential skill in political theater, which has no room for knowledge or debate or trust, is artifice. Those who are most able to entertain, that is, to deceive, succeed. Those who cannot play these roles, like Ralph Nader, are pushed to the sidelines.
There are worse things done by politicians than illicit sexual adventures. Ask an Iraqi. Ask an Afghan. Ask a detainee at Guantanamo. Ask an unemployed steelworker in Ohio. But in an age of images and entertainment, in an age of instant emotional gratification, we do not want honesty or even reality but the reassurance of old clichés, stereotypes and mythic narratives. We want leaders who are willing to pretend they live in a make-believe world of happy couples and perfect relationships. We want to feel that they like us and we want to like them. This gives us what television gives us, a simplistic narrative around which to frame our lives. This narrative defies the messiness and disorder of the real world. If politicians adhere to this ridiculous narrative of personal happiness and fidelity, designed to reassure us that the world is ordered and neat and constant, they can commit egregious war crimes and strip us of our power. If they do not we will find better actors.
Edwards’ dishonesty does not compare to Bush’s impeachable crimes. But Edwards’ political career has been cut short, unlike Bush’s, because he had the bad luck to get caught out of character behind the curtain.In a world dominated by magical thinking, superstition, and misinformation, give yourself the benefit of doubt.
Keep an eye out for superstitious nonsense and seek to demystify and celebrate the natural world.
"Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
-George Carlin
“To sacrifice the Earth for Paradise is giving up the substance for the shadow"
-Victor Hugo
“Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.”
-Carl Sagan
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species. It may be a long farewell, but it has begun and, like all farewells, should not be protracted.
-Christopher HitchensThe most polarizing figure in hip-hop today never asked to become a provocateur or rap reformist, but he was happy to oblige. When confectioner Lil Yachty and his team of teenaged separatists broke rank, more influenced by Kid Cudi and Chief Keef and pop-rockers Coldplay than the cliche rap Mt. Rushmore types, they challenged long-established ideas about what rap should sound like.
Yachty’s refusal to engage with rap’s legacy renewed a culture clash that’s been waged between warring factions for decades now. But his enthusiastic, sometimes silly delivery and his all-around cheerfulness have endeared him to a new generation of rap fans. Feel-good tunes quickly made him both a leader of the current rap youth movement and the one most likely to cross over to pop audiences. Platforms of positivity and inclusivity seem a fitting countermeasure in a climate where the most popular rap group in the country will denounce a colleague for being gay. A selling point has always been the whimsy, Yachty’s flippant disregard for convention, focusing on playful melodies that sound like jingles for Nicktoons. He is most comfortable when gleeful and thrives on fun, but can struggle to sustain ideas. Lil Yachty’s debut album Teenage Emotions, released after a breakout mixtape and an Apple Exclusive, is his most complete work yet, but it doesn’t contain the nuance its cover and title suggest.
Teenage Emotions feels hollow next to the real, complicated emotions of teens; his stories here are usually rendered without depth or dimension, more like sketches of impulses. But in his element, Yachty’s rare feel for earworms and his unorthodox cadences let him cut corners, unleashing a series of non-sequiturs with such levity that it’s like frolicking in a bouncy castle. He is our master of joy. Songs like “All Around Me” and “FYI (Know Now)” fill bubblegum productions with his animated flows. “Harley” leaps and bounds through repetitions. The intro, “Like a Star,” beams with exuberance before drifting into a more delicate tune, one that is genuinely pleasant, and it’s the first of many signs that Yachty is figuring things out.
Yachty has polished the edges of his Auto-Tuned warbles since the Lil Boat mixtape, which were often grating in their attempts to find a pitch. And he’s growing more proficient in songcraft, constructing tunes that don’t suddenly sputter and stall out. Early records sounded like they were carelessly-assembled and that cheekiness was almost half of the appeal. But Teenage Emotions is refined and moves with more purpose. Over a woozy WondaGurl production, Yachty pushes in and out of falsetto on “Lady in Yellow,” turning a repeating stanza into a refrain but occasionally changing the lyrics. Opposite singer Grace, who he originally teamed up with for DJ Cassidy’s “Honor,” he seems poised for a crossover on “Running With a Ghost” and his Diplo collaboration, “Forever Young,” is a satisfying pop rap delight. These moments showcase Yachty’s charms. Where he gets into trouble is when he seeks the approval of rap pundits.
At some point, the finger-wagging purists got into Yachty’s head because being the scapegoat for ruining an entire genre can have that effect on a person. But he dramatically overcorrected, spending far too much energy trying to pass himself off as an acceptable rapper’s rapper, or as someone agreeable to classicist sensibilities. Several songs on Teenage Emotions try to fit into a model Yachty was never built for, and he ends up with lines like, “She blow that dick like a cello.” Listening to him tense up during tough talk on “DN Freestyle” and “X Men” is painful. These moments are off message and off brand. What results is an album that’s half fun, half struggle—loosening one minute then tightening up the next, but always dilly dallying.
Despite some indecision on to whom he's speaking, Yachty does challenge himself to take on new roles on Teenage Emotions, and in certain instances he’s bewitching. On “Made of Glass,” a soothing synthpop ballad, he sings of unrequited love, unseen by the girl of his dreams. As he moves in unison with the sample on “No More,” which is distorted and disorienting, he laments being pursued by gold diggers. It’s one of the few times he engages thoughtfully with his celebrity. On “Priorities,” he assesses the decisions he’s made, finding a nice singsong balance. Though far too long and sometimes aimless, Teenage Emotions is the mind of a child star blown-up and on exhibition at the epicenter of modern rap. It’s there to be gawked at and appreciated, and then maybe enjoyed.As a 28-year-old reporter about to cover Africa in 2002, I was sent to rural Virginia to attend hostile-environment training, where former British Royal Marines taught journalists such survival techniques as how to filter your own urine if you are dehydrated in a desert and how to drag a wounded 200-pound colleague through a field studded with land mines.
Interesting stuff, but luckily I never had to put those skills into use. Female correspondents deployed to countries such as Egypt, Pakistan or India might be better served by instruction in handling less extreme but more pervasive challenges: what to do if a stranger grabs your buttocks while you are reporting on the street, or if a male hotel worker enters your room while you are showering. How to deflect the chai wallah who insists on clicking photos of you to show his friends, or the flirtatious fixer who wants a good-night kiss.
Foreign female journalists face challenges most often in parts of the world where protections for women are weak even in peacetime — in societies where men and women lead highly segregated lives and often don’t have sex before marriage. In these countries, men often say they view Western women as the sexual equivalent of junk food: fast and cheap.
Even highly placed sources can behave inappropriately. Kim Barker, who was the South Asia bureau chief with the Chicago Tribune from 2004 to 2008, was offered an iPhone by former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif. But that phone would not really have been free: His pickup line was, “I’m fat and old. But I would still like to be your friend,” she writes in her book, “The Taliban Shuffle.”
These dangers increase exponentially when countries are in the midst of revolution and lawlessness, when war is essentially a workplace. The sexual attacks on CBS News’s chief foreign affairs correspondent, Lara Logan, in Egypt and the treatment of photojournalist Lynsey Addario in Libya have brought the issue into sharp focus. (The Libyan military reportedly captured four reporters this week — one of whom is Clare Morgana Gillis, a U.S. citizen and freelancer for TheAtlantic.com and USA Today.)
Logan was hospitalized after she was assaulted on Feb. 11 in Egypt, according to a network statement. The incident took place as Logan was covering celebrations in Tahrir Square for “60 Minutes” shortly after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. “In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew,” the statement said. “She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers.”
While reporting on the unfolding revolution turned civil war in Libya, Addario, a close friend of mine, was kidnapped by Gaddafi loyalists in Libya with three other New York Times journalists — Tyler Hicks, Stephen Farrell and Anthony Shadid. They were held for six days last month before being released. First the captors bound the feet and hands of Addario and her colleagues. They then began grabbing Addario’s breasts and buttocks. When she cried, they punched her in the face, again and again.
On the first night, they blindfolded Addario and the other journalists and put them into an armored personnel carrier. “A guy covered my mouth. He said, ‘Don’t speak,’ ” Addario said. “He started grabbing me. He pressed up against me from the backside and was touching me all over. I was really pleading for him to stop. But he kept going the whole time we were in the tank.”
Addario spent the hours praying she wouldn’t be killed or raped.
“I just didn’t want them to take my clothes off,” she said. “In my experience, I don’t try to be very aggressive. I usually just plead. I would say, ‘Please don’t, I have a husband, please don’t.’ ” Since being released, Addario has been speaking openly about her attack because she wants to expose how Gaddafi’s troops treat prisoners.
Female reporters often say they feel for those who can’t catapult themselves out of these countries, places where wives, mothers and daughters have few legal rights. Their lives often include forced marriage, genital mutilation, beatings and a long list of daily indignities that make the problems of first-world women seem negligible.
“No matter what female reporters do, we can always leave,” said Tracy Wood, one of the pioneering war correspondents who contributed to “War Torn: Stories of War From the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam.” “What happens to the female civilians we leave behind? Women should cover war, because women have been living in war zones and in crumbling societies for thousands of years.”
Addario has done some of the profession’s most in-depth documentation of Afghan women who set themselves on fire to escape abusive marriages. In 2009, she won a MacArthur “genius grant” for her documentation of human rights violations, which were often crimes against women. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, she was able to enter homes and hospital wards where foreign men in many conservative societies would never be allowed access.
I think of the time I spent reporting in Congo, when male reporters cringed when I said I was working on a story about a hospital ward filled with women who had to have their vaginas reconstructed because the gang rapes by rebels were so brutal. “I won’t go near that story,” one male journalist said. I couldn’t allow myself to ignore it.
Readers agreed and sent the hospital huge donations.
Although there have also been sexual assaults on male reporters in these situations, one of the most dispiriting results of these high-profile assaults on female journalists has been the online commentators questioning whether women should be reporting in the Muslim world or covering war at all. In the one of most publicized examples, Nir Rosen, then a fellow at New York University’s law school, tweeted that Logan “was probably groped like thousands of other women.” He has since resigned for what Karen J. Greenberg, director of NYU’s Center for Law and Security, called “cruel and insensitive and completely unacceptable” comments.
But one positive outcome of the Logan and Addario assaults is that the challenges women face are now finally being openly discussed — and female correspondents are leading the conversation. For the first time, many female correspondents say they are urging editors to hold seminars with veteran female war correspondents to explain to young female reporters what to expect and to offer tips.
The New York Times held a paper-wide discussion with Addario and her colleagues. After the recent incidents, the Committee to Protect Journalists launched a widespread survey of female reporters and photographers in war zones — including those from the conflict areas — in order to document attacks. CPJ will also include guidelines on sexual assault in the next edition of its handbook.
“With the issue coming to light between Logan and Addario, women seem more willing to speak out, and we are getting a better picture of what’s going on,” said Lauren Wolfe, senior editor with CPJ. Right now, the committee keeps track of how many reporters get killed or arrested. But it doesn’t have data on rape or sexual harassment.
Many female correspondents have said in interviews that they would have benefited from an honest discussion about what to expect before heading off to South Asia or the Middle East. Some returning correspondents said they were suffering from various levels of post-traumatic stress disorder after harrowing experiences. Most female reporters say they don’t speak out because they fear their editors will see them as weak and take them off important stories. The dailyness of the incidents made the harassment seem like just another part of the job, like a stomach virus while covering a remote civil war or getting tear-gassed when reporting on a revolution.
“It’s astonishing to me that we talk about it so little,” said Tina Susman, who has worked for more than 15 years in Africa and the Middle East for Newsday, the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times. Susman says she traveled with an electronic device that sounded an alarm if anyone attempted to pry open her door.
“If I was an editor and sending a woman overseas, I would sit her down and tell her, ‘Some guy makes a pass at you, tries to enter your hotel room, grabs you and this is what you do,’ ” Susman said.
Centurion Risk Assessment Services, the gold standard of security training for journalists about to go abroad, currently doesn’t have a female trainer among its crew of former Marines, police officers and military intelligence officers.
“We have had female trainers in the past, but they did not cover gender issues any differently than what the male instructors did,” said Tim Holleran, a leader with the group. “Centurion is a small company, and all trainers need to be able to teach every subject.”
Holleran said that now, as a result of the Logan and Addario attacks, Centurion is going to more frequently discuss personal safety issues and the possibility of rape with female correspondents.
In 2002, I attended this program. Back then, I don’t remember discussing any gender issues. Several female correspondents told me they did get hit on by the Centurion trainers, though.Courtesy NBC Publicity
The most famous poet in American history sold a million copies of his book, back in the days when a million was a lot. He had his own weekly radio show and even, for a while, his own television show. His poetry was syndicated and appeared in hundreds of newspapers. For many years he published a new poem every day—and he did not miss deadlines. And yet, as fame goes, few people today know the name of Edgar Guest (1881-1959).
More interesting than the brevity of fame is the fact that Edgar Guest wrote his poems in dialect, with deliberate misspellings and apostrophes replacing the G in words ending with “ing.” The grammar, like the spelling, impersonates an unschooled, rustic speaker. Guest's lyric style is calculated to imply that uneducated country people have special access to wisdom and a special grasp of what's most important. His immense appeal for generations of readers was rooted in that populist idea, that true feeling and insight come from plain, unschooled country people. People in towns or cities who read Guest's work in the newspaper may have associated his poems with their farmer parents or grandparents.
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Along with nostalgia for that old rural life, the poems have an element of gentle condescension: an implicit, chuckling superiority along with the reverence. Guest's readers could admire his country speakers while also smiling at their dialect. If the stylized country language is clearly exaggerated beyond reality, that may have made it feel all the more amusing and reassuring.
Speculation about the nature of Guest's popular appeal is illuminated by the delicious fact that, far from any origins in rural America, this poet was born—a Brit! A native of Birmingham, England, he was 10 years old when he moved with his family to Detroit. Within a few years, he was a teenager working for the Detroit Free Press. From Birmingham (which of course had its own, Andy Capp dialect and traditions, which may have been a model) to Detroit: Edgar Guest was even less Appalachian than Bob Dylan.
This example from poetry gives a fresh way to think about things so familiar we barely notice them: political candidates who drop their G’s, or popular singers from American (or British) cities who perform in the dialect of rural Tennessee or the Mississippi Delta. Even the exaggerated, defiant spellings of hip-hop may share something with the calculated, artful misspellings of Edgar Guest.
What does it mean that, in a process accelerated long ago with the marriage of R & B with country, nearly all American popular music seems to be written in dialect? To my inexpert ear, some older stars, like Bruce Springsteen and Mos Def, still perform in language similar to how the performers actually speak. Springsteen's working-class characters are moving partly because he does not exaggerate their speech. In contrast, many white British singers of the blues sound far more black and American than Junior Wells or Buddy Guy. Across a range of genres, in the arcane subdivisions and niche variations of “hip-hop nouveau” and “retro country,” dialect seems to rule. In great-grandpa's day, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra sang so much the way they spoke that you can hear New Jersey in his singing, and maybe a touch of Yonkers in hers.
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Dialect has a long, honorable literary history, including Robert Burns and the humorist Artemis Ward, said to be Abraham Lincoln's favorite writer. Lincoln, before he read the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, tried to ease tension in the meeting by reading aloud—weeping with laughter as he did—Ward's comic piece “Outrage in Utica.” Here is the opening of the piece that cracked up Abraham Lincoln: “In the Faul of 1856, I showed my show in Utiky, a trooly grate sitty in the State of New York.” This example from that time and place may illustrate the limited shelf life of dialect, or of comedy itself. It also suggests that the unreal, inconsistent, made-up quality of the spellings (“sitty” but “New York”?) may be part of the point.
The dialect of Guest's work is synthetic, well-calculated and skillful, though with the passage of time he has become (for the likes of me, anyway) close to unreadable. Here is his best-known poem:
“Home”
It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home,
A heap o' sun an' shadder, an' ye sometimes have t' roam
Afore ye really 'preciate the things ye lef' behind,
An' hunger fer 'em somehow, with 'em allus on yer mind.
It don't make any differunce how rich ye get t' be,
How much yer chairs an' tables cost, how great yer luxury;
It ain't home t' ye, though it be the palace of a king,
Until somehow yer soul is sort o' wrapped round everything.
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Home ain't a place that gold can buy or get up in a minute;
Afore it's home there's got t' be a heap o' livin' in it;
Within the walls there's got t' be some babies born, and then
Right there ye've got t' bring 'em up t' women good, an' men;
And gradjerly as time goes on, ye find ye wouldn't part
With anything they ever used — they've grown into yer heart:
The old high chairs, the playthings, too, the little shoes they wore
Ye hoard; an' if ye could ye'd keep the thumb-marks on the door.
Ye've got t' weep t' make it home, ye've got t' sit an' sigh
An' watch beside a loved one's bed, an' know that Death is nigh;
An' in the stillness o' the night t' see Death's angel come,
An' close the eyes o' her that smiled, an' leave her sweet voice dumb.
Fer these are scenes that grip the heart, an' when yer tears are dried,
Ye find the home is dearer than it was, an' sanctified;
An' tuggin' at ye always are the pleasant memories
o' her that was an' is no more—ye can't escape from these.
Ye've got t' sing an' dance fer years, ye've got t' romp an' play,
An' learn t' love the things ye have by usin' 'em each day;
Even the roses 'round the porch must blossom year by year
Afore they 'come a part o' ye, suggestin' someone dear
Who used t' love 'em long ago, an' trained 'em jes t' run
The way they do, so's they would get the early mornin' sun;
Ye've got t' love each brick an' stone from cellar up t' dome:
It takes a heap o' livin' in a house t' make it home.
Click the arrow on the audio player below to hear Robert Pinsky read Edgar Guest's "Home."You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.
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The “thumb-marks on the door,” the death's angel, the roses in the last stanza: These are effective details, even though the opening exposition about “yer chairs an' tables” may be a bit repetitious and heavy. Guest is more willing to risk tedium than obscurity. In the concluding rhyme, “dome” may be lunged-for, and in language like “these are scenes that grip the heart,” Guest the literary man may be too visible behind his bucolic mask. But “Home” is far from incompetent: The poem is an expert performance, and its onetime popularity is understandable.
On the other hand, there is no element of surprise in Guest's poem, and nothing is left to the imagination. What the poem has to say about the idea of home is clear from the first line, and the rest is elaboration, in a certain manner. Here is another, quite different American poem about an idea of home. This one is by an American poet only six years younger than Guest, though they seem to inhabit different centuries:
“Silence”
My father used to say,
“Superior people never make long visits,
have to be shown Longfellow's grave
or the glass flowers at Harvard.
Self-reliant like the cat—
that takes its prey to privacy,
the mouse's limp tail hanging like a shoelace from its mouth—
they sometimes enjoy solitude,
and can be robbed of speech
by speech which has delighted them.
The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence;
not in silence, but restraint.”
Nor was he insincere in saying, “Make my house your inn.”
Inns are not residences.
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Click the arrow on the audio player below to hear Robert Pinsky read Marianne Moore's "Silence." You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.
Marianne Moore is a Modernist, and her poem is built on imagination and surprise, in how it moves and what it says. The old rose vines and little shoes of Guest's poem do their work efficiently and clearly: The reader understands them comfortably and completely. You can read the images, feel them, and forget them. Utterly different from that, the mouse's tail in Moore's poem dangles in the mind, with a meaning that while clear includes an indelible mystery. As an evocation of psychic privacy, the inaccessible interior peculiar to each of us guests and hosts, the image is inexhaustible. Moore's language, in a certain way, is more plain than Guest's elaborate countrification. On the other hand, the social class of “superior people,” Longfellow and Harvard is unabashed—in relation to our American evasions and confusions about class, you might call it shameless.
In another contrast, Guest elaborates, repeats and re-emphasizes; Moore amends, departs, contradicts, and revises herself: “in silence;/ not in silence, but restraint.” Even her repetitions involve movement, reversal or change of perspective: “and can be robbed of speech/ by speech which has delighted them.”
In the realm of poetry, the Modernist approach of Marianne Moore long ago replaced the reactionary, nostalgic, populist mode of Edgar Guest. But in ways easier to intuit vaguely than to describe precisely, the two contrasting modes, with their cultural and political forms and implications, are still with us.Jesus and Moses
Ralph van den Berg (22 May, 2008) Posted by:(22 May, 2008)
A burglar broke into a house one night.
He shined his flashlight around, looking for valuables; and when he picked up a CD player to place in his sack, a strange, disembodied voice echoed from the dark saying, "Jesus is watching you."
He nearly jumped out of his skin, clicked his flashlight off, and froze.
When he heard nothing more after a bit, he shook his head and continued.
Just as he pulled the stereo out so he could disconnect the wires, clear as a bell he heard, "Jesus is watching you."
Freaked out, he |
Kingdom or the year 1914.
Cameron: Actually, Jon, even the prophet Daniel didn’t understand the full meaning of what he was inspired to record!
Jon: Really?
Cameron: Yes. Here at Daniel 12:8, he says: “Now as for me, I heard, but I could not understand.”
Jon: I’m not the only one then. That makes me feel a little better.
Cameron: The truth is, Daniel didn’t understand because it was not yet God’s time for humans to discern completely the meaning of the prophecies in the book of Daniel. But now, in our time, we can understand them more fully.
Jon: Why do you say that?
Cameron: Well, notice what we read in the very next verse. Daniel 12:9 says: “The words are to be kept secret and sealed up until the time of the end.” So these prophecies would only be understood much later, during “the time of the end.” And as we will soon discuss in our Bible study, all evidence indicates that we are now living in that time period.
Jon: So, can you explain the prophecy in Daniel to me?
Cameron: I’ll do my best.Sardinia Church of San Lucifero (circa 1660), dedicated to Saint Lucifer. Cagliari
"Saint Lucifer" redirects here. For the biblical character, see Lucifer
Lucifer Calaritanus (Italian: Lucifero da Cagliari) (d. May 20, 370 or 371) was a bishop of Cagliari in Sardinia known for his passionate opposition to Arianism. He is venerated as a Saint in Sardinia, though his status remains controversial.
Life [ edit ]
Lucifer first appears in history as an envoy from Pope Liberius to the Emperor Constantius II, requesting the convening of a church council.[1] At the Council of Milan in 355, he defended Athanasius of Alexandria against Arian attempts to secure his condemnation by Western bishops. It was reported that Constantius II, a supporter of Arian theology, confined Lucifer for three days in the Imperial Palace, where Lucifer continued to argue vehemently on behalf of Athanasius.[2] Along with Eusebius of Vercelli and Dionysius of Milan, Lucifer was exiled for his opposition to the imperial ecclesiastical policy.[3] He was banished first to Germanicia, the see of bishop Eudoxius, thereafter to Palestine and finally to the Thebais in Egypt. While in exile, he wrote fiery pamphlets to the Emperor in which he proclaimed himself to be ready to suffer martyrdom for his beliefs.
Disciple of St Eusebius of Rome, he become a scholar in Greek and Hebrew languages, and then was baptized by the Pope Eusebius. St Lucifer wrote a well documented Vita S. Eusebii Vercellensis (from Latin, "Life of Saint Eusebius of Vercelli")[4].
After the death of Constantius and the accession of Julian the Apostate, Lucifer and other expatriated bishops were allowed to return from exile in 361 or 362.[5] However, he would not be reconciled to former Arians.[6] He opposed the Bishop Meletius, who came to accept the Nicene creed (and for that was driven out by Arians). Although Meletius had the support of many proponents of Nicene theology at Antioch, Lucifer put his support behind the Eustathian party which had unflinchingly stood by the Nicene creed, and prolonged the schism between Meletians and Eustathians by consecrating without licence a Eustathian, Paulinus, as bishop. He subsequently returned to Cagliari where, according to Jerome, he died in 370.[7]
He may have been excommunicated as is hinted in the writings of Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo, as well as Jerome, who refers to his followers as Luciferians. There is extant a work known as Libellus precum, which was written by two Luciferian clergy called Faustinus and Marcellinus. Jerome discusses Lucifer and his supporters in his polemic Altercatio Luciferiani et orthodoxi ("Altercation of a Luciferian and an Orthodox"),[8] as well as describing the bishop's career in De Viris Illustribus (chapter 95).
Alban Butler writes on the life of Athanasius of Alexandria, that Lucifer of Cagliari and some other bishops refused to accept back the bishops who accepted the Arian position. The lapsed, not withstanding their repentance, could no longer be admitted in the rank of bishop or priest. St. Athanasius condemned this excessive severity; and in 362 assembled the Council of Alexandria, at which assisted St Eusebius of Vercelli, in his return from banishment from Thebais, and St. Asterius of Petra. This synod condemned those who denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost, and decreed that the authors of the Arian heresy should be deposed, and upon their repentance received only to the lay-communion; but those prelates who had fallen into it only by compulsion, and for a short time, should, upon their repentance, retain their sees. (Conc. t. vii. pp. 73 and 680.) [9]
Alban Butler writes of the life of Saint Jerome as he reflects on the history of the Council of Alexandria in 362: This indulgence, of forgiveness offered to the repentant Bishops, displeased Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari, a person famous for his zeal and writings against the Arians, in the reign of Constantius. St. Jerome composed a dialogue against the Luciferians, in which he plainly demonstrates, by the acts of the Council of Rimini, that in it the bishops were imposed upon.[10] Constantius, for the purpose of wearying out the orthodox bishops (Sulpitius Severus says: E.H.., ii, 41), delayed allowing the bishops home, keeping them there for several months until they finally accepted the Sirmian Creed.[11]
Works [ edit ]
Lucifer of Cagliari's surviving writings, all of which date from the period of his exile, are directed against Arianism and reconciliation with heresy. His works are written in the form of speeches delivered directly to Constantius and repeatedly address the emperor in the second person throughout. His main writings are Moriundum esse pro Dei filio (The Necessity of Dying for the Son of God), De non conveniendo cum haereticis (On not Coming Together with Heretics), De regibus apostaticis (On Apostate Kings), De non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus (On not Sparing those who Commit Offences Against God) and the two books of Quia absentem nemo debet iudicare nec damnare, sive De Athanasio (That No One Ought to be Judged or Condemned while Absent, or Concerning Athanasius). His texts quote extensively from the Bible and so are useful as sources for the Vetus Latina. Also extant is a pair of letters which are allegedly correspondence between Lucifer and the emperor's secretary Florentius on the subject of some of Lucifer's inflammatory works that he had sent to Constantius.
Veneration [ edit ]
Lucifer's status as a Saint is a matter of controversy. According to John Henry Blunt's 1874 Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious Thought,
“ The Church of Cagliari celebrated the feast of a Saint Lucifer on the 20th of May. Two Archbishops of Sardinia wrote for and against the sanctity of Lucifer. The Congregation of the Inquisition imposed silence on both parties, and decreed that the veneration of Lucifer should stand as it was. The Bollandists defend this decree of the Congregation... contending that the Lucifer in question is not the author of the schism, but another Lucifer who suffered martyrdom in the persecution of the Vandals."[12] ”
A chapel in Cagliari's cathedral is dedicated to a Saint Lucifer. Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy, wife of Louis XVIII of France, is buried there.[13]
Opinions about Lucifer vary among Catholics who know of him; some consider him to have been "the champion of correct belief against Arianism and friend of St. Athanasius,"[14] while others consider him to have been a religious fanatic who ferociously berated his opponents.[3]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Oilers acquire second-round draft pick by Edmonton Oilers Press Release / Edmonton Oilers
General Manager Steve Tambellini announced today the Edmonton Oilers have acquired a second round pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for forward Andrew Cogliano.
THE BUZZ: What people are saying on social media
THE BUZZ: What people are saying on social media AUDIO: Steve Tambellini talks to Bob Stauffer about the Cogliano trade
AUDIO: Steve Tambellini talks to Bob Stauffer about the Cogliano trade AUDIO: Andrew Cogliano speaks on Oilers Lunch on being traded to Anaheim The acquired pick now gives Edmonton eight selections in the 2013 Entry Draft.
Cogliano, 24, was drafted by Edmonton in the 1st round, 25th overall, in 2005. In 328 career games with the Oilers, the Toronto, Ontario native had 146 points (57G, 89A).
Edmonton Oilers hockey is presented in part by the Rexall Family of Pharmacies, Molson Canadian, ATB Financial, Cenovus Energy and Ford.
The acquired pick now gives Edmonton eight selections in the 2013 Entry Draft.Cogliano, 24, was drafted by Edmonton in the 1st round, 25th overall, in 2005. In 328 career games with the Oilers, the Toronto, Ontario native had 146 points (57G, 89A).
View LessThe UFC’s return to Northern Ireland in November has a new addition to the lineup, and a veteran heavyweight will make his promotional debut.
UFC officials today announced a UFC Fight Night 99 booking between Mark Godbeer (13-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC) and unbeaten Justin Ledet (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC).
UFC Fight Night 99 takes place Nov. 19 at SSE Arena in Belfast, and the entire card streams on UFC Fight Pass, though the bout order hasn’t been finalized. It’s the first of two cards on Nov. 19; UFC Fight Night 100 takes place later in the day in Brazil.
England’s Godbeer has won three straight fights, all by TKO under the BAMMA banner in the U.K. In October 2013, Godbeer fought UFC vet Cheick Kongo at Bellator 102, but was stopped with a second-round TKO. After 18 months off, he went on his current streak. All 11 of the 32-year-old’s wins are by stoppage with nine knockouts and a pair of submissions.
Ledet made his UFC debut in August with a unanimous decision win over Chase Sherman at UFC Fight Night 92 in Salt Lake City. The 28-year-old Houston-based fighter started his pro career in 2010 and was 5-0 by mid-2012. But then he took more than three and a half years off before returning with fights for the Rage in the Cage and Legacy FC promotions earlier this year.
In May, Ledet saw his fight with Brice Ritani-Coe end in a no-contest when Ritani-Coe couldn’t continue after an accidental eye poke at Legacy FC 55 (see the highlights below). All six of Ledet’s wins are by stoppage with four submissions and a pair of knockouts.
With the addition, the latest UFC Fight Night 99 card now includes:
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Gunnar Nelson
Ian McCall vs. Neil Seery
James Krause vs. Ross Pearson
Amanda Cooper vs. Anna Elmose
Mark Godbeer vs. Justin Ledet
For more on UFC Fight Night 99, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.That’s a real thing. Christian Identity Ministries exists. Hell, this is their fourth conference.
So why only White Christians? The organizers explained using all of the wisdom at their disposal:
The organizer of the event, Rev. William C. Collier says that his Church of God’s Chosen (Christian Identity Ministries) is not a hate group but adds that he believes “the white race is God’s chosen people.” … … Collier said, “We don’t have the facilities to accommodate other people. We haven’t got any invitations to black muslim events. Of course, we are not invited to Jewish events and stuff.” If someone is offended too bad“
I can’t understand why groups wouldn’t invite these guys to their parties…
Brace yourself for the onslaught of Christians explaining why these Christians aren’t really Christians.With hopes of boosting user and brand engagement while also decentralizing the digital duopoly of Google and Facebook, Kik, the messaging app, is creating its own cryptocurrency.
Today, the Canada-based company is debuting Kin, and the digital currency will become the primary payment method for transactions on the platform. Kin—which will be created as an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain—will exist not just within the Kik, but other platforms and companies will also be able to adopt it.
According to Kik Chief Marketing Officer Erin Clift, the system will create a currency that will help democratize how users pay for experiences, products and services. The cryptocurrency could also make it easier for developers to create businesses outside of walled gardens like Facebook. (Users can earn and redeem Kin within Kik without using traditional currency, while anyone can buy or sell Kin through the public Etherum blockchain.)
“I think that the end result is a better suite of experiences,” Clift told Adweek in an interview. “More compelling content, more choice for consumers, and whether they engage on that, inside Kik or elsewhere on this network, it’s still good for the ecosystem.”
Kik and Facebook have both spent the past year building out their own chatbot platforms. And just as publishers have begun expressing frustrations with how controlled they are (Google and Facebook collectively receive an estimated 85 cents for every new dollar spent on digital advertising), developers getting into the chatbot game might soon find themselves in a similar situation, where their revenue and success are in large part determined by what their host companies decide. According to Clift, the “unbalanced economics” of the current digital ecosystem could potentially stifle innovation across companies.
Kin’s economic model allows users to earn the currency in a variety of ways, such as through interacting with chatbots and other services on the platform that are created by brands, publishers and other companies. Brands might find Kin as a useful way to reward people for carrying out various tasks or activities, such as offering Kin in exchange for posting about them or interacting with an experience. Users can then spend their Kin on interactions with a chatbot or through tipping.
The inspiration comes in large part from Bitcoin, which has grown rapidly in value the past few months and this month reach a record high of $2,500. A nonprofit Kik is setting up called the Kin Foundation will govern the currency and will circulate a set amount every day for developers. Similarly to how the value of Bitcoin rises depending on the number of daily transactions, as more users and developers transact with Kin, the more it will be worth.
The company is also inspired by the use of digital currencies on other platforms, namely the messaging app WeChat, which has become a major player in the world of mobile payments in China over the past few years.
There are also challenges. First and foremost will be getting users and developers to use Kin enough for it to maintain its relevancy and value. However, Kik has some past experience with this model. A few years ago, the messaging app created Kik Points as a pilot to see if they could get people to spend a digital currency on the platform. Kik said the daily value of the currency increased, with daily global transactions three times as high as they were on Bitcoin.
If Kik can get its 300 million registered users (15 million monthly users) to adopt the use of Kin, it’ll have a head start. Later this year, it will conduct a token distribution event where it will sell 10 percent of Kin reserves and begin integrating the currency into the Kik platform. Sometime after that—likely later this year or early in 2018—it will set up the Kin Rewards Engine and the Kin Foundation.
The plan has already won one supporter, Union Square Ventures partner and Kik board member Fred Wilson.
“We believe cryptocurrency is the next important business model innovation in tech,” he said in a statement. “Kik will be the first mainstream application to integrate a cryptocurrency. This could be a watershed moment for the blockchain sector.”It's official: following months of negotiations, Google now has an airfield to call its own. The company's Planetary Ventures wing has signed a lease with NASA that lets it manage Moffett Federal Airfield, including three hangars, two runways and even a golf course. The 60-year (!) deal will have the internet giant shell out $6.3 million per year in upkeep, and a total of $1.16 billion in rent. Don't worry that Google will run roughshod over Moffett's historical significance. The agreement also has the company pledging $200 million to both restore the hangars and create a previously promised educational building that illustrates the airfield's role in Silicon Valley's past. Google hasn't said exactly what it plans to do with the new turf, but the odds are that it'll be used for much more than executives' private jets. Don't be shocked if you see some internet balloons floating over Mountain View in the years ahead.
[Image credit: Erik Charlton, Flickr]Rockstar games like GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption could be given virtual reality makeovers at some point in the future.
According to Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick (via Tweaktown), virtual reality support all depends on whether VR takes off as a consumer platform.
If it's a success, then Rockstar and Take Two will pursue it aggressively.
"I've talked about VR in the past - there's a lot of excitement in the marketplace, and a lot of our people are excited too," Zelnick said. "We're still in our R&D route because this still isn't a consumer business.
"If this is the consumer's platform of choice, we'll bring our IPs to it aggressively and ambitiously."
Rockstar
Of course, GTA 5 has already been given the unofficial VR treatment by modders.
However, GTA 5 VR modder Joseph Delgado reckons the game might be too violent for virtual reality.
"I'm really not sure about this," he said. "I feel horrible about making this. You actually feel guilty. My mouth dropped the first time I shot someone in my GTA: V VR setup."
Rockstar recently outlined its "feature-rich" plans for GTA Online over the course of the next few months.
Players can expect more stunt moves, vehicles and features, as well as new Adversary modes and a follow-up to 'Executives and Other Criminals'.This was right at the end of our two-year stint as Peace Corps volunteers in Ecuador. My wife and I were heading back to site on a bus snaking its way through the Andes.
The voyage was indeed long and painful, more so than usual. Maybe it was because we had been traveling for about a week now, probably spending half that time sitting down on various buses, but the hours were starting to feel like days. Three bus rides out of the Oriente and we made it to Latacunga, one more five-hour trip before we’d be able to hop on the back of a pickup and take it an hour more back to site.
The buses from Latacunga were probably some of the worst in the country. Where I’d classify the majority of Ecuadorean buses as too small, the three or four bus lines that cross the Andes from Latacunga to La Maná were even smaller. And these buses were always packed. They left the Latacunga terminal full, and then after crawling through city traffic for two or three blocks, there would be another stop to let on a couple dozen or so more people. Most of these latecomers would be indígenas who lived throughout the various mountain communities along the route. The aisle would be packed with people standing against the seats, the women’s long, traditional shawls hanging in the faces of all the people sitting down.
The indigenous people lived apart even from other Ecuadoreans. Their fellow countrymen were practically foreigners, so us gringos might as well have been from another planet. On those crowded buses, even though tickets were sold with assigned seating, you needed to board very early and claim your seat as soon as possible. You might hop on the bus only to find an indigenous family of four sitting in your seats.
Thankfully this never happened to us, but I’ve seen confrontations like this play out in a very formulaic way. The person would ask them to get up, showing them the ticket with the seat number. This person would be ignored. The next act would be to request help from the bus driver or his ayudante, who would also try to get them to move. This would also be ignored. Maybe the passengers might say something in Kichwa that nobody else understood. And that was usually as far as these situations went.
On this particular trip, we had our seats and the bus was packed. Half an hour or so out of Latacunga, the bus stopped outside of a bakery. My wife and I had always noticed this exact stop, everyone got off the bus and bought bags of bread. Whenever we took this trip, we were always so exhausted from just settling into our seats, so we never felt compelled to go and check out what the fuss was all about. But we only had a month left to go before our service was over. I was starting to feel nostalgic for all of the things that would soon be nothing but memories. I got off to get some bread.
After two years in country, I knew how the lines worked. Everybody walked right up to the front and shouted out their orders. “Fifty cents worth,” I held out my money. The lady working the counter ignored me and proceeded to help everyone else. I started getting impatient, especially as more people started entering the store long after I did and were served before me. I kept repeating me order, but my presence wasn’t even acknowledged. Finally after everyone in the store was helped, as the bus started honking and revving its engine, the lady handed me my bread without a word and took my money.
I’m not looking for special treatment, but I just hated it when random people acted as if I barely existed. No matter how comfortable I felt in Ecuador, no matter how well I spoke Spanish, no matter how many friends I had back in Pucayacu, as soon as I left the comfort of site I was just another dumb gringo, just another tourist at the mercy of the crowd.
Pissed off, I hopped on the bus just as it was pulling away. And as soon as I got on the bus, I ran straight into a bar running alongside the aisle, slamming my head right above my left eye. I’ve hit my head countless times in Ecuador, but this easily had to be the worst. I was actually stunned. For a second, all I saw was white, my every sense consumed by a liquid fire that ran from my head and spread throughout every nerve ending in my body. I couldn’t breath. I could barely stand up.
The initial agony passed and I regained my senses to see four or five teenagers pointing and laughing at me, not even trying to hide how funny they thought the whole situation was. I was overcome with a rage that I hadn’t felt in a while. I can take the pain, I can take the humiliation, but I was absolutely fed up with being laughed at. Everything I did was under scrutiny. Every time I misspoke, every time I tripped over my own feet, every time I asked the wrong person the wrong question, I was laughed at. Every time I spoke in English, every time I walked by a group of people, every time I took a breath, I felt like people were taunting me. The constant spectacle that was my presence was enough to paralyze me, to make me spend days at a time indoors without showing my face in town. When I even suspected people laughing at me, I withdrew into myself, tried to ignore it, to block it out, to wait for the embarrassment to pass, hoping my face wasn’t red.
But this time was different. Maybe all of those repressed feelings had been bottled in for too long. Maybe the pain from the collision prevented me from swallowing my pride and finding my seat. But I lashed out. I got right in their faces and started cursing at them in a mixture of English and Spanish.
“Motherfucking chuchas,” I screamed through clenched teeth, “you want to laugh at me? I’ll give you something to laugh about!” The teenagers immediately stopped and recoiled in shock. That’s right, I thought to myself, not so tough now. I went on for another thirty seconds or so of rage, holding my head and lecturing them about how you shouldn’t laugh when somebody hurts themselves.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. My wife pulled me back.
“Rob, your head,” she said with a worried look on her face.
I pulled my hand away from where I had hit myself. It was red. There was blood running down the side of my face. My rage turned into shock and I sank meekly back into my seat, feeling suddenly very vulnerable and very hurt. The ayudante gave me a roll of toilet paper and I rolled up a bunch to put pressure on the lump that was beginning to grow. I was starting to shake. Finally coming to my senses somewhat, I looked around the bus to find every single person staring at me, open mouthed, not saying a word. I wanted to die. I wanted to disappear. Even worse, I felt like I wanted to cry. It was probably one of the most humiliating moments of my time in Ecuador. I felt like an asshole gringo who hit his head and took it out on a bunch of kids. As much as I loved my time in Ecuador, this had to be the absolute low point. I was sick of being the foreigner, the real or imagined butt of other people’s jokes, the source of everyone’s entertainment. I spent the next four hours nursing my wound, closing my eyes, and imagining that I was on a plane back to New York.Vacations are considered a source of happiness and an essential ingredient for quality of life (Filep, 2012; Richards, 1999). As the longest chunk of leisure time that relieves people from job stress and leaves them free to do as they please, holidays are viewed as a means to preserve and to restore full working capacity.
But holidays also come at a price. In the UK, a legal minimum of 5.6 weeks of annual vacation adds up to roughly 840 million unproductive days. In addition, each British family spends about two months’ salary on their holidays. Are vacations worth this investment of time and money? What benefits can employees expect during their time off and after returning to their work? Is there anything people can do to increase or prolong the benefits of their vacation? And do holidays render employers a recovered, productive and better-performing work force?
Pre-vacation perils
The next holiday is booked. In the coming weeks, you can lean back and dream about relaxing under a palm tree, drinking cocktails and quality time with your family, right? Unfortunately, research suggests otherwise.
A longitudinal study following 96 Dutch workers in the two weeks before their vacation found that health and wellbeing decrease in the last week before departure. This decline was related to rising levels of workload and was even more pronounced in women, who additionally experienced a rise in home load (Nawijn et al., 2013). And more danger lurks in the transition phase between busy working weeks and a holiday period.
Physical complaints within the first days off seem to be a widespread problem with different names, such as transitory stress, environment shock or leisure sickness (see also tinyurl.com/pvngj7t). Several studies suggest that the start of a holiday period is for many people spoiled by high blood pressure, poor sleep quality, bad mood and lack of initiative, as well as more serious bodily symptoms such as fever, migraine or an upset stomach (Blasche et al., 2012; Pearce, 1981; Vingerhoets & Van Huijgenvoort, 2002).
The etiology of these phenomena is not yet well understood, but many symptoms show a striking resemblance to immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, which originates in sudden deprivation of corticosteroids, major stress hormones (Nehls, 2012; Van Heck, & Vingerhoets, 2007). Imagine the reaction of your car engine if you changed from fifth gear directly to first gear. In the same manner, a stressed human body working on full-speed in the weeks preceding a holiday has trouble with downshifting in a flash.
Let’s say you are able to smoothen the transition period and master the start of the holiday without any complaints. Which benefits are still to come? Is a vacation worth the extra effort and preparation stress at work and at home?
Holiday resort as last resort?
On the positive side, two long-term epidemiological studies have suggested that you may actually lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and even premature coronary death (Eaker et al., 1992; Gump & Matthews, 2000). One study was part of the famous, still ongoing ‘Framingham Heart Study’, a study of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Boston University that has been medically examining healthy adults annually since 1948 in order to investigate the relation between cardiac health, lifestyle, environmental factors and inheritance. They identified infrequent holidays as an important risk factor for heart diseases.
However, these two studies and a third study by a team of Japanese researchers (Tarumi et al., 1998) also found that people who go on vacation regularly tend to have a healthier lifestyle in general, for instance regarding smoking, exercising, sleep and nutrition. This shows that in order to fully understand the potential benefits of vacations, longitudinal, individual-level studies that investigate people’s health and wellbeing before, during and after vacation are needed.
In 2009 we meta-analysed the available evidence about vacation effects on employee health and wellbeing (De Bloom, 2009). Until then, only seven studies had systematically examined these effects. They revealed small decreases in exhaustion and health complaints as well as small increases in life satisfaction after vacation that had vanished within two to four weeks after resuming work.
In order to gain more detailed information on the development of wellbeing, our research team from the Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands set up a series of longitudinal studies in about 250 Dutch employees (De Bloom et al., 2010, 2012, 2013). We found that self-reported employee health and wellbeing, measured with one-item indicators via telephone interviews, increased during vacation. The magnitude of this improvement was medium-sized in terms of effect sizes. Within the first week of resuming work, workers’ wellbeing lapsed to pre-vacation levels, regardless of the type or length of their holiday. Subjective vacation experiences, such as relaxation, pleasure in and control over one’s daily activities, turned out to affect wellbeing changes more than the type of activity people engaged in during their trip.
These individual-level findings have recently been supported by Terry Hartig and his team’s study of national level drug consumption and vacationing. By combining data from the Swedish pharmacy corporation, the national health care system and governmental data on vacation taking in the period between 1993 and 2005, they laid bare a significant relationship between the number of people on vacation and a decline in antidepressant consumption (Hartig et al., 2013).
Summing up, vacations from work seem to have positive, though short-lived effects on wellbeing. This is particularly so for vacationers who are able to relax, have fun and enjoy high levels of autonomy during their trip. But happy workers are not necessarily productive, high-performing workers. So, what can bosses expect when granting their staff time off?
A ticket to high job performance?
Surprisingly, systematic research on the relation between vacationing and job performance is scarce. Let’s first look at the evidence generated by a team of researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and Tennessee State University, who reviewed 39 studies about school performance after summer holidays (Cooper et al., 1996). Compared with spring achievement test scores, pupils performed worse after summer holidays, especially in maths and spelling. This decline was even greater in pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The researchers hypothesise that the decrease in school performance is related to a lack of practice and differential availability of learning materials, meaning that well-off parents practise maths and reading with their kids during holidays while poorer parents don’t.
So much for schoolchildren. But how about working adults, who have considerably shorter holidays than school kids and different tasks awaiting them on return? Fascinatingly, a study (discussed on National Public Radio: tinyurl.com/l2qmt3v) has described rather similar declines in performance for surgeons. Jason Hockenberry and Lorens Helmchen (2014) compared mortality rates for patients whose surgeon has operated the previous day and patients whose surgeon had not. They found a small increase in mortality rates in the latter group. Even though the effect was very small and there are possible alternative explanations such as scheduling the sickest patients first after the surgeons’ return, this study suggests that time off work may result in skill depreciation in highly specialised professions. Please note that this study was conducted in the United States, where employees are entitled to a meagre 10 days of annual leave. How would the results look in Europe, where each worker enjoys a more lavish allowance?
Actually, several international studies have reported spikes of hospital fatalities due to medical errors and complications in summer time, a phenomenon referred to as the ‘July effect’ or, more dramatically, the ‘killing season’. It is speculated that this effect is mainly related to the influx of newly qualified doctors during this time of the year and seasonal variations in complaints (due, for example, to heat waves). But according to Michael Englesbe and his research team in their 2007 paper, the absence of experienced senior staff due to vacation schedules may exacerbate the problem.
Does this mean employers should rather try to prevent their staff from taking holidays? Better not! In line with the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll & Shirom, 2001), recovery researchers have speculated that long periods of free time would enable workers to restore lost resources, which they could use after starting to work again. Correspondingly, a series of diary studies in Swiss and German samples have indeed proved that workers who feel mentally and physically refreshed in the morning experience their work as effortless, are willing to help colleagues and display other forms of organisational citizenship behaviours as well as high self-rated task performance (Binnewies et al., 2009, 2010).
What might the size of such an effect be? In a CNBC interview, audit firm executive Maryella Gockel claimed that ‘for each 10 vacation hours a person took, we found on average that performance reviews were 8 per cent higher’. Findings from the few existing scientific studies on this topic seem to match this claim. Using samples of German and US workers and repeated measurements before and after the respite, Fritz and Sonnentag (2006) and Lounsbury and Hoopes (1986) found that employees rated their job performance higher after taking a holiday. In addition, a study by Mina Westman and Dahlia Etzion (2001), involving a sample of 87 Israeli blue-collars workers before and after a factory shutdown, found that rates for short absenteeism for unclear reasons (i.e. without medical attest), decreased from 63 per cent before to 44 per cent after the company holiday. It appears that holidays can actually work for employers.
Recover to discover
According to a press release of the US Travel Association, two out of three American executives believe that vacationing improves creativity at work. The ability to ‘think outside the box’, to produce novel, original and useful problem solutions, is vital to drive civilisations forward and adapt to change (Hennessy & Amabile, 2010).
In recent years, several studies have demonstrated that people who have lived abroad show higher levels of creativity (for an overview, see Leung et al., 2008). For instance, William Maddux and Adam Galinsky (2009) conducted several experiments in their lab during which students had to work on creativity tasks such as the Dunker candle problem, negotiation and drawing tasks or the Remote Associates Test. They found that students who had lived abroad and adapted to a foreign culture solved the tasks more creatively than students who lacked this international experience. But can considerably shorter periods abroad also improve creativity?
To answer this question and to also address the problem of reversed causality in earlier studies (that is: it’s the creative students who go abroad rather than a stay abroad making them more creative), we set up a longitudinal field study (De Bloom, Ritter et al., 2014). In this study, we examined creativity with the help of an idea-generation task in 46 Dutch workers before and after a three-week summer holiday. Each generated idea was blindly rated by three trained raters independently. Not surprisingly, we found that the ideas after the holiday were as original as before. A trip to Cuba does not make you a Hemingway. However, it also turned out that the range of ideas produced by each person was more diverse after vacation, indicating higher levels of mental flexibility. This means, after returning home from a vacation, workers are slightly more likely to consider different aspects of a problem and avoid reliance on conventional ideas and routine solutions. Travel may actually broaden the mind!
It is not yet clear what the underlying mechanisms for this type of change are. A prime suspect is removal from work strain. Job stressors such as time pressure and cognitive or emotional demands deplete people’s psychophysiological resources by demanding constant attention. Stressed people are more likely to display routine, well-rehearsed behaviour patterns, because their attention and effort is focused on salient job stressors. In this situation, creative ideas are less likely to come to awareness (Fredrickson, 2001; Martindale, 1999).
This suggests that moments free of job stress are important for human functioning. But how often can we experience these moments |
-constructed jump tables aren't always faster than what the compiler generates. (The code is at https://github.com/tokenrove/dispatch-comparison, but I wouldn't recommend using it for anything.)Think you're a huge country music fan? Wait until you see these dogs. The canines we picked for our Best Videos of Dogs Singing Country Songs list belt it out as if they were competing on some furry version of'American Idol.'
But these dogs aren't looking for fame or fortune. They just love to sing (though, there are a few divas in the bunch). From Miranda Lambert singalongs to Gretchen Wilson fetishes, and from barking out Jason Aldean renditions to crying out multiple Sugarland hits, these dogs are big fans of the twangin' genre -- even though some of them are super tiny. Click through to check out the most hilarious country singing dog videos on the web, and let us know which singing pup is your favorite!The scale of financial inequality across the world is simply mind boggling. Some 45.9 percent of global household wealth is currently controlled by just 0.7 percent of the planet's population. Those 36 million individuals own $128.7 trillion according to a new report released by Credit Suisse. The shocking extent of the wealth gap can be seen on the following infographic which is based on the report's global wealth pyramid.
Below that top 0.7 percent, another 391 million people own $111.4 trillion (39.7 percent of global wealth), despite accounting for only 7.9 percent of the planet's population. The base of the pyramid is most poignant and it illustrates how 3.47 billion adults (70 percent of the total) share a wealth of $7.6 trillion or just 2.6 percent of total wealth. Credit Suisse is expecting a 22 percent increase in dollar millionaires by 2022. The number of adults stuck in the base of the pyramid with $10,000 or less is expected to fall by only 4 percent during the same timeframe.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)By Barbara Starr
Al Qaeda's affiliate inside Syria is now the best-equipped arm of the terror group in existence today, according to informal assessments by U.S. and Middle East intelligence agencies, a private sector analyst directly familiar with the information told CNN.
Concern about the Syrian al Qaeda-affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the al-Nusra Front, is at an all-time high, according to the analyst, with as many as 10,000 fighters and supporters inside Syria. The United States has designated al-Nusra Front as a terrorist group with links to al Qaeda in Iraq.
That assessment is shared by some Middle Eastern intelligence agencies that have long believed the United States is underestimating the Sunni-backed al Qaeda movement in the country, according to a Middle East source. It is also believed that Iran is running training camps inside Syria for Hezbollah and that other Iranian militia fighters are coming into the country to fight for the regime.
The analyst has been part of recent discussions with the U.S. intelligence community, which is urgently working to understand what is going on inside the war-ravaged country and is consulting outside experts. The analyst, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the information, stressed that all assessments about Syria are approximate at best because of the lack of U.S. personnel on the ground.
With the growing strength and support for al-Nusra, U.S. concerns are growing about its influence to further destabilize Syria and potentially pose a greater regional threat, administration officials have told CNN.
"They are making desperate attempts to get chemical weapons," the analyst told CNN, noting that in the past few weeks, security services in Iraq and Turkey arrested operatives who were "trying to get their hands on sarin."
A senior U.S. intelligence official told CNN recently that gathering intelligence on Syria, including its potential future use of chemical weapons, is now one of the top priorities of the U.S. intelligence community.
The Obama administration announced last week that it will start arming rebels because Syria crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapons - including sarin gas - against the opposition.In this three-part series we interview pop artist Mindy Gledhill and classical pianist Dustin Gledhill regarding their new electronic synth-pop project called Hive Riot.
From the Hive Riot Press release:
Rooted in the Beehive State, but stretching to Manhattan (where Dustin lives), Hive Riot is the sound of letting go. Officially, though, it’s the sound that indie pop darling, Mindy Gledhill, and classical virtuoso, Dustin Gledhill, make when joining forces.
Dustin Gledhill was a prodigy piano virtuoso, performing Gershwin and Rachmaninov with symphonies by the age of seven. He’s endlessly musically pedigreed (Juilliard, Royal Academy of Music, Manhattan School of Music) and has been an innovative collaborator with dance productions from London to New York to New Orleans.
Mindy Gledhill, a tireless and relentlessly seeking artist herself, has taken her artistry around the world—singing on two Kaskade albums, a #1 single in Korea, placing songs on major TV networks and in national ad campaigns, a mini-series with Scripps Network about renovating and touring in her vintage tour bus and most recently renovating a 100 year old blacksmith shop into a recording studio.
The two of them together are an electric alchemy and, yes, the sound of letting go. And, in that letting go, you hear the sound of celebration, of liberation. The songs are a synthy, dance-fueled party, hosted by Cyndi Lauper and CHVRCHES. And every great party has its afterparty and there are downtempo, after hours songs here too.
We all have something to let go, something to celebrate, something to move on from, something to move on towards. And Hive Riot is the soundtrack.A GROWING number of Scots are converting to Islam - with the majority young women.
Glasgow Central Mosque alone is now seeing more than 200 Scots a year'revert'. Due to the rising number of Scots finding Islam, mosques across the country are also setting up support groups for new'reverts'. Many are fearful of abuse and intimidation.
Reversion is the preferred term within Islam for those who 'convert' - as Muslims believe everyone is born believing in Allah.
The Sunday Herald spoke to Hannah, a 25-year-old administrator from Glasgow who recently “reverted”. Hannah asked for her surname to be kept confidential. Though brought up without any particular faith, Hannah is one of a growing number of Scots who are turning to Islam despite what many see as a “demonisation” of the religion.
“I’d done a degree in comparative religion and had to analyse all the religious texts,” said Hannah. “I went away from that thinking that maybe I should be a Christian.
“But a few months later, while meditating, I found myself pulled in the direction of Islam. After that I started reading again, but this time in a more emotional way. I found I preferred the simplicity of Islam.”
After mulling it over for six months, she decided to revert. In July this year, she visited Glasgow Central Mosque to take the Shahada – a declaration of faith in front of two witnesses, in which Allah is recognised as the only God.
Her conversion was shared online by the Glasgow Central Mosque along with others including 20-year-old Jade from the Shetland Isles, and Katie, also 20 and an administration worker from Glasgow, who made her Shahada last month.
Glasgow Central Mosque says numbers of “reverts” have been gradually rising and they are now dealing with up to four conversions a week. Along with the Edinburgh Central Mosque, it has now started support groups for new Muslims. The total number of converts is not known, but according to a report by Faith Matters, 5,200 people now join the UK-wide Muslim population of three million every year. Scotland’s community is significantly smaller at 90,000 people, over one-third of whom live in Glasgow.
Rizy Mohammad, a co-ordinator at the Glasgow Central Mosque, said: “We are seeing an influx, particularly in the number of women expressing an interest in Islam. I don’t think there is one reason for it but it’s interesting that after 9/11, where Muslims were blamed for the bombing of the twin towers, a lot of people started doing their own research. Many found out more about Islam that led them to different conclusions.
“There is also the spiritual dimension. They’ve been part of the material world, done the shopping thing and now they are looking for a
deeper connection.”
But for many reverts, it is not an easy transition. High-profile conversions of white Muslims such as Richard Dart, who is serving a six-year jail sentence for plotting an attack on soldiers in Royal Wootton Bassett, mean alarm bells often sound for family members.
“Because of the extent of Islamophobia in the media, my mum, who is a Pagan, thought that I was going to join IS,” said Hannah. “People see the violent, loud things. They don’t see the quiet Muslims who aren’t
doing anything bad. My brother told her not to be so ridiculous and after about a week she came round. Now she makes sure that I don’t drink when I come to her house and even cooks halal for me.”
Hannah has also found some of the more conservative aspects of the religion, which still segregates men and women at places of worship, difficult to deal with. She admits she has taken off her hijab in parts of the city where she perceived the reaction to Muslim men and women wearing full traditional dress to be less than supportive. Since converting she has not been swimming due to concerns about covering up, and finds it hard cycling while wearing a hijab.
A 2013 Cambridge University study about women’s experience of conversion claimed it was “not for the faint-hearted”.
“I think in Islam men and women are equal but different,” said Hannah. “But I also think there are some cultural issues with equality.”
Jay (not his real name), who converted less than three months ago after a near-death experience with drugs, said that while some friends had asked if he was going to travel to Syria and fight for IS, most people have been positive about his decision. Before his conversion, he said, he worked and partied too hard, and lived for the weekend.
“One of my colleagues in particular was keen to know why I converted,” said Jay. “He wanted to know how I could give up the clubs, drink and girlfriends, and now spend my time praying.
“I told him that now I had inner peace. I could now go to sleep at night. A few weeks later he also became Muslim.”
However, other converts have been left disillusioned. Dawud Duncan, originally from Oban, who became Muslim nine years ago, believes the lack of support from fellow “heritage Muslims” - people born into Islam -has led some reverts to leave their newfound faith.?“When a person takes the Shahada they are treated like a superstar and everyone wants to know their story,” he said. “However, within a week they can be left to their own devices. This can make the individual feel very isolated as they are often caught between two communities.”
Duncan, who now lives in Glasgow, currently hosts an online radio programme for converts and also aims to set up a support and advocacy group. He hopes that issues raised by the group can be taken up by the leadership of the mosque to help avoid
future problems.
“New Muslims have so much to offer the Muslim community and Scotland,” said Duncan. “This would include a fresh perspective and a deeper understanding of the cultural issues our society faces. Converts find it easier to explain Islam to a Scottish audience.”
His experience chimes with that of Saleem Mcgroarty, 43, from Edinburgh, a member of the Edinburgh Muslim Community Association who was raised a Catholic and converted to Islam at 26.
He no longer attends his local mosque due to concerns about its links to Saudi Arabia, a country with a very conservative approach to Islam, and has found it hard to integrate.
Mcgroarty said: “I think there should be some emotional and community support, a buddy network; the things you really need when you are moving into another world.”A few days ago Jeff Shrager posted that James Markevitch translated some 1966 BBN paper tape source code with the oldest known Eliza program. (Jeff’s site, elizagen.org, tracks the genealogy of Eliza.)
Picture from elizagen.org
The 1966 Eliza code is on github.
Jeff’s post prompted some historical context from Jeff Barrett:
The original Eliza was moved to the ANFS Q32 at SDC (one of the (D)ARPA block grant sites) in the mid 1960’s. The programmer responsible was John Burger who was involved with many early AI efforts. Somehow, John talked to one of the Playboy writers and the next thing we knew, there was an article in Playboy much to Weizenbaum’s and everybody else’s horror. We got all sorts of calls from therapists who read the article and wanted to contribute their “expertise” to make the program better. Eventually we prepared a stock letter and phone script to put off all of this free consulting.
The crisis passed when the unstoppable John Burger invited a husband and wife, both psychology profs at UCLA, to visit SDC and see the Doctor in action. I was assigned damage control and about lost it when both visitors laughed and kept saying the program was perfect! Finally, one of them caught their breath and finished the sentence: “This program is perfect to show our students just exactly how NOT to do Rogerian* therapy. *I think Rogerian was the term used but it’s been a while.
A little latter we were involved in the (D)ARPA Speech Understanding Research (SUR) Program and some of the group was there all hours of day and night. Spouses and significant others tended to visit particularly in the crazy night hours and kept getting in our way. We would amuse them by letting them use Eliza on the Q32 Time Sharing System. One day, the Q32 became unavailable in those off hours for a long period of time. We had a Raytheon 704 computer in the speech lab that I thought we could use to keep visitors happy some of the time. So one weekend I wrote an interpretive Lisp system for the 704 and debugged it the next Monday. The sole purpose of this Lisp was to support Eliza. Someone else adopted the Q32 version to run on the new 704 Lisp. So in less than a week, while doing our normal work, we had a new Lisp system running Eliza and keeping visitors happy while we did our research.
The 704 Eliza system, with quite a different script, was used to generate a conversation with a user about the status of a computer. The dialogue was very similar to one with a human playing the part of a voice recognition and response system where the lines are noisy. The human and Eliza dialogues were included/discussed in A. Newell, et al., "Speech Understanding Systems; Final Report of a Study Group,” Published for Artificial Intelligence by North-Holland/ American Elsevier (1973). The content of that report was all generated in the late 1960s but not published immediately.
The web site, http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/LISP/, has a little more information about the Raytheon 704 Lisp. The SUR program was partially funded and on-going by 1970.The death of John F. Kennedy is the most obvious conspiracy of American history. The killing of his brother Robert F. Kennedy was carried out by a man who admitted to being a mind-controlled slave. “John John”, JFK’s insanely popular son died in a mysterious plane crash. Was the “Kennedy curse” actually a way of removing the Kennedys from the power?
This is the third and final part of the series of articles on the Kennedys. It is suggested that you read the first and second parts first.
As discussed in the second part of the series, John F. Kennedy’s short presidency was filled with confrontations with powerful groups including the Federal Reserve, the CIA, and big oil companies. Many of Kennedy’s moves appear to have been conscious efforts to bring power and influence back into the hands of a democratically elected government, out of the hands of the elite acting as a hidden government.
The Kennedy family, an American dynasty with rapidly growing wealth and power, had the potential and the popular support to stay in power in Washington for a long time. However, a long list of strange deaths and strange events continually impeded the Kennedys’ reign in America. The infamous “Kennedy curse” on America’s Royal family includes many mysterious assassinations and suspicious “accidents”, but the most infamous of them all is JFK’s assassination.
JFK Shot by a Patsy
John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 pm on Friday, November 22, 1963. He was shot once in the throat, once in the upper back and once to the head. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired was arrested and charged with the murder. Oswald denied shooting anyone and claimed he was a patsy. Here’s a short video of him claiming he was a patsy:
After the JFK’s death, the Warren Commission was set up by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, to investigate the assassination. It is important to note that Johnson has continually opposed many of Kennedy’s key policies and that he quickly reversed many of them upon taking office. Additionally, one of the main figures of the Commission, Allen Dulles, was an ex-CIA chief who had been fired by JFK. Partly for these reasons, the credibility and the conclusions of the Warren Commission are still highly contested today.
The Commission concluded that JFK’s assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald, a lone gunman with psychological issues, who also happened to be a Communist.
It is apparent, however, that Oswald was moved by an overriding hostility to his environment. He does not appear to have been able to establish meaningful relationships with other people. He was perpetually discontented with the world around him. Long before the assassination he expressed his hatred for American society and acted in protest against it. Oswald’s search for what he conceived to be the perfect society was doomed from the start. He sought for himself a place in history—a role as the “great man” who would be recognized as having been in advance of his times. His commitment to Marxism and communism appears to have been another important factor in his motivation. He also had demonstrated a capacity to act decisively and without regard to the consequences when such action would further his aims of the moment. Out of these and the many other factors which may have molded the character of Lee Harvey Oswald there emerged a man capable of assassinating President Kennedy.
– Warren Commission Report, Chapter 7: Unanswered Questions
Oswald’s past is extremely murky and some aspects of it might be pure fabrication. In the years prior to the assassination, the Commission established he held several low-paying jobs, never lasting more than a few months. Nevertheless, he managed to defect from the United States to live in Russia where he learned Russian, before returning to America with a Russian wife. Back in America, Oswald reportedly espoused Marxist views while moving from job to job, and then grabbed a rifle and killed the President of the United States.
In the years following the Warren Commission, new information surfaced about Oswald, much of which points to him actually being a government agent. Several sources revealed that Oswald was in constant contact with FBI and CIA agents. It was even discovered that he operated a “pro-Communist” organization in the same building as government agent offices.
One of Oswald’s Fair Play for Cuba leaflets had the address “544 Camp Street” hand-stamped on it, apparently by Oswald himself. The address was in the “Newman Building” which, from October 1961 to February 1962, housed a militant anti-Castro group, the Cuban Revolutionary Council. Around the corner but located in the same building, with a different entrance, was the address 531 Lafayette Street—the address of “Guy Banister Associates”, a private detective agency run by former FBI agent Guy Banister. Banister’s office was involved in anti-Castro and private investigative activities in the New Orleans area (a CIA file indicated that in September 1960, the CIA had considered “using Guy Banister Associates for the collection of foreign intelligence, but ultimately decided against it”)
– 544 Camp Street and Related Events, House Select Committee on Assassinations – Appendix to Hearings, vol. 10, 13, pp. 123–4.
Oswald was also found to be in contact with Guy Banister’s associate, David Ferrie. According to Victor Marchetti, an Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director of the CIA, Ferrie also had connections to the CIA. Less than a week after the media reported that David Ferrie was being investigated for his links to Lee Harvey Oswald, he was found dead in his apartment under mysterious circumstances.
Like many other elite-controlled patsies, Oswald was “silenced” before he even went to trial. He was shot by a man with mob connections named Jack Ruby (short for Jacob Leon Rubenstein) on his way out from the court.
Ruby’s first explanation for the murder was that Oswald’s death would spare “Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial.” However, as time passed, information surfaced hinting that Jack Ruby was actually an agent hired to “terminate” Lee Harvey Oswald because his job as a patsy was done. The House Select Committee, set up in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of both JFK and Martin Luther King, noted that several security breaches allowed Ruby to easily access and shoot Oswald.
The committee was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting … There is also evidence that the Dallas Police Department withheld relevant information from the Warren Commission concerning Ruby’s entry to the scene of the Oswald transfer.
In March 1965, a year after his conviction, Jack Ruby conducted a brief televised news conference in which he stated:
“Everything pertaining to what’s happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motives. The people who had so much to gain, and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I’m in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world.”
When asked by a reporter, “Are these people in very high positions, Jack?”, he responded “Yes.”
According to an article in the London Sunday Times, shortly before he died, Ruby told psychiatrist Werner Teuter that the assassination was “an act of overthrowing the government” and that he knew “who had President Kennedy killed.” He added: “I am doomed. I do not want to die. But I am not insane. I was framed to kill Oswald.”
Ruby died from lung cancer shortly after these statements. According to Dallas Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox, Ruby had suspected that he was injected with cancer cells.
“Ruby told me, he said, ‘Well, they injected me for a cold.’ He said it was cancer cells. That’s what he told me, Ruby did. I said you don’t believe that bullshit. He said, ‘I damn sure do!’ [Then] one day when I started to leave, Ruby shook hands with me and I could feel a piece of paper in his palm… [In this note] he said it was a conspiracy and he said … if you will keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, you’re gonna learn a lot. And that was the last letter I ever got from him.”
Marrs, Jim (1989). Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy
Although specific details surrounding JFK’s assassination and those involved in it will probably forever remain murky, by stepping back and contemplating the big picture, things can become a little clearer. After decades of new data and revelations, it is fairly obvious from the evidence available that JFK’s assassination was sponsored by high-level figures using patsies to commit the deeds. In the end, every single individual involved in the assassination died shortly after the events.
The true culprits of the assassination, the occult elite, those who run the country through a shadow government, were never even accused. However, several researchers have demonstrated that JFK’s death was more than a political assassination: It was an occult ritual meant to solidify the occult elite’s power, to traumatize the masses and mark a new era of American history.
The Killing of the King
When we look at JFK’s assassination through the eyes of occult secret societies – who attach enormous importance to ritual, symbolism, and numerology – powerful and undeniable facts stand out. According to occult researchers, JFK’s death was an extreme and wide-scale reenactment of one of Freemasonry’s most important mythology: The killing of Hiram Abiff.
In Freemasonry, initiations for the Third Degree involve a ritual drama reenactment of the killing of its most important figure, Hiram Abiff, by three “ruffians”. Like Hiram Abiff, JFK was shot three times – to the throat, to the chest, and to the head. During the initiation of the Third Degree candidates, Masons enact a ritual drama where the candidate plays the role of Hiram Abiff being killed by three ruffians. Here’s a transcript of the ritual.
“Our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff!” exclaims the ruffian; “he is the very man I wanted to see.” [Seizing the candidate by the throat at the same time, and jerking him about with violence.] “Give me the Master Mason’s word or I’ll take your life!” The conductor replies, “I cannot give it now, but if you will wait till the Grand Lodge assembles at Jerusalem, if you are found worthy, you shall then receive it, otherwise you cannot.” The ruffian then gives the candidate a blow with the twenty-four inch gauge across the throat, on which he fled to the west gate, where he was accosted by the second ruffian, Jubelo, with more violence, and on his refusal to comply with his request, he gave him a severe blow with the square across his breast, on which he attempted to make his escape at the east gate, where he was accosted by the third ruffian, Jubelum, with still more violence, and on refusing to comply with his request, the ruffian gave him a violent blow with the common gavel on the forehead, which brought him to the floor; on which one of them exclaimed, “What shall we do? We have killed our Grand Master, Hiram Abiff!”
– William Morgan, Illustrations of Masonry
The shooting took place in Dallas, at Dealey Plaza, just a few miles off of the 33rd Degree latitude. This geographical fact is primordial in Masonic symbolism as the 33rd Degree is the highest degree attainable in Scottish Rite Freemasonry. It is most likely for this reason that the nearby river is named the Trinity River.
Considered to be the “birthplace of Dallas”, Dealey Plaza features an obelisk (a Masonic monument) topped by the torch of Illumination.
The site of JFK’s killing was therefore extremely significant in Masonic symbolism. It was located at the 33rd latitude, near the Trinity River, in Dealey Plaza – a site adorned with a Masonic obelisk. (Noteworthy fact: The first nuclear bomb exploded exactly on the 33rd latitude.) The location was named Trinity Site … and a Masonic obelisk now identifies the area.
The Killing of the King rite was accomplished at another Trinity site located approximately ten miles south of the 33rd degree of north parallel latitude between the Trinity River and the Triple Underpass at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Dealey Plaza was the site of the first masonic temple in Dallas. In this spot, which had been known during the 19th century cowboy era as “Bloody Elm Street,” the world leader who had become known as the “King of Camelot,” President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was shot to death. A widely publicized image which has become perhaps the key symbol of the enigma of the Kennedy hoodwink, emerged immediately in the wake of the assassination: a photograph of three “tramps” in official custody, who were later unexplainably released and never identified, though speculation about who they really were has reached fever pitch among investigators. This photograph is a ritual accompaniment of the Black mass that was the ceremonial immolation of a king, the unmistakable calling card of masonic murder, the appearance of Jubela, Jubelo and Jubelum, the three “unworthy craftsmen” of Temple burlesque, “that will not be blamed for nothing.” This ritual symbolism is necessary for the accomplishment of what James Shelby Downard and I described in the first edition of Apocalypse Culture, as the alchemical intention of the killing of the ‘King of Camelot’: “…the ultimate purpose of that assassination was not political or economic but sorcerous: for the control of the dreaming mind and the marshaling of its forces is the omnipotent force in this entire scenario of lies, cruelty and degradation. Something died in the American people on Nov. 22, 1963—call it idealism, innocence or the quest for moral excellence. It is the transformation of human beings which is the authentic reason and motive for the Kennedy murder…” The seemingly random and senseless slaughter of a President, the week before Thanksgiving, by having his head blown apart in those now infamous Zapruder film frames, is the signpost of humanity’s entry into what David Cronenberg in his Videodrome Rosicrucian cinematic manifesto termed, “Savage New Times.” The search for the three assassins has become a trip up and down Tim Finnegan’s ladder, a ladder containing “one false step after another.” It is a masonic riddle several magnitudes above the pedestrian, CIA-Mafia-Anti-Castro-Castro-KGB-Texas rightwing etc. etc. political “solutions” pushed by the various books and movies which sometimes only serve to confuse and demoralize us all the more.
– Michael Hoffman III, Secret Societies and Psychological Warfare
It is important to note that some of the most important heads of the Warren Commission, which concluded that JFK’s death was the result of lone gunman Oswald, were high-level Freemasons.
It is also interesting to note that Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Earl Warren, was himself a 33rd degree Freemason, who was Grand Master of California from 1935 to 1936. He was also Potentate of Aahmes Shrine, and an officer in two Scottish Rite Lodges in Oakland, California. He was also a member of the Bohemian Club, and gave several lakeside speeches at Bohemian Grove, which is located north of San Francisco, in the small wooded town Monte Rio, California. His Warren Commission was filled with Freemasons. Gerald R. Ford, J. Edgar Hoover, and Allen Dulles were all 33rd degree Freemasons as well. Abraham Zapruder himself, was a 32nd degree Freemason, and after the assassination, he was raised to the 33rd degree, for his part in the assassination plan. Other high-level Freemasons directly involved in the murder of JFK included Lyndon Baines Johnson and George Bush Sr., both of whom were 33rd degree Freemasons, as well as Bush Sr. belonging to Yale University’s Skull and Bones occult society.
– Kentroversy Papers, “Dealey Plaza: Esoteric Freemasonic Symbolism in the Death of JFK”
Destroying the Legacy
After JFK’s death, there were still Kennedy family members who had the potential to keep America’s Royal Family in power. The first one was JFK’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy. He had the name, the vision, the experience, and the momentum to easily become U.S. President. However, his ascent to power was cut even shorter than his brother’s.
Robert F. Kennedy
Although he lived in the shadow of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy (also known as Bobby or RFK) was an important part of JFK’s Presidency. As the 64th U.S. Attorney General, RFK was the President’s closest adviser and exercised widespread authority over every cabinet department. The Associated Press even dubbed him “Washington’s #2 Man”.
A few years after JFK’s assassination, Bobby Kennedy entered the race to become the Presidential candidate of the Democratic party. The themes and policies promoted by RFK were not only a continuation of his brother’s work, they went a step further. RFK stood on a platform of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social improvement. He was particularly popular with Black and Native American communities and often spoke of the “disaffected”, the impoverished and the excluded.
On June 5, 1968, just after winning the California Primary, which would secure his ticket to becoming a Presidential candidate, RFK was shot three times by Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian man.
Lawrence Teeter, attorney for convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan, stated that Sirhan was under the influence of hypnosis when he fired his weapon at Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Teeter even mentioned that Sirhan was a product of the CIA’s MKULTRA program and that mind control techniques were used to control Sirhan. Sirhan’s attorney further added that Sirhan had been hypno-programmed to be a diversion for the real assassin and that Sirhan would be easily blamed for the assassination because he is an Arab. According to court papers :
Sirhan “was an involuntary participant in the crimes being committed because he was subjected to sophisticated hypno programming and memory implantation techniques which rendered him unable to consciously control his thoughts and actions at the time the crimes were being committed.”
Sirhan, now 67 years old, is still behind bars and remains one of the most obvious MK patsies used by the occult elite to carry out its agenda.
John F. Kennedy, Jr.
Americans fell in love with John F. Kennedy Jr. (also known as John-John), when he was a toddler photographed playing under his father’s desk. As a grown man, John-John was a full-fledged celebrity, with the kind of popularity that was only rivaled by the British Royal family. In a short period of time, he singled-handledly rekindled the Kennedy-mania of the 1960s.
Ambitious, well-spoken, handsome, and comfortable with the spotlight, John-John was identified by many as the man who would bring the Kennedys back to the White House. Several times, Kennedy was asked publicly if he was interested in following in his father’s footsteps and choosing politics as a career; he replied that he was declining to do so for the time being, but would not rule it out for the future. In 1999, Kennedy was seen as a frontrunner for the New York Senate seat vacated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the state’s senior senator.
Shortly after this political breakthrough, John-John died in a small plane crash, along with his wife. Many observers stated that the events surrounding the crash were suspect and that there were indications of a cover-up. Here’s a 2001 news article describing how important footage and photographs of the plane crash mysteriously “vanished”:
JFK, Jr Air Crash Site Video Footage Vanishes Video and photographic evidence from the site of the plane crash that killed John F. Kennedy jnr has either been destroyed or mysteriously gone missing as a family court battle looms over the accident. The US Navy has conceded it destroyed up to eight hours of video footage taken by divers recovering the bodies of Mr Kennedy, his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, in the waters off the island of Marthas Vineyard in July 1999. At the same time, a large quantity of photographs has apparently been lost between the navy and the organisation empowered to investigate aircraft accidents, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The developments have given rise to claims that the Kennedy family used its political influence to have the images destroyed before they could go to a court and become publicly available. The family already endures frequent rebroadcasting of amateur footage of the assassination of Mr Kennedy’s father, president John F. Kennedy, in a 1963 shooting during a motorcade in Dallas. Family members did not want to suffer the same pain over John jnr’s death by being subjected to constant replays of graphic footage of the recovery operation. Navy divers filled four 120-minute VHS cassettes with footage during the operation. The film included their discovery of Mr Kennedy’s body, wedged from the waist down between the seat and instrument panel of the plane and his arms waving back and forth in the current. It also showed the bodies of Ms Carolyn Bessette and her sister lying crushed and partially obscured behind Mr Kennedy. A freedom of information application by a United States newspaper seeking access to the film forced the navy to concede at the weekend that it had burned the tapes “out of respect for the family”. However, the NTSB said it had told the navy it did not need the footage because it had been able to recover almost all the wreckage and determine a cause of the accident from that. The Bessette family’s lawyers believe the videos would have been crucial to their pending court actions seeking damages from Mr Kennedy’s estate. The Bessette sisters’ mother, Ms Ann Freeman, and father, Mr William Bessette, are preparing separate suits based on the official finding that the deaths were caused by pilot error on Mr Kennedy’s part. The Kennedys recently offered Ms Freeman $US10 million ($18.6 million) from Mr John F. Kennedy jnr’s $US100 million estate. The offer was turned down.
– Sydney Morning Herald, Feb 13th 2001
With his tragic death, which stunned and traumatized the masses yet again, hopes for a second-generation Kennedy President evaporated.
The Kennedy Curse
Below is a list of the main events considered to be part of the “Kennedy Curse”. While it is unlikely that every single one of these events was a result of a conspiracy against the family, it is difficult to ignore the strong pattern of synchronicity, aka “meaningful coincidences”, associated with the Kennedys.
1941—Rosemary Kennedy was often believed to have been mentally challenged. Some sources have claimed she was suffering from mental illness, such as depression and schizophrenia. Because of her increasingly violent and severe mood swings, her father, Joe, Sr., arranged in secret for her to undergo a lobotomy. The lobotomy instead further impaired her cognitive abilities, and as a result, Rosemary remained institutionalized until her death in 2005.
August 12, 1944—Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. died when his plane exploded over East Suffolk, England, as part of Project Anvil |
track slicks.
Pretty Affordable Price Tag
As if it didn’t have enough on its engineering plate, Dodge even had to make sure buyers would be able to insure the new Demon, lining up exotic and classic car specialist Hagerty Insurance as the official backer.
While Dodge officials won’t discuss the cost of the project, they admit it wasn’t cheap. They also revealed that they ran the project as a skunkworks program, hoping corporate beancounters wouldn’t kill it.
They’re not going to make the development costs back on sales. According to Kuniskis, the target is just a limited run of 3,300 of these ultimate muscle cars, 300 for Canada and the rest targeted for American buyers.
Pricing hasn’t been determined, though the “intention” is to keep the figure below $100,000.” By comparison, exotic cars making anywhere near the Demon’s performance numbers can surge into the multi-million dollar range.
Related: Jeep Rolls Out 707 hp Grand Cherokee Trackhawk
“It’s not about selling lots of cars,” said Kuniski. “It’s about getting every Dodge owner and possible customer to look at this and want to be part of the Dodge brand.”
That shouldn’t be difficult considering the attention the new Dodge Demon is already getting.After fishing of the orange roughy, a deepwater fish, started, populations collapsed within 15 years (Image: Kim Westerskov/Getty)
In an autumnal ritual as unvarying as migrating geese, European Union officials head back to Brussels next week – to fight over fish. But this time they might protect Europe’s richest and most threatened ecosystem, the deep seabed.
They will discuss proposals to ban deep-sea trawling. Now in the first study of its kind, researchers have discovered just how deep the trawling should go.
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Joanne Clarke of the University of Glasgow and her colleagues say that if trawling should go deeper than 600 metres, the percentage of a catch that is commercially valuable plummets, as deepwater species increase. If deeper trawling was banned, biodiversity would be protected with minimal loss to fisheries, they say. Existing EU proposals, backed by France, allow trawling to 800 metres, however.
Most fishing takes place on the relatively shallow continental shelves. But fishers have increasingly targeted the deep sea, the world’s largest ecosystem and one of its most biodiverse.
Fish at this depth can live more than a century, and breed very slowly, making them vulnerable to overfishing. Scientists set catch quotas to prevent overfishing, but these have sometimes been too high even for fast-breeding species like cod and have failed for deepwater fish.
For example, New Zealand started fishing for one deepwater fish – known as the slimehead but renamed orange roughy for the trade – in the 1980s. By the 1990s, populations had collapsed.
Undaunted, Europe started fishing orange roughy off Ireland in the 1990s. The fishery collapsed by 2002, says Matt Gianni of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition in Amsterdam.
Vessels also catch and discard many commercially worthless fish at this depth, including threatened species of shark and ray. Heavy nets hauled across sea beds destroy fragile ecosystems including corals – which are among the planet’s oldest creatures.
The EU bans trawling in “vulnerable” areas, mostly seamounts dominated by corals. But researchers at the University of Plymouth calculated in 2013 that this protects less than half the corals and even less of other communities such as deepwater sponges.
In 2012 the European Commission proposed more comprehensive limits on deep sea catches. Spain, France and Scotland have opposed them.
Clarke’s team looked at data from scientific trawl surveys from 1978 to 2013. They found that biodiversity in the nets shot up as they went below 400 metres, with 18 new species every 100 metres.
But the percentage of the catch discarded climbed too – from a quarter at 600 metres to nearly two-thirds at 1300 metres. Even commercial fish in the catch were often too small to keep. The percentage of sharks and rays, known to be highly threatened, also shot up below 600 metres.
Taken together, says Clarke, the evidence shows that collateral ecological damage rises sharply as trawls go deeper than 600 metres. “Meanwhile there’s less commercial gain per unit effort and per area fished.”
That might be why relatively few vessels fish that deep, landing just 1 per cent of Europe’s catch – and why, other research has shown, they probably wouldn’t bother without subsidies.
Moreover, says Gianni, banning trawling under 600 metres would protect 85 per cent of corals, and all of the other fragile ecosystems. The question now is whether Europe’s fisheries ministers – who have a track record of disregarding scientific advice – will accept the evidence.
Journal reference: Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.070B.C. voters are unusually well-prepared for the looming debate on electoral reform given a pair of past referendums on the subject, says a prominent advocate in those votes held over the past dozen years.
The issue of changing the way B.C. voters elect their politicians is now in play given demands from the BC Green Party that electoral reform be a condition for winning its support in a possible minority parliament, subject to recounts expected to be completed next week of results in the provincial election.
"We had two referendums in a row and a lot of people who didn't know anything about electoral reform learned something through that process, enough to cast a ballot, yes or no," says Bruce Hallsor, who was co-chair of the Yes side in both the 2005 and 2009 votes, which both failed.
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"So I venture to say we probably have a more educated electorate on electoral reform than most provinces who haven't been through that process."
Mr. Hallsor, a Victoria lawyer, says British Columbia's effort to grapple with this issue will have national implications because the political system needs to be fixed, particularly the lack of connection voters feel to their elected representatives between and even during elections.
"You can't change it without changing the way we elect people," he said. "If [reform] gets implemented somewhere in Canada, it will gain traction, and I think it will spread."
The reckoning looms because of the provincial election, which saw the BC Liberals win 43 seats, the NDP 41 seats and the BC Greens three seats. To govern, the Liberals or NDP will have to win over the Greens, who are demanding electoral reform as a condition of support.
Both BC Liberal Leader Christy Clark and NDP Leader John Horgan have spoken of the need for change.
"As we learned in 2009 and 2005, it's a hard thing to do, This may be the catalyst to doing it," Mr. Hallsor said.
Back then, the referendums came about because of then-BC Liberal leader Gordon Campbell. In the 1996 election, the Liberals won the popular vote, but lost the election to the NDP, which gained more seats. That prompted Mr. Campbell to promise change if he won power. He promised a citizens' assembly to design the change, and a referendum for voters to decide whether to enact it. When the BC Liberals won the 2001 election, Mr. Campbell launched the process for reform.
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However, referendums that took place at the same time as the 2005 and 2009 elections failed to meet the 60-per-cent threshold for approval of a single transferable vote system in which voters would have ranked candidates by preference, even if they were from different parties, and candidates with the highest levels of support would have been elected.
Hamish Telford, a political scientist at the University of the Fraser Valley, said the lesson from the B.C. experience is that it is challenging to have such reforms approved through a referendum.
He said New Zealand's experience offers a path forward.
In that country, there was an initial referendum in 1992 on a system that allowed more proportional voting: It asked if voters wanted to replace the first-past-the-post system and then asked them to choose from four electoral options. That referendum passed by 85 per cent as did a second one in 1993 on the specific new system proposed. The first election with the new system was held in 1996. In 2011, there was a further referendum on whether to keep the new system. It passed with 58 per cent support.
Still, Prof. Telford said it was unclear in the current "charged" B.C. political environment whether there is the focus to organize such reform. "In the B.C. case, with whoever forms the government having a razor-thin hold on [power,] I am not sure they can devote the energy or will have the time to sort it out before we go back to the polls."
Electoral reform was not part of the BC Liberal platform in this year's election, but Ms. Clark's office this week pointed to 2009 comments she made as a CKNW radio talk-show host for an indication of her views. Back then, Ms. Clark told her listeners she had campaigned against a single-transferable-vote system before, but was then urging voters to approve it in the referendum.
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At the time, Ms. Clark said politicians campaigning against the idea were afraid of change, but that it was a good idea. "First, it will force all politicians to compete for all of your votes. Candidates will be looking to be your first choice, but if not, then your second, or your third," she said. "In this context, no MLA will be safe forever, and every vote will be counted. We will stop throwing vast numbers of votes in the garbage once one candidate gets their 35 per cent."
On Tuesday, Ms. Clark was asked about her current position. She acknowledged her past support for electoral reform and Green Party interest in the issue. "I think the NDP don't really have a position on it," she added.
In fact, throughout the 2017 election campaign, Mr. Horgan touted a party commitment to fix a voting system the NDP platform said gave all power to parties that don't even get 50 per cent of the vote. "We'll hold a referendum on changing our voting system to a proportional system so that every vote counts," read the platform.
In an interview after the election last week, Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver said change is integral to the party. "We believe that our democracy is broken and so we will push for that," he said. "There's some compromise in there, obviously, for how that plan plays out."
Mr. Weaver said one option may be to enact reform and then have the public vote in a referendum. He also said B.C. might be able to borrow some ideas from the federal electoral reform process suspended by the Trudeau government. "I don't know that we need to rediscover the entire wheel there," Mr. Weaver said.
Mr. Hallsor said he opposes a system cooked up in a "backroom deal" by the parties. "It should be something that is endorsed by the people," he said. "If the people passed it in a referendum, it would make it very politically difficult for a future government to tinker with it. If it's brought in by legislation, any government can change it."Welcome to the Balance Community: Slackline Outfitters homepage! Here at Balance Community, you will find nothing but professional slackline gear for the dedicated slackliner, which has all been designed and tested by slackliners. We are devoted to providing our customers with the highest quality gear possible in order to maximize their slackline experience while minimizing the effort needed to achieve it.
Check out our various categories for the latest in slackline gear while catching up on all of our slackline adventures in our PRO-Team pages. There is a lot of useful information about slacklining in our Slack Science Blog.
If you have any questions or comments about slacklining, our products, or the website, please feel free to Contact Us and we would be glad to help you out.
Good luck out there and remember to keep it slack!NO MANS SKY day! Today No Mans Sky releases on PC and this marks the beginning of the end of the summer game draught. From this moment onwards we can all ignore the warmer weather and hunker down inside, to play the next wave of big hitting game releases. Closely following No Mans Sky release is Deus Ex Mankind Divided, which is out in just 11 days. So to mark this I decided to offer everyone a chance to get free copy of one these two games.
So to clarify, one lucky winner will be able to choose one of those two games as their free game prize.
How do you get involved in this free game giveaway? Its the usual setup here that anyone can be in with a chance of winning. The more actions you commit below the more chance you have of winning this free game giveaway.
A quick note - dont try to cheat the system as it logs people that have suspicious behaviour and removes them from the winner selection draw, and it doesn't tell you that it's removed you.
Deus Ex is not out yet. And so if you are the lucky winner you may choose your game but I will not send this out to you until the game has released.
The competition will last until Tuesday 16th August. At which point the competition system will draw a lucky winner, who I will get in touch with and ask which game they would like from No Mans Sky or Deus Ex Mankind Divided.
How do I get in touch? Via smoke signals, so look to the sky. Ok, no I send an email or contact you via Twitter or Facebook or Steam or directly on GD, depending on how you enter and win. So make sure your email address is valid.
For those who just want to complete a quick entry you can also just jump in to the competition with our Tweet button below or by installing our GD Anywhere Extension. Anyone with the extension will automatically be in with a chance of winning.
Tweet
WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT : Aaaaand the lucky winner is E.TotoKril from Netherlands for submitting a Tweet. And they chose a copy of Deus Ex Mankind Divided as their prize. Congratulations buddy! I will pass you a copy of this once it releases next week. Please drop by in the comments section below to talk to your fellow GD'ers. More competitions soon everyone! Hugs, FelixJavaScript unit testing frameworks: Comparing Jasmine, Mocha, AVA, Tape and Jest [2018]
[Updated 2018]
When starting development on a new front end project, I always ask myself two questions: “Which JavaScript unit testing frameworks should I use?” and “Should I even spend time adding tests?”
My colleagues often write about how unit tests are great for peace of mind and reducing software errors. So I always make the time to test. But which framework should you choose for your project? Before rushing into any decisions, I investigated five of the most popular JavaScript unit testing frameworks so you can decide which one is best for you.
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JavaScript Unit Testing Frameworks: A comparison
Jasmine
One of the most popular JavaScript unit testing frameworks, Jasmine provides you with everything you need out-of-the-box.
Comes with assertions, spies, and mocks, so pretty much everything you may need to start developing your unit tests. Jasmine makes the initial setup easy and you can still add libraries if you really require unit functionality
Globals make it easy to start adding tests to your app right away. Although I dislike globals, Jasmine provides developers with everything you need out-of-the box, and there isn’t much inconsistency
I found the standalone version made it easy to see just how everything is setup and you can start playing around with it right away
Integrates with Angular 1 and Angular 2 alongside many popular libraries today
My thoughts on Jasmine
I’m not a fan of having the globals populating the environment, so Jasmine does lose a few points in my book there. Otherwise, it has good variety of features out of the box. It does seem slightly “older” than the other frameworks on this list but that is not necessarily a bad thing and any pain points would have been encountered by others, meaning they should be easy to resolve.
AVA
A minimalistic testing library, AVA takes advantage of JavaScript’s async nature and runs tests concurrently, which, in turn, increases performance.
AVA doesn’t create any globals for you, therefore you can control more easily what you use. I think this brings extra clarity to the tests ensuring that you know exactly what is happening
Taking advantage of the async nature of JavaScript makes testing extremely beneficial. The main benefit is minimizing the wait time between deployments
Contains a simple API which provides you with only what you need. This can be nice if you would like mocking support, but you’ll have to install a separate library
Snapshot testing is provided via jest-snapshot which is great when you’d like to know when your application’s UI changes unexpectedly.
My thoughts on AVA
Ava’s “highly opinionated” minimalist approach, alongside them not populating the global environment, earns itself big points in my book. The simple API makes tests clear. AVA is certainly a library you should check out when selecting your JavaScript unit testing frameworks.
Tape
The most minimal of all the frameworks on the list, Tape is straight to the point and provides you with the bare essentials.
Just like AVA, Tape doesn’t support globals, instead requiring you to include them yourself. This is nice as it doesn’t pollute the global environment
Tape contains no setup/teardown methods. Instead it opts for a more modular system where you will need to define setup code explicitly in each test making each test more clear. It also stops the state being shared between tests
Typescript/coffeescript/es6 support
Easy and fast to get up and running, Tape is a JavaScript file that you run anywhere that’s running JavaScript, without an overloading amount of configuration options
My thoughts on Tape
Tape contains an even lower-level, less feature rich API than AVA, and is proud of it. Tape has kept everything simple, giving you only what you need and nothing more. This is why Tape rates highly in my book and one of the best JavaScript unit testing frameworks, as this allows you to focus more your efforts on your product and less on which tool to use.
Mocha
Arguably the most used library, Mocha is a flexible library providing developers with just the base test structure. Functionality for assertions, spies, mocks, and the like are then added via other libraries/plugins.
If you want a flexible configuration, including the libraries that you particularly need, then the additional set up and configuration required for Mocha is something you definitely need to check out
Unfortunately the above point does have a downside, which is having to include additional libraries for assertions. This does mean that it’s a little harder, if not longer, to set up than others. That said, setting up is generally a one-time deal, but I do like being able to go a “single source truth” (documentation) instead of jumping around the show
Mocha includes the test structure as globals, saving you time by not having to include or require it in every file. The downside is that plugins just might require you to include these anyway, leading to inconsistencies, and if you are OCD like me it will eventually drive you mad!
My thoughts on Mocha
The extensibility and sheer number of different ways you can configure Mocha impresses me. Having to learn Mocha, then also having to learn the assertion library you choose does scare me a little though. Flexibility in it’s assertions, spies and mocks is highly beneficial. Overall, Mocha covers the basics, and allows developers to extend it with other frameworks.
Jest
Used and recommended by Facebook alongside a variety of React applications, Jest is well supported. Jest also reports a very fast testing library due to its clever parallel testing.
For smaller projects you might not worry about this too much initially, having increased performance is great for larger projects wanting to continuously deploy their app throughout the day
Whilst developers primarily use Jest to test React applications, Jest can easily integrate into other applications allowing you to use it’s more unique features elsewhere
Snapshot testing is a great tool to ensure that your application’s UI doesn’t unexpectedly change between releases. Although more specifically designed and used in React, it does work with other frameworks if you can find the correct plugins
Unlike other libraries on the list, Jest comes with a wide API, not requiring you to include additional libraries unless you really need to
Jest continues to improve considerably with every update they make
My thoughts on Jest
Whilst the globals are a downside, Jest is a feature rich library constantly being developed. It has a number of easily accessible guides to help out, and supports a variety of different environments which is great to see when building any project.
Which Javascript unit testing framework should I use?
After looking into only a few of the many different frameworks out there I find myself coming to the conclusion that choosing a framework is not black and white.
Most frameworks (Mocha being the exception) provide you with what you need at the end of the day, which is a testing environment along with the mechanisms to ensure that given the X -> Y is always returned, with a few simply giving you more “bells and whistles.”
You should feel pretty confident in choosing any of them, and the choice in my mind depends what you and your particular project wants or needs.
If you require a broad API along with specific (perhaps unique) features then Mocha would be your choice as the extensibility is there
AVA or Tape gives you the minimum requirements. Great for providing a solid minimal foundation for you to get going fast
If you have a large project, or would like to quickly get started without much configuration, then Jest would be a solid choice
I hope this helps you in choosing your JavaScript unit testing frameworks in the future. If you’d like me to take a look at any other JavaScript unit testing frameworks, let me know in the comments! I’ll add them to the list later.
Now read:
JavaScript debugging made easy with Source maps
Unit testing patterns: which ones to useImage copyright Getty Images Image caption Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo robot completed the course in less than 45 minutes
A South Korean robotics team has won the Darpa Robotics Challenge.
The contest is a battle of robots on an obstacle course meant to simulate conditions similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
Team Kaist's DRC-Hubo humanoid robot defeated 22 others to win the top $2m prize from the US Department of Defense's Darpa research unit.
The robots had an hour to complete a series of tasks, such as a driving a car and walking up steps.
The challenge involved a series of tasks for the robots to complete, somewhat autonomously, with intermittent connectivity with their operators to simulate real disaster conditions.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Some of the metallic competitors had trouble staying upright
The challenge was the first where robots performed without being tethered and there were plenty of hard falls, soliciting groans and laughter from the crowds at the contest in Pomona, California.
The other tasks the robots were set included getting out of a car, opening a door, drilling a hole in a wall, turning a valve and crossing rubble either by clearing a path or walking over it.
Team Kaist was the fastest, completing all the tasks in 44 minutes and 28 seconds.
Team IHMC Robotics came second, winning $1m, and Tartan Rescue's Chimp robot was third, winning $500,000, a day after taking a hard fall and then wowing the crowd by getting back up and back to work without human help.
The contest also included two mystery tasks over two days - on day one the mystery was pulling a lever and on day two it was pulling a plug out of one socket and inserting it into another.
Each team was given two attempts to complete the course.
There were meant to be 25 teams competing, but Japan's team Hydra dropped out at the last minute because of an electronics accident during training.
A Chinese team was also due to compete but reportedly couldn't get their visas in time.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The robots performed without being tethered
Image copyright AFP Image caption A robotic cheetah was among the machines being put through its pacestotally clean. Don't question it. Things take a turn when Cobra... I mean Zodiac, a ruthless terrorist organisation bent on world domination arrives on the scene and begins making life difficult for Tony. We know all about them because they were in that Avengers cartoon I reviewed.Let's begin with what's wrong with the series, and there's a significant amount. The first noticeable issue with the narrative is that it's very clumsy and inconsistent. To use an example, Stark seems confused in the first two episodes when the name Zodiac comes up but in the third he's able to explain exactly what their organisation is like an expert with no explanation for how he learned all about it. Incidentally, the early villains introduce themselves as Zodiac but the others just show up and don't say shit. Like Zodiac just decided "he gets it, no need to do that any more." There's also an episode where Tony takes great pains to get into space including attaching boosters to his armour and hitching a ride in a jet but very shortly after that his armour goes out of control and he just goes into space without any difficulties. I guess that's all he needed, a lack of proper control. That makes things easier. Then we have the mastermind behind Zodiac. He takes great pains to try to deceive others and cover up his involvement but then he just says "fuck it" and makes a huge villain speech in front of everyone and we aren't talking about the situation changes and then he does it. The situation is the same when he's trying to frame Tony versus when he says "nope, I was evil the whole time."There are also a lot of issues that come up from Tony behaving in a way that makes no sense, but I'll go into that in painstaking detail when I talk about how bad the characterisation is. I will say that another issue lies in how obvious the whole plot line is. You can easily predict every twist the story takes based on cursory experience with more action-oriented fiction. And it seems to be a deliberate decision because a lot of their reveals are just weak and lazily written as though the writers expect everyone in the audience to see it coming and are just rushing through it. It's like they didn't care.Characters:I'll start with the lesser character issues before moving on to the big one, which is our hero himself. First off, the antagonists are dreadful. Madhouse tries to go with the "well-intentioned extremist" route we see used in strong portrayals of characters like Magneto, or Poison Ivy. The trouble is, they're really bad at it and we end up with villains who come across as bitter assholes who want other people to suffer because they have.We also get the world's worst reporter as a major supporting character. Seriously, this useless dumbass has no journalistic instincts. She gets an interview with Tony and can't think of even the most obvious questions to ask him. Okay, he's announced he's retiring and that he wants to provide this free energy. You could ask "are you going to be subsidised for this energy and if so, how much will it cost the taxpayers?" "If the energy isn't going to cause any pollutants, why are you using plutonium?" "If we aren't going to be paying for this energy, how much is it going to be costing you and will it be sustainable?" You could also go with retirement based questions. "Who will be taking your place with the Avengers?" "Are you worried that your old enemies will decide to take revenge against you?" The point is, there are a lot of really obvious questions, Nanami.Now, let's move on to Tony. The big issue with him is that he comes across as completely insufferable and obnoxious. It's like whoever Madhouse got to write this hates Iron Man and decided to portray him as an arrogant, lecherous, entitled moron. And this is supposed to be our hero. The one we look up to and care about.Now, I did promise to go into details about the actions he takes that make no sense and they do tie into just how much of an idiot he comes across as here. There are a lot of examples and I want to talk about every single major one.First off, he decides that he'll retire. Now, in the comics when he did that he gave he Iron Man suit to someone he knew, trusted and who had acted as Iron Man to help him keep his identity secret. Which made sense and gave us James Rhodes, a fantastic character, to carry on the legacy. In this, he has three different dudes and they all have to share one suit. Why not have suits for everybody? To make things worse, Tony meets them for the first time during the series. So, how did he decide on them? Did he just tell his intern, Karen, to give the job to the three strapping lads who would look best in the armour? We're expected to believe he cares so little for his legacy that he couldn't be bothered to meet his replacements until after they'd been decided.He also has his specialised new Iron Man Dio suit for these three guys to share, but he has no way to track it or shut it down if it goes missing or gets stolen. Which happens in the very first episode. He must have really trusted those three guys he never met before.Tony just has trash security in this in general. His computers get hacked multiple times. His shipment of radioactive material gets targeted multiple times. His station is targeted by hostile forces multiple times and in every single instance his adversaries seem to have no real difficulty and yet we never see him do a bloody thing about it.The second big one comes when he decides he'll look into the loss of his plutonium shipment himself, in spite of the Japanese government telling him to stay out of it. Not only that, but he doesn't use his high tech helmet to record everything he sees in order to give him some evidence of what happened if things go wrong. Things get even worse when he starts pursuing the culprits in his car. Not in the powerful armour that can fly and easily catch a speeding vehicle, in his car. Now, you might be thinking "maybe he was just being discreet" but that argument doesn't work because he shoots missiles from his car at theirs. And he has to change out of his suit to get in his car and chase after them and then change back into it later which just makes it take longer for no good reason.Art:This is one aspect where I can mostly give the series credit. The Zodiac robots have interesting designs, the characters look good, except for Wolverine who has the same trash design he had in Blade. The action sequences aren't great. They tend to be pretty one-sided, usually with Tony taking a beating before something happens that causes him to rebound and easily dispatch his foe. They aren't bad though.Sound:The acting isn't bad. They got some strong actors, Itou Sizuka especially. Unfortunately, the writing doesn't allow for strong performances and we end up with good actors doing passably. The music is kind of dull. Which has been a general thing with Takahashi Tetsuya's soundtracks for all these Marvel anime.Ho-yay:There isn't any. Tony is only lecherous towards women, including the ones who work for him because he is a major creep in this.Areas of Improvement:1. Lose the whole retirement angle. This leads to a lot of dumb moments and it gets immediately forgotten about after the first episode. Just have the first big antagonist use his former experience with Stark to build his own Iron Man suit.2. Stark shouldn't creep on his employees. Sure, have him be a bit flirtatious but let the man be a professional towards the women working for him. He'll come across as a lot less horrible that way.3. Keep things consistent. If you want to explain to us who Zodiac is after Tony's been confused about it, have it explained to him by someone who he asked to look into it. If you want to show him make it into space with difficulty, don't make it easy later. If the major antagonist is going to use subterfuge, even when he's in an advantageous situation, have him keep using it. It makes no sense to switch just because "well, the audience knows who he is now." This is basic.I know there are a lot more problems, but I think fixing those three would help immensely.Final Thoughts:One thing I will say, this isn't as bad as X-men was. It's still pretty bad. It's full of holes, Tony Stark is a complete wanker in it and it's just not entertaining to watch. Ultimately, I give it a 3/10. If you want to see an animated Iron Man, I'd pick the old cartoon from the mid-90s over this.LONDON — America’s traditional allies are on the lookout for new friends.
They have heard the mantra “America First” from the new president, divining a Trump doctrine: global cooperation last. Europeans have taken note of Mr. Trump’s denigration of the European Union and his apparent esteem for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. In Asia and Latin America, leaders have absorbed the deepening possibility that Mr. Trump will deliver on threats to impose punitive tariffs on Mexican and Chinese imports, provoking a trade war that will damage economic growth and eliminate jobs around the world.
Some allies are shifting focus to other potential partners for new sources of trade and investment, relationships that could influence political, diplomatic and military ties. Many are looking to China, which has adroitly capitalized on a leadership vacuum in world affairs by offering itself — ironies notwithstanding — as a champion for global engagement.
“We’ve always said that America is our best friend,” Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup — comprising finance ministers from countries sharing the euro currency — said in an interview with The New York Times on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this month. “If that’s no longer the case, if that’s what we need to understand from Donald Trump, then of course Europe will look for new friends.”
“China is a very strong candidate for that,” he added. “The Chinese involvement in Europe in terms of investment is already very high and expanding. If you push away your friends, you mustn’t be surprised if the friends start looking for new friends.”Origami is a complex art, but when it comes to robots, it could actually make things simpler. A team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering created paper robots that, when heated, fold from a flat form into complex shapes that can walk and turn.
The robots are made from paper, plastic and electronic components. Networks of circuits deliver heat created by a battery to the areas of the robot that need to fold. The plastic, which was made to transform into a preset shape when exposed to temperatures higher than 212 degrees Fahrenheit, then begins its transformation. The robots created at Harvard took about four minutes to turn into their final 3D shape.
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Origami robots are more than a totally rad party trick (people do origami at parties, right?). They fall into a group of shape-shifting robots that could someday be used in search and rescue missions where shimmying through tight and dangerous spaces is often necessary. An origami robot could be fed through rubble and then assemble itself on the inside of a collapsed building or tunnel to perform a rescue task. The Harvard bots were only able to walk a little more than a tenth of a mile per hour, but they could get faster as the research continues to develop.
They are also easier and cheaper to ship. Just like Ikea furniture, you can pack more flat robots than assembled robots into a box. That would be especially appealing for sending them to space, where every inch of cargo room is especially precious.
The robots could also be an interesting alternative to 3D printing, according to Rob Wood, the senior author on a study about the robots that appeared in the journal Science today. He said the starting materials to build the robots are all off-the-shelf and makeable with tools like laser cutters, so they are relatively cheap. The technique is similar to 3D printing in that it is especially suited to making between 100 and 1,000 units of an object, but it’s faster. And like 3D printing, it can be used to make items at a scale far too tiny for human hands.
The robots, which are strong, light and customizable to have different sizes and abilities, are not the first origami robots. Two research groups debuted robots with origami wheels in June. The Harvard team has been creating self-assembling machines for at least a decade, but states the most recent invention is the first origami bot that requires no human intervention.
Now, who wants to make me an army of robot cranes?Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kerry Needham: "In my heart of hearts I know Ben is out there"
A police force has secured £700,000 from the Home Office to continue investigating the disappearance of Sheffield toddler Ben Needham.
Ben was 21 months old when he went missing while on a family holiday on the Greek island of Kos in 1991.
His mother Kerry has always maintained her son is alive and was probably abducted and has vowed to find him.
South Yorkshire Police said it would use the funding to "commit further resources to the investigation".
In a statement, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings said the funds would "continue to support the Greek authorities in the search" for the missing toddler.
"Ben's mum, Kerry, has spent more than 23 years searching for her son," he said.
'Untold pain'
He added: "I fully support South Yorkshire Police in their ongoing pursuit of the facts. They have worked hard in facilitating the Greek investigation into Ben's disappearance but there is still more work to do."
Det Supt Matt Fenwick said the force was working to "establish the right investigation team, with a view to the inquiry commencing in April".
He said: "[Ben's] family has endured untold pain and anguish in the years that followed and have never given up in trying to find him.
"South Yorkshire Police has provided support to the Greek authorities wherever requested in assisting with the investigation.
"We hope that by continuing to work with them, we can assist in providing the answers Ben's family so desperately want."
A Home Office spokesperson said it was "committed in its support for the search".
Ben vanished on 24 July 1991, after travelling to Kos with his mother and grandparents who were renovating a farmhouse in the village of Iraklise.
Two years ago a DNA test |
fact it is a thousand local crises too. Put in American terms Catalonia's problems are probably best likened to a successful area in the USA, like Austin, Texas, asking for a bailout.
The capital of Catalonia is, of course, Barcelona and Barcelona has a global reputation for excellence that stretches back to its management of the 1992 Olympic games.
A succession of charismatic mayors has turned Barcelona into a poster for regional economic success. Barcelona has done pretty much everything that the text book says a regional economy should do. It did "clusters" - it has a very strong cluster of companies in global logistics, it maintained regional manufacturing and grew a strong service infrastructure, it has a strong creative economy, the ESADE business school has a global reputation for management education, it has a very strong, competitive culture. And it has the world's best football club, which gives the city global exposure week in, week out. Catalonia accounts for a quarter of Spain's GDP. It is a success story.
But local indebtedness in Europe should come as no great surprise either. Germany and France both have large local debt problems that are anything but transparent. In fact in the case of France much of the local debt was inherited from the central Government, which "delegated" the debt to localities where national funds were spent, effectively reducing the national debt headline figure. French finance Minister during this process was Christine Lagarde, now head of the IMF.
In April last year the Economist also warned of all the mini-Greeces in Germany:
Germany’s 11,000-odd municipalities had a deficit of €7.7 billion last year, the second-highest ever…. in NRW( North Rhein Westphalia) local social spending rose by 274% between 1980 and 2006, whereas revenue went up only by 104%.
Local debt refinancing in Spain this year, though, is Euro 36 billion with Euro 13.5 billion of that falling to Catalonia. The reality is that, at this local level in Catalonia, the failure to refinance debt will lead to real wealth destruction and impair Spain's prospects for years to come. When a success story like Catalonia hits the skids like this, you know the problem runs deep, very deep, but Catalonia also symbolizes something about Europe right now. It is not just a financial crisis but an existential one.
You might also like to read why the IMF's Christine Lagarde is becoming a part of the Greek debt problem.
Follow me on Twitter @haydn1701'TAKING FOOD OUT OF KIDS' MOUTHS': Christchurch tenant Selina was charged $450 in "letting fees" to renew her lease.
Rental agents in Christchurch's tight housing market are "milking" vulnerable tenants by charging them to renew their lease, social agencies say.
The practice has been labelled "contentious" and welfare organisations want it banned.
Selina, who did not want her last name used, had been living in her home for more than a year when the lease came up for renewal. This year, however, it came with a price tag: $450 in "letting fees".
"I couldn't believe it," Selina said.
"$450 just for signing a piece of paper? This is taking food out my kids' mouths."
Selina's rent had increased $50 in the last year.
A single mother with four children, she has a fixed income and said riding out the rent increases was "hard enough".
When the unexpected bill hit she was afraid of losing her home.
Her rental agent would not back down.
With the help of the Mayor's Welfare Fund, Selina could eventually cover the cost. However, she was already terrified of her next renewal.
"I'm worried I'm gonna be in the same boat next year," she said.
Letting fees were designed for agents to cover the cost of setting up a new tenancy.
In Christchurch, tenants simply renewing leases are being faced with bills of up to $1000.
By law, letting fees must be a fair and reasonable representation of the cost of re-leasing a home.
There is no cap on the amount charged, but common practice is one week's rent plus GST.
One rental agent, who wished to remain anonymous, said tenants should not pay renewal fees.
"There's no admin involved in renewing a tenancy except changing the date in the system," the agent said.
Tenant's Protection Agency manager Helen Gatonyi said tenants could approach the tenancy tribunal about renewal fees, but many were afraid of losing their homes if they spoke up.
The fees were "fear trumping fairness", she said, with Canterbury's stretched market forcing tenants to accept unreasonable costs.
"A week's rent plus GST, for doing what? Changing the dates on the tenancy agreement? That is unfair and unreasonable."
Gatonyi said many agents were also opting for shorter tenancies to make more from fees.
"Rents are so high right now that it's in the interests of agents to have shorter tenancies for fixed term because it generates a large income."
While year-long tenancies were once the norm, "now it's not unusual to hear of 3, 6, or 10-month tenancies. Because if you let a property for a year, you get one fee. If you let it four times a year, you get four fees".
As well as the up-front cost, Gatyoni said the policy created instability and a climate of fear for renters.
St Vincent De Paul president Richard Williamson took Selina's case to the Real Estate Institute, and said several clients had approached the agency hit by fees.
He was waiting on a decision.
For renewals, Williamson said, tenants should consider challenging the fees through the tenancy tribunal.
"Even at the most exorbitant pricing out of labour it would take about five minutes to renew a lease."
Harcourts Grenadier Property manager Patricia Bowden said the agency charged one week's rent plus GST as a letting fee.
Some Harcourts franchises did charge for rollovers, but her franchise did not, she said.
Even in the case of rollover leases, however, she believed a letting fee was still justified.
"There is a lot of work involved - even with a renewal, circumstances change. Each renewal has to be treated like a new tenancy."
Bayleys property manager Matthew Curtis said the agency charged one week's rent plus GST.
A Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment spokeswoman said the ministry was "aware that there is currently an issue in Christchurch where Property Managers are requiring a further letting fee where a new agreement... is being offered".
She described the practice as "contentious".Who is Mike Tyson? To a younger generation of people who never watched him fight in his prime, he’s the guy you saw punch out Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover. Those of you who did get to watch Iron Mike go to work in the 1980’s and early 1990’s remember him as the most feared fighter on the planet, a man who towered over the heavyweight division for over half a decade.
That long-term shift in perception reflects the duality of Tyson’s life, even at his peak. When he had it all going for him in the ring, Tyson was a force of nature, leaving men bloodied and battered on the canvas. But he never found a way to channel the rage that fueled him, and it led to some shocking, even criminal missteps in his personal life. Jailed for rape in 1992, Tyson came back battered physically and mentally from his time in prison, and paid for his transgressions as his career spiraled down the drain. There was nothing more compelling than a Tyson fight when he had it all working, but once he lost his edge, he resorted to goon tactics in a desperate attempt to stay relevant.
Think you know Tyson? Maybe you do, at least on the surface. But there’s a lot more to the man than meets the eye, and there are enough crazy stories from his life to last at least six lifetimes. He is both the youngest heavyweight champion ever and a man whose mental state sometimes bordered on insanity, a hip-hop hype man and a Phil Collins aficionado. Love him or hate him, Tyson is probably one of the most fascinating people alive, and that's what makes the idea of the soon-to-come Tyson biopic so fascinating.
These are some of the best, craziest, and sometimes deranged things you may not know about one of the greatest boxers ever.A series of explosions in and around the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday has killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 20, officials say.
Three bombs exploded in the commercial Bab al-Sharqi district of central Baghdad, killing eight people.
Another two explosions hit a truck carrying construction workers on the road between Baghdad and Falluja.
Violence in Iraq has fallen in recent years, but militants still carry out regular attacks.
"I saw a woman, who was serving tea to customers, lose a leg in one of the explosions," a market vendor near the site of the Bab al-Sharqi blast told the AP news agency.
Fallujah Hospital "received seven bodies and seven wounded" from the truck blast, Dr Omar Delli told the AFP news agency. Two of the wounded later died, he said.
Violence has declined from its peak in 2006-2007, but the attacks have raised concerns over whether the planned withdrawal of US troops will lead to a worsening of the security situation.
The last US troops are due to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.
However, the US and the Iraqi government are in talks over whether to retain a limited American presence into 2012.WASHINGTON (CN) – A woman who interrupted Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress claims supporters of AIPAC, the powerful Israeli lobby, roughed her up when she stood up from her seat in the Gallery of the U.S. House and opened a banner stating “Occupying Land is Indefensible,” while shouting, “No more occupation. Stop Israeli war crimes!”
Rachel Abileah sued three John Does and a Jane Doe in Federal Court, in a complaint nearly identical to the one she filed in Superior Court in August.
Abileah, a 28-year-old U.S. citizen of Israeli descent and an employee of the grassroots social justice organization CODEPINK, says she was authorized to attend the May 24 event by a member of Congress.
“As soon as Ms. Abileah entered the Gallery, she noticed that many of the people sitting around her were wearing badges identifying themselves as attendees of the 2011 American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (‘AIPAC’) Police Conference,” her complaint states.
Ten minutes after Prime Minister Netanyahu began his address, Abileah says, she “stood up from her seat in the Gallery and opened a banner that read ‘Occupying Land is Indefensible.’ At the same time, she shouted, ‘No more occupation. Stop Israeli war crimes!'”
The four John Does immediately assaulted her, she says.
“Immediately after Ms. Abileah opened the banner, John Doe 1, who was seated in the third seat to her right, attempted to grab the banner from her hands. John Doe 1 then threatened and caused Ms. Abileah physical injury by intentionally grabbing her arm and pulling her towards him, causing Ms. Abileah to fall to her right,” the complaint states.
She says another assailant pushed her from behind as she fell.
“As this happened, the people seated around Ms. Abileah, including, upon information and belief, John Does 2 and 3, and Jane Doe, began to boo Ms. Abileah’s peaceful protest and cheer John Doe 1’s physical assault of her,” according to the complaint.
Abileah claims that she fell two rows in front of her, all the while being grabbed and pushed. She says one man “put his hand over her mouth to gag and suffocate her.” That man also “yanked her head back,” she says.
Plainclothes Capitol police officers “told her [Abileah] that they saw the assault and it was clear that she got ‘roughed up,'” the complaint states.
Abileah says she suffered emotional trauma and neck and muscle strains, resulting in frequent headaches. She seeks $500,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages for assault, battery and false imprisonment.
She is represented by Lynne Bernabei with Bernabei Wachtel.
Like this: Like Loading...Let’s begin with good news for Zionist feminism: Women are incorporated in plenty of areas in the IDF, including in combat service. In a country in which a woman was appointed prime minister in the 1970s, the sky is the limit.
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Young religious women are defying rabbis’ orders and joining the army. The more they are forbidden to do so, the higher the numbers. The Chardal (nationalist Haredi) public’s outcry against the integration of women is mainly an internal outcry against the loss of control over religious girls. The educational system isn’t working – they are enlisting in masses.
Those looking for the source of feminism should let go of foolish arguments, such as left-wing organizations and an attempt to weaken the IDF. Feminism was Zionist long before it was American, in the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s. The first pioneers, who rebelled against the Diaspora and against religion, also rebelled against the perception that the woman belongs in the kitchen. Women did everything. Those who wanted to, worked the land and guarded. In the War of Independence, there were women fighters and pilots.
The Carcal Battalion. A special unit for women fighters (Photo: Gadi kabalo)
Alongside the heroic story of Hannah Szenes, there were female fighters everywhere. One of them, who is still with us, is Paulette Kumar, who immigrated from France to Kibbutz Sdot Yam and was one of the founders of the Israeli Navy’s special operations unit Shayetet 13. She was the unit’s first and last female fighter. Unfortunately, she won’t give interviews, but as a historian I keep remembering her.
Women pioneers and fighters played a much bigger role in the national effort than rabbis. Within the confusion of the creation of a Jewish state out of nothing, there was no time to seriously deal with the status of women or with its meaning. It just happened.
And now to the bad news for Zionist feminism: The enlistment of women to certain combat roles isn’t worthwhile. Women are physiologically different from men, so it’s possible to turn them into pilots and sailors but it’s harder to load 60 kilograms on their backs and send them to hide far out in the field. There is a very low chance, therefore, that they will be able to endure the exhausting training of some ground units.
Women and men serving alongside each other create a recipe for military confusion. A weak spot. That’s how the proper integration orders developed, leading to the separation between the sexes in accommodation and certain activities. That led to the creation of special units for women fighters, like the Carcal Battalion, in order to make it work.
The incorporation of women in combat roles includes two variables: Physical abilities and the price. If, for one or two girls a decade who are capable of completing a Sayeret Matkal course, the unit will be completely changed – with separate accommodation and separate systems in the friction points – the army will find itself engaging in the fulfillment of feminism instead of in training fighters.
At the end of the day, the army’s job is to win, not to be a school for gender equality. Are women capable of serving in the Armored Corps? The answer is yes. Should they be placed in a crowded tank filled with men during a 24-hour ambush? I see mostly disadvantages. Perhaps a feminine tank?
Anything is possible. Women can play soccer with teams of men. There are even a few women who exceed most men in their physical abilities, yet the teams are separate and the groups in the higher leagues are purely male. Women can compete in the same sports as men, but the separation remains. And they can also run countries and issue orders to the army.
Anything is possible, but not everything happens.
Women’s service in the army is not at the forefront of the feminist struggle; it is only a minor part of that struggle. There are women today who receive a lower salary than men for doing a similar job. Actresses who lose work because of their age, unlike male actors. There are sexual harassments, and there are sectors in Israel in which women are still murdered as part of honor killings.Gauteng has the best economy and education of all the provinces, according to a report by the SA Institute for Race Relations. File photo: Motshwari Mofokeng
Johannesburg - Gauteng has the best economy and education of all the provinces in the country. This is according to a report published by the SA Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR).
“The key finding is that, on aggregate, Gauteng is the best province in South Africa to live in, followed, in descending order, by the Western Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Free State, North West and the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape,” said the report’s author, Thuthukani Ndebele.
The report, published by the SAIRR’s FastFacts newsletter, which assessed the nine provinces in the country, found that only Gauteng and the Western Cape were economically viable units in the sense that they account for larger shares of the country’s GDP than they do of the total population.
Economic rankings, built on indicators ranging from economic growth rates to unemployment levels, saw Gauteng leading with a score of 92 out of a possible 100, followed by the Western Cape with 78. The Eastern Cape brought up the rear with a score of 18.
Gauteng contributed 33.8 percent to the national GDP and KwaZulu-Natal 16 percent, followed by the Western Cape at 13.7 percent.
Social rankings looked at issues such as malnutrition levels and matric pass rates. These put Western Cape first and Eastern Cape last.
As far as health rankings, which included issues such as diarrhoea levels and the proportions of HIV-positive women attending antenatal clinics went, the Western Cape is placed first, followed by Gauteng.
KwaZulu-Natal came in last.
Education rankings analysed early childhood enrolment and the proportion of adults with a degree. Here, the rankings saw Gauteng come out tops with a score of 92, followed by the Western Cape with 86.
The Eastern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape were tied last at 32.
Service delivery rankings drew on data ranging from access to piped water to the presence of regular refuse removal services.
The Western Cape led the service delivery standings while its neighbour, the Eastern Cape, once again fared the worst.
Giving a very different picture were crime rankings that looked at crimes such as murder, robbery and assault rates.
Limpopo emerged as the safest province overall while the Western Cape was adjudged the most dangerous.
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The StarThe anticipation of the 2013 NHL schedule was palpable for Nashville Predators fans. Not only are they excited to get hockey back in Music City but they are chomping at the bit to find out when former fan favorites Jordin Tootoo and Ryan Suter will get to feel (er… hear) their wrath.
Well the wait is over!
Tootoo and the Detroit Red Wings will be in Nashville on Tuesday, February 19 and Sunday, April 14. As far as Suter and the Minnesota Wild go, they’ll visit Music City only once: Saturday, March 9.
Other key home scheduling notes include opening night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the chance to exact a certain measure of revenge on the Phoenix Coyotes (the team that ended their season last year) on Valentine’s Day as well as March 28, and the opportunity to take part in the rare back-to-back-nights at home twice. The first set coming on March 8 and 9 against the Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild, respectively, and the second set coming against the Wings on April 14 and the Vancouver Canucks on April 15.
The complete schedule is below.- Two thrill-seeking photographers who climbed to the top Philadelphia's nearly 400-foot-tall Ben Franklin Bridge were arrested early Tuesday because they set off motion detectors during their ascent, officials said.
"It naturally raises questions about the safety and security measures in place on a major thoroughfare," counter terrorism expert Ed Turzanski told FOX 29.
The pair, who wore all black clothing and carried backpacks full of camera gear, surrendered when a rescue team surrounded them atop one of the bridge's towers around 1 a.m., said John Hanson, CEO of Delaware River Port Authority, the agency that operates the bridge connecting downtown Philadelphia and Camden, New Jersey.
He identified the climbers as Martin J. Romero-Clark, of New York City, and Andrew Lillibridge, of Toledo, Ohio. A search of their social media profiles shows multiple high-altitude images from around the world, including pictures from the tops of other bridges.
Hanson said they got to the top of the tower via the structure's suspension cables.
Romero-Clark and Lillibridge were charged with multiple felonies, Hanson said.
The road and the rail line that run along the bridge were closed off for more than an hour-and-a-half, Hanson said, adding that he couldn't recall another time when someone climbed to the top of the Ben Franklin Bridge to shoot photos.
Turzanski believes this lesson learned will bring security improvements.
"We have to get it right every single time. Those who mean to do us harm need to get it right once," Turzanski said.
Hanson says drivers also called in to alert police to the climbers, which is part of the DRPA's "Look up, speak up" program.
More charges may be added against the two men. The message from the DRPA to other would be climbers is"Don't do it".Grief counselors will meet with staff and gym members this week after a freak weight-lifting accident claimed the life of a 22-year-old.
A police report shows Kyle Thomson died after dropping more than 300 pounds on his chest while working out in Ankeny on Monday.
The gym, Elite Edge Transformation released a statement saying Thomson died from massive internal injuries.
Friends say Thomson was an avid weight lifter. He played football at East High School and worked out his entire life.
East High School football coach Greg Schoon knew Thomsen well.
“He was a big kid. That's weight I know he has handled before, so he probably didn't have a second thought. Or I have done it before. I will do it again. I'll be safe, but accidents happen, unfortunately,” said Schoon.
The gym said spotters were on hand at the time. The owners of the gym declined requests for interviews on Wednesday.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mothers breastfed their babies in support of Ms Slough
Thousands of people have attended breastfeeding protests in support of a Staffordshire mother who was labelled a "tramp" for feeding her baby in public.
Emily Slough, 27, was secretly photographed in Rugeley on 7 March and the picture posted anonymously online.
A demonstration, organised by Ms Slough to campaign for breastfeeding in public, was held in Rugeley town centre.
Several similar events were also being held across the country.
Ms Slough said between 600 and 1,000 people turned up in Rugeley, and women breastfed their babies on steps opposite The Shrew pub.
"I'm really pleased, the support has been great," she said.
"It's no longer about the individual who did it [posted the photo on Facebook], it's about making mums feel comfortable and not ashamed of doing it."
Image copyright Facebook Image caption The picture, posted anonymously, was taken while Emily Slough was on a shopping trip with her daughter
'Really uncomfortable'
Cydney Davis, who organised an event in Milton Keynes, said she had also encountered negative comments while breastfeeding.
"I was in a restaurant and I was asked by an elderly lady to use a blanket because it was disturbing her eating," she said.
"It makes you really uncomfortable, especially as my daughter was only a few weeks old at the time.
"I asked the lady if she'd like to eat her dinner under a blanket instead. She just walked away and very quickly finished her meal and left the restaurant, but that was her choice."
She said there had been great support at the Milton Keynes protest, as well as a few "dirty looks and stares".
More than 100 people also took part in a protest in Swansea.
Kendal Clark, organiser of the event in York, said people were keen to show their support for Ms Slough in particular, but also all women who choose to breastfeed in public.
Image copyright Cydney Davis Image caption About 60 mums plus supporters attended an event in Milton Keynes
"York is a very supportive city, but it should be like that anywhere you go," she said.
Ms Slough's campaign has attracted considerable support with thousands of "likes" on Facebook, as well as comments on Twitter, and several online forums.
The National Childbirth Trust and the National Breastfeeding Helpline also publicly supported her protest, as well as local councils.
Ms Slough said: "There are plenty of mums that breastfeed publicly, I can't say that I've noticed them because normally I don't tend to notice mothers breastfeeding as it's a pretty discreet act.
"I don't think any mother should be labelled a tramp for feeding their baby."The number of Palestinian residences demolished by Israel's Civil Administration in the part of the West Bank under full Israeli control tripled last year compared to 2009, data complied by B'Tselem shows.
Attorney Shlomo Lecker, who has represented the Jahalin Bedouin tribe in the West Bank for years, attributed the increase in Area C demolitions directly to the increased pressure applied over the last two years by both settlers and a new organization, Regavim.
Palestinian women stand near the ruins of a home that was razed in East Jerusalem, November 24 2010. Reuters
The latter, which sees its aim as preserving state lands in the West Bank, has waged both legal and media battles against what it claims is a policy of ignoring illegal Palestinian construction.
In 2010, the Civil Administration destroyed 86 residences in Area C, including tents and shacks, B'Tselem said. That compares to only 28 in 2009. As a result, 472 Palestinians, including 223 minors, lost their homes last year, up from 217 (including 60 minors ) in 2009.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there was also a rise in demolitions of income-producing structures in Area C, especially cisterns, which are vital for sheepherding and agriculture.
Destroyed cisterns affected 14,136 Palestinians last year, up from 764 in 2009, OCHA said. This increases poverty and dependence on external aid, and in the long run is thus even more harmful than the destruction of residences, the organization added.
As an example of the increased pressure by settlers and Regavim, Lecker cited the demolition orders that the Civil Administration issued against an entire Bedouin village near Khan al-Ahmar, northeast of Jerusalem, in November 2010.
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The village's approximately 100 residents say they have been living there for decades, but had never received a single demolition order before.
Lecker believes the orders stemmed directly from a petition to the High Court of Justice filed in September by Regavim and three nearby settlements, Kfar Adumim, Alon and Nofei Prat. That petition asked the court to order the demolition of a school made of old tires and to issue demolition orders to 258 Jahalin Bedouin structures in the area.
Even though it was rejected by the court, he said, the petition prompted the Civil Administration to launch a major campaign to get the Jahalin out of the area.
Lecker claimed that the Civil Administration's inspection unit is staffed mainly by settlers or people with sympathetic views. As a result, he wrote in a High Court petition that he filed two weeks ago in an effort to get the demolition orders canceled, it is influenced by "political motives" and effectively serves "as the operational arm of the Yesha Council of settlements with regard to forbidding Palestinian construction in Area C."
The petition also noted that while master plans enabling construction exist for many of the settlements, no such plans exist for Palestinians in Area C.
On January 12, the Civil Administration destroyed 17 structures in the Bedouin village of Dakeika, south of the Hebron Hills. This happened even though the residents, at the High Court's suggestion, were in the process of preparing a master plan for the village, and the court had promised to reconsider their petition against the demolition orders once the master plan was completed.
"The reporter' claims regarding an enforcement policy derived from direct pressure by the Regavim organization and the city of Maaleh Adumim, or from any other external consideration is completely unfounded," the Coordinator of Government Activity in the Territories said in a statement.
The statement also said that the Civil Administration was supporting the project of transferring West Bank Bedouins to permanent settlements. The spokesman did not reply to Haaretz queries regarding the demolition orders handed out to the tribe at Khan al-Ahmar."Lord Dunsany" redirects here. For the peerage, see Baron of Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957), was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist; his work, mostly in the fantasy genre, was published under the name Lord Dunsany. More than ninety books of his work were published in his lifetime,[1]:29 (I.A.92) and both original work and compilations have continued to appear. Dunsany's œuvre includes many hundreds of published short stories, as well as plays, novels and essays. He achieved great fame and success with his early short stories and plays, and during the 1910s was considered one of the greatest living writers of the English-speaking world; he is today best known for his 1924 fantasy novel The King of Elfland's Daughter.
Born and raised in London, to the second-oldest title (created 1439) in the Irish peerage, Dunsany lived much of his life at what may be Ireland's longest-inhabited house, Dunsany Castle near Tara, worked with W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, received an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin, was chess and pistol-shooting champion of Ireland, and travelled and hunted extensively. He died in Dublin after an attack of appendicitis.
Biography [ edit ]
Early life [ edit ]
Edward Plunkett (Dunsany), known to his family as "Eddie," was the first son of John William Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany (1853–1899), and his wife, Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Ernle-Erle-Drax, née Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Burton (1855–1916).[2]
From a historically wealthy and famous family, Lord Dunsany was related to many well-known Irish figures. He was a kinsman of the Catholic Saint Oliver Plunkett, the martyred Archbishop of Armagh, whose ring and crozier head are still held by the Dunsany family. He was also related to the prominent Anglo-Irish unionist, and later nationalist / Home Rule politician Sir Horace Plunkett, and George Count Plunkett, Papal Count and Republican politician, father of Joseph Plunkett, executed for his part in the 1916 Rising.
His mother was a cousin of Sir Richard Burton, and he inherited from her considerable height, being 6' 4". The Countess of Fingall, wife of Dunsany's cousin, the Earl of Fingall, wrote a best-selling account of the life of the aristocracy in Ireland in the late 19th century and early 20th century, called Seventy Years Young.
Plunkett's only grown sibling, a younger brother, from whom he was estranged from around 1916, for reasons not fully clear but connected to his mother's will, was the noted British naval officer Sir Reginald Drax. Another, younger, brother died in infancy.
Beatrice Child Villiers, Lady Dunsany
Edward Plunkett grew up at the family properties, most notably Dunstall Priory in Shoreham, Kent, and Dunsany Castle in County Meath, but also family homes such as in London. His schooling was at Cheam, Eton College and finally the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, which he entered in 1896.
Title and marriage [ edit ]
The title passed to him at his father's death at a fairly young age, in 1899, and the young Lord Dunsany returned to Dunsany Castle after war duty, in 1901. In that year he was also confirmed as an elector for the Representative Peers for Ireland in the House of Lords.
In 1903, he met Lady Beatrice Child Villiers (1880–1970), youngest daughter of The 7th Earl of Jersey (head of the Jersey banking family), who was then living at Osterley Park, and they were married in 1904. Their only child, Randal, was born in 1906. Beatrice was supportive of Dunsany's interests, and assisted him in his writing, typing his manuscripts, helping to select work for his collections, including the 1954 retrospective short story collection, and overseeing his literary heritage after his death.
The Dunsanys were socially active in both Dublin and London, and travelled between their homes in Meath, London and Kent, other than during World Wars I and II, and the Irish War of Independence. Dunsany himself circulated with many other literary figures of the time. To many of these in Ireland he was first introduced by his uncle, the co-operative pioneer Sir Horace Plunkett, who also helped to manage his estate and investments for a time. He was friendly with, for example, George William Russell, Oliver St. John Gogarty and, for a time, W. B. Yeats. He also socialised at times with George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and was a friend of Rudyard Kipling.
In 1910 Dunsany commissioned a two-storey extension to Dunsany Castle, with a billiards room, bedrooms and other facilities. The billiards room includes the crests of all the Lords Dunsany up to the 18th.
Military experience [ edit ]
Dunsany served as a Second Lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards during the Second Boer War.
He volunteered in the First World War, and was appointed Captain in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He was stationed for some time at Ebrington Barracks in Derry. Having heard of disturbances in Dublin in 1916, during the Easter Rising, while on leave, he drove in to offer assistance and was wounded, with a bullet lodged in his skull.[3][4] After recovery at Jervis Street Hospital, and later what was then the King George V Hospital (now St. Bricin's Military Hospital), he returned to duty. His military belt was lost in this episode and was later used at the burial of Michael Collins. Having been refused forward positioning in 1916, being listed as valuable as a trainer, in the latter stages of the war he spent time in the trenches, and in the very last period wrote propaganda material for the War Office with MI7b(1). At Dunsany Castle there is a book of wartime photos with lost members of his command marked.
During the Second World War, Dunsany signed up for the Irish Army Reserve and the British Home Guard, the two countries' local defence forces, and was especially active in Shoreham, Kent, the most-bombed village in England during the Battle of Britain.
Literary life [ edit ]
Lord Dunsany, New York, 1919
Dunsany's fame arose chiefly from his prolific writings, and he was involved with the Irish Literary Revival. Supporting the Revival, Dunsany was a major donor to the Abbey Theatre, and he moved in Irish literary circles. He was well-acquainted with W. B. Yeats (who rarely acted as editor, but gathered and published a Dunsany selection), Lady Gregory, Percy French, "AE" Russell, Oliver St John Gogarty, Padraic Colum (with whom he jointly wrote a play) and others. He befriended and supported Francis Ledwidge to whom he gave the use of his library[5] and Mary Lavin.
Dunsany made his first literary tour to the United States in 1919, and made further such visits right up to the 1950s, in the early years mostly to the eastern seaboard, later notably to California.
Dunsany's own work, and contribution to the Irish literary heritage, was recognised through an honorary degree from Trinity College, Dublin.
Early 1940s [ edit ]
In 1940, Dunsany was appointed Byron Professor of English in Athens University, Greece. Having reached Athens by a circuitous route, he was so successful that he was offered a post as Professor of English in Istanbul. However, he had to be evacuated due to the German invasion of Greece in April 1941, returning home by an even more complex route than he had come on, his travels forming a basis for a long poem published in book form (A Journey, in 5 cantos: The Battle of Britain, The Battle of Greece, The Battle of the Mediterranean, Battles Long Ago, The Battle of the Atlantic; Special edition January 1944). Olivia Manning's character, "Lord Pinkrose", in her novel sequence, the Fortunes of War, was a mocking portrait of Dunsany during this period.[6][7]
Later life [ edit ]
In 1947, Dunsany transferred his Meath estate to his son and heir under a trust, and settled in Kent, at his Shoreham house, Dunstall Priory and farm, not far from the home of Rudyard Kipling, a friend. He visited Ireland only occasionally thereafter, and engaged actively in life in Shoreham and London. He also began a new period of visits to the United States, notably California, as recounted |
tribe can show that it is able to reassume control.
The decision, made over the weekend, offers a window into the patchwork of federal, state and tribal jurisdictions that oversee social and legal matters on Native American reservations. Tribes have jurisdiction over family law, for example, but the federal government has primary authority to investigate and prosecute violent crimes, including sex crimes. Jurisdiction can, however, overlap with tribal authorities, depending on whether the perpetrator and victim are members of a tribe, and whether the crime occurred on or off a reservation.
Rape and child sex abuse cases in Indian country are rarely prosecuted, according to tribal advocates. It’s up to the FBI to determine whether it will pursue a case. The bureau doesn’t publish data on how often it declines a case, though it will be required to do so by law beginning next year. However, a Syracuse University study of data from 2004 to 2007 found that the federal government declined to prosecute 50 percent of murder or manslaughter cases in Indian country, 76.5 percent of adult sex crime cases and 72 percent of child sex crime cases. Federal officials have argued this is because evidence is difficult to come by, and the cases aren’t always clear-cut.
Since 2008, FRONTLINE producer David Sutherland has followed a member of the Spirit Lake nation, Robin Charboneau, as she tried to protect her daughter from abuse. He tells her story in the film Kind-Hearted Woman — you can see a preview above.
But the problem at Spirit Lake extends far beyond one woman’s story. In an April assessment obtained by FRONTLINE, the BIA found “high-risk findings” that “pose an imminent danger to the health, safety and well-being of children either in placement or referred for protective services.” Federal officials, former tribal employees and other members of the Spirit Lake nation have said in interviews that in subsequent months, the system has continued to leave children at risk.
Roger Yankton, the elected tribal chairman at Spirit Lake, didn’t respond to two phone calls and an e-mail seeking a comment on Monday. In a written statement to a local paper earlier this year, he said the tribe had worked “diligently” to prevent child abuse. “Compounding issues of system-wide response are legal and jurisdictional complexities, severe funding and personnel deficiencies and difficulties in securing and retaining the services of qualified and well-trained personnel to name a few,” he wrote.
What Happened at Spirit Lake
The abuse allegations gained national attention in April after a letter from Michael Tilus, who at the time worked as the director of behavioral health at the Spirit Lake Health Center was leaked to media outlets. He wrote what he called a “letter of grave concern” [pdf] to federal, state and local officials about the safety of children on the reservation, which was then leaked online. Tilus argued that despite BIA attention to the problem since August 2011, no major progress had been made.
The allegations centered around TSS, a tiny agency charged with the welfare of children enrolled in the tribe. The office is required to investigate allegations of abuse, remove children from a home where abuse is suspected, and place the children with a safe relative or in a foster home until the child’s first home is deemed safe.
It’s set up and run by the tribe, with the help of state and federal dollars, and reports to the tribal council. The tribe acknowledges the office is understaffed, and former employees say a typical caseload is about 150 cases, compared to the standard 15-20 for a social worker off the reservation.
Proper documentation on child cases was often lacking, according to the BIA’s April assessment obtained by FRONTLINE. According to its review, TSS workers had failed to properly document removing the children from their homes, or document that their new placement homes met minimum safety standards. They also didn’t provide documentation to show that federal background checks had been done on people in the homes, nor had the children’s guardians been properly evaluated.
In his report, Tilus said that TSS had demonstrated “unchecked incompetence” that endangered children on the reservation. Tilus was employed by the federal government through his work at the Spirit Lake Health Center, and his office worked closely with TSS officials.
Among other charges, Tilus said that the TSS often failed to keep proper records of abuse allegations and removed children from homes without legal authority. “TSS staff misrepresented themselves in court, lied about fact-finding, and had serious boundary violations in their professional work,” he said in his letter.
Molly McDonald, an associate juvenile judge hired by the tribe in February 2010, told FRONTLINE that about half of the cases she heard involved allegations of child abuse, in which the children had been removed from their homes.
But when TSS staff members showed up in court for a hearing on where to place the children, the social workers tended to lack proper documentation or didn’t always have all the facts about the case, McDonald said. McDonald said that TSS workers often had no information on whether the parents had been getting necessary help, such as anger management classes or drug and alcohol treatment.
The workers often couldn’t say whether they had followed up on the case to ensure the child was safe in their new placement, according to McDonald. Sometimes, the workers would recommend placing children in homes without vetting the people who lived there — on occasion, she said, these were homes where registered sex offenders lived or visited.
McDonald said her supervisor, the lead judge, complained to the tribal council on her behalf, but no action was taken. McDonald and the supervisor, who didn’t return phone calls, were both later fired without explanation. “I pushed too hard,” McDonald said. “I was wanting answers, and that rubbed people the wrong way.”
TSS also hired a caseworker who had pled guilty to a felony charge of “abuse or neglect of a child” in a state court several years earlier. This worker remained on staff even after her plea was reported to the TSS director, according to Betty Jo Krenz, a caseworker for a year and a half with TSS. Krenz was fired by the tribal council, she says, because she complained about the agency’s procedures.
Tilus, the initial whistleblower, received a formal reprimand from his supervisor at Spirit Lake for not following the proper chain of command with his report. That punishment was subsequently rescinded by the Department of Health and Human Services in August.
In the meantime, others were expressing concerns about what was happening at Spirit Lake. In June, Thomas Sullivan, the regional administrator for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, wrote a letter of his own. Sullivan has oversight of human services programs in six states, including North Dakota, and describes himself in his biography on the D.H.H.S. website as having worked throughout his career to prevent child abuse.
In his letter, sent to his superiors, Sullivan said that he suspected that “many children” at Spirit Lake “have been abused and are at continuing risk of further abuse.” He blamed the tribal authorities and federal and state officials for not taking action.
Sullivan specifically blamed the tribal chairman, Roger Yankton, who was elected in May 2011, alleging that under his leadership, children were removed from safe foster homes off the reservation and returned to their families. “When placed back in these previously abusive homes, the abuse and neglect began again,” Sullivan wrote.
In his letter (pdf), Sullivan charged that the tribal leadership also fired TSS staffers who were not enrolled members of the tribe and hired new staff members who were members of the tribe but weren’t qualified to perform social services.
In August, the tribal council defended its efforts to reform the social services system in an editorial [pdf] published in the local Devil’s Lake Journal, under the name of the “Spirit Lake Tribe.” While the authors declined to address allegations about specific cases due to confidentiality concerns, they noted a series of reforms the tribal council, under Yankton’s leadership, had put in place to address problems with social services.
The tribe also said that Sullivan and Tilus had ignored its efforts at reform.
In recent months, the tribe lost state funding it receives to pay families that provide foster care for children enrolled in the tribe. The state found that 31 cases were “out of compliance,” meaning that they weren’t properly documented, according to Scott Davis, the executive director of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, a state agency that coordinates state and tribal affairs. After the tribe showed Davis and other officials that it was taking steps to improve the process, the funding was reinstated in July, Davis said in an interview last month. “We get pressured that we should be doing more,” he said then. “Legally we can’t. That’s just the way it is.”
On July 18, federal and regional representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs met with Spirit Lake tribal leadership to discuss other problems with social services.
In its August editorial, the tribal council said that it was “well aware of the gravity and difficult nature of these problems,” but added that the tribe has struggled with “substantial funding and other resource deficiencies,” and multiple floods in the past 18 years that had complicated efforts to provide social services.
The tribe also noted that it had reorganized Tribal Social Services according to the action plan from the BIA, and conducted a comprehensive review of its procedures, cases and records. It also hired a new TSS director, and a child protection services supervisor who was to begin work last month. For the first time, the tribe hired a judge with a J.D. to sit on its tribal court.
“By these actions, the current tribal government has demonstrated a sincere commitment to confronting these issues faced by the Spirit Lake people and improving services and operations,” the editorial said. “Far from a cover-up, the Tribe has been actively working to reform the Department.”
But in a follow-up report to federal officials on Aug. 14 that was obtained by FRONTLINE, Sullivan said that little had changed. He wrote: “Everything else appears to remain as it was or has become even worse for the children of Spirit Lake.”If you’ve never watched The Venture Brothers, none of this can possibly make sense to you, but if you do watch The Venture Brothers, it should all be hilarious. And yes, I’ve seen The Venture Brothers and I know Brock Samson says, “Today you are murderflies,” not Henchman 21.
This is the 3D card I made for The Man’s birthday this week. He’s been making noises about doing this as a cosplay, so it seemed appropriate, although I think he’s doing the original 21, not the 2 Ton 21 iteration I’ve depicted here. And also, he’s probably going to talk in the 24/Ray Romano voice all night, if I know him, which I do.
This version is sculpted from polymer clay. It’s about 2.5 inches high and maybe 1/8 inch thick. I should have done his utility belt but I was tired. After baking 21, I used hot glue to stick him to heavy card stock, to better protect him from getting lost or broken. He probably needs some kind of shadowbox situation.
“Today you are murderflies,” is a great birthday greeting.
AdvertisementsActress Angelina Jolie has revealed she had an 87 per cent risk of breast cancer, so decided to remove them.
ANGELINA Jolie’s announcement detailing her decision to undergo a double mastectomy to reduce the risk of breast cancer influenced hundreds of women to do the same, an Australian study has confirmed.
Analysis of hospital discharge data from New York State and NSW between 2004 — 2014 shows there was nearly a doubling of women to undergo a risk-reducing mastectomy.
In total, 1808 and 487 women aged 16 to 80 years old underwent RRM in New York and NSW, respectively.
According to the study, published in journal Health Services Research, there were an average of 3.3 bimonthly RRM cases per one million women in New York before Jolie’s announcement; 20 months after the announcement there were an average of 6.3 bimonthly RRM cases per one million women.
Rates of risk-reducing mastectomy in NSW were relatively similar, according to the paper.
Lead author, Professor Louisa Jorm — Foundation Director of the Centre for Big Data Research in Health at UNSW — says the data confirms the ‘Angelina Jolie’ effect.
There was already, however, an underlying trend that showed RRM cases were on the rise, Professor Jorm noted.
“But over the entire 40 months there was pretty much a doubling in both New York and NSW,” she said.
The epidemiologist says the findings show the power celebrities have to influence the healthcare decisions of the general public.
“There are lots of other examples of this and people probably remember the ‘Kylie (Minogue) effect’ from back in 2005, in that case there was evidence that a lot of younger women, women who are not recommended to have mammography, went and had it,” said Professor Jorm.
A woman can be at very high risk of developing breast cancer if she has a strong family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer and carries the BRCA2 gene mutation.
Professor Jorm says the decision to have preventive surgery is a very personal one and it’s important that balanced, evidence-based information is made available when celebrities announced personal health news.
“A feature of the way Jolie’s decision was reported is that it was focused very much on the risk reduction and the benefits and less focused on the pros and cons and that its very much an individual decision for every woman,” she said.
“So, it may have encouraged people who may have made another decision without that publicity to take the decision to have the risk-reducing mastectomy but we don’t know that, all we have is the data on the rates of the procedure.”Chip and Joanna Gaines of 'Fixer Upper' Belong to an Anti-Gay Church that Promotes LGBT Conversion
By Courtney Enlow | Celebrity | November 30, 2016 |
Because even HGTV can’t just let things be cool for a goddamn minute.
Joanna and Chip Gaines are two of the biggest stars on HGTV. As the hosts of Fixer Upper, the two have been vocal about their devout Christianity, as well as their devotion to Antioch Community Church, the megachurch they belong to. A church that is a major proponent of LGBT conversion therapy and vehemently against same-sex relationships.
In a new Buzzfeed piece, Kate Arthur reached out to the Gaineses and the otherwise hugely gay-friendly HGTV to ask the couple if they too share these beliefs regarding the LGBT community, or if gay couples would be welcome on Fixer Upper. She received no reply. So she reached out to the couple’s “dear friend” and Antioch Community Church leader, Jimmy Seibert.
Seibert held hard and fast in his beliefs regarding homosexuality.
“Truth No. 1: Homosexuality is a sin. The lie: Homosexuality is not a sin.” He urges compassion for the sinners, though, because “the statistics say that 90% of people who are in a full-blown homosexual lifestyle were abused in some way. Physically, sexually, mentally.” He also says that gay pornography deserves some of the blame. “We have people and young people that never had any intention of a same-sex attraction et cetera, who have seen sexuality up front in pornography and now are trapped in the addiction of it.” But LGBT people have a choice, Seibert says, and can change. “Truth No. 2: God is able to give us power over every sin, including homosexuality. Lie No. 2: I am a homosexual in thought and action, and I cannot change.”
The “choice” and change” Seibert refers to here is known as conversion therapy. Something every respected medical and behavioral health organization has come out against.
“Clinicians should be aware that there is no evidence that sexual orientation can be altered through therapy, and that attempts to do so may be harmful. There is no empirical evidence adult homosexuality can be prevented if gender nonconforming children are influenced to be more gender conforming. Indeed, there is no medically valid basis for attempting to prevent homosexuality, which is not an illness. On the contrary, such efforts may encourage family rejection and undermine self-esteem, connectedness and caring, important protective factors against suicidal ideation and attempts. Given that there is no evidence that efforts to alter sexual orientation are effective, beneficial or necessary, and the possibility that they carry the risk of significant harm, such interventions are contraindicated.” - American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry
“Confusion about sexual orientation is not unusual during adolescence. Counseling may be helpful for young people who are uncertain about their sexual orientation or for those who are uncertain about how to express their sexuality and might profit from an attempt at clarification through a counseling or psychotherapeutic initiative. Therapy directed specifically at changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving changes in orientation.” - American Academy of Pediatrics
“Psychotherapeutic modalities to convert or ‘repair’ homosexuality are based on developmental theories whose scientific validity is questionable. Furthermore, anecdotal reports of “cures” are counterbalanced by anecdotal claims of psychological harm. In the last four decades, “reparative” therapists have not produced any rigorous scientific research to substantiate their claims of cure. Until there is such research available, [the American Psychiatric Association] recommends that ethical practitioners refrain from attempts to change individuals’ sexual orientation, keeping in mind the medical dictum to first, do no harm. The potential risks of reparative therapy are great, including depression, anxiety and self-destructive behavior, since therapist alignment with societal prejudices against homosexuality may reinforce self-hatred already experienced by the patient. Many patients who have undergone reparative therapy relate that they were inaccurately told that homosexuals are lonely, unhappy individuals who never achieve acceptance or satisfaction. The possibility that the person might achieve happiness and satisfying interpersonal relationships as a gay man or lesbian is not presented, nor are alternative approaches to dealing with the effects of societal stigmatization discussed. Therefore, the American Psychiatric Association opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as reparative or conversion therapy which is based upon the assumption that homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the a priori assumption that the patient should change his/her sexual homosexual orientation.” - American Psychiatric Association
Not only does there exist no evidence conversation therapy can possibly work, the damage incurred is horrendous, especially when started young.
And starting young is exactly what Seibert wants.
Seibert urges educators in public schools not to accept normalizing same-sex marriage, which will trickle down to “teenage relationships,” and even into kindergarten. He says that teachers should risk being fired. “If they feel you can still work there, so be it. If not, God will have another way for you.”
Even our mindless entertainment is disappointing.
← A 'The Walking Dead' Actress Tells Fat-Shaming Trolls to F*ck Off
Merriam-Webster's 2016 Word of the Year Is 'Fuuuuuuuuuck' →Imagista: Where are you from?
Lili Reinhart: Cleveland, Ohio.
Imagista: Where are you currently located?
Lili Reinhart: Now I am LA based. I moved when I was 18 at the start of 2015 and I lived here for 6 months then I moved back home after 6 months because I was not doing well and not making money. I moved back home then moved back out at the start of 2016, so I have been back and forth a couple of times.
Imagista: How did you get into acting?
Lili Reinhart: I grew up doing theater, I did local community theater. Then I branched out into doing local PBS pilots and some small independent films and it kind of grew from there. I was always a performer as a kid, always putting on little shows for my family. I was a dancer, I went to dance lessons growing up. I played sports but I was mainly into the arts. I did try sports, I just was not very good at them.
I kind of knew from a pretty early age that this was something that I wanted to do and take seriously, that it was not just a hobby but something that I wanted to pursue seriously.
My parents are not stage parents at all, they did not put me in this business they were just incredibly, incredibly supportive. My mom would drive me 8 hours from Ohio to New York City for auditions and open casting calls. I was lucky to have had such supportive parents, they knew how important it was for me and they believed in my talent.
Imagista: Did you go to school for acting?
Lili Reinhart: I did not. I went to High School, graduated, but I never went to College. I did not go to a specific acting school either. I have worked with some coached for certain auditions, like when I auditioned for Riverdale. To be honest I did not take classes or go out of my way to look for it, not because I did not really want to but because I was booking things on my own without having to go to school. I never really loved school growing up and I did not want to have to put myself through more schooling if I did not have to. School was never a great environment for me.
My co-star Camilla, who plays Veronica got her Bachelor’s Degree from NYU and I did not go to college and now we are on the same show, which goes to show that everyone’s path is different and you do what works for you individually.
Imagista: Can you tell us what it is like playing Betty on the show Riverdale?
I am so lucky that I can play a girl that I love and care about so much. The show was written so beautifully and I am so happy to be part of this cast. We all get along so well and our show runner is very open to our opinions. He is the creator but we are the ones who won the roles and have this responsibility to be the face of these people and I think our opinions of actors mean a lot to him which is great because I do not think a lot of people have this luxury. We share our opinions about what we want to see from our characters, what kind of challenges we want them to go through.
Betty is such a beautifully complex girl, she is not a one note character, she is so much more than just the girl next door. To me, that is super refreshing and I think every character on our show is refreshing.
I think we are automatically labelled a “teen drama” but we don’t like that phrase and we don’t like to be refereed to as a “teen drama” because we are a lot more than a bunch of teenagers sitting around complaining about their problems. Yes our show is about teenagers, but the problems they go through are not stereotypical teenage problems, it is a lot more than that.
I am super blessed that I was given this opportunity, I think it is rare to play a character that you love so much.
Imagista: Were you a fan of Archie comics growing up?
Lili Reinhart: No! I did not know what Archie was growing up to be honest, I was not exposed to it. I went into this character with a blank slate which is kind of amazing because I got to build her from the ground up with the creator, with our pilot director. I really felt like I had a good amount of creative control over her and also the flexibility. It is not a carbon copy or the comic books, this is not the Betty Cooper that is from the 1941 Archie Comics it is the modern and revamped version of her, who is a three dimensional person.
Betty is not a cartoon character to us, she is so much more than that. We wanted her to feel like she could have lived today and I feel like I put a lot of myself into this girl. I would go to the ends of the earth to defend Betty, I really truly care about her character and I am lucky enough to play her. I love Betty.
Imagista: What do you do to recharge yourself?
Lili Reinhart: It is so crazy. We wrapped season 1 in February but I feel like I have not had much down time. We have two more months until we are back in Vancouver so I am halfway through my “vacation”. We go back in June.
I try to spend as much time with my family and close friends, I go to the beach a lot, sometimes even by myself. The world is overwhelming a lot of the times and I find myself to be an anxious person, I get stressed out and overwhelmed so I find it therapeutic to be at the beach. I have also been writing a lot this hiatus, I don’t write scripts or books I write a lot of poetry. I have been doing that a lot which is very encouraging, it is another artistic outlet. I also like to paint as well, but lately I have been focusing more on writing. I journaled my entire life but I really got back into it in November and I noticed a lot of what I was writing was poetry. I started channeling my more poetic side. Maybe in a few years I will be brave enough to publish it.
Imagista: Who inspired you most as an actor?
Lili Reinhart: I have always said Natalie Portman. I remember seeing Black Swan in the theater and I was so stunned and blown away. When the movie ended I was just sitting there, processing what I just saw and I have been kind of obsessed with her ever since.
I am also a big Nicole Kidman fan, Moulin Rouge is my favorite movie, I grew up watching it which is probably not super appropriate but you know what whatever. I just watched Big Little Lies and I was blown away by her performance in that show, I love that show. Also, Jessica Lange is phenomenal, I fell in love with her on American Horror Story, she is just wonderful.
Imagista: If you were not acting, what do you think you would be doing?
Lili Reinhart: I would be in the arts I think. I love makeup and I love special effects makeup. I was planning on going to makeup school because I had dabbled in it as a hobby and I always thought that I could make a career out of it. It was kind of like my backup plan. Luckily I never had to fall back on it, but I still really do enjoy doing makeup it is kind of an interesting hobby to have. I take advantage of it during Halloween time!
Imagista: Is there anything else you want our audience to know?
Lili Reinhart: Something that I have always tried to get across is that I try not to take myself too seriously. I think that is important especially in this industry. Everything you say has the chance of being looked at under a microscope. I think sometimes you need to remind yourself not to take yourself so seriously. Yes, I am an artist, acting is my job, it is my livelihood even though I am only twenty. I need to stay grounded, go to the beach and remind myself that I do not take myself too seriously and that I enjoy what I do.The Christmas Pickle
The tradition of the Christmas Pickle has got to be one of the strangest modern Christmas customs, in that no one is quite sure why it exists at all!
In the 1880s Woolworth stores started selling glass ornaments imported from Germany and some were in the shape of various fruit and vegetables. It seems that pickles must have been among the selection!
Around the same time it was claimed that the Christmas Pickle was a very old German tradition and that the pickle was the last ornament hung on the Christmas tree and then the first child to find the pickle got an extra present.
However, the claim that it's an old German tradition seems to be a total myth! Not many people in Germany have even heard of the Christmas Pickle! (Similarly in Russia virtually no one knows the supposedly Russian story of Babushka!)
Some families now have the tradition of hanging the pickle on the tree, with the first person/child to find it getting a present. But it probably didn't start in Germany!
There are two other rather far-fetched stories linking the pickle to Christmas.
One features a fighter in the American Civil War who was born in Bavaria (an area of what is now Germany). He was a prisoner, and starving, he begged a guard for one last pickle before he died. The guard took pity on him and gave a pickle to him. The pickle gave him the mental and physical strength to live on!
The other story is linked to St. Nicholas. It's a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from a boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the evil innkeeper, killed the boys and put them in a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, and found the boys in the barrel and miraculously bought them back to life!
There is an old legend about St. Nicholas rescuing boys from a barrel but the barrel was originally holding meat for pies - not pickles!
So it's most likely that an ornament salesmen, with a lot of spare pickles to sell, invented the legend of the Christmas Pickle!
The American city of Berrien Springs, MI (also known as the Christmas Pickle Capital of the World) has an annual pickle festival held during the early part of December.The danger posed by the ruptures has set alarm bells ringing in the transport ministry which has set up a team to keep an eye on at-risk areas.
On Thursday afternoon a section of the Autobahn in Baden Württemberg had to be sectioned off after the concrete under the lane markers broke apart, reports der Spiegel.
Trucks can cause fissures in the lanes which then pose a particular danger to motorbike riders, the weekly notes.
The German Automobile Association (ADAC) has warned that in the area around Berlin there is a danger of bumps appearing in the roads.
“Car drivers and bikers who notice these elevations too late are at real risk of losing control of their vehicles,” an ADAC spokesperson told Spiegel.
The transport ministry has already imposed speed limits on particularly exposed sections of the Autobahn such as the A3 next to Regensburg.NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The New Jersey Senate voted to override Governor Chris Christie's veto of a gun control bill on Thursday, marking the first time either chamber of the legislature has overturned one of his vetoes since he took office in 2010.
Christie, who is running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, rejected the bill in August after it passed unanimously in both the state Senate and General Assembly. The governor has a mixed record on gun control, a hot-button issue in the 2016 presidential race.
The 80-member General Assembly, whose next voting session is scheduled for Dec. 3, would need to override the veto with 54 votes for the bill to become law. Democrats hold 48 seats.
The Senate vote comes after a rash of mass shootings, including one at a community college in Oregon that left 10 dead this month. The massacres have fueled a national debate over keeping guns away from people with a history of mental illness.
The New Jersey bill goes further than previous state legislation by requiring notification of local law enforcement prior to expunging the mental health records of people who want to purchase firearms.
Federal law prohibits the purchase of guns by anyone who has been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, but a judge can expunge that record if a person is deemed unlikely to endanger the public.
"I cannot endorse a continued path of patchwork proposals and fragmented statutes that add further confusion to an already cumbersome area of law," Christie wrote in his conditional veto.
In a statement on Friday, Christie said he would support a more comprehensive solution that includes access to mental health treatment. He said Senate Minority Leader Thomas Kean, a Republican, is working on such a bill.
Democratic senators had hoped to regain the support of Republican legislators who abandoned the bill in the wake of Christie's veto. In the final tally, the bill passed with the required 27 votes in the 40-member Senate.
Many Republicans said the bill would have had no impact on preventing recent mass shootings in which the gunman had not previously been committed to a mental health institution.
In vetoing the legislation, Christie proposed other reforms, including the requirement that a person previously involuntarily committed for mental health treatment demonstrate medical evidence of suitability to obtain a firearm.
(Reporting by Katie Reilly; Editing by Paul Simao)
Also on HuffPost:Pitcairn Island is probably best known as the remote island in the South Pacific where, in 1790, the mutineers of HMAV The Bounty finally found refuge with their Tahitian companions after seizing the ship a few days’ sail out of Tahiti.Fewer people know that Pitcairn Island is a British Overseas Territory, one of four small, diverse and unique islands which encompass a large exclusive economic zone, its pristine waters home to many endemic species, and protected since September 2016 by the world’s second-largest Marine Protected Area (836,000 km2). Today, the culture on the island blends British, Polynesian and wider Pacific roots, a legacy of its historic and contemporary links.Pitcairn is the only inhabited island of the Pitcairn Islands Group. It is situated 2170 km east-south-east of Tahiti, 1570 km west of Easter Island and 5310 km north-east of New Zealand. The other islands of the group, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno, support fragile ecologies and unique habitats. Henderson Island has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988. All four islands have sub-tropical climates. Pitcairn, in particular, has rich volcanic soil and lush vegetation.The islands are accessible only by sea. A quarterly passenger/supply ship currently provides three voyages each quarter to Pitcairn Island, with up to 12 visitor berths per voyage. There are no regular services to Henderson, Ducie or Oeno. This means the Pitcairn Islands group is among the most remote in the world.Pitcairn Island is committed to maintaining a vibrant community and attracting new migrants who wish to make a contribution to the community’s sustainable future. Pitcairn’s environment favours those who enjoy the outdoors, are at home in the natural, unspoilt environment, and would welcome the opportunity to be part of a small but lively community. The island enjoys good phone connections and internet service via satellite. However, not everyone will find that the isolated location and lack of frequent transport off the island is for them. Please read more in our FAQs, and Contact us if you wish to find out more about moving to Pitcairn Island.Toronto police say a 24-year-old man who went missing in Willowdale has been found safe.
Shanjeyen Mariampillai was missing for several hours after wandering off in the area of Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue at around 4:30 p.m.
Police said they were concerned for Mariampillai’s safety because he was not dressed properly for the weather and is believed to operate at the mental capacity of a seven-year-old.
A command post was set up at Willowdale Middle School at 225 Senlac Road as police searched for the missing man.
“He’s definitely not dressed (properly) and right now it’s minus 18 or below. We’re definitely concerned about his safety and well-being,” Sgt. Alex Chung told CP24 at the command post Wednesday night.
Shortly before 11 p.m., Chung said that the young man was found safe, close to Bathurst Street and Finch Avenue, by members of the community who were helping look for him.
Police said he was in good condition and is being reunited with his family.Thousands of British children have been targeted by internet blackmailers, with many forced to use webcams to film themselves performing sex acts or self-mutilation because they fear having their naked pictures sent to their families, child protection experts warn today.
The blackmailing of children has emerged as a fast-growing new method employed by sadistic abusers who operate behind fake profiles on social networks to take advantage of youthful sexual experimentation and snare their victims, driving some to self-harm and even suicide.
A single police operation discovered that one small ring of paedophiles overseas had pressured more than 300 children, including 96 in Britain, into performing live sex acts online. Some of the youngsters attempted suicide when they were threatened with having their behaviour made public, according to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop). Police analysis of computers reveals that, before befriending a child they intend to groom for online abuse, perpetrators often research the victim’s location, school and other details, so as to present a convincing picture of themselves as a local young adolescent. Children as young as eight are being targeted, according to Ceop.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
Such grooming often starts on open chat forums before moving to private areas where the talk swiftly becomes more explicit. The threats usually start after children have been tricked into posting compromising pictures of themselves that they fear could be distributed more widely. In one online conversation retrieved by the authorities, an abuser tricked his victim and then became increasingly aggressive, saying he did not care if the boy killed himself. “I totally own you,” he said.
The practice appears to be a new, more menacing development in the world of cyber-bullying. Children have been forced to film themselves on webcams as they write degrading statements on their bodies or cut themselves, says Ceop. One abuser collected images of his blackmailed victims in a folder named “slaves”.
A British teenager is one of seven young people who have killed themselves over blackmail. Daniel Perry, 17, of Dunfermline, Fife, leapt from the Forth Road Bridge in July. He had been having online chats with a person he believed to be an American girl of his own age, but was then told his conversations would be played to his family and friends unless he paid money into a bank account. Police are still investigating Daniel’s death.
Experts said that, while they had seen a few cases of extortion, most blackmailers were motivated by sexual desire and sadism. “There is a desire for power and control, and getting a kick out of causing as much pain as possible,” said Dr Elly Farmer, a clinical psychologist.
Ceop has carried out 12 operations over the past two years in which the blackmailing of children into performing sex acts was a clear motive, with 424 victims worldwide and 184 in Britain. Five of those operations – against groups and individuals – were in the UK. Ceop said the number of victims identified represented a small fraction of the number targeted.
The global nature of the problem was highlighted by “Operation K”, launched this year after a complaint by one victim to police in Britain. It revealed evidence of a group of friends in an unspecified country |
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